Iris Soleil

⚬ Justice & Society — disability studies, intersectionality, racial and economic justice, queer and trans studies, patriarchy, and critiques of neoliberalism in education.

⚬ Technology & Learning — the role of AI, data ethics, and digital systems in shaping teaching, learning and equity.

Core areas of inquiry (1/2)

⚬ Equitable Assessment & Pedagogy — alternative grading, UDL, trauma-informed and justice-oriented teaching.

⚬ Higher Education & Policy — accessibility, student success initiatives, faculty success initiatives, academic integrity, institutional leadership.

Screenshot of a news headline reads: New York Post Billionaires say Al can transform schools for the better — it's not all 'doom and gloom' Yesterday • By Lydia Moynihan It is accompanied by a small thumbnail showing the faces of three people.

It says a lot about a publication when they can unironically start a headline with "Billionaires say..." 😂

Just a heads up that the link here to the Onion piece is loaded with Zuckbook tracking tacked on to the end of it. If you have to use Zuck's anti-social media for any reason, please strip the URL of tracking bits before sharing. 🙏

Traffic signs on a single post. One reads "Gender Drive," above that "Dead End," and below those a Stop sign. in the background are trees and blue sky.

Hello from the Oregon Coast. Had to finally stop to take a photo of this after passing it a few times.

So. On. Point. Also noting that if these were two women posing in this same way, it would be considered indecent or even pornographic by the sad little patriarchal lugnuts who want to shame and control the bodies of people who aren't cis men. #patriarchy

What, to the American Incarcerated Person, Is Your Fourth of July? In the spirit of Frederick Douglass’ historic speech, 20 currently and formerly incarcerated Americans explain what Independence Day means to them.

In 1852, Frederick Douglass asked: “What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?”

Inspired by Douglass’ famous question, 20 people ensnared in the sprawling US criminal legal system answered this variation: “What, to the currently or formerly incarcerated American, is your Fourth of July?”

I've had people say, "AI can't do this or that," or "AI got this totally wrong," but on further convo, I find that they did the equivalent of climbing into a manual transmission car for the first time with no experience or training driving and expect to know precisely how to operate it smoothly.

Granted, I have taken full courses on crafting effective prompts for gen AI, and I'm typically using my own custom GPT's that I have trained and primed for what I'm asking them to do. It is also important to know better the subject matter yourself and use AI as a thought partner.

Here for well-founded critiques of AI... and would love to see citations for this. I've never once had an AI - ChatGPT, Perplexity, Le Chat (Mistral) - do this. I always read the article myself, too, and in my experience, the GPT most definitely was "reading" the full text of the specific article...

This weather seems on point for today.

☁️😶‍🌫️☁️
⛈️🇺🇸⛈️

NYT doing NYT 💩. The less terrible things they do and publish only make all the atrocious, dangerous things they do and publish more dangerous because it floats a little halo over the mountain of harm they do.

The Grand Opening of an American Concentration Camp The Republicans are proudly calling it “Alligator Alcatraz.” Let’s call it what it is.

"No one can say, years from now, that nobody knew about the camp, or that no one pushed back." - @melissagiragrant.com

Seems on brand for the NYT.

Love the cleverness of this -- and also, we'd be so much better off if it were actually Lowly Worm (www.richardscarry.com/lowly-worm) steering the ship!

This "administration" of #disinformation doesn't care about #facts, or being called out for lies and swindling, but it is still heartening to hear it being called out so clearly and directly like this.

if you represent or work for a hospital who gets investigated by the FBI, i want to talk to you. my signal is in my bio.

Called it.

Right on brand for the Bozos arm of the Make America Gag Again propaganda network. Bozos boosted the effort to put the would-be child king back into the oval office by killing a candidate endorsement and then sniveled onto the stage at the inauguration. He long ago abandoned truth telling.

How to Keep Providing Gender-Affirming Care Despite Anti-Trans Attacks Using lessons learned defending abortion, some providers are digging in to serve their trans patients despite legal attacks.

"When the state decimated care for vulnerable youth, they helped families connect with providers out of state. When Trump released his anti-trans orders, Hall pressed to make sure those providers held the line."

theintercept.com/2025/03/09/a...

As Orwell predicted.

A loaf of freshly baked banana bread in the pan. There is a banana cut in half baked atop the loaf.

I made a thing. Banana bread specifically. Vegan.

New German, Swiss, And Austrian Guidelines Recommend Trans Youth Care, Slam Cass Review The recommendations, released by the Association of the Scientific Medical Societies in Germany, come at a time when US politicians erroneously claim that Europe is "pulling back" on transgender care.

1. Major news in transgender care.

Germany, Switzerland, and Austria have just released their trans youth care guidelines.

They strongly recommend trans youth care and slam the
Cass Review in England.

Europe is not "pulling back" on trans care.

Subscribe to support our journalism.

A bunch of Democratic politicians and influential “moderate” commentators is hyperfocused on demanding the Democratic Party “move right” on trans rights just as the state is ramping up the persecution of this small, extremely vulnerable group of people.

It is vile, disgusting, disqualifying.

See the full thread here:
bsky.app/profile/park...

So Newsom is just another basic-ass, white bro patriarchal bigot after all, who will eject any pretense of morals, ethics, or values to shill for a shot at national politics, power, and money—no matter the cost. Resident Chump seems to have a gift for bringing this out in people (see also JD Vance.)

Great London, great.

I've never heard of #hedgedoc
Thank you for putting it on my radar! Looking into it now.

I love #Typoora for daily, routine use — such as capturing meeting notes. I haven't found anything that compares. For my archive, though, I've tried @obsidian.md, @zettlr.com, others and still haven't settled on my go-to. For me, it has to work well with iCloud, which all these do for the most part.

Colorful markdown logo Below that is text that reads, "I need your opinion about markdown tools for grad school." Below that is a drawing of a wooden spool containing blue thread. The end of the thread turns into a downward-pointing arrow.

Hello! I'm a big fan of #markdown for all the reasons (lightweight, human readable, future proof, broad and expanding compatibility, etc).

I would love to hear from you about your tools and workflow.

#phdchat #phdjourney #phd #phdstudent #phdlife #academicsky #sociology #Zettelkasten #research