Israeli soldiers invaded Birzeit University today in the West Bank, halting classes to fire live ammunition at students, wounding at least 11 people. Why? A student demonstration in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners, and a film screening of the Voice of Hind Rajab.

"Unlike European colonization elsewhere... Zionist colonization of Palestine was essentially incompatible with the continued existence of the 'native population' in the coveted country." --Fayez Sayegh (1965), read more via the Freedom Archives! www.freedomarchives.org/Documents/Fi...

Are you attending #AHA26? Do you have plans for the AHA Business Meeting yet? Want a buddy to come with? Write me and we'll head there together! Sat Jan 10 5:15pm. H4P and HPAD calling for AHA members to challenge recent antidemocratic moves by the outgoing Council. See y'all there!

Happy 2026! If you will be in Chicago for #AHA26, our roundtable on Teaching Migration History Under Authoritarianism will be an opportunity at community for faculty of contested topics in a moment that makes boldness ever more necessary. Gratefully sponsored by HPAD and the Radical History Review!

Thank you so much to Yaşar Tolga Cora for your generous review of Unmentionables! I opened the new AHR and happened across it over the break. academic.oup.com/ahr/article-...

Eileen Boris’s ( @eileenboris.bsky.social ) review of Unmentionables: Textiles, Garment Work, and the Syrian American Working Class ( @stanfordpress.bsky.social )by Stacy D. Fahrenthold ( @sfahrenthold.bsky.social )

On Dec 5, the University of Arkansas abruptly terminated Prof Shirin Saeidi from her director role at the Center for Middle East Studies. The decision followed a political pressure campaign by outside groups targeting Saeidi with a vicious public defamation campaign. mesana.org/advocacy/com...

Mail call! Urgent new reading by UC Davis colleague Brian Soucek. THE OPINIONATED UNIVERSITY observes that universities do have values, that "neutrality" is a politics, silence is loud, and the best way to stand by our values is to be clear about what they are. press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

Pls sign/share! UNC is preparing to cave to political pressure from the Heritage Foundation by publishing all syllabi online. This puts a target on instructors' backs. It clears a path for abuse and endangers student safety. actionnetwork.org/petitions/pr...

Required reading for all of us, out today! Sherene Seikaly's "Palestine is a Paradigm" www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Please sign this letter of support for Dr. San Hea Kil, who was terminated from San Jose State University despite their exoneration by a faculty investigation, in blatant violation of shared governance and infringement of Dr. Kil's 1A rights. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Congratulations again, @sfahrenthold.bsky.social! This is so well deserved.

***Nikki Keddie Book Award Winner*** Congratulations to IEHS Executive Board member @sfahrenthold.bsky.social for receiving the Nikki Beddie Book Award from the Middle East Studies Association for her Unmentionables. Textiles, Garment Work, and the Syrian American Working Class!

Persistently annoyed by liberal refusal to see the longstanding system of immigration, the one that effectively places undocumented workers outside of the protections of labor law and subjects them to racial terror, as a strategy of labor discipline that affects all workers.

In Oakland, this 20-year-old man was paying taxes and a mortgage while his asylum case proceeded. Then ICE whisked him to a detention center in another state.

So at SJSU, one professor assaulted a student and faced a temporary suspension, and Dr. Sang Hea Kil attends campus protests and gets fired? There is no justification for this. SJSU is a unionized public university. These are battles we really can't concede. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

As so many academics maintain silence and, worse, collaborate, this brave refusal of a prestigous prize from Prof Liron Mor inspires. Bravo, Prof. Mor, you are a true comrade. utotherescue.blogspot.com/2025/11/mla-...

Great piece on the rhetoric of "fiduciary responsibility" as now deployed by @historians.org. Everything has a history, including this use of "fiduciary responsibility" by scholarly orgs to expressly sever us from the goods of our own commons. #AHA26 theamericanvandal.substack.com/p/what-the-m...

Over Thanksgiving the @historians.org violated its own bylaws to halt discussion of a member-supported revote on the Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza at #AHA2026 Hear from Palestinian historians & AHA members about what this anti-democratic move means. www.jadaliyya.com/Details/4704...

“Parents are sending their kids to schools with the assumption that the school won’t make intentional choices to harm them […] When you call in the police, you’re ensuring violence against young people.”

You might not be in Middle East Studies. But whether you picked this fight or not, if you work at a university, this fight is picking you. You are responsible for standing with colleagues. You are responsible for failing to stand up too. We're all in it now. www.newarab.com/news/israel-...

Sharing this again, please give what you can to Dr. Badar Khan Suri's defense fund. He needs every bit of support to contest Trump's efforts to deport him on ideological grounds. I'm giving $25 today. Can you quote-post and match me? Invite your ppl to do the same! www.gofundme.com/f/stand-with...

Comprehensive deep dive into how Zionist reactionaries attacked the University of California. UC failed to anticipate an organized political attack and gave into pressure by violating the rights of all UC students, faculty, staff. Required reading for UC workers! jewishcurrents.org/portrait-of-...

I'm shocked the govt is still trying to deport Georgetown scholar Dr. Suri. ICE abducted him and spirited him to multiple facilities, always in chains. He wasn't allowed to speak with a lawyer for one week! A judge finally ordered him let go after two months. Dr. Suri studies PEACE. Please help.

URGENT FUNDRAISER: please give to Dr. Badar Khan Suri's defense fund today, and share everywhere that folks might give. gofund.me/f13e5c9b8

As classrooms confront challenging questions about global events, @history-ucdavis.bsky.social scholars are providing resources that foster critical thinking, nuance, and meaningful discussion. Read more at the @ucdavis.bsky.social Letters and Science Magazine:

Congratulations to Professor Stacy Fahrenthold, the 2025 winner of The Nikki Keddie Book Award! Given by the Middle East Studies Association of North America, the award recognizes outstanding scholarly work in the area of religion, revolution, and/or society in the Middle East.

Congratulations to @sfahrenthold.bsky.social's whose book Unmentionables: Textiles, Garment Work, and the Syrian American Working Class won @mesa1966.bsky.social's Nikki Keddie Book Award @stanfordpress.bsky.social

What is the point of a faculty disciplinary process when the findings of that process are ignored by administration? At least, so far as free expression, free association, and extramural speech are concerned?

A new review of UNMENTIONABLES appears in the recent issue of al-Modon magazine! With thanks for Otmane Amagour for this read, and discussion of the necessity of challenging immigration stereotypes. www.almodon.com/culture/2025...

$265,000,000 is a lot of facilities money for a UC campus that doesn't seem to have funds to build more classrooms or hire janitors.

Happening tomorrow! More details on GWU's calendar here: calendar.gwu.edu/event/unment...

I'm in DC and enjoying a bagel at a deserted cafe this Sunday morning, and observing troop movements out the window. Amid the shutdown and epstein news, I totally forgot that the National Guard continues to be deployed here. What a country.

"This decision orders a stop to Trump’s illegal weaponization of civil rights laws and federal funding to restrict free speech on @uofcalifornia.bsky.social campuses." Faculty submitted heaps of evidence of Trump's threats chilling our speech rights. We are the UC! www.aaup.org/news/win-aau...

WE WON. I am *begging* you to take note of who did this. *Not* UCLA admin—they’re still scuttling around behind closed doors, attempting to appease—but FACULTY AND STAFF, led by AAUP.

BREAKING: In AAUP et al v. Trump (wall-to-wall union lawsuit challenging the administration’s unlawful use of TItle VI to reshape the University of California system), the faculty and staff of the UC system WON!!! We were granted our preliminary injunction! @aaup.org

Currently doing some marking. A reminder to everyone involved in archives and collections: digitisation is not preservation. If I digitise a box of records and put the files on a USB stick I haven't preserved a thing. It's all about what you do with the files post-digitisation. #archives #digipres

We now have leaders of undergraduate clubs and organizations putting themselves on the line while the regents and administration themselves still refuse to go to court for anything besides protecting their ability to negotiate the terms of our surrender in secret.

Elect a clown dictator wannabe, expect authoritarian circus. Taking over our institutions of higher learning is a fundamental assault on democracy, removes foundational pillars, collapses freedom. Either democracy comes off canvas & rallies back or we watch it perish before our eyes. My heart aches.

New report from @mesa1966.bsky.social and @aaup.org : Antisemitism lawsuits and investigations have skyrocketed over the past two years, largely driven by outside groups, and almost all focusing on criticism of Israel.

UC faculty have “changed what they teach (or) changed what they research bc they are afraid it is too left and they don’t want to trigger more funding cuts,” Judge Lin said. It's “a classic, predictable First Amendment injury, exactly what the administration intends.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/u...

Solidarity forever! ‘UC workers are going to end up homeless’: 86,000 University of California employees plan massive strike www.sfchronicle.com/health/artic...

Today is the opening day for AAUP v. Trump, in which a historic coalition of unions is suing the Trump administration for using funding threats to suppress free speech. I just listened to the judge's opening remarks and they were SCATHING to the defendants. www.courtlistener.com/docket/71360...

Come out on 11/6 in SF to listen to the preliminary injunction hearing in AAUP v Trump! Show the federal courts that we stand up for academic freedom and will not capitulate! WE are the UC!

“From attacks on academic freedom to the defunding of life-saving scientific research to arresting peaceful student protesters, Trump’s higher ed policies have been catastrophic for our democracy. We’re excited to build a coalition of workers & students fighting back." – AAUP president Todd Wolfson

MESA and the AAUP have released a critical report exposing the weaponization of civil rights law to suppress campus speech concerning Palestine. Read full report here: mesana.org/advocacy/tas...

I am very concerned about anticipatory compliance at UC. Provost Katherine Newman has opted to defund a critical program called the UC Presidents Postdoctoral Fellowship (PPFP). This incredibly selective postdoc has provided a route to UC faculty for many of my most valued colleagues. +

Friends— here it is. Updated & expanded thanks to the space afforded to me in the @therumpus.net & the guidance of the brilliant @roxanegay.bsky.social’s edits. The win centers Muslims humanity — but what does that mean in a country that rejects that? therumpus.net/2025/11/05/z...

The UC President axed a signature part of our Presidents Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (PPFP). UCOP cites the budget, but PPFP is a key program the Trump admin is threatening us over. UCOP is capitulating to Trump's threats, piecemeal. Ominous, worrying. www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...