This quote in particular, from Fahrenheit 451, has been haunting me for months, especially with all these attacks on higher ed and rise in anti-intellectualism.

I've been in my dystopian literature bag this year and the parallels between these decades-old books and our everyday never ceases to amaze me.

University administrators two years ago: we can’t allow social justice movements to change the university as we know it University administrators today: in order to accommodate the new probabilistic bullshit generator no one likes we must change everything about the university

First day of LASA 2026

Wow. Monumental. apnews.com/article/pope...

Just landed in Paris, and in a fascinating turn of events, it’s somehow hotter here than in the Dominican Republic today?

This is evil collective punishment.

NEW: Immigrants at the Delaney Hall ICE detention center in NJ began a hunger and labor strike this AM. Local advocates and a wife of one of the detained organizers say there are hundreds of participants across multiple units, demanding their freedom. gothamist.com/news/immigra...

Sometimes I sit down to work on this book and suddenly forget every word that I know.

Took some time off to get through the end of the semester, but I’m back with some new words about graduation speeches, artistic process, emotions, and why the difficulty is the point. open.substack.com/pub/pamelaza...

Year two on the tenure track is done ✅

As I’m walking around campus in my regalia, people keep congratulating me for graduating and asking what degree I got. I take this as a sign that my skincare routine is working.

Black people saw the largest decline in financial stability for nearly every category compared to all other racial and ethnic groups, according to a new Federal Reserve survey.

Harvard University's top leaders likely enslaved thousands of people between the founding of the school in 1636 and the defeat of the Confederacy, according to new research.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH

sure gas is headed to $8/gallon but at least cornell got rid of their gender studies classes. or at least i think they did, i haven’t checked and if im being honest i wouldnt really know if they had or hadnt because it doesnt affect me but it makes $8/gallon gas all worth it

2016: Black students complaining that dehumanizing language on campus and in the media is dangerous 2016-2026: cancel culture hysteria, these students are whining about nothing 2026: Black people losing the right to vote on a state-by-state basis ANYONE WANT TO REVISE THEIR ASSESSMENT?

Voting rights organizations across the South Friday pledged to oppose the GOP’s efforts to rig congressional maps in its favor after the Supreme Court gutted a key part of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) last week. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

Our current Acting CDC Director said his entire plan for pandemic preparedness is to fire everyone responsible for it.

"A Haitian Revolution Reading List" from the New York Public Library (includes fiction and non-fiction) www.nypl.org/blog/2026/05...

Does the Supreme Court know this?

New paper, out today. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

In the Trump administration’s latest move to limit trans rights, the Department of Education has launched a Title IX investigation into Smith College, an all-women’s college in western Massachusetts, for admitting trans women. https://cnn.it/4eWiQoQ

This Spring, students in my Pop Culture class completed creative project using class materials to artistically analyze what they consume. The projects turned out SO well. Students analyzed Booktok, award shows, health and wellness influencers, industry plants, college admissions, and much more.

Sharing this screen grab from a friend at NIH (with permission). This is a checklist program officers have to complete before a grant can be awarded. The first question: "Is this grant All Clean/Clear in the NIH Text analysis Tool?" 🧵1/3

Had a wonderful discussion on Afro-Latinidad and racial authenticity narratives at UMass Boston’s Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy today.

FIVE children and their mother were recaptured by ICE less than two days after a court ordered their release All the press being given to court decisions is worthless when the rule of law no longer enforces those court decisions www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

This Wednesday!

I have an urgent appeal to the arms control community: Please correct the record. Please defend the historic agreement you fought for. Please help people understand that the Deal was working: it stopped an Iran bomb and an Iran War. If you don’t; it will much harder to get such an agreement again.

Haitian immigrant Daphy Michel was found dead of heart attack at a Pittsburgh bus stop after being released from ICE custody. Daphy had suffered a mental health breakdown as Trump attacked her Haitian community in Charleroi name & died paydayreport.com/after-death-...

If I had two nickels for every time NASA decided to start sending missions to the moon while the country was experiencing serious social and political tumult, I’d have two nickels. It’s not a lot, but it’s weird that it’s happened twice.

I participated in an amicus brief on this birthright citizenship thing and more that just the actual facts of how bad it would be re economy, legal precedent etc : this would be the most substantial step towards actual ethnic cleansing.

I have been informed by a reliable source that another person has died in ICE custody, this one in Adelanto. If true, it would be the 14th detained death this year, the 43rd under the Trump II, and the 4th at Adelanto. I'll share more info as available at austinkocher.substack.com.

Attending the Power of Narrative Conference at BU this weekend. Excited to learn about how narrative and storytelling can be leveraged during these dark times.

Gosh, perhaps there are fewer campus protests because schools, as The Atlantic urged them to do, aggressively went after protestors. Columbia suspended, expelled, and retroactively revoked degrees in proceedings that were so arbitrary and capricious they were overturned by a NY state judge.

Odio la IA generativa. La odio. De verdad. Hace ruido, molesta, plagia, contamina, gasta recursos y los resultados no merecen la pena. Y está por todos lados. Nos la intentan meter hasta en las instrucciones del champú. Me supera este tema, pero es que estoy segura de que explotará.

I know there's a lot going on But what the US is doing to Cuba is unconscionable

Fork found in kitchen, sky found to be blue, and so on.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers vote to rename César Chavez Day state holiday to Farmworkers Day after sexual abuse allegations.

It was 86 degrees where I woke up this morning and it’s 34 degrees in Boston. One return flight, please.

We spoke to Black women who started the Target boycott & who sustained it for a yr+. They'll likely never go back. Teacher Laverne Mickens put it like this: “[Black women] will say if & when it’s over. And I can tell you right now: That will be the 15th of never ever.” 19thnews.org/2026/03/targ...

Not a baseball fan, but being in DR for Venezuela vs. DR today was cinema.

Super interesting being outside the US right now and watching/hearing people try to make sense of what is going on.

shame is back on the menu boys

I hadn't cried about how much I love Minneapolis in a few days, so this was a good one to read: "Minnesotans will continue to keep Minnesotans safe until we rid the state of the federal occupation, just like lake ice is weakened by springtime sunshine and subsumed by the water below."

Yesterday, those who teach Intro to Sociology at Florida colleges (as opposed to universities) received a ready-made curriculum from the state and were ordered to teach it. Yes, you read that correctly. The *state* is enforcing a curriculum on college profs, complete w/ the following restrictions:

Not McSteamy 😭 🕊️

Let’s normalize this please