Each semester I go in my classroom and I try to figure out what we would use to block the doors, if it would be safe to crawl out the windows, where we could hide if there was a mass shooter in campus. It’s such an indictment of this country how we have normalized these preventable tragedies.

From October 2025 - The Gendered Persistence of Authoritarian Indoctrination - cup.org/3WCwC5v - Nourhan A. Elsayed, @hannohilbig.bsky.social, @riazsascha.bsky.social & @dziblatt.bsky.social #OpenAccess

The Deportation Data Project just posted a 60 min webinar that introduces the recently-released data from ICE for reporters and advocates. We discuss what fields are in the data and answer questions about specific uses like counting arrests by area. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vBA...

New article on Fast Track by Huseyin Emre Ceyhun, “Restive Regions: Sequential Complementarity of Repression and Cooptation in Authoritarian Survival,” www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cuny...

"Disguised Repression: Targeting Opponents with Nonpolitical Crimes to Undermine Dissent" by Jennifer Pan, Xu Xu, and Yiqing Xu. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

🧵 on my paper, ‘System Justification in Authoritarian Regimes’ (recently accepted at @thejop.bsky.social)

Labels can impact politics. My paper @apsrjournal.bsky.social "What Happens When You Can't Check the Box?" shows when Middle Eastern & North African (MENA) Americans are excluded from identity categories, they assert MENA identity when answering relevant political questions. doi.org/10.1017/S000...

Egyptian authorities announced the presidential pardon of prominent activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah after six years in prison, according to his lawyer Khaled Ali and an announcement by state TV.

Introducing our 2025 job market candidates! We’ll share more about each student and their work in the days ahead, but in the meantime, you can meet all of our candidates here: politics.princeton.edu/graduate/job... #PSJMInfo

This Thursday at noon EST I'll be joined by @adamprz.bsky.social, Sue Stokes, Steve Levitsky (stevelevitsky.bsky.social), and @dziblatt.bsky.social on a webinar to talk about the state of American democracy. Please come! Registration here: www.crowdcast.io/c/civicforum.... Please share.

No one wanted to hear this years ago when @tompepinsky.com said it. Maybe now.

Tried to explain this to a senior colleague recently, who suggested I was overreacting - thanks to @abuaardvark.bsky.social for saying it more clearly and eloquently

I really want to believe that American public opinion still matters. It makes me feel better that most Americans don’t support these policies. But other non-democracies demonstrate that once institutions have been politically weaponized, public opinion matters significantly less.

My latest piece in @goodauth.bsky.social about how targeting international students is bad not just for the U.S. economy & innovation, but also 🇺🇸 reputation globally. goodauthority.org/news/targeti...

From Przeworski: "There are currently more than 1 million foreign students in the US, they support 378 thousand jobs, and contribute $43.8 billion to the economy. But these numbers dwindle in importance in comparison to the scientific and cultural impact of US universities around the world."

Our article on legislative cooptation and opposition in the Kuwait National Assembly is finally out at @bjpols.bsky.social! Key findings: bsky.app/profile/dani... Article link: doi.org/10.1017/S000...

The Niehaus Center at Princeton is hiring a Research Specialist. We hope to hire someone to start this summer. Information here: main-princeton.icims.com/jobs/20778/r...

Per usual, @roxanegay.bsky.social saying what I’m thinking

Great turnout at the Hands Off protest in Princeton (despite the weather). It's festive, but there's also palpable anger.

Now online! "During moments of political crises, there may be good reasons to avoid discussing current events & controversial topics in the classroom. Yet, it is precisely during these challenging times that students may want to be entrusted with difficult conversations" #polisky shorturl.at/dOKWu

Check out this webinar next Monday: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi... and call for abstracts for an expense-paid June conference in Cairo: www.arabpsn.org/events/call-... both on the theme of the "politics and war" in MENA, convened by @arabpsn.bsky.social, CEDEJ, and Middle East Studies at AUC.

How do counterrevolutions shape collective memory? In their latest article, @ernugent.bsky.social and Michael T. Hoffman explore disappointment & demobilization in Egypt. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Excited to share my new article in the American Journal of Political Science (@ajpseditor.bsky.social)! "Endogenous Opposition: Identity and Ideology in Kuwaiti Electoral Politics" explores how authoritarian elections generate opposition to incumbent autocrats. Link: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ukrer...

Still buzzing from last night’s Workshop on Arab Political Development talk by @dbgreenwald.bsky.social! Such important work, done so well, about local governance in occupied Palestine. cup.columbia.edu/book/mayors-...

We've got page numbers: "Remembering the Counterrevolution: Disappointment, Denial, and Demobilization" with Michael Hoffman, drawing on evidence from Egypt. doi.org/10.1080/1351...

"The only hope lies in the sheer enormity of the threat; it might awake us out of our slumber before it is too late"

Highlight of the week was Tiffany Simon’s dissertation defense! A thought-provoking investigation of the motivations and effects of happiness policies in authoritarian regimes. Mabrouk to Dr. Tiffany! @grigopop.bsky.social @rorytruex.bsky.social