Susan Shepler

Yesterday I was told that the class I’m scheduled to teach this month, Confronting Oppression & Injustice, is no longer part of our curriculum. This is a required class yet there was no discussion, no faculty vote, just an email saying the class no longer exists. This is what it’s like in Texas now.

The Regime's goal is to grind everyone down. Plain & simple. Our goal is to refuse this by taking turns to fight where and how we can. When one group needs to bow out, then another group needs to step in and so on. We don't all have to do everything. We can all do something though. Stay in the fight

Sierra Leone tops global survey on people experiencing daily worry Sub-Saharan Africa was found to be the global epicenter of self-reported feelings of anger, worry, sadness, and physical pain, Gallup reported.

Sierra Leone tops global survey on people experiencing daily worry

www.semafor.com/article/10/1...

Image: A variation on Benjamin Franklin’s “Join, or Die” engraving, originally published in the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1754. Each segment of the snake has the name of a university sent Trump’s “compact”: Texas, AZ, Vanderbilt, USC, Dartmouth, UVA, Brown, Penn, MIT.

Shared courtesy of my Penn History colleague, Ben Nathans

Professor hivemind: I'm developing a new course for freshmen on "human rights and body modification." My way into the topic is debates around Female Genital Cutting. Any suggestions for other topics? Readings?

All those generals and senior officers flown in from their actual jobs, at enormous taxpayer expense, only to listen to two idiots blathering in ways that defy credulity. Their group chats must be on fire.

The Continent 27 SEPTEMBER 2025 | ISSUE 215 15 INVESTIGATION The Djiboutian massacre Ethiopia won’t acknowledge Djibouti drones killed eight people on the other side of its border with Ethiopia. Djibouti claimed they were terrorists. Ethiopia said nothing. This investigation found that some of the dead were Ethiopians, revealing another episode in Addis’s tendency to let its neighbours kill its citizens with impunity. Crossing the line: Djibouti’s bombs landed inside Ethiopia, killing civilians – not armed fighters. zecharias zelalem On 30 January this year, a drone manned from Djibouti dropped a bomb on a funeral gathering in Siyaru, a remote, semi-arid village near the Ethiopia Djibouti border. As rescuers rushed in, a second bomb dropped. And then a third. At least eight people were killed, including three children. Several others were injured. Given the village’s remoteness, the incident might have gone unreported if graphic images of the dead hadn’t spread across Ethiopian social media. A statement from the Djibouti’s defence ministry said the drone struck rebel fighters from the Front for the

Restoration of Unity and Democracy (Frud), a Djiboutian political party with a military wing. It has been fighting for Afar interests in Djibouti since the 1990s. The Afar are a community split by the colonial border separating Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Eritrea. “Eight terrorists were neutralised on site,” said a Djibouti military statement. “Unfortunately, collateral damage among Djiboutian civilians in the area has been documented.” International media, including Voice of America, Agence France Presse, and Radio France Internationale reported this version of events. Now, new findings from an open In recovery: Mariam Mohammed Abdullah was injured in the drone strike. source investigation by The Continent reveal a different reality. The bombs landed inside Ethiopia, not in Djibouti, and civilians – not armed fighters – were killed. That distinction matters. It shows Ethiopia is once again tolerating a foreign military targeting its own citizens, as it did with Eritrea during the Tigray conflict. A transparent lie Even before the ink could dry on the Djiboutian military’s statement, The Addis Standard and human rights groups in Djibouti were emphatic that the strike had actually occurred inside Ethiopia’s Afar region. But Alexis Mohamed, an adviser to Djiboutian President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh, rubbished these reports in now-deleted social media posts. The Continent got to work to figure out what really happened. Over the course of eight months, we collected eyewitness testimonies, interviewed human rights activists in Ethiopia and Djibouti, and examined images and footage from the strike. Our findings align with those of Djiboutian activists, who pinpointed Siyaru in Ethiopia’s Afar region as the site of the strike. The ammunition residue found on the night of the strike confirms the bomb was manufactured by Roketsan, a state run weapons manufacturer in Türkiye. Former US army explosives expert Trevor Ball identified t…

THREAD: this investigation took up over half my year, but it's here in @thecontinent.org:
A Djiboutian drone strike in January was depicted as a army operation targeting rebels. It was actually a massacre of civilians. The bloodshed & coverup implicating Ethiopia, Djibouti, France & Turkiye.
#OSINT

Ep 228 - Billionaires as Insta-Experts: How Our Media Conflates Extreme Wealth with Expertise Citations Needed is a podcast about the media, power, PR, and the history of bullshit. It is hosted by Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson, and produced by Florence Barrau-Adams.

In Ep 228, "Billionaires as Insta-Experts: How Our Media Conflates Extreme Wealth with Expertise," we break down the media convention of assuming the rich are per se experts on everything from education to "the economy" to poverty in Africa when, in reality, they are Just Some Guys.

Your fans demand a tour T-shirt!

We have been shadowbanned on this event and yet we are nearly sold out…come help us sell out and show your love and support for Palestine and Gaza.

www.ticketmaster.com/voices-for-g...

I know what you mean. It took me like thirty seconds to relax into it and think "well, this is obviously the future."

Assistant or Associate Professor in Educational Policy Studies - Madison, Wisconsin, United States Current Employees: If you are currently employed at any of the Universities of Wisconsin, log in to Workday to apply through the internal application process.Job Category:FacultyEmployment Type:Regula...

The Educational Policy Studies Department at UW-Madison is hiring an Assistant or Associate Professor with a focus on climate, sustainability, and education. Please share with folks you think would be interested! #climatepolicy #edpolicy #EduSky jobs.wisc.edu/jobs/assista...

Censorship Is the Authoritarian’s Dream The right to free expression must include the right to say horrible and evil things.

"More professors in the United States have been fired for controversial views in the past week than any other week in all of American history."
www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

Is it just me, or does anyone else feel like as soon as they finish an article or manuscript review another request for review comes in? It's like clockwork.

In line for my flu AND COVID vaccines at Kaiser Richmond in my beautiful California. Line’s around the block.

Call for chapters – Sustainable development in Africa : What concept for what practical application ? Call for chapters – Sustainable development in Africa : What concepts for what practical application ? Dir : Etienne Bourel (Leyde University), Constance Perrin-Joly (CFEE), Tessa Minter (Leyde Univer...

cfee.hypotheses.org/12643

Wall-to-Wall UC labor union rally tomorrow in front of the UC Regents meeting. Our message to Trump: Hands off our UC!!

"Women's Wars are not Men's Wars" - Prof Cynthia Enloe and Feminist Curiosity in Times of Militarisation - Now and Men How do women and men suffer in different ways in war, and how are ideas about masculinity and femininity manipulated to promote militarisation?

Podcast from the always inspiring Cynthia Enloe. nowandmen.net/episode/cynt...

UC Berkeley gives Trump administration 160 names in antisemitism probe UC Berkeley gave the Trump administration the names of 160 students, faculty and staff and info about their “potential connection to reports of alleged antisemitism” — sparking due-process...

UC-Berkeley gives Trump administration 160 names “related” to anti-semitism, mostly for voicing support for Palestinians. Judith Butler is among them, she calls this “McCarthyism” UC Berkeley gives Trump administration 160 names in antisemitism probe

www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...

For my Salone people

See ICE? Mark the location on Waze as "icy conditions". Brilliant tactic being used in DC. Let's spread it.

Majority of Sierra Leoneans want to leave the country, mostly to find work, escape poverty

Head over to our website to read more: bit.ly/4gdOxZv

#SierraLeone #Migration #VoicesAfrica

Please share: @alanjacobs.bsky.social and I are running a Jan '26 course at @gesis.org Cologne on

𝐂𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐥 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐐𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐢𝐱𝐞𝐝 𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐝𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡

🕵️Process tracing + Bayesian inference + graphical causal models

All in two heady days.

training.gesis.org?site=pDetail...

Democratic Republic of the Congo declares Ebola virus disease outbreak in Kasai Province Kinshasa – Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have declared an outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Kasai Province where 28 suspected cases and 15 deaths, including four health w...

Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo: 28 suspected cases and 15 deaths, including four health workers, have been reported as of Sept 4.

Disease surveillance and health support, yanked by the U.S., can catch these outbreaks early. So many cases already.
www.afro.who.int/countries/de...

Call for Proposals, Wenner-Gren Symposium 2027 The Wenner-Gren Foundation is now accepting proposals for our Spring 2027 symposium.

The Wenner-Gren Foundation is now accepting proposals for our Spring 2027 symposium.
Deadline: October 10, 2025.
wennergren.org/article/call...

In Post-War Ethiopia, Tigray’s Female Veterans Fear Being Forgotten The women and girls who took up arms for Tigray are now at risk of being left behind in Ethiopia’s postwar transition.

The women and girls who took up arms for Tigray are now at risk of being left behind in Ethiopia’s postwar transition, Mehret Berhe and @hilarymatfess.bsky.social write.

I know there's a lot happening today, but this is sneaking in under the radar. This proposed new rule would absolutely crush foreign PhD students, potentially making it impossible for them to enroll with any certainty of their ability to finish www.politico.com/news/2025/08...

SIS is hiring

The School of International Service is currently inviting applications for three tenure-track assistant professor positions beginning August 1, 2026. 🧵 ⬇️ #AcademicSky

Photo of DOGE staffer Nate Cavanagh, a 28-year-old white man in a blue pullover, carrying a black backpack.

Photo of 53-year-old Afghan scholar Mohammad Halimi. He is sitting, wearing white pants and shirt with a brown vest.

On the left: Nate Cavanagh, a 28-year-old DOGE staffer and college dropout.

On the right: Mohammad Halimi, a 53-year-old exiled Afghan scholar.

This is the story of how DOGE targeted Halimi on social media.

Then the Taliban took his family. 🧵

Atrocities Keep Getting In Frame Of D.C. Tourist’s Shot WASHINGTON—Emphasizing that he wasn’t going to leave the nation’s capital without getting one good photograph, D.C. tourist Stan Jacobs expressed frustration Friday after atrocities kept getting in th...

theonion.com/atrocities-k...