Megan Burns

Labor Day is a very good day for my fellow academics to joint their local @aaup.org and if your school doesn't have one you should start one!

I've been in the trenches of my comprehensive exams so I'm late to the party, but I'm so proud of this paper! It was cathartic to reflect on field and the purpose of our work within it. Thank you @mwkraus.bsky.social for the opportunity to contribute!

It's publication day for our first paper out of the www.csinequality.org lab completed entirely at NU. To write it, we asked: what research in the social psychology of inequality do we like and why do we like it? The answer is this paper:

It makes no sense to frame this as some sort of correction — adequate nutrition is more important for kids with health conditions, not less.
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/w...

Op-ed: ‘Even God cannot hear us here’: What I witnessed inside an ICE women’s prison - The Tufts Daily On a Tuesday in March, I had spent most of my day working on my dissertation proposal and started to feel exhausted and hungry. It was the holy month of Ramadan, and I was fasting. Once finished, I qu...

"I learned from them that even in the most inhumane conditions, human dignity cannot be stripped away from human beings unless they decide to give up. I learned from these strong women what solidarity looks like." Please read Rümeysa Öztürk's account of her ICE detention.

Northwestern sued over suicide of professor targeted in China investigation The estate of Northwestern University Professor Jane Wu, who died by suicide last year after being investigated in a controversial federal probe, is suing the school for allegedly discriminating ag…

"Andrea Chu, the Midwest organizing director for Asian American Advancing Justice Chicago, said that Wu’s death shows the “devastating” impact of the China Initiative."

www.chicagotribune.com/2025/07/04/n...

As we begin a week of extreme heat in much of the U.S., you may find this Heat Emergency Preparedness Toolkit useful. It has recommendations for individuals, organizations, and local governments:

blogs.cornell.edu/heat/

Hi Neha! I’m a PhD student studying labor unions at Northwestern University! I noticed you work at Starbucks, I’m reaching out because I’m conducting paid interviews ($15) with Starbucks workers about their workplace experiences! Please follow/message me if you’d like to learn more & participate!

Hi Cami! I’m a PhD student studying labor unions at Northwestern University! I noticed you work at Starbucks, I’m reaching out because I’m conducting paid interviews ($15) with Starbucks workers about their workplace experiences! Please follow/message me if you’d like to learn more & participate!

How do experiences of discrimination shape beliefs about inter-minority solidarity, and how does it vary among Asian subgroups?

Read on to find out! By Dr. Chyei Vinluan and @danielsanji.bsky.social

Asian ethnic subgroup moderates the relationship between Asian American discrimination experiences and solidarity with Black Americans: https://osf.io/vr4sm

Hey Silvia! I’m a PhD student studying labor unions at Northwestern University! I noticed you work at Starbucks, I’m reaching out because I’m conducting paid interviews ($15) with Starbucks workers about their workplace experiences! Please follow/message me if you’d like to learn more & participate!

Hey Mari! I’m a PhD student studying labor unions at Northwestern University! I noticed you worked at Starbucks, I’m reaching out because I’m conducting paid interviews ($15) with Starbucks workers about their workplace experiences! Please follow/message me if you’d like to learn more & participate!

Hey Bella! I’m a PhD student studying labor unions at Northwestern University! I noticed you work at Starbucks, I’m reaching out because I’m conducting paid interviews ($15) with Starbucks workers about their workplace experiences! Please follow/message me if you’d like to learn more & participate!

Hey Evan! I’m a PhD student studying labor unions at Northwestern University! I noticed you work at Starbucks, I’m reaching out because I’m conducting paid interviews ($15) with Starbucks workers about their workplace experiences! Please follow/message me if you’d like to learn more & participate!

Hey Lyra! I’m a PhD student studying labor unions at Northwestern University! I noticed you work at Starbucks, I’m reaching out because I’m conducting paid interviews ($15) with Starbucks workers about their workplace experiences! Please follow/message me if you’d like to learn more & participate!

Hey Collin! I’m a PhD student studying labor unions at Northwestern University! I noticed you work at Starbucks, I’m reaching out because I’m conducting paid interviews ($15) with Starbucks workers about their workplace experiences! Please follow/message me if you’d like to learn more & participate!

Hey Saoirse! I’m a PhD student studying labor unions at Northwestern University! I noticed you work at Starbucks, I’m reaching out because I’m conducting paid interviews with Starbucks workers about their workplace experiences! Please follow/message me if you’d like to learn more & participate!

What's good for an organization often comes at the expense of its workers. In this pre-print, we find that exposure to workplace conflicts & information about union grievance procedures reduces perceived alignment between workers and management and increases union attitudes. Check it out below!

#MayDay is a good day to remember that organizations and workers often have misaligned goals. Reminders of this can make people more supportive of unions (according to research by @megan-elaine-burns.bsky.social )!

osf.io/preprints/ps...

What DEI threatens isn’t merit. It’s monopoly. Political science professor Hakeem Jefferson argues for DEI's importance to de-monopolizing universities.

A colleague at Stanford’s business school used The Stanford Daily to argue—poorly—against DEI. The piece was riddled with historical errors and left one searching for fact, so I broke my public writing hiatus to respond.

I hope you’ll read and share the piece.

stanforddaily.com/2025/04/22/w...

This whole piece is great but this paragraph especially:

Check out @megan-elaine-burns.bsky.social's new work on worker/org (mis)alignment and union attitudes ✊🏻

A working paper by @megan-elaine-burns.bsky.social and @mwkraus.bsky.social suggests that in today’s climate of economic inequality and growing cultural awareness of labor unions, workers—particularly young ones—may be increasingly interested in unionizing. www.ipr.northwestern.edu/our-work/wor...

NIH terminates $13 million grant on dementia A $12.9 million grant for a study on dementia risks among at-risk U.S. populations was terminated by the National Institutes of Health.

“Older Black Americans are twice as likely as white patients to develop [dementia]. Just as it is not illegal to research breast cancer in women, Mezuk said, it should not be illegal to research dementia in Black and lower-income white Americans.”

www.michigandaily.com/news/researc...

I'm so sorry Franki!!

A letter from PhD student Ranjani Srinivasan, on Columbia’s complicity with ICE and why she fled the U.S. to Canada.

“Innocence will not protect you… What has happened to me can happen to you.”

UMich announces cuts to all DEI programs The University of Michigan announced cuts to campus-wide diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives Thursday, effective immediately.

I'd long suspected that many elite universities were merely corporations masquerading as educational centers, but I never thought we'd see the mask come off quite like this. Spineless, soulless, weak behavior from one of the most powerful universities in the world.

Let’s be clear:

If the government can arrest, detain, and disappear peaceful protestors, none of us are free.

That’s not law and order. It’s fascism. And we should all be outraged that this is being done in our name.