To move is to invite suspicion. For the period I study -- and perhaps especially in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries -- perhaps no word captures the variety of phenomena that exposed marginal people to the scrutiny of observers and the machinations of the state so much as "mobility." Homelessness, vagrancy, wandering, roaming the streets, running up … Continue reading Moving Targets
Month: February 2017
On Not Calling Trump Apologists Racist
A few days ago I had a lengthy exchange (on FB, so you know I'm old) with a Trump apologist. It started when a friend of mine posted a story about a Canadian citizen -- but, you guessed it, Muslim, and born in Morocco to boot -- being held up, questioned about her views on … Continue reading On Not Calling Trump Apologists Racist
Against an Academic Boycott. For Now.
Many colleagues and friends whose ethical and scholarly judgment I greatly respect are calling for an academic boycott of the United States. Or, more specifically, a boycott of US-based academic conferences, which are probably the most frequent form of professional contact many of us have with US soil. A petition is doing the rounds. I waver on this both … Continue reading Against an Academic Boycott. For Now.
Giving Rare Books to Undergraduates
Not a great idea? I tried it this week in my seminar on historical research, in the course of trying to move beyond the idea of primary sources as disembodied texts to see individual books, letters, and manuscripts as objects whose physical properties and fates could be as or more interesting, if harder to trace, than their contents. I … Continue reading Giving Rare Books to Undergraduates
memorious 