Katharine Gerbner

Author’s Event: Archival Interruptions — booked. Local author Katharine Gerbner will be joining us in the shop from 5:30-6:30 pm on Friday, December 19th to introduce her book followed by a Q&A and book signing with refreshments

Philly-area friends: I'm going to be at BOOKED in Chestnut Hill this FRIDAY Dec 19 from 5:30-6:30 for an ARCHIVAL IRRUPTIONS (Duke UP 2025) book event!

More info at the BOOKED website along with an RSVP link, as space is limited. Hope to see you there!

www.bookedch.com/events-2/eve...

Thrilled that ARCHIVAL IRRUPTIONS is part of the top 10 #Slaveryarchive best books of 2025 - highly recommend the other books on this list as well!

Text description in a screenshot of the Interfolio ad.

Friends, please share? Brown2026 is advertising for its 3rd year of fellowships. Would love to have you consider this opportunity to work with us as we face 2026. Link to position and application info in the thread: And more info about the initiative is here: brown2026democracy.brown.edu 1/

"You find yourself in an archive. You are there because you are seeking something... You expect order, you need order. Instead, you find instability, difficulty, and danger. Your plans fall apart and time unravels. You have been lured in; it is a labyrinth."

Edmund de Waal, an Archive

Some great books and articles on archives and libraries that came out in 2025.

In no specific order.

🧵

Text reads, "American Academy of Religion-Society for Biblical Literature 2025 Conference Exhibit. Use code AAR25 for 40% off when you order from dukeupress.edu." Background features assorted book and journal covers arranged in columns.

#AARSBL2025 kicks off tomorrow! On our blog today, you can find everything you need to know about how to browse and save on our books and journals in #ReligiousStudies buff.ly/8ITPFAp

i love all of this!

My hope is that my book not only offers insight into the history of Obeah – an Afro-Caribbean religion that was criminalized in 1760 – but also into the problem of the archive, and how historians can use different strategies to tell new histories with the archives we have inherited.

November 2025 | Archival Irruptions YouTube video by DepartmentHistory

An archival irruption is a "rupture in the narrative field an archival source that creates an opportunity to write an alternative narration about the past."

For those who want the full explanation, you can watch the virtual launch here.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Pbo...

After years of working with many archives, and studying different approaches to the archive, I came to realize that there were always ruptures in colonial narratives – moments of disjuncture that offered an opportunity to tell a different story. So that’s what an “archival irruption” is.

I coined the phrase “archival irruption” to offer a new metaphor for interpreting historical sources. My research uses colonial and missionary archives, but I wanted to tell stories that had been marginalized – about enslaved and colonized people, rather than those who produced the archives.

Slide showing the definition of Archival Irruption

Thanks to everyone who came to the virtual launch of ARCHIVAL IRRUPTIONS! I’m posting a slide from my presentation for those who are wondering what an “irruption” is – if you don’t know, you are NOT alone!

An “irruption” means “the act of breaking in or breaking through.”

Thanks, Betsy! Yes there will be more. Also I think this one will be recorded

Image of Archival Irruptions

Tomorrow, Nov. 12 is the virtual book launch for ARCHIVAL IRRUPTIONS (Duke University Press, 2025). Please join me at 6pm Central (7pm ET)!

The event is part of the University of Minnesota’s History Book Club and you can register here: cla.umn.edu/history/news...

Cover of Archival Irruptions: Constructing Religion and Criminalizing Obeah in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica by Katharine Gerbner. Features an image of an old handwritten ledger or registry page with rows and columns filled with cursive names and annotations and what appears to be an ink smudge at the bottom. The title is overlaid in large black serif font with the subtitle below in smaller black text and the author's name is at the bottom. A vertical red stripe runs along the left edge of the cover.

The Weekly Read is "Archival Irruptions" by @ktgerbs.bsky.social, which traces how British colonial authorities in mid-eighteenth-century Jamaica came to criminalize Obeah, a religious practice held by enslaved Africans. Read the entire book now, for free!
buff.ly/rccy0qL

Book talk on "Constructing Religion and Defining Crime"

Santa Barbara friends! Please join me for a book talk on ARCHIVAL IRRUPTIONS tomorrow at 1pm at UC Santa Barbara, HSSB 1174. The event is free and open to the public. Hope to see you there!

lol thank you!

I'm so looking forward to reading this and continuing to learn from @ktgerbs.bsky.social!

thanks so much, Sarah!

Archival Irruptions: Constructing Religion and Criminalizing Obeah in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica

One of my amazing former professors @ktgerbs.bsky.social has a new book out and even though I no longer need a curve (I barely survived—it was HARD and I am BARELY SMART), you can get it for 30% with code E25GRBNR. Enjoy, kids.

www.dukeupress.edu/archival-irr...

Thanks so much Jason!!

Meet David M. Perry, our new contributing columnist focused on history, disabilities and education He moved back to Minnesota because it is a state that believes in serving the public good. But, he writes, Minnesota is not always at its best.

Also, what he writes about the humanities is SO IMPORTANT TO HEAR!

"The true value of a liberal arts education is not learning a collection of facts, but learning how to learn."

Thank you David.

www.startribune.com/david-m-perr...

We are so lucky to have @lollardfish.bsky.social in the History dept at UMN and now we are even luckier to have his incredible voice and perspective as an Op-Ed contributor to the @startribune.com .

Archival Irruptions: Constructing Religion and Criminalizing Obeah in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica In 1760, following the largest slave revolt in the eighteenth-century British Empire, the Afro-Caribbean word Obeah first appeared in British colonial law.

If you're planning to teach it, there's an Open Access version so students can get a free e-copy. My goal was for this book to be both teachable AND accessible.

Also: I'm happy to zoom in & answer questions from students if you assign it - just message me!

read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/3...

At just 145 pages, Archival Irruptions is intended to be a short, teachable book and I designed it with Historical/Archival Methods and Religious Studies courses in mind. My hope is that it can help students work ethically, creatively, and rigorously with colonial archives to tell new histories.

The result is a book about historical methods, ethics, and storytelling. Each chapter focuses on a different type of archival source and reads them for “irruptions” – ruptures in the colonial narrative that allow us to tell a new history that has otherwise been silenced.

Archival Irruptions tells a new history of Obeah, an Afro-Caribbean religion that was criminalized in 1760 after the largest slave revolt in the 18th century British Empire. Using previously unexamined German Moravian sources, I examine the meaning of Obeah BEFORE it became a crime.

Archival Irruptions: Constructing Religion and Criminalizing Obeah in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica

I am THRILLED to announce that ARCHIVAL IRRUPTIONS is officially published with @dukepress.bsky.social! For those who would like to order the book, you can get 30% off using coupon code E25GRBNR at this link: www.dukeupress.edu/archival-irr...

Archival Irruptions: Constructing Religion and Criminalizing Obeah in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica

Congratulations and happy Pub Day to @ktgerbs.bsky.social "Archival Irruptions" tells a new history of Obeah, an Afro-Caribbean religion that was criminalized in 1760 after the largest slave revolt in the 18th century British Empire
www.dukeupress.edu/archival-irr...

Thanks so much, Calvin!