brianleechphd

@brianleechphd@historians.social

Historian of the U.S. West and Midwest. Professor at Augustana College in Illinois. Research on environmental history, mining, food, energy, pop culture. Currently writing about the portrayal of mining in popular culture and the history of U.S. speed limits. He/him. Opinions my own and not my employer’s. #histodon #histodons #envhist #envhum #mininghistory https://brianleechphd.net

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brianleechphd, to random

Apparently you can apply to attend colleges that no longer exist. The web is a wondrous place. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2024/05/09/zombie-colleges-taking-applications/73546247007/

brianleechphd, to random

A student of mine has a typo in the title of an email they sent to me about being out of class. Instead of absence, they wrote:

"Absescene"

I'm now thinking about stealing it to coin my own term for what happens after the #anthropocene: absence.

#envhum #envhist

brianleechphd, to random

“squirrel-painting incidents” https://www.timesunion.com/hudsonvalley/news/article/squirrel-painting-putnam-county-dec-arrest-18642677.php?fbclid=IwAR04MzoxVGHonqiaktuwP7B75PuW85oF2dN27pecKGvMe7WxGxi4JuoxCYs_aem_Aca9NlAOQLyVXaR2KqhK0gquLNwjIJRRF_IC-ax7wUv50_-CwQil5pFVqpBLKdbBzxs

brianleechphd, to random

In case you were wondering why everyone is getting sick, a friend of mine just posted “Thanks for the birthday wishes! I managed to get out for a lunch at the Olive Garden and a massage. I wish I had the energy to do more but I was low on energy due to having the flu.”

brianleechphd, to random

Hey folks in and : I have a new article out: Check out "Canary in a Coal Mine: From Mine Safety Technique to Animal Metaphor" in Comparative American Studies. Inside you'll learn about the real birds miners used to detect poisonous gases, the transformation of this bird technology into a common metaphor, and the subsequent use of that metaphor in horror and science fiction films. Let me know if you'd like one of my 50 free "eprints." https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14775700.2023.2278374

brianleechphd, to random

Animals like bears get all the press, but the most dangerous animal in the world remains the #mosquito https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/hikers-warned-as-mosquitoes-kill-48-in-colorado-this-year/ar-AA1jwA1h?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=24939c4400c24fcbdae5c7eb33956800&ei=19

brianleechphd, to academia

Folks today tend to praise #academia leaders for being “bold,” “daring,” and “innovative.” Isn’t it possible for a person be just as effective if they were the opposite of those qualities. “Steady,” “thoughtful,” “reliable,” and even “predictable” tend to be qualities that I often value in a leader. It feels like we all bought into the often-disastrous tech sector’s ideas of what to celebrate. I may be wrong. Perhaps the best leaders are steady most of the time but bold when needed? #leadership

brianleechphd, to random

Thanks to all of my students for dealing with my sudden inability to pronounce the word "chronological" today in class. #histodons

brianleechphd, to random

Folks who know about the history of hard rock mining know a lot about the incurable, deadly disease of silicosis. Guess who is getting it now, often even earlier in their lives? The people who make those engineered stone countertops. How deadly is your pretty countertop? #mininghistory #envhist https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-09-24/silicosis-countertop-workers-engineered-stone

brianleechphd, to academia

My delightful senior colleague is on sabbatical. Their out-of-office message reads: "I am away, returning September 19. If you need to contact me before
then, you must write your wishes in blood on a piece of bark, take it
to the woods at midnight and burn it, make the ashes into a little ash
cake with nectar and dew, put it by a lily for the fairy queen to
snack on in the middle of the night, and she will let me know your thoughts when we next meet." #academia #histodons

brianleechphd, to random

My latest publication is open access now—an analysis of frontier mythos, masculinity, and hidden corporate landscapes in the TV show Gold Rush. You can find it in this great new volume “To the Last Drop” on sentimentality, culture, and extraction. Link to my article and the TOC are below.

beatnikprof, to random
@beatnikprof@mas.to avatar

#edgarallanpoe

brianleechphd,

@beatnikprof I just did. Good advice, Raven.

brianleechphd, to Florida

“With the start of the 2023-24 academic year only six weeks away, senior officials at New College of (NCF) made a startling announcement in mid-July: 36 of the small honors college’s approximately 100 full-time teaching positions were vacant.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/30/florida-universities-colleges-faculty-leaving-desantis

brianleechphd, to politics

The humanist in me: what a gross oversimplification.

The social scientist in me: this is probably correct.

#humanities #politics

brianleechphd, to random

I’m seeing many people on social media, especially Facebook, doing something I find frustrating, although I also just heard the same thing from a museum director on the radio: they comment on how, when in Europe, everything seems so old and they contrast that deep past with the U.S., where even the “old” structures are relatively new. Except they forget that lots of people lived in North America for thousands of years and they built many things that you can still see today. #histodons

brianleechphd, to random

Let the research and conference trip commence! First stop, Albuquerque. #histodons #envhist

brianleechphd,

Smelter tailings (the pile of black stuff) between Globe and Miami, Arizona. #envhist #mininghistory

brianleechphd,

Mining landscape near Miami, Arizona. #mininghistory #envhist

brianleechphd,

The Pinto Valley Mine (on the west end of the historic Globe/Miami copper district). #envhist #mininghistory

brianleechphd,

Downtown Miami, Arizona. It always fascinates me how similar mining towns and landscapes look. #mininghistory

brianleechphd,

Which way should I go?

brianleechphd,

Resolution Copper’s Oak Flat mine headframes (the older traditional one used for exploration, the newer one built for mining). The proposed Oak Flat site outside of Superior, Arizona (a longtime mining community) has been the site of a protest movement. #envhist #mininghistory

brianleechphd,

A protest sign at the Oak Flat campground. The protest is because Resolution Copper’s massive block-caving project would likely cause much of the land to subside, including an area considered sacred by the Apaches, whose reservation is nearby. #mininghistory #envhist

brianleechphd,

A panorama of the Oak Flat area, taken from a rock formation at the Oak Flat campground. #mininghistory #envhist

brianleechphd,

Mining community of Superior, Arizona, including the abandoned high school and famous rock formation known as Apache Leap. Supposedly 75 Apache men leapt from the top to their deaths instead of allowing themselves to be captured by the U.S. cavalry. #mininghistory #westernhistory

brianleechphd,

Phoenix gets its name from the fact that white settlers re-used irrigation canals built by the earlier Huhugam people, starting 2,000 beforehand (who many will know as Hohokam—and were likely the ancestors of the O’odham). #envhist #archaeology

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