CJ Venable, PhD

🥳🥳

The Coronavirus Consensus Was Wrong Two Princeton political theorists demolish the half-truths and noble lies of the Covid era.

Not on here much because engaging with the news is still literally harmful to my health but popping in to say The Chronicle has gone full crank with this exhortation of COVID-skepticism that has nothing to do with higher ed.

Also I broke my ankle two weeks ago lol 🫠

Hey friends. I had my first panic attack on Sunday and ended up in the ER. I’m not in a place to engage on the state of the world without fully losing it so you can expect me to be radio silent for a while. Starting new meds and prioritizing my health. Be very good to each other.

Okayyyyyyy!

Yes, I think of Harney & Moten’s “The Undercommons”. Much is, has, and will continue to happen outside the lines of what is officially sanctioned by the university. Meetings you don’t put on your calendar. Nontrad pubs (research zines, maybe?). Study groups in unused rooms.

On changes to #NIH indirect rates, there is a law in place that prohibits NIH from making such changes without the approval of Congress. See Division D, Title II Section 224 of The Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (Public Law No: 118-47) grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Kill USAID AND funding for science and medicine AND the American research university AND start trade wars with allies AND profess your desire to do crimes against humanity forthwith AND cede power to oligarchs AND make discrimination great again AND open a concentration camp? IN A FEW WEEKS?

I went to dinner and came back to surprise budget-hole death blows to research universities across the nation. You literally could not write a villain designed to destroy the global position of the USA with what has happened in the last weeks because they’d say it wasn’t remotely believable.

That’s part of why I actually liked my comps, to a degree, because I could write my questions about the things I’ve taken from coursework and where I saw my dissertation going. I had a lot from comps I could use for my proposal.

Of course they say it’s not hazing, they’re doing the hazing lol. Programs moving to portfolios or having your comps be more about explaining groundwork for your dissertation are a much more authentic way of showing you’re ready for dissertating.

You completed the coursework. Completing an arbitrary high stakes assessment unlike anything you will do in the future is just a tradition, not some magical doctor-making activity. Write as completely as you can showing what you’ve learned, leave time to re-read and edit, and hit submit when done.

So my format was very different (four questions, eight weeks, 15-20 pages per question) but what helped me was to talk to other people in the program who had comped about their experience, prepare detailed notes with citations so I could copy paste references, and remind myself it’s just hazing.

What’s your format? We wrote our own questions so may be different if they’re a surprise.

Anyway, the critical race theorists who argued racism is a structural feature of the U.S. and that racial progress is often met with racist backlash were always correct and that’s why these ghouls attacked the scholarhip.

I’m finally reading @deanspade.bsky.social ‘s “Mutual Aid” and this is entirely par for the course from the nonprofit-industrial complex.

Perhaps they will put those shipping containers on a train. I recall that being a widely used strategy…somewhere…

More people should read Derrick Bell.

Bookshop: Buy books online. Support local bookstores. An online bookstore that financially supports local independent bookstores and gives back to the book community.

Thankfully bookshop.org is now able to sell ebooks!

I’ll be honest, if Musk gets to play in Air Traffic Control systems, I will not be getting on a plane for YEARS. Like his time unplugging servers at Twitter except this time planes crash or flight schedules collapse.

Trayvon Martin would have been 30 today. Trayvon Martin should be 30 today.

Just the absolute biggest LOSER.

I’m no economist but I imagine playing games with the willingness and ability of the United States to pay for things it promised to pay for will eventually have a deleterious impact on the nation’s credit rating, impacting literally every financial transaction.

Soon, I hope.

Present CJ is very thankful that past CJ decided this would be my vacation day for January.

I started planning for one day off every month, even when things are busy, and now it’s a nonnegotiable for me. Highly recommend.

“the main federal K-12 law, the Every Students Succeeds Act, spells out a litany of limitations on the education secretary’s authority—including express prohibitions on controlling what curriculum standards states, districts, and schools use.” Please remind everyone of this right now!!

I'm seeing a lot of posts encouraging folks to buy and read trans literature. In that spirit, I've made the course calendar and some of the readings for my Contemporary Transgender Literature and Cultural Production course available: drive.google.com/drive/folder...

It’s also just so deeply embarrassing for these people. You’re scared of trans TWELVE YEAR OLDS? They’re such a threat to you you want to mobilize the entire American empire against them? CHILDREN? Get a life. Absolute loser behavior.