eli

The High Price of Barring International Students Global collaboration is necessary for success, if not survival, in our hyper-connected world.

An excellent read from my colleague Dr. Leslie Harris.

This EO is literally banning the scientific consensus that sex is, in fact, not binary since intersex people have always existed and there is even a biological explanation for it

YouTube video by LastWeekTonight Trans Athletes: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

last week tonight did a great episode on “fairness” and trans athletes. it’s worth watching, precisely because fairness seems like something we can all get behind. but oliver and co. show us what trans folks have been saying all along: it was never about fairness.

AI isn’t neutral and isn’t free from bias. AI is a reflection of society, which is embedded with biases, racism, sexism, homophobia, etc., and a reflection of those who create it, who have been deeply conditioned by those biases and -isms.

It’s Not Too Late to Tell the Truth About Antisemitism on Campus BY BROOKE LOBER, ELI MEYERHOFF, AND EMILY SCHNEIDER The climate on American university campuses is dangerous. Administrators ban protests for Palestinian rights. Immigration and Customs Enforcement…

NEW on Academe:

“It’s time to call out the big lie for what it is: an effort to silence dissent & smear protesters. Pro-Israel advocates have aligned themselves w/ the forces of repression….Cloaking right-wing commitments to racism under the guise of fighting antisemitism will never keep us safe.“

A fun reminder that a loss of 60,000 jobs in and around academia is ~50% more than all coal mining jobs in the entire country.

Kansas stays winning. Love you Kansas

I changed my browser's search from Google to DuckDuckGo a few months back and I've been very pleased with it so far. (I still add -ai to all my searches though, bc even DDG gives you an ai response sometimes.) This is a great new feature for image searches.

There's this trope that you have to be so into your PhD topic that you live and breathe it and can't possibly stop thinking about it, so here's your regular reminder that passion is good, but burnout isn't. It's okay and recommended to take breaks, enjoy the weekend, and treat a PhD like a job.

“The president cut your health care so he could build himself a golden ballroom” is a pretty easy message to sell

‘Shameful’: Students, alumni say Brown deal with Trump administration disrespects trans students - The Boston Globe Students were pleased that Brown will not be paying the federal government, but took issue with the university adopting Trump’s policies on gender identity.

Glad to have been quoted in this @alexagagosz.bsky.social article by on Brown's disgusting capitulation to the Trump administration.

I remain in solidarity with all the students, staff and faculty impacted by this horrendous decision.

Unpaywalled in next skeet.

Holy fucking shit this is SO violent. My god. Absolutely evil and vile.

Readers, if you don't know, course evals are often a nightmare for women & faculty of color. I've had friends & colleagues report students commenting on their appearance, using racial slurs, & making all sorts of misogynistic comments.
white male = genius, non-white/female = pushing an agenda.

Universities are rushing to eliminate the terms diversity, equity and inclusion from all programming while forcing students to sit through pro-Israel propaganda and are still being attacked by the Trump administration. No concession will ever be enough.

Northwestern to eliminate more than 400 staff positions amid ‘mounting financial pressures’ Northwestern is set to eliminate more than 400 staff positions as it continues to grapple with a $790 million federal funding freeze in place from the Trump administration, multiple people familiar wi...

BREAKING: Northwestern announced Tuesday afternoon that it will eliminate more than 400 staff positions.
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Reported by @jerrwu.bsky.social

NYT headline: Harvard Is Said to Be Open to Spending $500 Million to Resolve Trump Dispute

“Passerby Is Said to Be Willing to Hand Over Wallet to Armed Robber to Resolve Dispute.”

Former GSRC director Matt Abtahi sues NU for wrongful termination Former Gender and Sexuality Resource Center Director Matt Abtahi sued Northwestern on July 17 in the Circuit Court of Cook County, claiming discriminatory and retaliatory behavior from the University ...

dailynorthwestern.com/2025/07/28/c...

Pete Buttigieg weighs in on ‘fairness’ of transgender kids playing girls’ sports He said he rejected blanket policies about trans participation in sports.

Buttigieg said parents have legitimate concerns.

To be clear: If you cannot be relied on to unequivocally defend transgender kids, you can’t be relied on to defend anyone or anything.

www.advocate.com/news/pete-bu...

The shift from pensions to 401ks played a big role in fueling Americans' hesitance to tax big wealth. Because now, even Americans who have only a tiny retirement account feel invested in the success of an institution that overwhelmingly benefits those much wealthier than them.

AI is transforming how we communicate in relationships ‘All I wanted was to feel seen, heard and understood by him, but instead, he was sending me a robot’s questions’

I'm quoted in this piece. In short: do not use ChatGPT or any generative AI as a “therapist.” It’s not sentient. It doesn’t care. It may even lead people toward harm. And nothing shared is protected by HIPAA or real privacy standards; it's fodder for the machine. www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture...

The entire Trek fandom should be pro-Palestine because it’s literally Bajor

Trump demands payment from NU amid antisemitism allegations President Donald Trump’s administration reportedly seeks payments from Northwestern and several other universities before it restores their withheld federal funding. These schools are in active talks ...

The Trump administration seeks fines from Northwestern and several other schools in exchange for restored access to federal funding.
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Reported by Edward Simon Cruz

Very excited that Men and Masculinities is officially starting their search for a new editorial team. Kristen, Joseph and I will rotate off our second term at the end of the year. Please share and apply if you're interested. Feel free to reach out: journals.sagepub.com/pb-assets/PD...

“Copy and Paste” Practices: A Multi-Site Critical Discourse Analysis of Arguments About Anti-DEI Legislation This manuscript presents the results of a critical discourse analysis designed to investigate how legislators and other actors leverage discursive strategies to frame the need for/impacts of state-...

Sharing my new article w/@crystalegarcia.bsky.social & @drantonioduran.bsky.social in the Journal of Higher Education (50 free at link). We conducted a critical discourse analysis of the arguments used in several states for/against anti-DEI legislation in '23-24.
www.tandfonline.com/eprint/XRP9D...

The big open secret about "elite" Ivy League universities is that the stuff you learn there you can learn at any reputable college or university in America. What you're paying for is a network whose value is derived from the brand.

And they're about to do to the brand what they did to Twitter.

If you need a reason to resist and refuse the entrenchment of AI technologies in schools and demand a different vision of education, here's one: "The Trump administration is willing to put resources behind AI education and AI literacy, while it strips funds for actual public education."

Like I said, AI is gonna be as homophobic, transphobic, albeist, racist, rooted in white supremacy as our current political regime.

South Gaza: Tents, Food & Water **With Famine on the rise, we will significantly lower tent purchases and focus on food (rice and bread) and water over the next couple of weeks**

Here is a link to donate to the Sameer Project, an organization doing all that can be done by a grassroots organization to help people on the ground in Gaza:

chuffed.org/project/1132...

If you don't already know who Pauli Murray is, you should. A Black trans man, they were a central figure in the Civil Rights era, organizing around the intersections of race and gender. They coined "Jane Crow," criticizing the respectable movement leaders for disregarding women in their campaigns.