our summer newsletter: introducing our new intern, recent publications, a call for editorial support, and more!
written with hope, solidarity, and best wishes for a cool summer
Dear Insurrect! Supporters,
We hope that all our readers are staying cool and finding some time to rest this summer! As the editorial and advisory board members, we are writing to you to update you with the new developments at Insurrect! Recent news includes our summer 2024 intern, a new piece by Ayendy Bonifacio, the launch of our Instagram page, and more.
We appreciate your ongoing support for Insurrect! as we continue to grow and change while staying committed to publishing critical writings on the political, historical, and cultural legacies of the early Americas.
We are thrilled to announce our summer 2024 Intern, Alicia Prainito! Alicia’s internship with Insurrect! is possible because of generous sponsorship from the C. Dallett Hemphill Summer Internship coordinated by the McNeil Center for Early American Studies.
Alicia graduated from Northeastern University in May 2024 with a Bachelor of Arts in History, Culture, and Law (Culture and Colonialism concentration) and minors in Criminal Justice, Philosophy, and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She will return to Northeastern in the fall to complete the final year of her Master of Arts in Public History. Alicia has a demonstrated interest in combining social, criminal, and restorative justice with historical practices to ensure public access to information and historical trends. Her primary historical interest is early Americas history through the lens of under told perspectives; in doing so, she hopes to create a more holistic and accurate depiction of historical events.
We received many excellent applications for the C. Dallett Hemphill Summer Internship, and we were especially excited to work with Alicia because of her background in public history. Reviewing applications allowed us to learn more about all of the incredible undergraduate research in early American studies that goes on within the McNeil Center’s consortium institutions; thank you so much to all of the amazing students who applied and shared their work with us. Thank you also to the McNeil Center for supporting Alicia’s work, and special thanks to Emma Hart, Peter Olsen-Harbich, and Amy Baxter-Bellamy for coordinating Alicia’s internship.
Follow us here and on social media for updates on Alicia’s forthcoming publications.
We recently published “Family and Color: The Social and Cultural Roots of Dominican Colorism” by Ayendy Bonifacio, a personal essay that examines the legacies of colorism and anti-Blackness in the Dominican Republic. We are particularly affected by this piece because it showcases the important connections that are made when scholars link the historical legacies of colonialism and white supremacy to their personal and familial lives.
Insurrect! invites students who have participated or are participating in encampments for a free Palestine to submit reflective essays connecting their experiences in protest to histories of liberatory knowledge. These could be in the form of a personal essay such as Bonficio’s recent essay, a roundtable (“Reflections on the Crisis at Hand: a Roundtable, Part 1 is one example), or another format. We are looking for reflections that are written as a group or individually. Anonymous reflections are absolutely allowed. For more information on submission, please look at our submission page.
Join the board and editorial team! Insurrect! is currently looking to add new members to Board Members, Managing Editors, and Editorial Team Members. We particularly encourage current graduate students, early career scholars, and independent scholars to get involved! Please email us at insurrect.history@gmail.com if you are interested and/or have questions as to what these positions would entail.
Have you seen our Instagram? We’ve expanded to Instagram to reach folks who may not be on Twitter/X anymore––or never were. If you haven’t already, follow us @insurrecthistory to get our latest updates!
Thank you to our recent donors: Sean Gallagher, Asheesh Siddique, and Kari Winter, as well as our generous patrons. We couldn’t do this work without your support and we are deeply grateful.
In solidarity with Gaza: As editorial and advisory board members at Insurrect!, we are horrified by Israel’s on-going genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. As an online publication committed to confronting both historical and present colonial violence, Insurrect! stands in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, throughout Palestine, and in the diaspora. We also stand in solidarity with the students across the world who have bravely put their bodies and careers on the line to demand that their universities divest from war profiteering that allows universities to profit from Israel’s on-going genocide in Gaza.
We are especially inspired by the students and faculty who took part in the encampment protests this spring. Thank you for modeling a vision of campus life that rejects the relentless violence of settler colonialism while also insisting that cross-institutional protest is a part of our collective educations and is desperately needed in our current moment. What does it mean to have solidarity with Palestine as a educator, student, or cultural worker? This definition from Angela Davis (in Hammer & Hope) is particularly enlightening and worth sharing to our readers:
“Solidarity is never entirely straightforward, but in this situation, it requires us to reach beyond simplistic explanations that attribute positions of moral rectitude to one side and utter depravity to the other. Solidarity commands us to recognize the fallacious either/or construction that effectively forbids the proximity of positions of solidarity for Palestine and of deep and heartfelt condemnations of antisemitism.”
As we look forward to receiving more submissions this summer and working with our summer intern, Alicia, we encourage you to share our Twitter/X and Instagram posts to continue to spread the word about Insurrect! As a reminder, we are looking for concise, public facing writing related to the pre-1900 colonial Americas, authored by students, contingent and early career researchers, as well as library and museum workers. As always, we value your support and continued interest in our work.
With hope and best wishes for the rest of 2024,
The Insurrect! Editorial Team