This week i celebrated my birthday. 48 and feelin’ great. 😎 And Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! 🎄

Bari Weiss and these academics claim that universities/TV networks are biased because they’re unbiased & don’t seek to indoctrinate people into conservatism & then use these false claims of bias to promote their own conservative biases.

Similar logic for research on topics now viewed unfavorably by the regime.

You're not going to undertake a time-consuming investigative work if you know your editor will be afraid to run it or their publisher will put the kibosh on it.

Now seems like a swell time to point out that Frontline just released this excellent 11-minute mini-documentary about what happened inside CECOT.

To echo: do not cite anything you have not at least skimmed and can verify it really exists and says what you say it says (or is about what you say it is about). Even if you collect citations from others' work (a legit practice), CHECK THEM.

When I'm feeling particularly hopeless about the future of professoring as a profession, I try to remind myself: That's what they want. They want us to not want to be professors anymore.

Once again Henry Cuellar had taken an utterly indefensible vote. Even though this bill will likely not pass the Senate, it’s still shameful any Democrat voted for this.

Basically yes.

Very much reads like they are significantly reducing the influence of peer review on scientific funding, which under the current regime opens the way for more politicized funding instead.

AI radically lowers the cost of polluting our information ecosystem. Our ecosystem was already stressed & under attack across many fronts. This unleashes new floods of slop. Slop swamps high-quality info, forcing us each to pay more for costly discernment or accept losing our way in the flood.

“This is a kind of de-professionalizing of what we do in classrooms, where we’re narrowing the horizon of what’s possible…And I think once we give that up, that’s like giving up the whole game. That’s the whole purpose of why universities exist.”

“At Texas A&M, internal emails show staff are using AI software to search syllabi and course descriptions for words that could raise concerns under new system policies restricting how faculty teach about race and gender.” www.texastribune.org/2025/12/15/t...

One thing Americans have to break themselves out of is assuming certain policies are impossible, because all this is a policy choice and a sizable chunk of the world isn’t worried about their schools be shot up.

America is where it is statistically inevitable that many people will endure multiple gun massacres

Every classroom I’ve ever taught in, the door is immediately to the right or left of the podium/computer in the front of the classroom. I am most visible and open to whomever enters the room. I think about this every semester. I think about this whenever there is a school shooting. Nowhere to hide.

My heart goes out to everyone in Providence or with loved ones there. 💔

This -- a model bill to effectively decimate non-STEM research by requiring 3-3 teaching loads outside of "STEM or Americanism and western civilization" -- seems...extremely bad but also quite plausible.

If you are an author who is writing about reproductive justice, well I have good news. The University of Iowa is launching a special book series focused on RJ and we are looking for contributors. Details on the website and a kick off event tomorrow! lrj.sites.uiowa.edu

New from me at @motherjones.com: Senate Republicans blocked the Democratic plan to extend ACA tax credits while trying to pass (and failing too) health saving accounts plans, which @mirandayaver.bsky.social told me, are not useful for poor and middle-class folks. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

“I considered transferring out of U.T., because if my professors are unable to teach me, and I’m not able to have candid conversations to get a proper education, what am I here for?” www.nytimes.com/2025/12/10/u...

Leaders of a Catholic church in Massachusetts kept a Nativity display with an anti-ICE message in place on Monday, defying an order from the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston to remove it. The display shows Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus missing, replaced by a sign reading “ICE WAS HERE.” trib.al/adPW46y

In the newest installment of Working Better, I explore faculty motivation in what could be considered one of the most uniquely demotivating moments in the recent history of higher ed. www.chronicle.com/article/facu...

fellas, is it good when the ruling party requires public institutions to recruit for ideological youth cadres

Anyone have a loved one in continuing care facility? The Cantax Continuing Care network recently eliminated all in room phone service and is forcing families to pay to replace it

I wish higher ed in the US had a media outlet willing to stick up for it, but even the Chronicle seems to hate everyone who works in universities except the upper admin/trustees.

If you've ever been to a naturalization ceremony, you know they're filled with people whose palpable love of this country is twenty times stronger than the pinched "patriotism" of any native-born MAGA chud. Just unspeakable assholery.

Around 250 people protested on OU's campus Friday in support of the graduate instructor who was suspended after giving Samantha Fulnecky a failing grade on her Bible-based essay.

The “garbage” destroying America isn’t in Minnesota’s Somalian community. It’s in the Oval Office. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

Sending all my love to NOLA.

This Cuellar pardon stinks. Literally. 💩

I have a six year old. I cannot even imagine the horror.

Last week, ICE arrested and separated a father and son after a routine check-in. Six-year-old Yuanxin had just enrolled in the first grade at an elementary school in Astoria. Now he's in custody, alone. ICE won't say where. This cruelty serves no one. It must end.

“During the holiday season, mothers are spending the equivalent of an extra work week on housework and shopping compared to fathers.” Read Kate Prickett and Jennifer Augustine on a maternal Third Shift: journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10....

The Boston Globe identified the companies in Massachusetts that employ the most SNAP recipients. A key stat: "In Massachusetts, 74% of working-age recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are employed, half of them full-time." Full article: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/28/m...

Longhorn defense to the rescue. Whew.

Longhorns make a big mistake and now the Aggies are back in it. 🙈

If universities would prioritize smaller classes and fewer bells and whistles like third-party technology contracts, a significantly bigger number of PhDs would find a position in higher education.

AI generated writing is boring. So sad that many of my students think it’s better than their own voice.

In my “grading essays on a Friday night” era.

On our post-feast walk, my 6 year old says (in response to me telling him not to walk on other people’s lawns): “mama why not? God made the grass.” Tough to argue with that logic, kid. His indigenous Peruvian ancestors would be proud.

it's several years old but the Adele SNL Thanksgiving sketch is still perfect

Love the ending of @tressiemcphd.bsky.social column in NYT this week: “if you want to control your own destiny, it’s better to be a wicked witch than a princess” 🔥

📢📢The AAUP chapter at the University of Houston has sent the following letter to admin: “We are deeply concerned that the directives outlined in Chancellor Khator's email present significant risks to academic freedom, to the integrity of our teaching mission + to the University’s legal obligations.”

If ICE has nothing to hide from its raid in San Antonio, why did they smash security cameras? If authorities are so sure they arrested 51 members of Tren de Aragua, why can’t they offer proof? www.kens5.com/article/news...

A two-year LABOR HISTORY postdoc @brownhist.bsky.social and @watsonschoolbrown.bsky.social Possible foci: migration/displacement/ human trafficking; automation/technology/processes of global integration; or gender/sexuality/politics of reproductive labor Please apply!

the policy of family separations continues no longer at the border, but in the heart of America and before our very eyes

“Just following orders”

My colleague, Dr. Vahid Abedini, was illegally detained by ICE on Saturday. He is currently being held without a court date in sight, despite being in the country legally. Please spread the word! We must ensure his due process rights are upheld. www.oudaily.com/news/ou-prof...