Nathan K. Hensley
@nathankhensley.bsky.social
Action without Hope (2025) • Forms of Empire (2016) • Fresno, Silver Spring • https://www.nathankhensley.net/ • he/him/his • Everything here in personal capacity only
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo242060390.html
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo242060390.html
Pinned
Chardin, four still life paintings, c 1760s. Even when it seems most inert, the world is full of sensation and life.
Reposted by Nathan K. Hensley
Honestly, I now look back fondly on the days of trying to decipher handwritten exam scripts. At least you knew that you were engaging with the product of a human mind, rather than something generated by a gargantuan autocomplete designed by megalomaniacs.
Just wasted 15 minutes of my life trying to find a book that seems not to exist, in all likelihood because its title was created by Gen AI. Ironic applause for all the tech geniuses and their collaborators for imposing these bullshit engines on us -- and expecting us to be thankful!
January 6, 2026 at 2:45 PM
Honestly, I now look back fondly on the days of trying to decipher handwritten exam scripts. At least you knew that you were engaging with the product of a human mind, rather than something generated by a gargantuan autocomplete designed by megalomaniacs.
Reposted by Nathan K. Hensley
Keen to know more about 'Thermal horizons: energy and infrastructures of British global power, c. 1830–1900'? Join us to discuss Alex Bremmer's paper on Tuesday 13 January either in person at the Institute of Historical Research, London or on Zoom, 5:30 GMT. Free and open to the public.
Thermal horizons: energy and infrastructures of British global power, c.1830-1900
www.history.ac.uk
January 6, 2026 at 11:29 AM
Keen to know more about 'Thermal horizons: energy and infrastructures of British global power, c. 1830–1900'? Join us to discuss Alex Bremmer's paper on Tuesday 13 January either in person at the Institute of Historical Research, London or on Zoom, 5:30 GMT. Free and open to the public.
Chardin, four still life paintings, c 1760s. Even when it seems most inert, the world is full of sensation and life.
January 6, 2026 at 2:28 AM
Chardin, four still life paintings, c 1760s. Even when it seems most inert, the world is full of sensation and life.
Reposted by Nathan K. Hensley
The US premiere of Waiting for Godot was in Miami in 1956, billed as "the laugh sensation of two continents", lol. Apparently more than half the audience left before the end. www.miaminewtimes.com/arts-culture...
January 5, 2026 at 11:36 PM
I own a copy of this version because it’s the one my dad read in college in the late 60s and he gave it to me, still astonishing to think this weird ass thing came out in 1950s America (Grove, 1954)
First American Edition… not that it matters. www.capitolhillbooks-dc.com/pages/books/...
January 5, 2026 at 11:06 PM
I own a copy of this version because it’s the one my dad read in college in the late 60s and he gave it to me, still astonishing to think this weird ass thing came out in 1950s America (Grove, 1954)
Gaza has been dress rehearsal and test case for a whole global strategy predicated on refusing the post-enlightenment idea that human dignity inheres equally in all people. it is very bad
A reminder that the US killed 80 people in Venezuela, and it would be nice if the US media cared enough to think that the life of a grandmother in Caracas whose building is destroyed by a US bomb matters as much as the life of a person in the US.
January 5, 2026 at 9:42 PM
Gaza has been dress rehearsal and test case for a whole global strategy predicated on refusing the post-enlightenment idea that human dignity inheres equally in all people. it is very bad
Reposted by Nathan K. Hensley
'Traffic', the NASSR/NAVSA 2026 conference at Pasadena, CA; alongside the NACBS down the road. Sounds like the place to be in mid-November!
NASSR/NAVSA Conference – November 11-15, 2026 | Pasadena, CA | Hilton
traffic2026.ucr.edu
January 5, 2026 at 3:44 PM
'Traffic', the NASSR/NAVSA 2026 conference at Pasadena, CA; alongside the NACBS down the road. Sounds like the place to be in mid-November!
this book, & this interview with max, are so incredibly smart: an evaluation of the changing cultural logic of "the anthem" in periods (e.g. the leadup to 1981, when "under pressure" was released), when collective experience has been undermined & older forms of social coherence have broken down
Under Pressure: A Song By David Bowie & Queen (Max Brzezinski, @dukepress.bsky.social, 2025)
A thoughtful and thorough exploration of one of our greatest pop anthems of the last half century.
newbooksnetwork.com/under-pressure
A thoughtful and thorough exploration of one of our greatest pop anthems of the last half century.
newbooksnetwork.com/under-pressure
January 5, 2026 at 2:42 PM
this book, & this interview with max, are so incredibly smart: an evaluation of the changing cultural logic of "the anthem" in periods (e.g. the leadup to 1981, when "under pressure" was released), when collective experience has been undermined & older forms of social coherence have broken down
Reposted by Nathan K. Hensley
Novel 58.2 is now live!
"Pastoral is far less innocent than its surface charms may suggest."
Check out Helen Small's recently published piece in NOVEL 58.2, "The Activist Novel: Pastoral Political Mediations in England and Aotearoa New Zealand"
read.dukeupress.edu/novel/articl...
Check out Helen Small's recently published piece in NOVEL 58.2, "The Activist Novel: Pastoral Political Mediations in England and Aotearoa New Zealand"
read.dukeupress.edu/novel/articl...
The Activist Novel: Pastoral Political Mediations in England and Aotearoa New Zealand
Abstract. This essay examines forms of social and political activism in England and Aotearoa New Zealand as they are mediated through disruptions of pastoral in Charlotte Yonge's The Daisy Chain (1856...
read.dukeupress.edu
January 5, 2026 at 9:26 AM
Novel 58.2 is now live!
Reposted by Nathan K. Hensley
New Year, New-ish Call for Papers
Calling all #Bronte scholars, #poetry specialists, #Romantic & #Victorian -ists: please consider submitting to our Brontës and Poetry special issue of Brontë Studies - #creative approaches encouraged 🖤
Abstracts: 1 April
Manuscripts: 15 December
Please RT
Calling all #Bronte scholars, #poetry specialists, #Romantic & #Victorian -ists: please consider submitting to our Brontës and Poetry special issue of Brontë Studies - #creative approaches encouraged 🖤
Abstracts: 1 April
Manuscripts: 15 December
Please RT
To Be Forever Known: The Brontës and Poetry
Seeking original, high-quality analysis of Brontë poems, especially those with little to no critical attention
think.taylorandfrancis.com
January 5, 2026 at 10:08 AM
New Year, New-ish Call for Papers
Calling all #Bronte scholars, #poetry specialists, #Romantic & #Victorian -ists: please consider submitting to our Brontës and Poetry special issue of Brontë Studies - #creative approaches encouraged 🖤
Abstracts: 1 April
Manuscripts: 15 December
Please RT
Calling all #Bronte scholars, #poetry specialists, #Romantic & #Victorian -ists: please consider submitting to our Brontës and Poetry special issue of Brontë Studies - #creative approaches encouraged 🖤
Abstracts: 1 April
Manuscripts: 15 December
Please RT
is the concept that you can kill 40 random people in executing a criminal warrant for one guy
NYT:
At least 40 people were killed in the US attack on Venezuela, including military personnel and civilians.
At least 40 people were killed in the US attack on Venezuela, including military personnel and civilians.
January 4, 2026 at 12:34 AM
is the concept that you can kill 40 random people in executing a criminal warrant for one guy
sincerely astonishing to be alive during this period of history, watching an entire postwar order —and all its attendant social protocols and consensus presumptions about value—unravel in real time, bit by bit and sometimes (as now) in big chunks
It's unbelievable that people this dumb are in charge of the most powerful nation in human history
January 3, 2026 at 7:04 PM
sincerely astonishing to be alive during this period of history, watching an entire postwar order —and all its attendant social protocols and consensus presumptions about value—unravel in real time, bit by bit and sometimes (as now) in big chunks
superficially it looks like Iraq all over again, but the fact that nobody is even bothering to lie about a justification — no campaign of disinformation at the UN, no rolling allies to get them in line, not even any pretext of consultation— marks a significant shift in the practice of US imperialism
January 3, 2026 at 4:18 PM
superficially it looks like Iraq all over again, but the fact that nobody is even bothering to lie about a justification — no campaign of disinformation at the UN, no rolling allies to get them in line, not even any pretext of consultation— marks a significant shift in the practice of US imperialism
incredible scenes from the frontier of AI integration
January 2, 2026 at 11:09 PM
incredible scenes from the frontier of AI integration
would highly recommend everybody try their best to explain to family members, etc, that what they think of as “the news” is no longer anything like what they use that phrase to mean
Incredible. CBS Evening News announces five new “simple values” — instead of their “38-page handbook” — as they roll out Tony Dokoupil is lead anchor.
One of those values is simply: “We love America and make no apologies for saying so.”
One of those values is simply: “We love America and make no apologies for saying so.”
January 2, 2026 at 10:57 PM
would highly recommend everybody try their best to explain to family members, etc, that what they think of as “the news” is no longer anything like what they use that phrase to mean
Reposted by Nathan K. Hensley
Books read in 2025: 42
Favourite read: Nicola Barker’s TonyInterruptor (prompting an obsession with Barker)
Favourite reread: Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (prompted by @nathankhensley.bsky.social’s great Action Without Hope)
Favourite series: Lee Child’s Reachers are my go-to holiday read
Favourite read: Nicola Barker’s TonyInterruptor (prompting an obsession with Barker)
Favourite reread: Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (prompted by @nathankhensley.bsky.social’s great Action Without Hope)
Favourite series: Lee Child’s Reachers are my go-to holiday read
December 31, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Books read in 2025: 42
Favourite read: Nicola Barker’s TonyInterruptor (prompting an obsession with Barker)
Favourite reread: Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (prompted by @nathankhensley.bsky.social’s great Action Without Hope)
Favourite series: Lee Child’s Reachers are my go-to holiday read
Favourite read: Nicola Barker’s TonyInterruptor (prompting an obsession with Barker)
Favourite reread: Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (prompted by @nathankhensley.bsky.social’s great Action Without Hope)
Favourite series: Lee Child’s Reachers are my go-to holiday read
Downtown Fresno
December 30, 2025 at 2:59 AM
Downtown Fresno
Winter greetings from my mom’s back yard in Fresno 🤩
December 27, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Winter greetings from my mom’s back yard in Fresno 🤩
Weird that the entire archive of 80s & 90s holiday movies now read as uncanny historical fictions, climatologically speaking. Frozen entryway scene in Home Alone? Ice that shoots from the gutter into Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s house? Snow-covered Whoville? Relics of another climatological regime.
On average, Christmas Day was 15.4F above the 1991-2020 normal. Seems warm. Seems bad.
December 26, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Weird that the entire archive of 80s & 90s holiday movies now read as uncanny historical fictions, climatologically speaking. Frozen entryway scene in Home Alone? Ice that shoots from the gutter into Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s house? Snow-covered Whoville? Relics of another climatological regime.
Finding this plug-in, which identifies all signatories to the Harper’s cancel culture letter, to be very useful in figuring out who was then and likely will forever be full of shit
December 24, 2025 at 1:42 PM
Finding this plug-in, which identifies all signatories to the Harper’s cancel culture letter, to be very useful in figuring out who was then and likely will forever be full of shit
Reposted by Nathan K. Hensley
I’m working on a report about data centers in Illinois and remembered this resource that gathers redlining maps from across the USA in case anybody else might find the resource useful for similar (or other) projects:
Mapping Inequality
Redlining in New Deal America
dsl.richmond.edu
December 23, 2025 at 8:47 PM
I’m working on a report about data centers in Illinois and remembered this resource that gathers redlining maps from across the USA in case anybody else might find the resource useful for similar (or other) projects:
This book, which I learned abt via @crystaljluo.bsky.social, details the faculty strikes of 1968-1969 by American Federation of Teachers Local 1352 (AFT 1352) that led to the creation of those programs at SFSU. Collective action is what changed the academy from the inside; it can do that again.
December 23, 2025 at 8:48 PM
This book, which I learned abt via @crystaljluo.bsky.social, details the faculty strikes of 1968-1969 by American Federation of Teachers Local 1352 (AFT 1352) that led to the creation of those programs at SFSU. Collective action is what changed the academy from the inside; it can do that again.
this is a form of theft.
the program "boosts literacy" by writing stories for students (?), with a veneer of social justice added to make the whole thing more grotesque. notably this is PG county, not Montgomery: it's always the poor kids who get AI fixes instead of actual investment in teaching
the program "boosts literacy" by writing stories for students (?), with a veneer of social justice added to make the whole thing more grotesque. notably this is PG county, not Montgomery: it's always the poor kids who get AI fixes instead of actual investment in teaching
Prince George’s County Public Schools plan to make a big investment in artificial intelligence in the coming years, and one of the programs it's starting with is an AI-powered story-telling platform backed by former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
marylandmatters.org/2025/12/09/p...
marylandmatters.org/2025/12/09/p...
Prince George's schools, Colin Kaepernick-backed AI firm partner for storytelling tech - Maryland Matters
Prince George’s County Public Schools plan to make a big investment in artificial intelligence in the coming years, and one of the programs it's starting with is an AI-powered story-telling platform b...
marylandmatters.org
December 23, 2025 at 4:27 PM
this is a form of theft.
the program "boosts literacy" by writing stories for students (?), with a veneer of social justice added to make the whole thing more grotesque. notably this is PG county, not Montgomery: it's always the poor kids who get AI fixes instead of actual investment in teaching
the program "boosts literacy" by writing stories for students (?), with a veneer of social justice added to make the whole thing more grotesque. notably this is PG county, not Montgomery: it's always the poor kids who get AI fixes instead of actual investment in teaching
“Just about wherever you go in this country — if you pay attention to history — you can find a spot where the U.S. government decided to incarcerate a group of people without any kind of trial or judicial process based on that group’s identity.”
Of historic proportions:
December 23, 2025 at 3:45 AM
“Just about wherever you go in this country — if you pay attention to history — you can find a spot where the U.S. government decided to incarcerate a group of people without any kind of trial or judicial process based on that group’s identity.”