Joy Castro

Harvard’s Wealth Is Growing, Despite Trump’s Attacks on Its Funds

“…its endowment had swelled to nearly $57 billion during the fiscal year that ended in June, an increase of about $3.7 billion. The university also said it had pulled in a record amount of donations it can use immediately.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/16/u...

Penn and U.S.C. Become Latest Universities to Reject White House Deal

Picking up steam…
#highered #academicfreedom
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/16/u...

‘The jobless should lead the attack’: a radical Jamaican journalist in 1920s London The long read: Economic insecurity, race riots, incendiary media … Claude McKay was one of the few Black journalists covering a turbulent period that sounds all too familiar to us today

A poet & his politics: Harlem Renaissance author Claude McKay
www.theguardian.com/news/2025/oc...

We Defeated McCarthyism Before. We Can Do It Again. It’s easy to feel despair about what looks like a new age of government censorship. But being around for 160 years gives you perspective.

“…we proudly take the side of muckraking journalists, constitutional lawyers, and undaunted jurists, of the artists and actors who are fighting for their creative freedom, and above all, of the Constitution-­defending citizens who will not yield…” www.thenation.com/article/soci...

“In other words, that ‘war’ she declared on her own body is but a microcosm — and a descendant — of the actual wars that, historically, have determined who gets to be considered beautiful. (Hint: It’s always the victors, the powerful and the rich.)”

“Ms. Hilal argues that personal aesthetic judgments are neither personal nor ‘aesthetic.’ Instead, our perceptions of human beauty (or its lack) derive from politics, & are determined by wide-ranging, international factors such as war, imperialism, colonial conquest, power hierarchies & economics.”

We Defeated McCarthyism Before. We Can Do It Again. It’s easy to feel despair about what looks like a new age of government censorship. But being around for 160 years gives you perspective.

“…we proudly take the side of muckraking journalists, constitutional lawyers, and undaunted jurists, of the artists and actors who are fighting for their creative freedom, and above all, of the Constitution-­defending citizens who will not yield…” www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Opinion | Where Trump Is Vulnerable and How to Act on It

“It wanted to signal strength. Instead, it’s revealing its weakness. The administration’s need to break the academy is forcing it to make a desperately risky gamble.” #highered
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o...

“Kimmel responded by saying: ‘And by “statistical fact”, he means “complete bullshit”.’ Kimmel went on to cite a study that found far-right groups were the greatest source of domestic terrorism and extremist violence in the US. The Department of Justice has removed the study from its website.”

Jimmy Kimmel Live! suspended over Charlie Kirk comments after US government pressure Removal of late-night show criticised as part of Trump administration’s attack on critical voices in media, academia and business

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

Tsai Ming Liang’s Abiding Nowhere, the 10th of his Walker series, following the slow walking of a monk across modern settings, this time in Washington DC with a new intriguing counterpoint of a second character, featuring the Smithsonian, which co-financed the film. In theaters

Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science - Madison, Wisconsin, United States Current Employees: If you are currently employed at any of the Universities of Wisconsin, log in to Workday to apply through the internal application process.Job Category:FacultyEmployment Type:Regula...

My department @uwmadison.bsky.social is hiring an assistant professor with expertise in environmental politics. Send us your application. jobs.wisc.edu/jobs/assista...

Opinion | Charlie Kirk Didn’t Shy Away From Who He Was. We Shouldn’t Either.

“The Professor Watchlist is a straightforward intimidation campaign, and you can draw a line directly from Kirk’s work attacking academics to the Trump administration’s all-out war on American higher education…”
— @jamellebouie.net www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/o...

The Gaza Famine is the world’s famine. A preventable, predictable famine.

Enough. Ceasefire. Open all crossings, north and south. Let us get food in, unimpeded and at massive scale.

Call out the collaborators. This regime is propped up by those who have surrendered to them willingly.

In case my recommendation wasn’t enough, the Northern California Book Award committee agrees you should read Grace’s book! @ohiostatepress.bsky.social @joy-castro.bsky.social

‘Deeply concerning’: reading for fun in the US has fallen by 40%, new study says Over the last 20 years, the number of Americans who read daily for pleasure has seen a considerable decline

“The literacy level in the US is estimated to be about 79% which ranks as 36th globally.”

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

In #LNK right now

Circular ceramuc vase with various patterns and symbols in black, white, orange and pink

Kiva-step vase, 1993, by Jean Bad Moccasin, artist of the Lakota Sioux Nation #WomensArt

Board game image with text and rectangular shapes in various coloyrs

Lizzie Magie (1866-1948) a US game designer who invented 'The Landlord's Game', the precursor to the globally famous 'Monopoly', which demonstrated the evils of capitalism #WomensArt

Artwork featuring a woman holding her strong arms over the heads of three young children in protection

"Seed Corn Must Not Be Ground" final lithograph of Käthe Kollwitz, 1942. The death of her son in battle in 1914 profoundly affected the artist, who expressed her grief by creating many prints on the theme of mothers protecting their children from the horrors of war #WomensArt

‘Censorship’: over 115 scholars condemn cancellation of Harvard journal issue on Palestine In an open letter, writers denounced abrupt scrapping of a Harvard Educational Review issue dedicated to Palestine

www.theguardian.com/education/20... “…the special issue was just about ready – all articles had been edited, contracts with most authors had been finalized, and the issue had been advertised at academic conferences and on the back cover of the previous one. But late in the process…”

In #LNK right now

Small US towns cancel fairs celebrating Latino culture: ‘climate of fear is real’ Rural communities are seeing a key aspect of life affected amid Trump’s immigration crackdown and Ice raids

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
“Festivals and fairs are a mainstay of small-town American life. But now from rural Indiana to a tiny village in Washington state to cornerstone Appalachian towns such as Harrisonburg, #Latino and other international festivals are being cancelled this summer…”

Opinion | Thinking Is Becoming a Luxury Good

“This post-literate world favors demagogues skilled at code-switching between the elite language of policy and the populist one of meme-slop.…It does not favor those with little money, little political power and no one to speak up for them.” www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/o...

How Native Homes in New Mexico Are Tapping the Sun

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/c...