Pay attention to what is happening in Alabama and throughout the south.

Conservative “civic centers” are being embedded in public universities to normalize a right-wing version of U.S. history & political thought in order to produce the kinds of knowledge that some politicians & ideologues would prefer. “This civics curriculum is really just propaganda.” #AcademicSky

and again, all of this is happening in the name of “equal protection”

We are proud of the Alabamians that showed up to let the ALGOP know that Alabama Democrats will not stand by quietly as they attempt to take us back a century, and that We Dare Defend Our Rights!

Protesters are singing civil rights songs in the Tennessee Senate State and Local Government Committee.

Alabama officials are done pretending. 11 hours. That’s all it took from when SCOTUS gutted the Voting Rights Act until Alabama officials began doing what should have been expected.

Alabama is wasting no time trying to get back into the gerrymandering business.

Talking with friend and redistricting expert @zephsays.bsky.social about what this Supreme Court decision means and how to articulate to people why it's important. My colleagues at @al.com are covering breaking news on it. Gov. Ivey now wants to bring back the lege. www.al.com/news/2026/05...

So many people urge us to vote if we are dissatisfied with our democracy. And yes voting matters. But as today’s Supreme Court ruling tells us, it’s not that simple. Not everyone who should have the right to vote can exercise that right.

The Voting Rights Act is essentially dead and it’s quite possible that we will, like when a similar SCOTUS gutted civil rights at the fall of Reconstruction, see a disappearance of much of the Black congressional representation, especially in the most heavily Black states, which are in the South.

The John Roberts Court has done more to reduce the political power of poor people and Black people while enlarging the voting rights of rich people and corporations than has any court since Roger Taney was Chief Justice in the 1800s. I opposed his nomination in 2005, and I stand by that.

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...

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...

Today, I learned gender-affirming care for trans people is similar to menopause care, and I wish more cis women knew this.

If anyone needs a gift link to read it, this one will work until June 4. authors.elsevier.com/a/1mxkbV6mk%...

On the last day of the legislative session, the Alabama Legislature passed a bill restricting faculty governance, instituting post-tenure review & creating BoT curriculum oversight. If these kinds of self-inflicted wounds haven't hit your state yet, let this be the 500th warning that they will.

HB580 is being fast-tracked and is expected to be voted on TOMORROW. Read our full statement against this bill below, and then please consider calling your rep and telling them to vote NO. alabamaaaup.com/response-to-...

Via @andreadotweb.bsky.social: A protestor at a "No Kings" demonstration in Tuscaloosa, Alabama holds a sign on March 28, 2026. The Tuscaloosa protest drew 700 people. (Andrea Tinker/Alabama Reflector)

On March 23 student staffers at Alice and Nineteen Fifty-Six filed a lawsuit against the University over the abrupt closure of the magazines in December, arguing that their First Amendment rights were violated. Let’s ensure these students still have a platform for free expression on campus.

HB580 came out of nowhere, had a hearing scheduled during spring break when legislators knew faculty would be away, and was moved out of committee with no discussion on Wednesday. That's not okay.

There’s been a lot of chatter about the dangerous SAVE America Act. TL;DR: Republicans still don’t have the votes. Here’s the state of play. 🧵

Update: The faculty senate/tenure bill passed out of committee with no questions from the members. I thought this was a public hearing with comments, but it wasn't.

We have had so much fun these last three days and truly could not do the work we do without our brilliant team of authors. See ya'll next year in Milwaukee! #4C26 @kellyritter51.bsky.social @timothyoleksiak.bsky.social @joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social @jennfishperson.bsky.social @ambuck.bsky.social

New title! We're excited to announce the publication of Visualizing Captions and Subtitles: The Embodiment of Accessible Multimodal Communication, by Janine Butler! Butler visualizes captions & subtitles as instruments of connection that embody how we communicate through multiple modes.

PREORDERS available now - Digital Literacies for Human Connection: 25 Ways to Engage Students in People-Centered Digital Practices. @mettalrose.bsky.social @ambuck.bsky.social, Rich Shivener, and authors of 25 chapters have pour our heart and soul into this book. Check it out at #4C26!

We're excited to launch our latest book, Composing with AI, edited by Nupoor Ranade and Douglas Eyman. This collection provides educators with frameworks & strategies to integrate AI responsibly into composition practices, emphasizing critical literacy. ccdigitalpress.org/composing-wi...

Via Andrea Tinker: Alabama’s two Democratic U.S. representatives want the University of Alabama to reinstate two student magazines suspended earlier this month. https://ow.ly/sOi350XKBro

On Dec. 1, university officials told student journalists at Nineteen Fifty-Six, a magazine celebrating Black student culture, and Alice, a magazine centered on women’s fashion and lifestyle, that their publications would be shuttered immediately.

Over the last year, you could have given into anger and despair. Instead, you’ve organized in the largest numbers this country has ever seen to reclaim the power of the pro-democracy majority. We could not be more thankful for you and everything you’re doing to defy Trump’s agenda.

X (RIP Twitter) is "a Russian nesting doll of bullshit." www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

Really important to stress that the Crown Jewels of the US higher education system were never the Ivies or elite SLACs (other countries have equivalents of these) but the well-funded, large, cheap, and excellently staffed public state university systems bringing high quality education to the masses.

60% of eligible Black voters turned out in Alabama for Obama in 2012, and it hasn't been that high ever since. Here's an earlier story from @rchapoco.bsky.social at @alabamareflector.com with the data and potential reasons. alabamareflector.com/2025/03/18/s...

"Among households with extremely low incomes, Alabamians pay nearly a quarter of their earnings for electricity—the highest percentage in the country." alabamareflector.com/2025/11/04/h...

There are so many terrible things about SNAP funding being willfully throttled, and just one of them is being an org trying to figure out how to help without being overwhelmed.

This is one of the best analyses of the total grift and scammery of AI in education I’ve seen, and it is a MUST Read: “Higher Ed’s Rush To Adopt AI Is About So Much More Than AI - defector.com/higher-eds-r...

Our ability to comprehend daily events has been corrupted by a toxic info environment where political & attentional dynamics distort & manipulate our “collective sensemaking” processes. Our “official” sources are now products of that same environment. Reality fractures, along with the social fabric.

"Living through the rise of a dictatorship just means inhabiting a space that is gradually shrinking. There’s no point in resisting, not at first. You just make do with whatever breathing room you still have—until you lose that too."

As a historian of computing, can confirm, this is exactly what happened

🔥 “If I’m willing to drive three hours to come here and talk, I’m gonna ask you to get off your phone and listen to what I have to say.”

This from @tressiemcphd.bsky.social hit me over the head like a mallet of truth. This is the thing. This is what I’ve been trying to warn people about perfectly crystallized. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/12/o...

The US could see a 30-40% decline in new international student enrollment, resulting in nearly $7 billion in lost revenue and more than 60,000 fewer American jobs. https://www.nafsa.org/fall-2025-international-student-enrollment-outlook-and-economic-impact

"As a college professor, watching the dismantling of America’s education system has been among the most discouraging events of my life." We agree @aaup.org @higheredlabor.bsky.social

Things I have searched for in the past week: 1. How do you get children to sleep in their own beds? 2. Are all 5 year olds sociopaths? 3. How to manage time out effectively 4. How to treat poison ivy It’s been quite a summer.

If you have the means, can I also recommend setting up a recurring donation? Clinics like WAWC need steady funding that they can rely on, and the attention economy tends to provide funds in surges that then dry up as attention shifts. Recurring donations can help to cover the leaner times.

With all of the chaos brought upon us from this administration, remember: We are the Revolution. We, the people, deserve better. And, we must fight to get it. Together. #PoliticalRevolution #WeThePeople #FiftyFiftyOne #ThePeoplesMovement #Grassroots @50501movement.bsky.social

Everyone's on edge—fighting Trump, Congress, Elon Musk, even each other. Meanwhile, millions are hitting the streets, standing up for rights under threat. In our latest package, we’ve put together guides to help you stay safe and fight back—wherever you are.

Want to push back against the bigoted attacks targeting trans and gender-nonconforming people? Here are specific ways you can help—with your time, money, and everyday actions.

There are not, generally speaking, magic thresholds in social systems. Engaging 3.5 percent of the population in protests does not make change inevitable. The sustained work involved in making so many people turn out can make change much more likely.

I'm seeing a lot of blue state/red state discourse today. This is a reminder that Sarah is right: we're all purple like a bruise. The large protests in states run by the GOP prove that. They're not red, they're hurting.