Laura Sell

Why This Essay Could Cause the University of Virginia to Shut Down How Linda McMahon’s latest “compact” would do deep and permanent harm to American higher education

I wrote about the “compact” for higher education

newrepublic.com/article/2013...

As redistricting fight looms, North Carolina poll shows voters of all parties oppose gerrymandering • NC Newsline A poll found 84% of North Carolina voters say redrawing maps for partisan advantage is “never acceptable” and they should be drawn neutrally.

Voters across party lines agree. We want fair maps. #ncpol #gerrymandering https://ncnewsline.com/2025/10/02/as-redistricting-fight-looms-north-carolina-poll-shows-voters-of-all-parties-oppose-gerrymandering/

Holy shit!

What a life, what an unequivocally good person who devoted herself to making the world a better place.

Academic Staff Need Academic Freedom, Too (opinion) Colleges cannot continue to operate as if all staff work is identical, Aaron Stoller writes.

Staff where I work have been targeted for their political views in the past. Academic staff like book editors deserve academic freedom too.
www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

Opinion | Trump Has No Mandate to Destroy America

my latest is expanding on the observation that your view of the politics of opposition to the administration depend largely on your view of the election (gift link)

Cover of Heart the Lover by Lily King

I recommend the new book from @lilyking.bsky.social, "Heart the Lover," especially if you went to UNC-CH in the 80s or 90s! Fun Easter eggs in there for locals. But also smart and romantic.
groveatlantic.com/book/heart-t...

I am definitely "let me read this!" years old.

The Publishing Industry Has a Gambling Problem | The Walrus Companies keep betting on the next bestseller. Literature is poorer for it

"Publishing is an industry with stagnant salaries, considerable instability, and high turnover. 'It’s hard to invest in authors when the people who are working on the books are not being invested in.'"
thewalrus.ca/the-publishi...

My colleagues & I mentor over a dozen student workers a year, teaching them all aspects of publishing and helping prepare them for jobs.

I am 52, and yes, I was assigned full books to read starting in 5th grade. By senior year, probably about 10 novels, plays, and books of poetry. My kids are 20 & 23. In public school in NC, my son was not assigned a full book (in AP classes). In private, my daughter read 2 or 3 a year.

I was unfamiliar with this recent EU law that could cause millions of books to be pulped or banned in the EU because of burdensome rules. Crazy.

Where does Western NC stand a year after Helene? • NC Newsline Farmers, small businesses, and local governments are hanging by a thread. We need officials in Washington to do their job and act with urgency.

"Farmers, small businesses, & local governments are hanging by a thread. We need officials in Washington to do their job and act with urgency, not hide behind empty rhetoric about creating efficiency." #ncpol #helene https://ncnewsline.com/2025/09/23/where-does-western-nc-stand-a-year-after-helene/

YouTube video by Robert Davis 'Sounds like threats to me': Jimmy Kimmel bashes FCC chair in new skit with famous actor

This part was pretty brilliant

Heavily Damaged by Chantal, Eno River Trails Start to Reopen Huge swaths of land and many trails along the Eno were closed due to dangerous flooding, following Chantal. Now they are slowly reopening.

Glad parts of the Eno are back open, but looks like it's a long haul before it's back to "normal."
indyweek.com/news/chantal...

How Mutualism Between Humans and Beavers Can Boost Our Ecosystems (and Our Happiness) I have been walking, nearly daily, past the lodge of beavers who have begun to asynchronously collaborate with a group of engineers. In this case, the engineers did not reshape logs that had been c…

Lovely piece about beavers who have improved a stretch of Rocky Branch creek near NC State.
lithub.com/how-mutualis...

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...

Whatever you do, please don’t stop reading.

Read for joy. Read for education. Read for resistance. Read banned books. Read books by marginalized authors. Read about experiences that differ from your own.

Just. Keep. Reading.

I am bummed that we cannot watch Only Murders and Abbott Elementary, but I think @tightheadpop.bsky.social did the right thing canceling our Hulu/Disney+ bundle. #BoycottDisney

North Carolina lifts prescription requirement for adults to get the new COVID-19 vaccines The North Carolina health officials have issued a standing order that allows adults over the age of 18 with a high-risk condition to get a COVID-19 vaccine without a prescription.

This is good news. Thanks, @joshsteinnc.bsky.social!
www.wunc.org/health/2025-...

Photo of Nnenna Freelon, a Black woman wearing a white shirt and hoop earrings, with upswept hair, and a pink graphic reading "An evening with Nnenna Freelon. Conversation and book launch with Mark Anthony Neal and Karla F.C. Holloway. Thursday, October 23rd 6:00 pm. Nasher Museum of Art. dukeupress.edu The Duke Press and Nasher logos are at the bottom of the graphic.

Durham! Join jazz great Nnenna Freelon and friends for the launch of her new memoir, "Beneath the Skin of Sorrow" next month at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. The event is free, but tickets are required, so get yours now.
buff.ly/iYf1tzw

Becoming increasingly clear we’re gonna have to build a parallel infrastructure for all the media we really love. The reason all of this is happening under the color of law is hyperconsolidation, dissent being traded straight up for merger approval, or fear of harassment.

Suzanne Swierc Let me be clear: if you think Charlie Kirk was a wonderful person, we can't be friends. His death is a tragedy, and I can and do feel for his wife and children. I believe in the Resurrection, and while it's difficult, I can and do pray for his soul. Charlie Kirk's death is a reflection of the violence, fear, and hatred he sowed. It does not excuse his death, AND it's a sad truth. The shooting is a tragedy, and I can and do feel for a college campus experiencing an active shooter situation. The deaths of Melissa and Mark Hortman, the children shot and killed in Minneapolis last month, and the children shot in Colorado today are all tragedies that also deserve your attention. Charlie Kirk excused the deaths of children in the name of the second amendment.

Here’s what a Ball State University employee said that led to their termination:

The right to speak our minds and to disagree with each other - to disturb, even - is at the very heart of what it means to be a free people. It is not to be denied. Not by violence, not by the abuse of governmental power, nor by acts of corporate cowardice. As a Guild, we stand united in opposition to anyone who uses their power and influence to silence the voices of writers, or anyone who speaks in dissent. If free speech applied only to ideas we like, we needn't have bothered to write it into the Constitution. What we have signed on to - painful as it may be at times - is the freeing agreement to disagree. Shame on those in government who forget this founding truth. As for our employers, our words have made you rich. Silencing us impoverishes the whole world. The WA stands with Jimmy Kimmel and his writers.

WGA Statement on ABC’s Decision to Pull Jimmy Kimmel Live!

The union representing the musicians from Jimmy Kimmel’s band releases a statement calling the FCC’s pressure on Disney “state censorship.”

"This isn't who we are," says nation whose history books are a bunch of redactions

Anyway, now we know what the FCC thinks is in the public interest:

Fox host advocating for executing homeless people? Yes

ABC comic suggesting Trumpers are using a death cynically? No

With friends like these ...

Charlie Kirk, Redeemed: A Political Class Finds Its Lost Cause By ignoring the rhetoric and actions of the Turning Point USA founder, pundits and politicians are sanitizing his legacy.

Ta-Nehisi Coates: "Words are not violence, nor are they powerless. . . . If you would look away from the words of Charlie Kirk, from what else would you look away?"
www.vanityfair.com/news/story/c...

I Have One of the U.S.’s Most Controversial Jobs. Moments Like This Make It All Worth It. I’m a librarian, which means I’m also a therapist, personal assistant, and first responder.

This is so lovely. I've said it before, libraries and librarians are the best!
slate.com/life/2025/09...