The NSF is under attack from all angles, and Trump’s firing of the entire NSB is another huge blow to American science. Sign your support for the NSB and email your Members of Congress at the link in our bio, or go here: Sign 👉 zurl.co/tjU4b Email 👉 zurl.co/CDsik #NSB #Science #NSF #Trump

Wealth in America is more concentrated than any other time in history, but if you listen to the wealthiest Americans, they are the victims

This is the way. We didn't stop teaching basic math once calculators were invented. Critical thinking and writing are foundational skills students need to develop (& strengthen) without AI.

I'm super proud of this project. It's designed to help, especially, humanities scholars building datasets. It's a style guide, with tips and guidance for all the many little decisions one makes when making data. Em Nordling did an amazing job writing it. Funded by the NEH until twas terminated!

NEW: Among the more than 50,000 words in the DNC’s 192-page autopsy of why it lost the 2024 presidential election, here are a few that do not appear even once: Gaza, Israel, Palestine, Jewish, Muslim, foreign policy, protest, genocide. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation last week designed to deter states and municipalities from instituting or continuing cashless bail programs.

Always worth remembering that Insider Higher Ed is owned by Times Higher Education, a one-time industry publication which has been remade as a data-analytic consultancy AND which is itself owned by Inflexion Private Equity.

Bleaching! The metaphor fits.

NEW — Alabama native, son of a civil rights movement pastor, and veteran journalist @solcrenshawjr.bsky.social attended the marches in Selma and Montgomery on Saturday to see up close the resurrected fight for Black rights. Read his moving and illuminating report:

Looking forward to the next one.

"The universe is stranger and more queer and more wonderful and more full of possibility than whatever limitations you might be experiencing right now." I'm only a few chapters in and there's so much I appreciate already.

Doing this on the heels of Mother’s Day which has become a signature day for bailing out Black mothers is … a choice.

Good thread, and especially relevant to the question of why US scholars aren't rapidly exiting.

"a lot of the people who are put in these “diverse” positions are not meant to expand imagination. They are meant to rein in our imagination, and they're meant to set the boundaries of what we are allowed to think about and do." Whew.

It really is amazing how little the corporate media conversation about What's Going On At Colleges These Days actually reflects, you know, what's going on at colleges these days. Read the whole thread, Larry's on a roll.

"And we should always remember that economic growth is supposed to be the foundation of a better life. A nation that has high GDP per capita but whose citizens live worse than their counterparts in other countries is not a success story." paulkrugman.substack.com/p/what-happe...

A clear breakdown of the messages embedded in the new Moms(.)gov website:

We had such a fascinating discussion about migration and citizenship but my column word limit is a cruel mistress. Here's some of our discussion but strong recommend to check out her book! bookshop.org/p/books/migr...

I’ve had the pleasure of reading Matthew Mitchell’s new book, Governing Gender. As trans kids endure hostile politics over their healthcare, this book disrupts cisnormative ideas of gender governance and explores the diversities of trans lives. See here: bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/governing-ge...

Thinking about my own research too- finding that residents in previously redlined areas face higher housing costs relative to income, and are more likely to live in neighborhoods that are racially and economically segregated. The persistence of disadvantage should be foregrounded in policy agendas.

All of these things--casualization of academic labor, censorship, the insistence that academic research of any kind can be done by AI--are part of a longer project of devaluing academic work, especially in the humanities. You only work this hard to DEvalue something if it's valuable--and a threat.

"This will transform historical research!" Cool but it's already being transformed out of existence by the same forces pushing these transformative technologies. Forgive us if we're skeptical of a moment that's telling us "This will help you do your work--which we despise--faster and better."

Every time I see someone talk about Claude I think about how they switched from female to male names as soon as they wanted the robots to seem like experts vs personal assistants.

Today is a good day to pitch your local outlet something about the canvas hack. Put TIMELY in the subject line. Describe yourself as an educator in a few lines (two sentence!). Then make an argument.

Don’t run universities like a business run it as a public good

"I am forever resisting the false binary that says we are either all-in or absent, either useful or useless... There is a difference between abandoning the world and finding a way to remain part of it."

The hackers say we can have a grading extension.

Kind of surprised that this hasn't been bigger news. It's finals week for a whole lot of universities, and yet, Canvas (a learning/grading platform used by ~9,000 schools globally) is currently inaccessible because of a pay-or-have-your-data-leaked hack. www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-in...

For the last several years, I've asked folks to share with me the pushback they've received before, during, and after Pride when it comes to events, programs, and displays in libraries. Here's this year's form. Please share far and wide and use it. All anonymous: tinyurl.com/Pride-Librar...

“Americans have to reacquaint themselves… with the idea that we, the people, make constitutional meaning. To the extent that the Supreme Court claims broad authority to say what our Constitution means, it is in large part because we have given this authority to them through our indifference.”

Five publishing houses and author Scott Turow are suing Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg for copyright infringement.

In 1974, "Congress passed new campaign finance restrictions that would have largely eliminated the ability of wealthy people to buy elections." 1976: The Supreme Court "ruled that wealthy Americans could spend unlimited amounts of money to independently support candidates and causes they favored."

In the 2024 election, "Independent expenditures by wealthy outsiders for the first time in history exceeded what the candidates’ own campaign committees spent."

Republican primary voters in Indiana threw out at least six of the eight state senators who voted against Trump's gerrymandering push last year, while a seventh is leading by all of three *votes.*

I'm thrilled to share that my first book is now out!!! nyupress.org/978147982339... Many thanks to ‪@ilenekalish.bsky.social‬ & the whole team at ‪@nyupress.bsky.social‬ for helping me bring this into the world!

Comes out August 4th via @ucpress.bsky.social and can be pre-ordered on the UCP site with discount code UCPSAVE30 to save 30%. If you teach methods and/or are thinking about doing a PhD (but are intimidated by statistical analysis), this book is for you! 😊 www.ucpress.edu/books/truth-...

When people talk about self-censorship, they often focus on campus events or classroom discussions. But self-censorship of research is different and more impt. Big difference btw "I don't want to offend others" to "I don't want to speak truth to power" www.chronicle.com/article/near...

Hard times bring lots of clarity. Take the clarity and build from there, with love.

"Heartland Institute Podcast Questions Whether All Americans ‘Should Have the Right to Vote’" by Rei Takver for @desmog.com: www.desmog.com/2026/05/05/h...

Alarmed that my first reaction was "oh right that DID happen" ...which I suppose only emphasizes how critical is it to have good journalism. Congrats and thank you for your work.

As of May 4: SCOTUS issued a pause on the federal court ruling trying to end abortion pills by mail. The stay lasts for a week. Here's what you need to know 👇 jessica.substack.com/p/breaking-s...

george orwell's "politics and the english language" just becomes more prescient: "They will construct your sentences for you – even think your thoughts for you, to a certain extent – and at need they will perform the important service of partially concealing your meaning even from yourself."

Interesting to read pre-AI thoughts on academic writing after seeing this. From Germano's On Revision, which I'm revisiting while working on an R&R: "what should writing humanely sound like? ...It isn't easy to be natural on the page, much less to be natural, scholarly, methodical, and persuasive."

Look what's here! Just in time to order for your fall classes! It's the affordable paperback version of *Plantation Goods* from @uchicagopress.bsky.social

May 30-June 12! Honestly ideal timing for academics who meant to get way more writing done during the school year than they actually did. Definitely not referring to you or me though. 1000wordsofsummer.substack.com/p/1000-words...

"While many believe that AI improves writing quality, we show that AI has led to a deterioration of prose in submitted manuscripts and reviews." Ha. But I'm actually surprised, since their writing quality measures include Flesch-Kincaid tests. Shouldn't AI... pubsonline.informs.org/doi/10.1287/...

The "reactionary colorblindess" of the right-wing justices has reached its logical conclusion in finding that it is racist NOT to let Louisiana—and any other state for that matter—discriminate on the basis of race in voting. (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

I don't think it is unreasonable for the NYTimes to interview Tucker Carlson - he has a large audience and real influence whether they speak to him or not - but I cannot believe they allowed him to say that race is "not a social construct... a biological reality" and did not challenge it.