I was surprised to see fiddleheads at the market this late so I bought them. But I can’t really get them cleaner than this and haven’t cooked them in over a decade so can’t judge if this is normal gunk or unacceptable gunk

Oh no, what horrible news. Bea was an absolute lifelong fighter for a better world, a link to several previous eras of organizing going back to the Great Depression, a constant presence that felt infinite. Her loss is monumental.

People who might not be down with the ultimate end goal of policing knowledge (Wilentz, Appiah) have nevertheless signed on to the effort because they have particular axes to grind within their disciplines against intellectual work they personally don’t like.

The Vanderbilt report and Trump’s attack on the NIH and NSF are part of the same right-wing effort to attack the authority of all peer-reviewed knowledge so that they can police what researchers write, say, publish, and think to ensure it complies with corporate-friendly aims.

To the extent that people are angry (as they very much should be!) about the horrific war on science, they also need to get angry about this outrageous war on the humanities. Both attack peer reviewed research that doesn’t happen to fit with a center-right worldview.

Excellent op-ed from our own Mark Levin on UChicago's deal with Anthropic:

We were asked this year to believe this, that the imposition of curricular and expressive controls over teaching at Lab had no bearing on academic freedom on central campus:

Now we find out that the vice provost whose job is the interpretation/enforcement of the Kalven Report (the principles ostensibly being implemented at Lab), has all the while been writing a document on how universities need to assert more central control over academic departments

This is *exactly* what our chapter warned about in our open letter on the Lab School Standards:

Yet our vice provost in charge of these issues has *just said* that some fields in fact should be stripped of their academic autonomy

This year, UChicago launched a crackdown on teaching at a sub-unit where there is no faculty governance, the Lab School, asserting its prerogative to regulate expression of teachers, justified by the Kalven Report. At every step it has insisted this is only germane to Lab.

We love the free speech university don’t we folks

Here’s some of the art that UChicago deems too controversial to display at the Lab School

Thank you to all who came out yesterday to our two(!) demonstrations in defense of freedom to teach and learn

Dreams do come true. I reviewed Annie McClanahan's Beneath the Wage in Spectre. My thanks to editors @grundrza.bsky.social and Camila Valle.

“Protest is part of the effort to strengthen shared governance on this campus & to build more of a culture of participation in governance of the University, which we view as having fallen too far under the influence of wealthy donors & political pressure from wealth.” — Gabe Winant, UChicago AAUP

Multiple women serving sentences for nonviolent crimes at the minimum security prison where Ghislaine Maxwell is now serving time were punished for speaking to reporters about the special treatment Maxwell receives. At least two women were transferred to higher security facilities as punishment.

Chicago, let's talk Marx! Panel discussion with @gabrielwinant.bsky.social and @ramsincanon.bsky.social on Sunday, May 10 in the South Loop – and a reading group starting Monday, May 18, in Bridgeport. Coordinated by yours truly for @chicagodsa.bsky.social's Political Education Committee.

Join the struggle www.nytimes.com/2026/04/24/u...

CHICAGO! Haymarket Presents: Free Gifts Join @alybatt.bsky.social and @gabrielwinant.bsky.social for a conversation on Capitalism & Nature. Co-sponsored by @pilsencommbooks.bsky.social. Wed, May 6 at 5:30 PM Live at Haymarket House, streaming online RSVP:

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...

With Rush University Medical Center nurses announcing that they're forming a union, check out @gabrielwinant.bsky.social's book, The Next Shift, & the Q&A I did with him last week for @chicagoreader.com that touched on careworker union organizing. chicagoreader.com/news/politic...

Registration not required but we appreciate it! www.jotform.com/form/2608160...

Join AAUP for these two discussions of the future of our university this week and next

Please read our statement on the ethical cloud over our Board of Trustees. Link to full statement is below.

Chicago! Haymarket Presents: @triofrancos.bsky.social in conversation with @gabrielwinant.bsky.social. Monday, February 16th at 6:30 PM CT Live from @haymarkethouse.bsky.social with @pilsencommbooks.bsky.social RSVP to attend (in-person and virtual) events.haymarketbooks.org/events/hayma...

There have been a number of abductions off the streets of our neighborhood already. Free inquiry cannot take place under conditions where federal agents may harass, kidnap, or murder anyone they like.

It is an open, undenied policy of ICE and CBP to engage in racial profiling. These agencies have now killed two protestors in Minnesota this month—not to mention all the deaths in custody, violations of constitutional rights, and more.

The university can do so, but it chooses not to. chicagomaroon.com/49273/news/u...

We reiterate our demand, alongside our siblings in GSU-UE, @nationalnurses.bsky.social, Faculty Forward, and the Lab School Faculty Association, that the University of Chicago act immediately to exclude ICE and CBP from all buildings without a judicial warrant.

more brilliant supporters of critical thought in the world & at The New School who u can sign with! @katforrester.bsky.social @reproutopia.bsky.social @gabrielwinant.bsky.social @mayjeong.bsky.social @catherinelacey.bsky.social @vickyacab.bsky.social +! 🥰 what a crew! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

More rigorous and clear than my initial entry

And again, a pattern of putting out statements accusing people of serious Federal crimes and then releasing them hours or days or weeks later with no charges. And no retraction.

Complicity of liberal institutions with the crackdown on student protest paved the way for the crisis of academia. To defend our work we must sever the link with the security state. Come join us at U of C tomorrow, where we will discuss how to confront the hiring of the inveterate liar John Kirby.

Please join us next week at UChicago for a conversation with @peterbeinart.bsky.social, @emanabdelhadi.bsky.social, and @gabrielwinant.bsky.social

i'm reading peter friedlander's /the emergence of a uaw local, 1936-1939/ and it's as good as @gabrielwinant.bsky.social says. i'm once again struck about the way that union organizers are a kind of applied sociologists (though of 1950s small-group dynamics school).

You may recall that the State Department found that Israel was deliberately blocking aid to Gaza, and the Biden administration suppressed that report and lied about its content. Kirby, as the national security spokesperson, was the central figure in that effort. www.propublica.org/article/bide...

The appointment of John Kirby to direct the Institute of Politics is shocking and disgraceful. Kirby misled the public systematically over a long period, over grave matters of life and death. He has no place in an institution committed to truthful inquiry or a democratic public sphere.

His slip of the tongue reveals who’s really in charge. trib.al/mIvP0yE “Illinois governor says we’re provoking actions that are unlawful,” Miller said on CNN. “If I put federal law enforcement and National Guard into a nice sleepy Southern town, is anyone gonna riot?”

Get ready! Be there!

Moreover, the effect of these targeted deportation proceedings continues unconstitutionally to chill freedom of speech to this day.”

They did so in order to strike fear into similarly situated non-citizen pro-Palestinian individuals, pro-actively (and effectively) curbing lawful pro-Palestinian speech and intentionally denying such individuals (including the plaintiffs here) the freedom of speech that is their right.

From conclusion, p 147: "Secretaries Noem and Rubio and their several agents and subordinates acted in concert to misuse the sweeping powers of their respective offices to target non-citizen pro-Palestinians for deportation primarily on account of their First Amendment protected political speech.

@aaup.org won its case against the State Department's attempt to terrorize non-citizens and deprive them of their First Amendment rights

Huge victory for @aaup.org in AAUP v. Rubio:

A man was just chased and arrested outside of the Broadview ICE facility in Chicago. When legal observers from the National Lawyers Guild asked why, an agent threatened to arrest them too.

It’s easy to fear that academics are too isolated to defend ourselves if you don’t know about the struggles going on all around us, and the connections—real and possible—between us and the larger community. Come learn and talk about it on 10/1 at 11 am!