"Unfortunately, the types of people for whom such fellowships might represent the greatest departure from their everyday experience—and whose career trajectories might be most dramatically shifted given freedom from their usual constraints—are infrequently their beneficiaries."

#polisky share far and wide: @apsa.bsky.social Statement on the Proposed Elimination of the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate at the National Science Foundation apsanet.org/wp-content/u...

🚀 Christina Koch, NC State graduate and Artemis II astronaut, is headed back to Earth following NASA’s first return to the moon in more than 50 years. On Friday, Christina and her crewmates will splash down in the Pacific Ocean to end the farthest human flight in history. http://ncst.at/9rma50YGP25

The fight we’ve been waiting for, the Battle of Brattle: Waymo vs. Cambridge turkey. @universalhub.com

We are too reliant on the internet, she muses while running out of tasks I can work on without it or any of our campus online systems.

BREAKING: After more than a decade in office, state Rep. Carla Cunningham appeared to lose her Democratic primary on Tuesday by a significant margin. The race in N.C. House District 106 was more contentious this year than anyone might have expected. www.theassemblync.com/news/politic...

North Carolina sent a clear message tonight: You cannot betray our community and keep your seat.

RESULT: Over & over, Democratic lawmaker Shelly Willingham helped the North Carolina GOP override the vetoes of Governor Stein & Cooper. He lost just now to a progressive challenger, 56% to 44%. (And he's likely one of several in this position. Stay tuned.)

RACE CALL: All three North Carolina Democrats (Shelly Willingham, Nasif Majeed, & Carla Cunningham) who voted to overturn Governor Josh Stein's vetoes have LOST their respective Democratic primaries

Thinking about this quote from Persepolis creator Marjane Satrapi again.

UNC-Chapel Hill will “scrap” a policy that would have allowed administrators to secretly record professors, Chancellor Lee Roberts said Friday. The move comes less than three weeks after the controversial rules were enacted. www.theassemblync.com/news/educati...

"The NC AAUP is also in the midst of creating a “prevention and response plan” for faculty who experience online threats."" www.wunc.org/education/20...

I’m grateful for faculty with expertise and track record on prevention & response plans for targeted harassment. I’m most familiar with @rebekahtromble.bsky.social’s projects researchersupport.org & expertvoicestogether.org - I’m sure she can recommend others for everyone who needs help now

Here's an op/ed I co-authored in the @orlandosentinel.com

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:

I am trying to imagine teaching sociology without controversy. It's pretty much all we've got.

Thousands of institutions abandoned programs, ended or rewrote scholarships, closed down clubs and publications, all in pre-emptive compliance. And you know why? Mostly because they wanted to do it if they thought they could blame someone else for it.

Oof.

This employee was fired for explaining the school’s anti DEI policy in roughly the same language used by one of the trustees who adopted said policy.

"We do not accept a system in which personnel decisions affecting people’s careers and livelihoods are made at the direction of online vigilantes and so-called journalists, whose methods would not be taught in our university or allowed at our university publications."

what could go wrong?

we need to talk about that Ring Super Bowl ad

Also very bad.

well, that is bad.

BREAKING: punxsutawney phil has fled the country

Bunch of uni admins are thanking their lucky stars today that their faculty's research was beneath Epstein's notice. Still, I hope JE prompts all universities to reflect on how to fund research w/o compromising values, particularly as federal & state funding shrinks and donors play larger role.

❤️

“Independent” is doing too much work in this first wave. They are arresting journalists and just like everything else they’ve done, they’re testing the limits of our resistance by starting wt vulnerable margins.

“the state-approved version doesn’t include chapters on media and technology, global inequality, race and ethnicity, social stratification, or gender, sex and sexuality.” State. Approved. www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

I missed the end of your question! My advice to folks outside of Minnesota is to start organizing NOW. Attend an ICE Watch training and bring three friends with you. Start volunteering at the orgs that you know will be crucial—like food pantries and PTOs.

Last week in Minnesota, I watched ordinary people risk their lives to protect their neighbors. In the process, they not only won a significant—though not final—victory against authoritarianism, they proved virtually every MAGA social theory wrong. (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Many have now seen the casual brutality of masked federal agents in Minnesota. But we're also seeing casual intimidation and surveillance [via plate #s] of folks giving rides, food or aid. An unknown agent followed a mom I know into a mall parking lot. “Go home to your children, Samantha,” he said.

Fun fact: Your local bookstore is doing more to protect you and your neighbors than Amazon is.

Why Parents and Students Should Care About Academic Freedom ncnewsline.com/2026/01/26/w...

People at taken to Whipple are released into the cold in whatever they were wearing without their phones and IDs. Volunteers meet them at release (or find them left in parks and the woods) get them a burner, warm clothes, food, a ride home, etc (GFM in next post) www.instagram.com/reel/DTzJde9...

You could actually structure your moral code around the idea that law enforcement doesn't exist to execute people. You don't have to create perfect victim narratives, you can just refuse to accept that the state gets to kill people.

DHS has shot 12 people during immigration enforcement operations since September:

Protesters chanting "We're not cold, we're not afraid, Minne[apolis/sota] taught us to be brave" in Boston tonight outside Government Center station.

You have to read this. Firsthand affidavit from one of the women who was there and recording the video. She talks about how Alex Pretti was directing traffic when she arrived. She watched him be killed in front of her. She's afraid to go home, worried she'll be arrested.

I know the idea of “better” policing is as old a demand as civil rights movements in this country, the impulse to call for it at this moment is so terribly cruel that it can only be understood as aligned with the terrorists.

ICE have committed 2/3 of the murders in Minneapolis this year, so if they’re hunting violent attackers, they need look no further than their comrades in arms

He was a nurse.

Protester in Minneapolis just before disappearing in gas: "Fuck you! Stop. Damn! I'm 70 years old and I'm fuckin' angry!"

If you’re feeling like none of this stuff is big enough, know that it’s these kinds of small actions done by hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans that built the resistance you’re seeing. Doing something is always better than nothing. Just do something and trust it will inspire others to do the same

I am trying not to post on these events in this state of mind but: I hope people understand what the observers are doing is brave and dangerous.

The Department of Sociology at UNC-Chapel Hill invites applications for a Teaching Assistant/Associate Professor (teaching track) to begin July 1, 2026. Review of applications will begin February 16, 2026. More details here: unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/312...