Joseph Cermatori

h/t: @alexanderchee.bsky.social — “The plan's $38 billion budget is more than the total annual spending for 22 states, according to state budget data.”

“So much depends then, thought Lily Briscoe, looking at the sea which had scarcely a stain on it, which was so soft that the sails and the clouds seemed set it in its blue, so much depends, she thought, upon distance…”

Currently teaching Virginia Woolf // “To the Lighthouse” 💙
#literature #booksky

The Accidental Winners of the War on Higher Ed Go to a small liberal-arts college if you can.

About small liberal-arts colleges, Ian Bogost writes in @theatlantic.com: “The form of higher ed that they provide seems poised to be the most resilient in the years to come.” 🎓
#educationmatters #academia #liberalarts #academicsky #SLAC

@reppaultonko.bsky.social @raskin.house.gov @kirstengillibrand.bsky.social @schumer.senate.gov @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social

Olympics next!

Opinion | State Terror Has Arrived

After the past week, this headline from @mashagessen.bsky.social in the @nytimes.com says it all.

New semester, new office — starting to feel like I’m settled in. For everyone who’s with me returning to the classroom this month: stay warm, stay strong, keep up the good fight. Education matters. #academia #highered #humanitiessky #officehours

“Starting around 2020, the United States experienced a sustained disruption consisting of the Covid pandemic, economic strain and intensifying political conflict — each of which has been linked to heightened intergroup hostility and scapegoating.”

“Also surprising is that although anti-gay bias has risen faster among conservatives, it has also risen among liberals.”

Opinion | Americans Are Turning Against Gay People

“Perhaps most surprising is that these trends were distinctly robust among the youngest American adults — those under 25. This group increased its animus against marginalized groups in general and gay people in particular at a faster rate than older Americans did.” #stophate #gaypride

“One question runs throughout: how is it that human beings be? … Light-takers, light-makers, love-vessels…” ♥️🎨

Julian Bell · At the Musée Jacquemart-André: On Georges de La Tour Georges de La Tour’s scan of the visual field is a stark, bold testing out of basic facets of experience. What is it...

“Georges de La Tour’s scan of the visual field is a stark, bold testing out of basic facets of experience. What is it to face another human, when that person cannot see you?“ 🕯️🔥 @lrb.co.uk #baroque #arthistory

😡😡😡

@ehayot.bsky.social and @mattseybold.bsky.social writing for the @chronicle.com - an urgent assessment of our current situation and the fights still ahead…

The ‘Crisis of the Humanities’ Is Over. That’s Not a Good Thing. All of higher ed now suffers the attacks of politics and technology.

“The crisis of the humanities has been revealed by the events of the last year to be a crisis of civil society writ large. … Many [non-humanities] educators now see that defunding the humanities is the tip of a spear aimed at them as well.” The answer is “to organize.”

Chinese Universities Surge in Global Rankings as U.S. Schools Slip

See also:
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/u...

“The reordering comes as the Trump administration has been slashing research funding to American schools that depend heavily on the federal government to pay for scientific endeavors.”

(Reminder: the arts are the crucial cultural infrastructure of a functioning and democratic civil society. Making sure that more people have access to them matters. #democracynow)

The Wall Looks Permanent Until It Falls On the optimism of preparation in a time of democratic decay.

Reasons for hope, from @adambonica.bsky.social

“There is another America inside this one, visible in the statistics of nations that made different choices. Call it Latent America: the nation that would exist if our democracy functioned to serve the public rather than protect the already powerful.”

“‘The shared laughter in a crowded theater, the eager debrief after a musical, the heavy silence that hangs over all of us in a drama — these are moments that every New Yorker deserves,’ Mamdani said later.”

“And on his ninth day in office, he stood on Hillel Place in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, handing out cards with QR codes for those tickets to anyone who wanted them.“

Handing Out Free Tickets, Mamdani Says Theater Should Not Be ‘a Luxury’

“Mamdani — the son of the filmmaker Mira Nair, a onetime rapper and a sometime patron of comedy, music and theater — this week prevailed upon the annual Under the Radar festival, which is running through Jan. 25, to make 1,500 free tickets available.“

From the “Strength in Numbers” Substack: “Americans do not want war with Venezuela”

@adamkinzinger.substack.com seems like you were just talking about this sort of thing on @thebulwark.com …

Yum! Happy Thanksgiving to you too.

Nice work, @jamellebouie.net!

😨😤😡

Wow. Harvard nuking its PhD programs

- Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75%
- Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60%
- Social Sciences by 50–70%
- History by 60%
- Biology by 75%
- The German department will lose all PhD seats
- Sociology from six PhD students to zero