Yesterday I learned that some Republican state legislators in North Carolina have sponsored a bill to declare an established religion—or at least, to declare that the federal Constitution wouldn’t prohibit such a declaration. In doing so, of course, they disregard a mainstream of constitutional jurisprudence on the issue that goes back into the ninteenth century but was really firmly established in the middle of the twentieth century. I’m not here to talk about that question, but I found it particularly interesting in light of the conversation I’ve been having by email over the last few weeks with Dr. Sean Wilson, an assistant professor of law at Wright State University, about his new book The Flexible Constitution. Continue reading
Junto March Madness: Elite Eight
Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the cream of the crop. Winners today will move on to the Final Four.
Results will be announced tomorrow. Next week, besides the final two days of voting, we will feature more commentary, as well as another podcast. Be prepared.
To remind you how we reached this point, this is what the brackets look like: Continue reading
Junto March Madness: Sweet Sixteen Results
Thanks to all who participated! We once again had a stellar turnout with about 200 different voters. Below are the results; we will vote on the Elite Eight matchups tomorrow. Please share your thoughts in the comments below. Continue reading
Junto March Madness: Sweet Sixteen
Fortunately, the law firm of Prilo & Foal have given us the “go ahead” to move forward with our tournament, so onward and upward!
Below you will find updated brackets, polling for the final sixteen teams books, followed by some discussion questions. Voting closes at midnight ET. Winners are announced tomorrow, and the Elite Eight takes place on Thursday. Continue reading
Junto March Madness CANCELLED! (Now with an update)
We at the Junto are sad to bring news this morning that our amazingly popular if rather silly March Madness competition is no more. We’ll leave the existing posts up for now, but there’ll be no more posts, no more voting, and therefore no more surprise upsets. Over the weekend, we received a communication from the law firm of Prilo & Foal, acting for a New York publisher that we are unable to name. It turns out our little competition may be in breach of some competition and advertising laws – to be honest it’s all a bit beyond us, but suffice to say it doesn’t seem worth getting into any trouble over a bit of fun.
The Week in Early American History
Happy Easter and Passover to all celebrating!
With all the excitement around the Junto’s March Madness tournament (we even have a hashtag!), it’s a useful reminder that there are other things going on this week around the blogosphere. Once you’ve found all the Easter eggs (or, if you hid it really well on Monday, the afikoman), sit down and try out a few of these posts and stories.
Junto March Madness: Round Two Results
The Sweet Sixteen is set! Thanks to everyone who participated; yesterday’s polling turned out to be the largest to date, as nearly 250 different IPs registered votes. We can only hope the momentum continues in the next round!
Following the results, I’ll ask some questions in hopes to start a lively discussion.
Junto March Madness Round 2, Day 2: Brackets 3 and 4
The madness goes marching on! Results for yesterday and today will be made available tomorrow (Saturday). Voting on the Sweet Sixteen begins next week.
As always, voting is open until midnight EST.
For reference, here are the images for Brackets Three and Four.
Digital Dissertation Workshop
Amid the whirl of data visualization, digital pedagogy, network analysis, text mining projects, and big data vs. small data debates that energized Boston’s inaugural “Days of Digital Humanities” conference last week, The Junto caught up with three early Americanists using new media to complete traditional dissertation work: Erin Bartram (University of Connecticut), Jean Bauer (University of Virginia), and Lincoln Mullen (Brandeis University). Here’s what they had to say about the process, and how digital research will shape their work after the dissertation. Continue reading
Junto March Madness Round 2, Day 1: Brackets 1 and 2
The march to the Final Four continues! Results for the first round is found here. The original brackets are found here.
Today, we vote on the second round matchups found in Brackets One and Two. As in the First Round, voting is open until midnight EST. Tomorrow we will vote on Brackets Three and Four, and winners will be announced Saturday. We will then move on to the Sweet Sixteen on Monday.
As a reminder of how we got here, below are images of Brackets One and Two thus far. Continue reading
The Junto 