Rachel Sagner Buurma

Job alert!

@ischoolui.bsky.social is hiring in 4 areas this year

Early literacies: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Information behavior/HCI/UX: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Information, Culture & Society: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Open IS: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

“That this debate is happening in terms of skills versus content is itself unsettling, subsuming Shakespeare into that category of internet clickbait produced to keep hits coming, rapidly being overtaken now by A.I. slop”

let’s gooooo

hey if you’re seeing this please DONATE to Western Alaska Disaster Relief:

alaskacf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/c...

Oh yeah cover reveal.

And preorder link.

And blurb the first and perhaps only.

DID YOU DONATE TO WESTERN ALASKA DISASTER RELIEF YET? 🫶🏽🖤🦭🙏🏽🦅🙏🏽🖤

upittpress.org/books/978082...

The full announcement is now up at this link. Deadline still 31 Oct.

The same is true for faculty extramural speech, which may be protected under APM - 010 only insofar as it is consistent with the standards of professional conduct set forth in APM - 015. The standard provided in APM - 015 allows for discipline only for conduct which is not justified by the faculty's ethical principles stated in APM - 015 and which significantly impairs the University's central functions, as defined in APM - 015's preamble. This analysis must recognize the particular context of the University as an environment that encourages free inquiry and the exchange of ideas and, as described in APM - 015, "seeks to provide and sustain an environment conducive to sharing, extending, and critically examining knowledge and values, and furthering the search for wisdom." Faculty, like all University employees, are also entitled to First Amendment protection for speech on matters of public concern, but only insofar as the employee's expressive interests outweigh the University's interests in fulfilling its public service mission.

Coordination with UC Police Departments: Beginning in Fall 2025, the Systemwide Office of Civil Rights will coordinate on developing systemwide guidelines in partnership with the UC Police Departments for sharing information in all misconduct cases, including expressive activities cases.

Notices to Respondents of Proposed Range of Disciplinary Sanctions: The Chancellor already has authority to propose a range of disciplinary sanctions in the notice of proposed discipline under APM - 016. Pursuant to the authority already provided in APM - 016, beginning, in the Fall 2025 term, when a Chancellor issues a notice of proposed discipline, the notice should include a range of proposed disciplinary sanctions. Also, in Fall 2025, campuses should begin including the dates the administration is available to participate in a hearing, providing five (5) or more options, in their notices of proposed discipline.

UC faculty are fighting through the courts to save the UC system. Our funding has been swept by central admin. We can’t pay to travel or research. Every time we lecture we’re at risk of attacks by right-wing mobs. Fortunately the UC Regents are on the ball: they’re…finding new ways to discipline us.

I want this to be true so badly that I can’t trust myself: I have to refuse to believe it until I see a dotted line physically connecting the smoking gun to the body.

If it were true the consequences would be huge.

green and yellow cover of University Keywords, ed by Andy Hines

Table of contents for University Keywords University: An Introduction, Andy Hines Academic Freedom, Jennifer Ruth and Ellen Schrecker Adjunct, Heather Steffen Admissions, Scott Gelber Alternative Institutions, Andy Hines and Eli Meyerhoff Athletics, Wayne L. Black Board of Trustees, Asheesh Siddique Kapur Budget, Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra Campus, Davarian Baldwin Classroom, Richard Simpson Critical University Studies, Rana M. Jaleel, Isaac Kamola, and Heather Steffen Debt, Eleni Schirmer and Jason Wozniak Degree, Christopher Newfield Discipline, Vineeta Singh Diversity, p.s. kehal EdTech, Annie McClanahan and Louise McCune Endowment, Dennis M. Hogan Entrepreneurship, Jesse Goldstein

Table of contents for university keywords Fiction, Jeffrey J. Williams Legislation, Elizabeth Tandy Shermer Noncitizen Student, Abigail Boggs Police, Yalile Suriel and Grace Watkins Ranking, Jelena Brankovic and Stefan Wilbers Revenue, Dan Nemser and Brian Whitener Risk Management, Mattie Armstrong-Price Sustainability, Kai Bosworth, Jesse Goldstein, Andy Hines, and Eli Meyerhoff Title IX, Rana M. Jaleel Union, Zach Schwartz-Weinstein Appendix: Questions to Consider for Composing a Keywords Entry Contributor Bios Acknowledgments Index

It's publication day for UNIVERSITY KEYWORDS. Across 27 sharp essays, the book offers a critical account of the political economy of US higher education, how it came to be structured this way, and how together we might build a better university together.

A program for a close reading symposium at Emory University on November 7, 2025, in Room 208 in Convocation Hall, from 8:15 to 5:15, with breakfast, lunch, and panels on studying, teaching, and evaluating close reading, and close reading across the disciplines

If you're in or near Atlanta, or *super juiced* 😜 about close reading and love to travel, come to Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century: A Symposium at Emory University on Friday, November 7. And hear from these superstars...

Extremely enthused to have Matt joining us to launch Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century with a star-studded symposium and Vandal Live! episode in November ✨

Me listening to the first 20 mins of this episode:

wow they're scrutinizing something I co-wrote on a podcast

hey they're scrutinizing something I co-wrote and not giving me any credit

I am not a Spreadsheet Man!!!

This one’s for the hardcore. But they’re gonna love it.

@dan-sinnamon.bsky.social & I bicker!

@rbuurma.bsky.social shocks @laheffernan.bsky.social with confession!

@jdconnor.bsky.social outs the Hopkins Mafia!

@manshel.bsky.social, Fred J in ‘77, & more!

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

HUMMINGBIRD For Tess Suppose I say summer, write the word "hummingbird," put it in an envelope, take it down the hill to the box. When you open my letter you will recall those days and how much, just how much, I love you.

Suppose I say summer

-Raymond Carver, “Hummingbird”
(For Tess)

From “A New Path to the Waterfall," completed in the last weeks of Carver's life and published posthumously
#everynightapoem #summersolstice

We made it to Friday! I'm going to share three tips on using Signal from someone who has been using it for both work and personal communications for...a long time.

I have discovered that lots of people who are not professional humanists are eager to help fund a lawsuit against the administration by professional humanists. Join us. Every $10 makes a difference. Tell your friends who want to do something.

independent reading Fridays through the end of the year with juniors, starting tomorrow

assignment: bring in a book made of paper, no test prep, no “how to make money real fast,” otherwise your call, 100 on a hw grade for having one, 0 for not, no make ups

How “The Great Gatsby” Took Over High School The classroom staple turns a hundred.

“An author ought to write for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters for ever afterward.” In this, he was wildly successful. High-school English didn’t make “Gatsby” great, but it has certainly kept it so.

Who will staff and who will review? Preservation & Access like all program areas lost (almost all of their) staff?

That’s in addition to wondering why grants already doing exactly this work were terminated.

Senior Faculty Pledging to Donate a Portion of Salary in Defense of University Community Senior Faculty Pledging to Donate a Portion of Salary in Defense of University Community We are heartened by the University’s rejection of the Trump administration’s unlawful demands. We also recogn...

Harvard faculty pledge 10% of their salary to support students and staff as the university weathers Trump's assault. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Mellon Foundation The Mellon Foundation makes grants to actively unlock the power in the arts and humanities that helps connect us all.

So relieved to see that Mellon will be providing emergency relief funding the US’s state and jurisdictional humanities councils.

If I learned one thing during my years at NEH, it was how crucial these organizations are to our public humanities infrastructure.

www.mellon.org/news/america...

It is so exciting that Tom's new 📘 will appear this summer. (Full disclosure: I am lucky enough to have the galleys!) For what other writer working today is in a position to tell us that they have "sprinkled" texts "throughout the book for their snuff box descriptions" & "references to Catherines"?😉

We've aggregated relevant @modernlanguage.bsky.social resources, including tips for NEH awardees, links to webinar recordings on threats to higher ed, MLA statements, & links to other resources. Share resources w/ us through the google form, and sign up for the first Strategy Session (April 22).

Today's the day! I invite close readers to see if they can find the places where I channeled the most rage into this project. It is supposed to make you uncomfortable. You are supposed to try to dismiss it as "praxis" vs. "theory" and then you are supposed to be convinced otherwise.

Adding herewith to my (very) intermittent series, A JANE AUSTEN GUIDE TO FACULTY MEETINGS:
"Female economy will do a great deal my Lord, but it cannot turn a small income into a large one."--The Watsons
(Apposite at a time of catastrophic threats to funding for the humanities, here & everywhere ...)

Working through these documents sent to grantees who had NEH grants terminated. So bizarre. They're like the Nigerian Prince version of grant terminations. They're not even sent from a government email but rather a onmicrosoft dot com address. So the Microsoft equivalent of a gmail account.

A Nigerian Prince Canceled Your NEH Grant. No Really … talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/a-nig...

Rosemary G Feal 27m • ₫8 From Leah Middlebrook: NEH related news: If you are on a rescinded grant, take a look at the terms and conditions of the letter you signed when you accepted the award. Everyone I have been talking to has language in there stating that if the grant is terminated or rescinded, the recipient has 30 days to send in an end-of-fellowship/grant report (I don't have the language in front of me, but go back and take a look). Awardees also have 30 days to appeal. We're 2 weeks in, so the deadline is in about 2 weeks. If you haven't talked this matter over with the sponsored projects office on your campus, it's a good idea to do that asap. A few items to talk over: filing a FOIA request for notes/materials relevant to the termination; the question of whether filing a final report precludes resumption of the grant; question of whether to take the time away from your research to do the work of filing an appeal (some sponsored projects offices are doing that work for affected faculty and researchers). This is what I gleaned from a recent conversation. All corrections/caveats welcome in the comments

Apologies for cross-posting, but here’s some advice for people with NEH grants

JOB! The Aydelotte Foundation at Swarthmore College is hiring a technology and social justice postdoctoral fellow to begin fall 2025.

More details in the linked posting on interfolio. Please share widely and I'm happy to answer questions if you have them.

apply.interfolio.com/165877

🔥 📝 FOLKS — I'm working on a piece for Slate about the NEH cuts. If you've been affected in ANY way and would be willing to talk with me, please message me! I would love to learn more and include your story. katina [at] katinarogers [dot] com

#humanities #neh #education #highered

It's hard to really wrap your head around the scale of it, but Trump has now cancelled almost all NEH funding programs. Such terrible times. Thinking of the many dedicated staff members at the NEH who are losing their jobs and seeing programs they've worked so hard to build and maintain being cut.