Prof. Shirley Lin

Pretty incredible own goal by liberal institutions and many Democratic electeds to crush the exact type of protests in 2024 that would’ve been the most effective way to slow or stop ICE incursions into American cities in 2025

🚨: "allowing ICE to use to spyware 'threatens Americans’ freedom of movement and freedom of speech'”

Pritzker is also furious: “Should National Governors Association leadership choose to remain silent, Illinois will have no choice but to withdraw from the organization.”

A 🧵 for a wholly positive task, for a change @academic-chatter.bsky.social.

For an awards nominations committee I've joined, what rubrics have worked well for your review committees?

Here, #disability books, by junior +senior scholars. Global reach and a range of awards, so all welcome.

Call for Papers: Special Issue of Feminist Legal Studies Feminist Responses to the Regression of Trans Rights: Strategies, Alliances, Hope Amidst continuing backlash against trans rights, recognition and inclusion, two recent decisions from the UK have substantially impacted not only trans people’s legal status but also legal and social narratives of sex, gender and identity. The narrative that trans inclusion has a chilling effect on the rights of others, particularly women, has been adopted uncritically by both the UK Supreme Court in For Women Scotland and the Office for Students in its finding that the University of Sussex’s trans-inclusion policy had a chilling effect on free speech. These cases highlight a backlash that has been ongoing for some time, and sparks debates and fear of what may lie in the near future for trans people and kin, as well as other gender-variant persons, not only in the UK, but across jurisdictions and in a global perspective. The discourse of the ‘gender critical’ movement is splintering both the feminist and LGBT+ movements globally, with some aligning politically with the Far- and Christian Right against trans rights, adopting their terminology of ‘gender ideology’ and potentially posing a wider threat to sexual and reproductive rights. While this a difficult situation for trans people, kin and allies, this special issue seeks to emphasise that legal battles – including battles (temporarily) lost – are also an opportunity to seek to reinforce old alliances and to form new ones, to find new legal frontiers and imaginaries, to reinforce the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of legal arguments as well as intergenerational memory of what feminist legal work is, has been and should be about. How, we ask, do these decisions (and those like them globally) reflect and reproduce structures of coloniality, heteronormativity and cisnormativity? What do these decisions add to critiques of legal feminism? What would be construct…

📣🏳️‍⚧️ Call for Papers

We are inviting papers for our special issue, “Feminist Responses to the Regression of Trans Rights: Strategies, Alliances, Hope.” The issue will be dedicated to trans-inclusive feminist legal analysis that addresses attacks on trans rights & lives.

Details below. Please share.

The question journalists need to be asking is: WHY is the government trying this?

It’s because they want to control universities in unlawful ways that courts will not allow; it’s not working; so they’re trying to get universities to sign up “voluntarily” for unlawful levels of government control.

Office of the President Dear Dartmouth community, As many of you know, Dartmouth was one of nine universities asked by the White House to give feedback by Oct. 20 on a draft of its “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.” I am deeply committed to Dartmouth’s academic mission and values and will always defend our fierce independence. You have often heard me say that higher education is not perfect and that we can do better. At the same time, we will never compromise our academic freedom and our ability to govern ourselves. Best, Sian Leah Beilock President

It appears that my employer, Dartmouth, one of the Trump 9, has said no to the compact. All the better given that our president is cited within it. But she’s saying no. Count the small victories when they come.

ICE Wants to Build Out a 24/7 Social Media Surveillance Team Documents show ICE plans to hire dozens of contractors to scan X, Facebook, TikTok, and other platforms to target people for deportation.

NEW: ICE is planning to hire a team of nearly 30 people to surveil social media 24/7, build dossiers on people, and flag them for arrest and deportation. @dell.bsky.social has the scoop: www.wired.com/story/ice-so...

In Going After His Foes, Trump Sets a Precedent That Could Haunt His Allies President Trump’s retribution campaign risks ushering in a cycle of retaliation in which each new administration takes aim at the last one.

that's so weird, john roberts assured me the immunity decision meant this would not happen??

Four reporters to come up with this absolutely unhinged framing. People with autism are not a "problem to be solved." They are human beings who should be supported. Polio debilitating and killing thousands of kids annually was a "problem to be solved," and Jonas Salk did that... with a vaccine.

Watch: 14 Hours of Never-Before-Published Videos From Project 2025’s Presidential Administration Academy The videos are part of an ongoing effort to recruit and train thousands of future conservative appointees. Despite Donald Trump’s efforts to disavow Project 2025, most of the speakers in the videos ha...

These Project 2025 videos were intended to train a second Trump administration’s political appointees "to be ready on day one."

Last August, ProPublica & @documented.net obtained 14 hours of the videos, which covered everything from passing new regulations to rooting out left-wing language:

The Trump Administration Is Promoting Its Anti-Trans Agenda Globally at the United Nations U.S. delegates have objected to use of the word “gender” in U.N. documents during forums on topics as varied as women’s rights, science and technology, global health, toxic pollution and chemical wast...

#ICYMI: The Trump administration has been pushing its anti-trans agenda globally at the United Nations.

U.S. delegates objected to use of the word “gender” in U.N. documents during forums on topics as varied as women’s rights, science & tech, global health, toxic pollution and chemical waste.

Flyer from Society for Disability Studies, entitled "Disruption and strategic engagement: Bridging critical pedagogy and disability activism" Black and white profile photo of event speakers, Suzanne Stolz and Sara Acevedo Date & Time: Oct 6, 2025 12:00-1:15PM EST This presentation examines the collaborative autoethnographic work of Dr. Acevedo and Dr. Stolz with pre-service professionals in disability studies courses. The session explores how community partnerships support critical pedagogy and disability activism, with a particular emphasis on the role of conscientization in promoting a culturally affirming understanding of disability. 45 min presentation with 30-min Q&A Registration Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/st-7A7IaQ328y09HlOXI6w#/registration

Next up from Society for Disability Studies, 🍂 Mon. October 6th:
"Disruption & Strategic Engagement: Bridging Critical Pedagogy and Disability Activism" feat. Sara M. Acevedo and Suzanne Stolz. Register here: bit.ly/4gtwiiQ

If having a felony conviction on your record doesn’t disqualify someone from being the President, it shouldn’t disqualify someone from voting.

People with felony convictions should be able to vote.

@joyannreid.bsky.social is asking the right question.This may be the most dangerous period.When the dog catches the car & realizes he can’t open the doors or satisfy its hunger. Now there’s rage, snarling and vicious humiliation at having exhausted itself pursuing something that has no real meaning.

Absolutely, Sam! You're so generous, I'm sure your input will be invaluable.

Photo of Shirley Lin, masked, black glasses and black hair, standing in a convention hall before large monitors featuring papers

Such wonderful convos and questions in presenting Race-Conscious Data @apsa.bsky.social #APSA2025. And glad I brought print-outs of the piece - old tech to go with the new!

"Harvard can't use race as a factor in admissions, but ICE can use race as a factor in detentions" is a retrenchment essentially to a pre-Civil War understanding of the Constitution. It's vanishingly few steps removed from "Latinos have no rights which the white man is bound to respect."

Journal cover for Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, with portrait photo underlay of WEB.

Enjoying a few gems already from Du Bois Review, courtesy of @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org Open Access journals at #APSA2025. Poli sci journals should be an easy crossover for @cambup-law.cambridge.org at AALS2026.

Color-coded map of the North American continent purports to measure the degree governments "permit their citizens to make their own economic choices," with states such as New York and California ranked second to last in freedom, and Florida, Texas, and Nevada ranked as "most free."

Courtesy of APSA2025, I learn of Canada's alt-Heritage Foundation, the Fraser Institute: "Economic Freedom of North America 2024" ranks degree govts "permit their citizens to make their own economic choices." NY + CA ranked second to last in freedom, while FL, TX, and NV ranked as "most free."

There's now a name for (some of) what's going on with the anthropocene: defensive disbelief.

No one would be confused about what is happening here if they saw it in another country.

#APSA2025

❤️‍🔥

ICE agents detain 2 at county domestic violence courthouse this week. Advocates warn of chilling effect on victims. The arrests near the facility at 555 W. Harrison St. come as residents and politicians brace for a surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Chicago.

Immigration agents this week arrested at least two people in the vicinity of the county’s domestic violence-focused courthouse, sparking fears that the enforcement action would have a chilling effect on people seeking orders of protection and other forms of help at the downtown courthouse.

‘He’s brazenly anti-worker’: US marks the first Labor Day under Trump 2.0 Advocates say Trump has hurt workers in many ways, often by cutting their pay or making their jobs more dangerous

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

graphic that i think about when i need motivation to keep masking and encouraging others to mask

Trump’s Decapitation of CDC Takes Darker Turn—and Hands Dems a Weapon Illinois’s J.B. Pritzker is leading a charge other Democratic governors should take up: In our America, we’ll make sure public health systems remain strong.

This is good: With Trump/RFK destroying CDC, JB Pritzker's officials are exploring the possibility of buying Covid vaccines from manufacturers and distributing them in-state themselves, source tells me.

Dem govs must step up and fill the void.

New piece from me:
newrepublic.com/article/1998...

9. Michigan’s AG has shown one path forward: warning institutions that capitulation itself may be unlawful. If more AGs follow that lead, they could tip the balance, compelling schools and hospitals to resist rather than retreat, and ensuring that trans lives are not treated as bargaining chips.