@thegingerprof
Historian of US foreign relations, Iran, & women’s human rights. Author of US Foreign Policy and Muslim Women’s Human Rights @ Penn Press. Writing a book on early 20th c. US-Iran relations. Philly sports fan. Visiting Scholar @ GWU IMES ‘24-‘26 🗃️
I’m available for speaking engagements, especially for anyone at a university trying to help students make sense of this moment and what the Iranian people actually want and have experienced, recently & historically. Also happy to Zoom into your class.
I know this was posted a few days ago, but here’s my op ed on Iran. In all of the noise from overnight Iran “experts,” as a historian of US-Iran relations, I’m trying to center the Iranian people. Hopefully this is helpful for readers.
www.ms.now/opinion/iran...
"Pre-1979 is irrelevant ancient history," said no one who knows anything about US, Iranian, or world history.🗃️
The 2026 Olympic Games in Milan Cortina start in 10 days! I’ll share historical facts & related history
scholarship about the Olympic Winter Games daily until the opening ceremony 🧵
#olympics #sporthistory #skystorians 🗃️
Following!
This is a great breakdown from @inquirer.com on the exhibits that were removed from President’s House in Independence National Historical Park. #NationalParks 🗃️ www.inquirer.com/news/philade...
A visa limited to just 4 years means that no international students could enroll in a history PhD program at a US university. Not to mention the postdocs and faculty who contribute so much to US higher education. Please let the federal government know what you think about this proposal! 🧵🗃️
I don’t think they were X. But they seemed annoyed that I was writing about women’s rights as a policy issue and women as policymakers, so…
Something along the lines of: “The author could rework this book to be more like X’s [title], but I doubt she has the intellectual capacity to do that.” Yup, called me stupid. But then I won one of the top awards in my field for my scholarship, so I guess I’m not THAT stupid.
A holiday cheeseball shaped like a hedgehog, with white cheese, black olive eyes and nose, almonds as the spikes, and the hedgehog is sitting on a round yellow cheese serving plate.
ardening (food), bread baking, cooking, pickling, and riding/training/caring for horses and care for other animals. Creative cheeseball sculpting. Plus very basic bookbinding skills, wall painting, drywall & spackle, embroidery, make cocktails, sing, brew beer 🍺
Here we go! The Mershon Center @mershoncenter.bsky.social at THE Ohio State University is hosting the 2026 Summer Institute of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations @shafrhistorians.bsky.social - take a look, apply, all are welcome, open to advanced PhD candidate + early career🗃️
Completely normal. I really love the Rockefeller Archive Center and the archives at LOC. Such a great researcher experience at both.
Dude
The Challenger explosion
I just deleted my account from Academia.edu because they started generating AI slop - "podcasts" and "reviews" - based on my papers and profile. No notice, no message offering an opt-out. This is disgusting. FYI if you also don't want your intellectual property used for AI #academicsky #EDUsky
"Iran coordinated the attacks on the American air base in Qatar with Qatari officials and gave advanced notice that attacks were coming to minimize casualties, according to three Iranian officials familiar with the plans." - www.nytimes.com/live/2025/06...
Not only is this an almost impossible time to be an historian, structurally, it’s also a hugely morally distressing one. Our work is manipulated, defunded, and then ignored, and we sit here watching humanity do the same dumb shit over and over again. Thanks, I hate it.
…it breaks my heart to see them suffer even more now. They just want to live in freedom and dignity. They don’t deserve this. And for Netanyahu to call on them to rise up against the IRI - seriously, dude? Most Iranians want nothing more than to replace the Islamic Republic, but how are they…
… between their own much-hated regime, which has oppressed them for the past four & a half decades, and an increasingly emboldened Israel. The Iranian people have had no say in this situation, but they are dying in strikes and fleeing their homes in fear. They’ve already suffered so much that…
Don’t forget “trope” 🙄
Tim Naftali's tweet on the termination of the HAC members without cause.
Unhappy to confirm that the entire Historical Advisory Committee at the State Department received termination notices this afternoon (myself included). The HAC, set up by Congress, oversees the office that produces the FRUS series. history.state.gov/about/hac/in... 1/
Delighted to share a piece I co-authored with @hdagres.bsky.social and Azadeh Pourzand on #Iran published this morning by @nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/12/o...
DOGE is at the Institue of Museum and Library Services right now, AM 03/20, to shut down the agency The Institute of Museum and Library Services is being raided by DOGE and the new Acting Director (also somehow DepSec of Labor) Keith Sonderling with the express intent to shut it down. Sonderling was sworn-in in the lobby of the office building (955 L'Enfant Plaza) and they are proceeding with quickly and quietly dismantling the agency. There is no major reporting on the death of IMLS. There are Deparment of Homeland Security personnel present - to bully a bunch of civil servants who administer grants to museums and libraries. IMLS offices are on the 4th floor of 955 L'Enfant. There is no media present to document this efficiency saving of .004% of the federal budget. Every library system in the country receives these grants. Museums in every state depend on them. Every penny disbursed is American tax dollars back in American communities. This is one of the 7 federal agencies offered up as a needless sacrificial lamb in the catastrophic resolution and last week's EO.
Credible Redditors reporting The Institute of Museum & Library Services is being dismantled right now, 3/20 by DOGE at 955 L'Enfant Plaza. DHS is on-site to intimidate civil servants.
No media coverage.
Every library & museum system relies on these grants.
Record & report if you’re in the area.
Meta used at least 16 of my books, and numerous articles, to help train the AI it will use to make billions.
Authors, search your name here:
www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
They’re just jealous. Brotherly Shove all the way! Go Birds! 🦅
For others unfamiliar with this tradition: www.npr.org/2023/02/10/1...
Go birds
Anyway, Philadelphia is the greatest city on the planet
