Mary Dudziak

@marydudziak

Law, history, politics. Latest book: Making the Forever War: Marilyn Young on the Culture and Politics of American Militarism. More books & essays: #lawsky 🗃

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Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· 5d

Institute for Constitutional Studies seminar at George Washington Univ. for grad students & early career folks. Deadline 8/23/26.

Photo of the White House follwed by this text:

CS Seminar: Presidential Power
[We're moving up this previously posted announcement, as the deadline for applying is fast approaching. DRE]

The Institute for Constitutional Studies at The George Washington University Law School is pleased to announce another seminar for advanced graduate students and junior faculty:

Constitutional Controversies: Presidential Power

Disputes about the breadth and limits of the president’s constitutional powers have been recurrent throughout our nation’s history. This discussion-based seminar will explore a series of “constitutional moments” that relate to presidential authority. After examining debates over the structure of the executive branch eventually adopted in Article II, we will consider a variety of constitutional disputes about presidential power, focusing particularly on events during the Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, FDR, Truman, Nixon, and Trump administrations.

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· 12d

Rusty says you will not regret adopting an orange kitten or two!

White cat with orange markings and green eyes.

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· 12d

Wow. Tino Cuellar joins Anthropic as Chief Global Affairs Officer. www.anthropic.com/news/tino-cu... His statement:

“Policymakers in the US and around the world are increasingly realizing that we are at a critical inflection point when it comes to how we govern and develop artificial intelligence. The choices we make today will determine whether humanity can harness extraordinary possibilities to advance science and improve lives across the world or face enormous risk and growing inequality,” said Cuéllar. “Democracies must set the terms on which this technology advances, and there is no more consequential place to be shaping that work right now than Anthropic.”

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· 17d

This article by @rbarretttaylor.bsky.social looks so good. 1st paragraph of abstract:

Abstract
Modern warfare is a reductive pursuit shaped by digital technologies that promise an idealised, precise conflict. Martial cultures aspire to hyper-surveillance systems driven by advanced technologies and outsourced expertise they covet and themselves lack. Martial cultures assume digital tools can deliver perfect representations of enemies for precision-guided destruction, believing datafied, optimised war ensures swift, decisive outcomes by targeting the opponents’ material foundations.

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· 18d

Good morning. This is a view from Balestrand, Norway, at about 8 am.

Dark mountains rising above a blue ocean with a brilliant blue sky peeking through mottled clouds.

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· 19d

Good evening.

Mottled clouds over a body of water with mountains in the distance.

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· 20d

A quiet evening on the fjord.

A dark mountain rises above gray water below threatening gray clouds.

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· 21d

For more on the relationship between US civilian perception of US casualties and presidential war power, see my essay Death and the War Power. Open access here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Abstract
In the vast literature on American war powers, attention is rarely paid to the product of war – the dead human body – and its impact on war politics and war powers. In legal scholarship on the war powers, the practice of war usually happens in the background. Presidents, Congress and courts are in the foreground. Killing in war is thereby a background phenomenon – an aspect of the social context within which the war powers are exercised. This article puts death at the center of the analysis. Drawing upon the insights of important recent historical works on death, I argue that the dead body has a political life. The political history of American war death recasts an important problem in the history of American war powers: the atrophy of political restraints on presidential power.

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· 21d

A result of FDR'S easing of WWII photo censorship: this famous Life Magazine photo. 'Dead Americans at Buna Beach': The Photo That Won World War II share.google/1ClodfDXr8wP...

Black & white photo of three dead soldiers lying at the shoreline on a beach.

Caption from LIFE. "Three dead Americans on the beach at Buna."George Strock—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· 21d

Trump obscures military casualty numbers. Manipulating perception of US war dead has a long history. FDR did the opposite of Trump: lessening censorship of casualty photos to keep Americans engaged during WWII. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/26/u...

Pentagon Changes How It Reports Casualties in Iran War
The changes separated the casualty numbers into two separate web pages, potentially making it more difficult to tally the war’s full toll.

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· 21d

From a ferry on a fjord after a hike.

Green, wooden mountains slope down to a blue body of water. Cottages and other buildings sprinkle the coastline.

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· 21d

Life advice: come up with an excuse to go to Norway.

Cloudy sky above a fjord, with steep, dark woodlands rising on either side, and calm, empty water.

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· 24d

The reason this person is screaming is that they've just seen a museum full of Edward Munch's anxiety producing art.

One version of Edward Munch's iconic painting The Scream, painted in lines of color with a figure in front, on a bridge, holding their hands to the sides of their face, eyes and mouth wide open.

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· 25d

This.

As tech companies race along the superhighway to AI utopia, they ignore the gravestones along the side of the road. But these are real costs, real people, real lives.

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· 28d

Somethings ip in an around NYC!

Very long line of big black limos on a street in New York.

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· Jul 17

Great news. share.google/PvGmcJfs4zIu... Here's how you can help protect democracy in Georgia: www.keishaforgovernor.com

Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms leads Republican Rick Jackson in Georgia’s closely watched governor's race in a new poll, boosting Democratic hopes of flipping a governorship the GOP has controlled for more than two decades.

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· Jul 8

What friend is this that welcomed me home? About two inches long including antennae.

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· Jun 22

Everything you need to know about the law on Hegseth's blocking military promotion from my @emorylaw.bsky.social colleague @marknevitt.bsky.social: www.justsecurity.org/141154/secre...

Headlune: Can the Secretary of Defense Remove Admirals from a Promotion List?

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· Jun 20

This will do.

Blue ocean with a very low surf with small clumps of cumulus clouds across a brilliant blue sky.

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· Jun 20

Newspaper headline of the year. @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/06/19/u...

The Reflecting Pool Appears to Be Rejecting Its Makeover

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· Jun 12

This @oah.org CFP looks really good. www.oah.org/oah-sym_cfp/

Coasts, Currents, and Islands: Exploring the interwoven histories of the United States & the Pacific

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· Jun 12

👇

Pedagogically speaking, focusing on the grunt work of trying out ideas—watching them develop, wither, and cede ground to better ones—is the most valuable time we can spend with our students. We surrender that time to Silicon Valley and the messy database that is the internet at the peril of our students.

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· Jun 5

What fresh hell?

Greetings,

[Obscured] has partnered with Jaggaer (host of [obscured] Express) to launch a three-month pilot of Jaggaer AI (JAI), running through the end of Fiscal Year 2026.

JAI is an AI-powered chatbot designed to assist with policy and “how-to” questions related to Procurement, Accounts Payable, and Travel. It draws from existing Emory resources—such as policies, job aids, and FAQs—to provide answers. If JAI cannot fully resolve a question, it will direct users to additional support channels.

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· May 30

👇

Last week, the Justice Department deleted thousands of press releases related to the Jan. 6 insurrection and other matters. Here they are.

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· May 24

Forthcoming and outstanding: M. X. Mitchell, Unsettling Sovereignty International Law, Nuclear Weapons, and US Extraterritorial Power in Postwar Oceania. share.google/1bCmoGwBL2Xp... Legal historians and those interested in US nuclear history need this book. My blurb:

U.S. nuclear explosions in the Marshall Islands during the Cold War were not only catastrophically destructive, they were an occasion for the creation of law as Pacific Islanders fought to retain sovereignty over their homelands, M.X. Mitchell shows in this brilliant and original book. Unsettling Sovereignty puts the Islanders at the center of U.S. nuclear history. A powerful and important contribution.

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· May 17

Just my attempt to follow up on a point that @karadixonvuic.bsky.social made on a panel. Research tomorrow.

Green farmland at dusk with a freeway jutting through on the right and a lonely cell tower.

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· May 9

Keep an eye out for the forthcoming volume Teaching US Military History, eds. @bethbailey.bsky.social & Andrew Preston via @universitypress.cambridge.org. Since US history is a history of ongoing war, the book is helpful for all teachers of American history. My blurb:

During our era of ongoing war, teaching U.S. military history can lead to a better understanding of American history itself, editors Beth Bailey and Andrew Preston demonstrate in this essential volume. Featuring powerful synthetic essays by leading scholars and newer voices, and thoughtful reflections on teaching methods, Teaching U.S. Military History is an outstanding resource for all who teach U.S. history.

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· May 2

Orange moon over the Atlantic. Phone could not really capture it.

Full orange moon though clouds/haze reflecting on the ocean.

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· Apr 30

Hoping to deAI my fall seminar. Asked students to get hardcopies of books, not ebooks. Explanation below. What is going to happen?

Screenshot of text:
The reason I very strongly prefer hardcopies is that in our seminar I would like to enable us to have discussions of our readings between humans in the classroom, not between chatbots. In order to foster a positive learning environment, I will ask you to keep your electronics in your backpack. I will provide you with paper and pens that you'll be able to use for notes in our class.

Mary Dudziak@marydudziak· Apr 30

First paddle of the year.