Lauren Lassabe Shepherd

Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House.

Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity.

They are not the same.

🥹🥹 (printing and framing this thread)

Thank you for sharing! 🙏🙏

such a stellar conversation, one that pulled a lot of threads together and offered a far-clearer picture of the whole than I ever had before – and I research, write on, and teach about this stuff pretty much constantly!

take the little time to give it a listen; it's well worth it.

plus a little separate shout-out for @llassabe.bsky.social 's phenomenal American Campus podcast as a whole. if you're at all part of or connected to higher education, it's indispensable – for understanding How We Got Here, how "Here" arose from decades-long political currents, and so, so much else.

Scopes and the creationists with John K. Wilson - American Campus Podcast From a student of Saul Bellow and Barack Obama.References and suggested readings:John K Wilson. August 2025. “100 Years Ago, the Scopes Monkey Trial Discovered Academic Freedom.” Chronicle of Higher E...

My interview about the Scopes trial with @llassabe.bsky.social for her excellent American Campus podcast is now available:
americancampuspodcast.buzzsprout.com/2396665/epis...

Every time I read the chronicle of higher Ed’s daily briefing newsletter I ask myself why I didn’t just hit delete first

i am 25 but can someone explain to me why James Carville has so much purchase in politics. Like, the last election he won was in a different century

Poster with black texts and yellow highlights that includes the following: Race, Racism and the Liberal Arts A conversation with Lauren Lassabe Shepherd & Nayanika Ghosh On the erosion of neutrality and expertise moderated by Andy Hines Monday, October 27, 4:15pm IC Dome, Sproul 201 In-Person and Livestreamed Lauren Lassabe Shepherd is a historian of US colleges and universities. Shepherd is the author of Resistance from the Right (University of North Carolina Press, 2023) and host of the American Campus Podcast. Her forthcoming book projects are Degrees of Liberation with John R. Legg and Inventing the Liberal University. Nayanika Ghosh is a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies at Duke University. She recently completed her PhD in the history of science from Harvard University. Her research brings interdisciplinary scholarship on science, race, and gender in conversation with the histories of U.S. higher education, the New Left, and the Cold War. She is currently working on her first monograph, Genes and the Left: Sociobiology and the Backlash Against Radical Science.

Today at 4:15 ET! I’m talking to Lauren Lassabe Shepherd and Nayanika Ghosh about their work on the right’s strategies for delegitimizing forms of academic knowledge production. The event is at Swarthmore and there will be a live stream registration below.

swarthmore.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Beware of FIRE (and institutional neutrality) with Mary Anne Franks - American Campus Podcast On the rightwing origins of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.References and suggested readings:Mary Anne Franks. 2024. Fearless Speech: Breaking Free from the First Amendment. Bold ...

Really enjoyed chatting with @llassabe.bsky.social about how the manufactured college free speech crisis paved the way for the assault on universities today: americancampuspodcast.buzzsprout.com/2396665/epis...

Translation: "We find the bluest-haired, most septum-pierced, most sophomore-at-Bard-coded person to interview and then ask every other attendee to defend what they just said, and then start pitching a book about how people like her are the Real Threat™️ to democracy."

Following the infamous “Dear Colleague” letter sent out by the Department of Education in February 2025, many colleges and universities rushed to shutter diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices in the hopes of avoiding the fate of so many other institutions—namely, incurring the wrath of the Trump administration that views such programs as giving an unfair advantage to people of color and contributing to “the disenfranchisement of white men.” As of this writing, over 392 colleges and universities across 46 states including the District of Columbia have dismantled their DEI offices. Aggressive far-right government actors and their coordinated attacks on DEI efforts impact this study in a number of ways.

First, last year, many institutions were eager to participate in this study. By contrast, this year was marked by noticeable reticence. Johns Hopkins University opted not to participate in the study. Representatives from Stanford, Northwestern, and Yale did not reply to multiple email inquiries. Second, information about scholars programs, or really anything related to DEI, is harder to come by on many university websites. This trend towards “disappearing” DEI information is most clearly reflected at Northwestern, which scrubbed their university website entirely earlier this year.

Third, even among those institutions that still offer scholars programs for students from historically marginalized backgrounds, there appears to be a subtle shift in language. As last year’s table demonstrates, many programs highlighted that their target student demographic came from first-generation and/or lower socioeconomic backgrounds. This year, that is less obviously the case.

Each year I update this table which surveys scholars programs at the top 10 colleges and unis. Were schools that cared so much about DEI in 2020 still committed 5 years later?

Here's what I found:

How universities created NPR and PBS with Josh Shepperd Podcast Episode · American Campus Podcast · 10/12/2025 · 29m

Check out this episode of @llassabe.bsky.social 's podcast (and the podcast, in general!) with @joshshepperd.bsky.social - and thanks for the shout out!

(Btw, I learned last weekend that Bill Stepheny argues that the term shout out emerged on WBAU, early 80s.)

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...

I feel like someone really needs to write about why so many old people seem to be at TPUSA events aimed at youths

‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.

@politico.com details what Young Republicans say among themselves when no one else listening. It’s disgusting…anyone who still thinks the real treat comes from “woke” students shouting such ass hats, and their paid provocateurs, down should really read this article. www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

A banner featuring three photos of the webinar guests.

Oct. 22 | Webinar: "Is There a Higher Education Crisis?”:

Amid government intervention, shifting finances and competing perspectives, America’s colleges campuses face a new era. How did we get here?

Learn with us: bit.ly/4gXHJzB

And MAGA leadership is rife with advanced degrees from the Ivies, including Trump himself

What we should be asking is why somebody like Thiel, whose fortune was subsidized by massive public investments at University of Illinois, & humanities granting organizations at Stanford, wants to dismantle that educational infrastructure now that he’s rich.

Can an historian of journalism please explain to me how the rule developed where a president says something, it has to be taken seriously as possibly true, even if it is obviously false. This rule must have a history (meaning, it can change! That is my point!)

Heads up we’re doing CK quote memes styled as founding fathers portraiture now

College Textbooks: Wall Street’s New Cash Cow For years, textbook prices have burdened students already struggling with loans and sky-high tuition costs. Now Wall Street is taking over the market, tightening its grip on a staple campus institutio...

Shoutout to @katyaschwenk.bsky.social for covering this story in Jacobin:

jacobin.com/2025/09/wall...

The campus bookstore racket with Katya Schwenk - American Campus Podcast Does your campus use B&N Education or Follett?References and suggested readings:Katya Schwenk. September 2025. “College Textbooks: Wall Street’s New Cash Cow.” Jacobin.Vincent Bevins. 2020. The Ja...

On the Wall St racket in our campus bookstores

www.buzzsprout.com/2396665/epis...

PhD position in History (100%, 4 years) - Vacancies - University of Lucerne Assistant or doctoral positions, employment or internship: Looking for a job at the University of Lucerne? Find our listed open positions and apprenticeships here.

Want to work on the history of hair? I am looking for a doc and postdoc to join my project team researching #earlymodern hair, race, trade and multispecies history at the University of Lucerne.

Do apply and spread the word!

www.unilu.ch/en/universit...

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Can I buy shares of my own debt? Can I be both the investor and the investment 😭

Can’t possibly go wrong

“high-performing portions of the government’s portfolio of student debt”

We're getting a wave of articles that are like, "gee willikers it sure seems like the people who complained about 'cancel culture' for years really like canceling people."

Yes! This was extremely obvious at the time and a lot of us pointed it out!

People think they’re taking down a rich intellectual sinecure but they’re mostly terrorizing committed public servants who make $58,000 a year after 15 years of experience at a school that has to budget creatively so students can access textbooks.

Hey can anyone find one single example of this