NEW: In cases brought by the NEA and AFT, there are now final court orders: Last year's anti-DEI "Dear Colleague" letter is vacated and unenforceable. DOJ/DOE gave up the fight, dismissing the appeal and case in the Fourth Circuit and subsequently dismissing the the second case with a stipulation.

I don't think it is only our job to teach students how to read long novels; it may also be our jobs to teach them how to live without an online surveillance state. To learn without intrusive apps. To swap notes. To write in a book's margins. To exist in their communities in slow, clunky, human ways.

In its ongoing war against higher ed—and law firms—the battles MAGA has won are those where the other side surrendered in advance. (The Columbia/UT Austin/Paul Weiss "strategy," vs the Harvard/UCLA/Perkins Coie/etc strategy.) Resistance is not just braver but also smarter and more effective.

A Chase Center affiliate assaulted a journalist trying to interview Gordon Gee. See @dispatch.com coverage of the incident, which includes our statement. www.dispatch.com/story/news/e...

Likely-historic photo by NBC News of all the Epstein victims asked to raise their hands if they've not yet been asked to meet with the DOJ as Bondi testifies in foreground

That made me happyyyyy

New statement from @osuaaup.bsky.social on DHS violence as a threat to university values: “These are impossible conditions in which to work, to learn, to teach, to exercise academic freedom. Our community deserves better.”

I’m ok. I’m a survivor so this small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work. I don’t let bullies win. Grateful to my incredible constituents who rallied behind me. Minnesota strong.

It’s time for labor to stand up around the country against ICE’s racism and violence - just as unions and working people are doing in Minnesota. www.aaup.org/news/aaup-pr...

Standing with 65 of my UMN Law colleagues (and counting) to condemn ICE’s lawless conduct towards Minnesotans: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

The majority of organizing happening in Minnesota isn’t just peaceful, it’s INVISIBLE. Moms showing up who won’t be interviewed on TV, people whose ICE patrols don’t turn into viral video. The grocery runs, the donations, the people filming bc they happen to be there. Please remember this.

AAUP President Todd Wolfson on the killing of Alex Pretti: "This moment demands a unified, bold, and powerful response from the labor movement. We are uniting across sectors to organize, mobilize, and wield our full collective power to confront ICE." Full statement:

What a relief that they’re calling for a general de-escalation of tensions, since it’s hard to tell who’s at fault, the people murdering people or the people who aren’t doing the murdering.

Over 60 students protested the presence of Customs and Border Protection at the OSU career fair today. CBP, an agency of the Dept of Homeland Security, is closely associated with ICE. Three students were arrested. Photo credit: Kyle Roberston, Columbus Dispatch. Link below.

This week, the Ohio Education Association (OEA), which represents over 100,000 public school employees, joined two local Columbus-area teachers unions in denouncing the recent surge in immigration enforcement by ICE in cities across the country. by Zack Carreon www.wvxu.org/education/20...

More background on this absurd, awful situation via @dailynous.com dailynous.com/2026/01/06/t...

Happy new year! One thing 2025 is making me realize is that it's important to say things and to keep saying them, loudly. Like that the idea that we overdid diversity and equity in education is crap. We still haven't done enough by far.

This might be too spicy for a teaching statement but I needed to get the words out before I could actually say what I wanted to say.

"We are all humanists now." With excellent analysis of edtech, public-private partnerships, honest assessment that this isn't just about one party, surveillance and monetization through LMSs, and plans to gamify them. We're all K-16 too now, as they say.

You know what holds up and is an excellent rewatch? Panic Room.

No woman I know in academia would be surprised by this, but its good to see it documented like this, I guess.

A narrative from a faculty member on the current escalation of ICE activity in Columbus. Please see the list of resources at the end for ways to get involved with orgs doing the work on the ground.

a lot of people are aware that you can factor 2025 = 45² i'm honored to announce the factorization 2026 = (45-i)(45+i)

The AAUP-Ohio State executive board condemns ICE escalation in our communities. We urge our members and all who love democracy to do what they can in this moment. Here’s a statement from the Ohio Immigrant Alliance. ohioimmigrant.org/blog/2025/12...

Teaching people, do you know a service for old-fashioned print course packets? Thinking about how to encourage students to read off-screen. How to do it for the short material you provide in PDF? I usually do a custom e-reader, but it works through an app that deliberately makes printing out hard.

This is one of the best political analyses I've seen in a long time. Great anthropological piece about "Cassandras" (and their pernicious foil, "anti-alarmists"). Also just really good writing.

Look at The Barbara Johnson Collective’s positively gorgeous TOC, folks! ✨

Quick list so you can, you know, resist and purchase them

"Universities have accepted overtures from this industry in a FOMO-driven frenzy w/o consulting their faculty, collecting empirical data on whether generative AI is pedagogically useful, or pausing to inquire about the long-term impact of AI on the students who have been entrusted to their care."

Nothing worse than signing an email "warm regards" and getting a reply with "warmest regards". Oh, now it's ON.

“There is much that is right about what we are doing in higher education—as teachers, researchers, community advocates, and mentors—and we should not lose sight of that when the discourse of the day would seem to put us permanently on the defensive.” ❤️

supreme court to decide whether part of constitution is part of constitution

It starts with knowing the truth. Don’t allow yourselves to be gaslit into believing this is a real question.

I had an interesting set of interactions w AI-generated content that I think is instructive. A very bright student made a claim in an essay that struck me as outlandish, so I searched the question on Google which turned up that phrasing the search a certain way makes the AI summary agree w the claim

I wrote an essay for @bostonreview.bsky.social about what I learned about close reading when I taught at West Virginia University www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...

Honored to receive the 2026 American Physical Society Edward A. Bouchet Award! To see how the DEI ban in Ohio influences our university, please see the OSU announcement of the award (left) vs the actual APS citation for the award (right).

Standing room only on the Green Line in Washington, DC as protestors head to the “No Kings” protest. Person behind me: “The trains weren’t even this packed for the Beyoncé concert” The entire train is full as more people pack on. Follow this thread for updates!

A reminder that our digital panels will be the only good thing on the Lord's internet on Nov 7 & 8!

Very bad: OSU unilaterally cancelled the registration of grad students attending the joint conference of the National Society of Black Physicists and the National Society of Hispanic Physicists. And OSU won't fund recruiting at the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science.

My publisher’s been very patient. I’m not doing everything I said I’d do to promote this book (out in a few weeks) because I’m an organizer in a city under federal attack. My days are full and emotionally exhausting. Any help getting the word out means a lot. It's a book people need right now.

I wrote a little about some of the little details you might have missed in this video and why it hit me so hard as a trans person this morning: www.burnsnotice.com/you-have-to-...

IDK, man. School started 2 weeks ago for us, and once again students remind me that they’re so curious and interested in the world and anxious to ask big questions. We hear that these questions are no longer useful or relevant, but wherever that’s coming from, it’s not what students believe.

week 7, in a city under siege for 32 days and counting, and the students who are able to come to class despite the blitz are showing up like their lives depend on those 50 minutes of togetherness, poetry, and big questions

Anthropic has settled a $1.5B class-action lawsuit brought by authors for copyright infringement. The settlement relates to 500,000 titles. Affected authors are each entitled to $3K in payout. My book's on there. Here's where to check if yours is too. www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com

My latest in my fight against the Washington Post. I’ve filed a grievance against the Post through the WaPo Guild— and have sent a letter to Washington Post challenging my firing. Proud to have @normeisen.bsky.social + @katiephang.bsky.social in my corner. karenattiah.substack.com/p/the-washin...

An enormous legal victory for @aaup.org, MESA, and the Rutgers, NYU, and Harvard chapters of AAUP, in a case that Judge Young describes as "perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court."

Some news.

Our university’s president was forced to resign. Our student publication responded. thebatt.com/opinion/edit...

Yesterday, Apple made the decision to pull The Savant from its release schedule due to politically sensitive topics. Now the show’s star Jessica Chastain speaks out: ‘We’re not aligned on the decision to pause the release.’

can't wait!