Stacy Fahrenthold
@sfahrenthold.bsky.social
historian of Middle Eastern migration | Author of UNMENTIONABLES: Textiles, Garment Work, and the Syrian American Working Class (2024) and BETWEEN THE OTTOMANS AND THE ENTENTE: the First World War in the Syrian and Lebanese Diaspora (2019)
November 20: I'll discuss Unmentionables at the George Washington University, in the Cotsen Textile Traces Study Center. With many thanks to Dr. Nabila Hijazi for this invitation!
November 4, 2025 at 9:10 AM
November 20: I'll discuss Unmentionables at the George Washington University, in the Cotsen Textile Traces Study Center. With many thanks to Dr. Nabila Hijazi for this invitation!
Well that is one hell of a way to talk about refugee repatriation. 1920, a British War Office note concerning the return of Assyrians from Baquba refugee camp to their homes across the Persian border.
October 31, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Well that is one hell of a way to talk about refugee repatriation. 1920, a British War Office note concerning the return of Assyrians from Baquba refugee camp to their homes across the Persian border.
Today's act of resistance is to email @governor.ca.gov and urge him to:
1. oppose Trump admin's August 8 demands of UC.
2. encourage @uofcalifornia.bsky.social leaders & UC Regents to reject the Trump admin's proposed agreement, cease negotiations.
If you want to be heard, this week is crucial!
1. oppose Trump admin's August 8 demands of UC.
2. encourage @uofcalifornia.bsky.social leaders & UC Regents to reject the Trump admin's proposed agreement, cease negotiations.
If you want to be heard, this week is crucial!
![Dear Governor Newsom,
I am writing to you as a faculty member at UC Davis, to express my grave concerns about the negotiations between UC President James Milliken and the Trump administration, and to urge you to appeal to the UC Regents and tell them to stand up against Trump's illegal and unconstitutional threats.
As you are aware, the UC received a "proposed settlement" from the Trump administration on August 8. The Regents refused a faculty request to make the document public, hindering our ability to defend our campuses for weeks. UC faculty are plaintiffs in AAUP v Trump seeking to halt Trump's threats against our institution... The UC itself is noticeably absent from our litigation, and Trump's attorneys are now using that fact to oppose our case and continue bullying thousands of UC workers, students, and staff.
My question is: why haven't you stood up more firmly for the University of California? Your bold advocacy is needed, and the Regents/President are not going to take a stand without you. UC faculty are existentially worried that our leadership is capitulating to Trump, compromising our values, and selling out our students. Recent unannounced changes are happening on all of our campuses: DEI offices rebranding and reducing staff; academic departments being told to delete diversity language from their websites; and the downstream effects are already harming our campuses. Faculty are being bullied into silence, or cowed out of concern that UCOP's lack of will means we must also comply or face adverse consequences from UCOP.
[add your personal story here]. We will lose the UC if we don't stand up for it. But the Regents and President Milliken need you to set the example for them by standing up for UC yourself.
If you truly do want to halt California universities from "selling out" to Trump, you must first address yourself to UC. They haven't heard you yet. Thank you for reading my email.
Best wishes,](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:hqlom3x7qiqx4nvl2dx546mg/bafkreibmseirolnhlzee6hv2se3u6ouzi4uyjxnkxgzlqkm3zidpq6dv2a@jpeg)
October 29, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Today's act of resistance is to email @governor.ca.gov and urge him to:
1. oppose Trump admin's August 8 demands of UC.
2. encourage @uofcalifornia.bsky.social leaders & UC Regents to reject the Trump admin's proposed agreement, cease negotiations.
If you want to be heard, this week is crucial!
1. oppose Trump admin's August 8 demands of UC.
2. encourage @uofcalifornia.bsky.social leaders & UC Regents to reject the Trump admin's proposed agreement, cease negotiations.
If you want to be heard, this week is crucial!
"Trump has pardons and tanks... What do you have?"
Reader: we have this.
Congratulations to @aaup.org for this landmark win against the Trump Administration's illegal ideological targeting of Palestinian university students.
Read more at link:
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Reader: we have this.
Congratulations to @aaup.org for this landmark win against the Trump Administration's illegal ideological targeting of Palestinian university students.
Read more at link:
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
September 30, 2025 at 8:36 PM
"Trump has pardons and tanks... What do you have?"
Reader: we have this.
Congratulations to @aaup.org for this landmark win against the Trump Administration's illegal ideological targeting of Palestinian university students.
Read more at link:
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Reader: we have this.
Congratulations to @aaup.org for this landmark win against the Trump Administration's illegal ideological targeting of Palestinian university students.
Read more at link:
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
TUESDAY 9/16: meet all your colleagues at the @uofcalifornia.bsky.social Regents meeting. They will be talking about Trump's latest demands. We will stand up and demand Hands Off Our UC!
CUCFA, AAUP, AFT, UAW, CNA, and AFSCME. You want acronyms, we've got all of them! 2pm Sept 16 at UCSF, Join us!
CUCFA, AAUP, AFT, UAW, CNA, and AFSCME. You want acronyms, we've got all of them! 2pm Sept 16 at UCSF, Join us!
September 16, 2025 at 12:33 AM
TUESDAY 9/16: meet all your colleagues at the @uofcalifornia.bsky.social Regents meeting. They will be talking about Trump's latest demands. We will stand up and demand Hands Off Our UC!
CUCFA, AAUP, AFT, UAW, CNA, and AFSCME. You want acronyms, we've got all of them! 2pm Sept 16 at UCSF, Join us!
CUCFA, AAUP, AFT, UAW, CNA, and AFSCME. You want acronyms, we've got all of them! 2pm Sept 16 at UCSF, Join us!
Berkeley Faculty Association protests @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social's legally improper naming of 160 faculty, staff, students to DOE:
"This disclosure caused significant harm: chilled speech and association and, among non-citizens, heightened fear of...deportation."
ucbfa.org/wp-content/u...
"This disclosure caused significant harm: chilled speech and association and, among non-citizens, heightened fear of...deportation."
ucbfa.org/wp-content/u...
September 15, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Berkeley Faculty Association protests @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social's legally improper naming of 160 faculty, staff, students to DOE:
"This disclosure caused significant harm: chilled speech and association and, among non-citizens, heightened fear of...deportation."
ucbfa.org/wp-content/u...
"This disclosure caused significant harm: chilled speech and association and, among non-citizens, heightened fear of...deportation."
ucbfa.org/wp-content/u...
Anyway, here's an email I sent @UofCalifornia President Milliken and @UCBerkeley Chancellor Lyons, on their disgraceful decision to prematurely forward names to DOE for political harassment.
UC faculty, staff, students *systemwide* are in peril. Terrible, self-defeating choice.
UC faculty, staff, students *systemwide* are in peril. Terrible, self-defeating choice.
September 15, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Anyway, here's an email I sent @UofCalifornia President Milliken and @UCBerkeley Chancellor Lyons, on their disgraceful decision to prematurely forward names to DOE for political harassment.
UC faculty, staff, students *systemwide* are in peril. Terrible, self-defeating choice.
UC faculty, staff, students *systemwide* are in peril. Terrible, self-defeating choice.
Foggy ✅ still beautiful ✅ at Gornergrat Zermatt
September 10, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Foggy ✅ still beautiful ✅ at Gornergrat Zermatt
Oh sure when it comes to us, we immediately laugh at it.
August 29, 2025 at 2:10 AM
Oh sure when it comes to us, we immediately laugh at it.
Here's a 2025 AI slop post about Gibran Khalil Gibran that was clearly trained on this very real 1897 portrait of the same man.
August 23, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Here's a 2025 AI slop post about Gibran Khalil Gibran that was clearly trained on this very real 1897 portrait of the same man.
And another one. Someone, please read about the enshitification of immigration history stereotypes. PLEASE.
The narrative in this one is also weirdly racist in that liberal multiculty sort of way.
The narrative in this one is also weirdly racist in that liberal multiculty sort of way.
August 23, 2025 at 5:37 PM
And another one. Someone, please read about the enshitification of immigration history stereotypes. PLEASE.
The narrative in this one is also weirdly racist in that liberal multiculty sort of way.
The narrative in this one is also weirdly racist in that liberal multiculty sort of way.
Aaaand another AI slop page, also on FB, using the same story but with an entirely new AI-generated image.
Bullshit multiplies!
Bullshit multiplies!
August 23, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Aaaand another AI slop page, also on FB, using the same story but with an entirely new AI-generated image.
Bullshit multiplies!
Bullshit multiplies!
A new variant of this AI slop posting dropped this week, what a strange phenomenon.
August 23, 2025 at 5:17 PM
A new variant of this AI slop posting dropped this week, what a strange phenomenon.
So I asked ChatGPT to: "Give me an inspiring story about a Syrian American girl who lived in Detroit and peddled for a living. Reference what you know about Arab Americans in Michigan in 1912. Make it inspirational and good for a Facebook post!" I then asked for the girl's portrait. It's a mirror!
August 13, 2025 at 5:19 PM
So I asked ChatGPT to: "Give me an inspiring story about a Syrian American girl who lived in Detroit and peddled for a living. Reference what you know about Arab Americans in Michigan in 1912. Make it inspirational and good for a Facebook post!" I then asked for the girl's portrait. It's a mirror!
Let's look at the engagement. The top comments point to hard work, immigration, success as the basis of the American Dream. A straight line from entrepreneurialism to social mobility.
Ok cool, that's our favorite U.S. stereotype: the land of opportunity! Why is it harmful to immigration history?
Ok cool, that's our favorite U.S. stereotype: the land of opportunity! Why is it harmful to immigration history?
August 13, 2025 at 5:52 AM
Let's look at the engagement. The top comments point to hard work, immigration, success as the basis of the American Dream. A straight line from entrepreneurialism to social mobility.
Ok cool, that's our favorite U.S. stereotype: the land of opportunity! Why is it harmful to immigration history?
Ok cool, that's our favorite U.S. stereotype: the land of opportunity! Why is it harmful to immigration history?
It's happened. An AI slop post in Arab American history is making the rounds, blending every immigration stereotype with a cloyingly implausible story about a fake Syrian peddler in Michigan.
This is deeply fascinating and also troubling. AI can regurgitate these stereotypes endlessly. What to do?
This is deeply fascinating and also troubling. AI can regurgitate these stereotypes endlessly. What to do?
August 13, 2025 at 5:14 AM
It's happened. An AI slop post in Arab American history is making the rounds, blending every immigration stereotype with a cloyingly implausible story about a fake Syrian peddler in Michigan.
This is deeply fascinating and also troubling. AI can regurgitate these stereotypes endlessly. What to do?
This is deeply fascinating and also troubling. AI can regurgitate these stereotypes endlessly. What to do?
Putting this out there bc PLS someone, go pull this file at NARA 1 and then tell me about it over beers, it looks so interesting catalog.archives.gov/id/1124615
August 7, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Putting this out there bc PLS someone, go pull this file at NARA 1 and then tell me about it over beers, it looks so interesting catalog.archives.gov/id/1124615
I'm writing a new thing on deportation of refugees during the quota acts. This snippet from the final page of a refugee child held in immigration detention for over a year, only to be separated from his family and sent to a third country, alone, to avoid refoulement.
August 6, 2025 at 5:23 PM
I'm writing a new thing on deportation of refugees during the quota acts. This snippet from the final page of a refugee child held in immigration detention for over a year, only to be separated from his family and sent to a third country, alone, to avoid refoulement.
If you work for or have studied at any University of California campus, you are invited and encouraged to sign this letter of support for UCLA, where faculty learned yesterday that Trump illegally froze $200M in funding.
tinyurl.com/ucstandup
Pls share widely!
tinyurl.com/ucstandup
Pls share widely!
August 2, 2025 at 9:54 PM
If you work for or have studied at any University of California campus, you are invited and encouraged to sign this letter of support for UCLA, where faculty learned yesterday that Trump illegally froze $200M in funding.
tinyurl.com/ucstandup
Pls share widely!
tinyurl.com/ucstandup
Pls share widely!
Sometimes I wonder if generative AI's capacity for lying originated with all those times we intentionally lied to ReCAPCHA photo grids.
July 31, 2025 at 8:56 PM
Sometimes I wonder if generative AI's capacity for lying originated with all those times we intentionally lied to ReCAPCHA photo grids.
Looking for something (somewhat unrelated) I found this, a 1924 letter written by the "Ladies of the Ku Klux Klan" asking President Coolidge to sign the Immigration Quota Act of 1924.
Useful teaching material for US, Immigration history.
catalog.archives.gov/id/7455592
Useful teaching material for US, Immigration history.
catalog.archives.gov/id/7455592
July 23, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Looking for something (somewhat unrelated) I found this, a 1924 letter written by the "Ladies of the Ku Klux Klan" asking President Coolidge to sign the Immigration Quota Act of 1924.
Useful teaching material for US, Immigration history.
catalog.archives.gov/id/7455592
Useful teaching material for US, Immigration history.
catalog.archives.gov/id/7455592
I ordered a stack of things from CRL today for a new project. Among them was the 1957 volume by Swedish photojournalist Per Olow Anderson. Some of the images from Gaza:
July 16, 2025 at 1:47 AM
I ordered a stack of things from CRL today for a new project. Among them was the 1957 volume by Swedish photojournalist Per Olow Anderson. Some of the images from Gaza:
The @historians.org elections close on July 15. If you are an AHA member please consider the candidates on this slate, committed to democratizing the organization and restoring its role as a member body.
You can learn more about the Democratize the AHA slate here: youtu.be/mnLroSZlM-g?...
You can learn more about the Democratize the AHA slate here: youtu.be/mnLroSZlM-g?...
July 8, 2025 at 4:26 PM
The @historians.org elections close on July 15. If you are an AHA member please consider the candidates on this slate, committed to democratizing the organization and restoring its role as a member body.
You can learn more about the Democratize the AHA slate here: youtu.be/mnLroSZlM-g?...
You can learn more about the Democratize the AHA slate here: youtu.be/mnLroSZlM-g?...
Arrived today: this beautiful new book on rites of passage, colonial ethnography, and the court system intersected in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. THE AGE OF SEX by Corrie Decker, for your summer reading list!
uwpress.wisc.edu/Books/T/The-...
uwpress.wisc.edu/Books/T/The-...
July 8, 2025 at 12:53 AM
Arrived today: this beautiful new book on rites of passage, colonial ethnography, and the court system intersected in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. THE AGE OF SEX by Corrie Decker, for your summer reading list!
uwpress.wisc.edu/Books/T/The-...
uwpress.wisc.edu/Books/T/The-...
Reading this morning: They Called Me Lioness, A Palestinian Girl's Fight for Freedom, by Ahed Tamimi and Dena Takruri.
June 13, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Reading this morning: They Called Me Lioness, A Palestinian Girl's Fight for Freedom, by Ahed Tamimi and Dena Takruri.