I love reading course evals. I’m both super friendly and unapproachable. My lectures are too high level and also too basic. I have too many slides but also not enough.

Jaffary Allen, with necessary urgency: The false dichotomy of red state/blue state, public/private, flagship/Ivy has become not only debilitating but dangerous. The assault on the academy does not recognize those distinctions. Neither should our resistance.

French man, 86, issues historic apology for family’s role in transatlantic slavery

#OtD 13 May 1985 Philadelphia police attacked the home of Black liberation and environmental group MOVE, then dropped a bomb on it, killing 5 adults and 6 children, destroying 61 homes in the predominantly Black neighbourhood, and making 250 people homeless.

(I don’t keep track of grades in our LMS anyway so...)

"A united front of dozens of individuals, institutions and legal nonprofits resulted in a significant, inspiring victory for free speech and the pursuit of science. An important lesson from this victory was that collective action in the face of adversity is a strategy for successful resistance."

And maybe don’t use Canvas or LLMs anymore… Thanks for your work and visiting us at Swat @mattseybold.bsky.social theamericanvandal.substack.com/p/against-te...

“I live in constant fear that I will be subjected to further baseless detentions just for going about my daily life." On May 2, Leonardo Garcia Venegas, a Florida-born US citizen, was detained by ICE in Alabama for the third time (!) in the span of a year. And he's suing the federal government.

Solidarity with workers at the University of Chicago Press, who have formed the first union at one of the oldest and most distinguished academic publishers in the U.S.

AI data centers are putting strain on electric grids— forcing your bills to skyrocket. The average electricity bill this summer is projected to rise by nearly 9% to $778. The NYT says to help keep your utility bill low, people should "use fans" to cool down. Can't make this up.

Tfw you’re gone off the mimosas and El*zabeth W*rren suddenly walks into the spot 😭

False stories of ‘porn in schools’ are decoys for book bans We have found that, overwhelmingly, books wrongly identified as porn represent gay and transgender characters and themes thehill.com/opinion/educ...

An abolitionist tension

Today is the last day to double the impact of your donation to the @prisonbookprogram.bsky.social Order off our wish list and a benefactor will donate the $ amount to the program!

Lesley University faculty launch two-day strike The move came after a marathon bargaining session between unionized faculty and administrators failed to produce an agreement.

May Day is only four days away. Join us on Friday on campuses and in the streets, celebrating our power as workers and demanding: freedom to teach, freedom to learn, freedom to research. Find an event near you at www.labor4highered.org. #HandsOffHigherEd #MayDayHigherEd #HigherEdOverBillionaires

Imani Perry joins the podcast to discuss the place of gender, politics, and cultural life in the work of Black Studies. Here or on your preferred stream: go.umd.edu/ImaniPerry

The United States now has the most government restrictions on academic freedom of any high-income country. www.chemistryworld.com/news/academi... Raw data from @vdeminstitute.bsky.social —> academic-freedom-index.net/research/Aca...

Access to books is highly restricted for people who are incarcerated. The Prison Book Program does incredible work getting books to them. Thanks to a matching donation, your gift will go twice as far this week.

NEW today in the New York Times: In the face of unprecedented authoritarian attacks, the AAUP is building a powerful and militant resistance movement in defense of American higher education, the freedom to learn, and our democracy. Join Us!

Happy Birthday to Ella Fitzgerald! WKCR is doing a 24h birthday broadcast.

Earlier this week, the ALA released their 2025 Most Challenged Books Report. Thought top books are the headline, this is the data point that stands out to me, "92 percent of all book challenges were initiated by pressure groups, government officials and decision makers" not parents or teachers.

In case you missed my virtual talk yesterday, take a listen! Thank you, @kawulf.bsky.social for offering me the chance to lecture on Black Loyalists and Black Loyalism! The Revolution is News: Adam McNeil on Black Loyalism youtu.be/-nIt8JbUBhc?...

Sabotage and the Black Girl Commons —My latest essay is live and open. There’s a small glitch with one misattributed citation, which I’ll get them to fix. Shout out to Sarah Haley, whose work is a primary inspiration. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

And for those who'd rather listen than watch (that would be me!) head here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t... 🗃️

the thing no one tells you about writing a book over many years is you will eventually forget that all that you learned is not in fact in everyone else’s head just because it’s in yours now, hence: you are writing a book

Read more about the broad coalition of organizations, publishers, authors, booksellers, and librarians who signed a joint statement opposing HR 7661, the national book ban proposed by Republicans in the House

Hampshire College is closing, and hundreds of staff & faculty are facing sudden job loss without severance. Donate to the community-led Emergency Relief Fund to provide direct financial assistance for laid off workers' immediate needs, including housing, food, and other essentials ⬇️

Two efforts to help Hampshire workers facing job loss: General emergency relief fund: www.helphampshireworkers.com Fundraiser for staff of Hampshire's Early Learning Center, which will also close: www.gofundme.com/f/elc-staff-...

7 planets in Aries will definitely do that

always go to indies but especially if you like getting good recommendations, go to indies, no chain is ever good at a curated backlist of stuff that people working there love

“We’re mired in this conversation about wokeism, which I don’t think is particularly useful to any of us when our schools are closing, our students have no clear pathways, they’re in debt, our teachers are living paycheck to paycheck and our workers don’t have any sense of stability.”

On Cerina Fairfax open.substack.com/pub/kaitlyng...

Why are Harvard’s slavery researchers quitting or being fired?

OAH-goers: I am giving a paper on "radical self-reliance" tomorrow morning and then chairing what will be a great panel on finance culture. Hope to see you there!

(I have so much to say about this but it’s like 2 books down the line…) Justice Sotomayor apologizes for “inappropriate” remarks about Justice Kavanaugh

I’ve absolutely made this mistake before.

Before you ask, "Where is..." Careful. You might summon them.

A 50 page introduction? Now that’s my kinda carrying on

Hampshire closes, and now this. Onward into post-literacy. A $10K college built from scratch for the AI era www.axios.com/2026/04/14/k...

The Hidden Labor of Ethiopian Runners Long-time friend of the pod @hborenstein.bsky.social joins to discuss the social and political economic dynamics that shape Ethiopian running and practicing the anthropology of sport. open.spotify.com/episode/0gkT...

University of Texas Professors Decry Rushed Merging of Ethnic & Gender Studies

Texas Tech University to Close All Gender and Sexuality Programs

Harry Haywood and the radical vision of Black communism

The other thing is that in a gig economy there is no degree that promises a good career anymore, not because you should have studied computer science or social media management instead of history or Russian literature, but because there are no careers

The university administration has begun an ideological crackdown in the vein of "divisive concepts" laws at the unit with the weakest governance and academic freedom protections—the Lab School. Read our full statement here: www.uchicagoaaup.org/statements/l...

The backlash against Morrison, Baldwin, and now Octavia Butler occurring on the other side of the internet seems to be a direct result of a generation of people who only became acquainted with these writers through snippets and sound bites rather than deep study

“We want to destroy the humanities as a field, we only want people working vocations, we don’t want you thinking, speaking, writing for yourself.” Is, once again, a Saturday morning cartoon villain’s plot.