Beth Shakman Hurd

Opinion | Universities are sending Trump a dangerous message Higher education is under attack. Drop the appeasement.

Important from Arne Duncan and David Pressman:

"There is little effort among university leaders to coordinate a political response to attacks on academic independence by the administration. Appeasement is being coordinated while resistance is not."
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Pop star Bad Bunny needed a Puerto Rican history scholar. UW–Madison had just the one. Bad Bunny collaborated with UW–Madison history professor Jorell Meléndez-Badillo on Puerto Rican narratives that accompany the new album “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS.”

Not at all surprised to learn that Bad Bunny has a historical adviser. His halftime show was a reminder that our history and culture are deeply intertwined with the rest of the western hemisphere. We should think of his performance as part of #America250. #SuperBowl
news.wisc.edu/pop-star-bad...

Stand With Minnesota Donation Directory Stand With Minnesota is a hub for supporting, learning, and taking action to support Minnesotans impacted by ICE and federal enforcement.

Want to support Minnesotans? Here’s how.

Northwestern professor talks American border religion Community members braved extreme weather conditions and ventured to Evanston Public Library on Saturday to attend political science Prof. Elizabeth Shakman Hurd’s lecture on “American Border Religion....

In which the Daily Northwestern reporter describes my new book as a "novel." Love it. Almost, but not quite.

Opinion | State Terror Has Arrived

There we go:

“It should no longer be possible to say that the Trump administration seeks merely to govern this nation. It seeks to reduce us all to a state of constant fear… That is our new national reality. State terror has arrived.”

Gift link:

ICE OUT.
Minneapolis 1/23/26.

On the Religious Politics of American Borders A critical analysis of the US–Mexico border as a space shaped by art, control, commerce, and political paradox.

Professor Elizabeth Shakman Hurd presents her new book Heaven Has a Wall, a powerful reflection on how U.S. borders entangle religion, law, and power.
#borderpolitics #religionandpolitics @bethhurd.bsky.social

ICE out of Evanston. Out of Illinois. Out of the US. Just get out.

More than 1,000 events planned in US after ICE shootings in Minneapolis and Portland ICE Out for Good vigils and rallies are being tracked online by Indivisible, the group behind the No Kings protests

Dear US government: Stop killing our neighbors. Stop killing, period.

Video: Videos Contradict Trump Administration Account of ICE Shooting in Minneapolis An analysis of footage from three camera angles shows that the motorist was driving away from — not toward — a federal officer when he opened fire.

The New York Times states it plainly in display type:

Videos Contradict Trump Administration Account of ICE Shooting in Minneapolis

“.. In the last four months alone, immigration officers have fired on at least nine people in five states and Washington, D.C. All of the individuals targeted in those shootings were, like the woman killed on Wednesday, fired on while in their vehicles.”

@nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/07/u...

If you can’t stand the heat…just wait a few months for the weather to change On July 15, at a congressional hearing, New York Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik subjected CUNY’s chancellor, Félix Matos Rodríguez, to a humiliating round of questions about the alleged views...

Congrats Ramzi Kassem on being named Chief Counsel in Mayor Mamdani’s administration.

Trump/Northwestern Deal Violates Federal Law, Pritzker Professors Say Professors at Northwestern's Pritzker School of Law argue that the university's agreement with the Trump administration is illegal.

My colleagues Heidi and Paul at Northwestern's Pritzker School of Law argue that the university's agreement with the Trump administration is illegal.

Islamophobic Elites Lied to Destroy the Life of a Palestinian Brown Student Plutocrats, pundits, and government officials joined together in a racist smear campaign against a queer Palestinian student at Brown University.

The people who circulated this lie should be banned from all public platforms forever. Such irresponsible cruelty — of course it’s what they accuse others of — and at such a trying time! It is reprehensible.

Stop using Spotify until the ICE recruitment ads stop: indivisible.org/cancel-spotify?source=bluesky

Trump Takes America’s ‘Imperial Presidency’ to a New Level

“Nearly 250 years after American colonists threw off their king, this is arguably the closest the country has come during a time of general peace to the centralized authority of a monarch.“

Timely, important piece by
@peterbakernyt.bsky.social

A Better Way to Approach Antisemitism on Campus (opinion) Policing speech about Israel is counterproductive.

"To foster a campus climate of real inclusion, we need to convene and converse, not record and report. The details are tricky, but teachers and students can figure them out together. Our administrations and governments just have to give us the respect, job security and academic freedom to do so."

Times Investigation: Ex-Trump DOJ lawyers say 'fraudulent' UC antisemitism probes led them to quit The Times spoke to nine former Department of Justice civil rights attorneys tasked with investigating antisemitism complaints at the University of California. They all resigned during their investigat...

What’s really going on at the Justice Dept?

Jaweed Kaleem explains why so many DOJ attorneys are quitting their jobs rather than break the law by concocting unfounded accusations of antisemitism in order to bring universities to their knees.

A Harvard scholar’s ouster exposes a crisis of institutional integrity | Eric Reinhart The dismissal of a a renowned health leader who refused to ignore Palestine highlights false claims of universality in human rights, global health and academia

A leading public health scholar whose career has been defined by work on racial justice, poverty, HIV, and global inequality appears to have been removed because the political costs of applying those commitments to Palestinians became too great for Harvard to tolerate.

Sign-On Letter from Northwestern Alumni On November 28, 2025, Northwestern bent the knee to Trump. People were very upset over the course of that day. We got the formal agreement along with some analysis. Kevin Brown then wrote an analysis ...

Northwestern alums plz sign and circulate.

This is the core definition of extortion in administrative law: the use of government power to coerce compliance unrelated to the lawful purpose of the funds.

The Sheriff of Sundown City - Truthdig As the final regulators burn out of the machine, Trump's mental retrogression has no limit but his expiration date.

With more and more regulators burning out of the machine, Trump’s retrogression has no limit but his expiration date.

Press release: Two Northwestern Law Profs explain that the Trump Administration violated federal law when it withheld federal funds from Northwestern and that portions of the Agreement with the Government violate both the First Amendment and federal antidiscrimination law.

Elizabeth Shakman Hurd: Northwestern’s deal with the federal government is not about antisemitism Northwestern’s agreement with the federal government is about punishing universities and repressing political opponents.

You may’ve heard the Northwestern has joined the list of universities striking a “deal” with the Trump regime. Hard to believe we’ve stooped this low.

Here’s why it was a mistake.

The 2025-26 Pembroke Publics Lecture
Judith Butler
www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-Cv...

A Spotify playlist called “Don’t Stream Fascism”: Dear Losers. Stop Runnin’ by LOKRE brutal by Olivia Rodrigo Secret Police by Fishbone Recruitment by The Chilling Alpine Adventure, Falling Up Propaganda by Muse Until Then… by Sully Erna, Irina Chirkova We Protest by Dave Carroll

Cancel your Spotify subscription until the ICE ads stop. There are other streaming options that don’t profit from exploiting artists while recruiting for ICE: indivisible.org/cancel-spotify?source=bluesky

"No Kings?: Plenitudo potestatis and the sanctity of US national security" by Elizabeth Shakman Hurd - Canopy Forum Doctrine of the Two Swords by Unknown (US-PD) This article is part of our series on Law, Religion, and Immigration. If you’d like to explore other articles in this series, click here. In the domain of...

Why does the First Amendment often fail to stand as a bulwark against official religious prejudice, as was the case with the Muslim ban? My latest for Canopy Forum, drawing on my new book Heaven Has a Wall.

Donate to Emergency Financial Relief for Chicago Landscapers, organized by Elizabeth Clarke Project FISCAL:  Financial Initiative Supporting Chicag… Elizabeth Clarke needs your support for Emergency Financial Relief for Chicago Landscapers

Please donate to support our neighbors who are under attack by the government.

US has sent $7.5m to Equatorial Guinea to accept noncitizens deportees Country is one of world’s most repressive and corrupt, raising concerns over rights abuses of those deported

Washington has approached at least 58 governments about accepting deportees. . . Nearly all the countries involved – including Eswatini, South Sudan and El Salvador – feature in state department reports for serious human rights abuses.

Maybe Don’t Talk to the New York Times About Zohran Mamdani It’s remarkable, the people you’ll hear from. Teach for even a little while at an expensive institution—the term they tend to prefer is “elite”—and odds are that eventually someone who was a studen…

Yes. 👇