Katy Powers

'When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist,' the Norwegian Nobel Committee said as it announced Maria Corina Machado as the winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize

very cool - congratulations, @laurenrprather.bsky.social !

My new op-ed with @lkfazio.bsky.social:

Trump sent a 'compact' to our universities. They should reject this devil's bargain.
Any institution that yields to these broad and intrusive demands would forever be subservient to the whims of the government.
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

The Perverse Consequences of the Easy A In the era of grade inflation, students at top colleges are more stressed than ever.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

🚨 Very flattered to have a piece, w/ the terrific
@miacosta.bsky.social, in the new @apsa.bsky.social Experiments Newsletter!

In it, we offer some thoughts on how to think about how "realistic" experimental results are. Might be useful for students 😁

connect.apsanet.org/s42/newslett...

"many ... wrongly believe there would be one clear unambiguous moment where we go from 'democracy' to 'authoritarianism.' Instead, this is exactly how it happens — a blurring here, a norm destroyed there, a presidential diktat unchallenged. Then you wake up one morning and our country is different."

No one would have any confusion about what is happening if they saw it in another country.

Wow. A group of top scholars at Harvard just sent a letter to its president, Alan Garber, warning against surrendering to Trump.

Signatories include Steven Levitsky, Dani Rodrik, Ryan Enos, Theda Skocpol, and Steven Walt.

Someone forwarded it to me. Read it here:

Also, *every* authoritarian goes after universities and the media. These institutions have flaws now - in some cases, very deep ones. But the attacks on those flaws are pretextual. Treating them otherwise normalizes deeply authoritarian acts.

Thanks, too, to the reviewers and editors at @polbehavior.bsky.social - who shepherded us through an incredibly productive review process.

We're grateful to Dartmouth's Ethics Institute for supporting this project, and to the many excellent research assistants who helped us over the past few years. @dartmouthdickey.bsky.social

Moralization and Foreign Policy Attitudes - Political Behavior How do core beliefs about right and wrong shape American attitudes about foreign policy? Political psychologists increasingly recognize that moral conviction constitutes an important and consequential...

"Moralization and Foreign Policy Attitudes" (with the esteemed Sarah Maxey) is out today in Political Behavior: doi.org/10.1007/s111.... We examine who moralizes what foreign policies - and what consequences follow from moral conviction about foreign policy.

how to succeed in business without really trying?

Our paper now published in the April issue of @pnasnexus.org - and perhaps getting a real-world test of its propositions... @yusakuhoriuchi.bsky.social, @kmatush.bsky.social , @kepowers.bsky.social (I don't necessarily like Trump's research design, though - how did he get that past the IRB?). :^(

Dartmouth removes main diversity and inclusion web page A College spokesperson said the webpage will be republished soon after the College makes “a few small changes."

Dartmouth removes main diversity and inclusion web page

Apparently the website will be back shortly, after a "few small changes" are made to ensure that Dartmouth isn't practicing "illegal DEI."

My friend @casmudde.bsky.social offers a wise take, as usual. A key point re: agenda-setting: "...politics is largely about defining problems, not just solving them."

Thanks to @dartmouthdickey.bsky.social for supporting studies 2 and 3 in this project!

Teamed up with the brilliant trio of @yusakuhoriuchi.bsky.social, @kmatush.bsky.social, and @begoldsmith.bsky.social for this paper about the effect of US democratic backsliding (at pre-2025 levels) on foreign public opinion. Open access link below!

Stop pretending that the authoritarian repression is BECAUSE of the problems in {higher education, the media, the law, government, immigration policy, etc.}. This is what authoritarians do. If they didn't focus on these justifications, they'd come up with other ones.

Hey academic friends — universities need to stand together in the face of this onslaught. Please help mobilize your faculties, boards of trustees, etc to get your university’s leadership to stand with those already getting hit. Hiding won’t work. They are coming for you next.

Not exaggerating when I say I would like a personal, handwritten apology from every pundit who barfed out a dozen "the left wants to change the way you talk!" op-eds based on non-mandatory guidelines in obscure PDFs.

And here's the thing: institutional neutrality, even in its most robust version (Kalven/ Chicago) specifically calls for universities to speak out vociferously on *matters that directly impact their institutional mission*.

If research funding ain't it, then what is??

Now *this* is a free speech crisis . . . in contrast to statistically small and periodic controversies over speakers on college campuses.

Job market students, consider doing an awesome postdoc with us at Dartmouth! Position could be filled by development, trade, applied.

Because we don't have a PhD program, you can get a lot of time with faculty here.

Also it's in New Hampshire ⛷️🚵‍♂️🏔️🛶

Link below, deadline is in 2 weeks, please share!