Ryan A. Miller (he/him)

Supporters of anti-DEI legislation framed DEI as amorphous (i.e., it can be anything and everything to suit their purposes) while higher education leaders appeared to remain silent or superficially neutral in response.

We show how arguments were reflective of a nationalized anti-DEI discourse and not grounded in any particular local/state rationales.

“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...

"Higher education policy in the United States is now being developed through ad hoc deals, a mode of regulation that is not only inimical to the ideal of the university as a site of critical thinking but also corrosive to the democratic order and to law itself."
balkin.blogspot.com/2025/07/regu...

My friend @cantb.bsky.social joins us for the penultimate pod of the season to talk about the state of American higher education 9% into the Trump Administration and how on earth Harvard got to be popular.

Big news: The Trump administration has essentially proposed shutting down tribal colleges and universities, displacing more than 20,000 students.

My latest for ProPublica:

I have a new article in Innovative Higher Education examining whether new college presidents improve institutions' financial health. There isn't much happening at publics, but new leaders at privates cut expenses in a meaningful way.

Official link, prepub below. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Let’s Remember Why There’s a System of Federal Research Grants to Universities This is largely preaching to the choir. But it’s absent enough from...

Let’s Remember Why There’s a System of Federal Research Grants to Universities talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/lets-...

Free Speech Expert Discusses Open Expression and Trump Michelle Deutchman, who leads UC’s free expression center, says institutions are grappling with how to promote student expression amid the government’s crackdown on protesters.

5 Questions on Open Expression in the Era of Trump

Michelle Deutchman, who leads UC’s free expression center, says institutions are grappling with how to promote student expression amid the government’s crackdown on protesters. #HigherEd #EDUSky #AcademicSky bit.ly/4drRCDF

journal_vol51no3 Experience our interactive, profoundly engaging digital publication!

New open access article w/Dr. Morgan Murray in the Journal of College and University Student Housing: "Isolation and Belonging: The Complex Reality of Black Resident Assistants." Thanks for your important research & letting me collaborate with you! Access p. 30:
www.nxtbook.com/acuho-i/acuh...

How Trump’s Proposed TRIO Cuts Could Hamper College Access The Trump administration wants to eliminate the federally funded student support program. That could be devastating for low-income students and the institutions that serve them.

I can unequivocally say that MANY of the rural, poor and working-class students in my research credit TRIO to their success and continued enrollment in college. These cuts would be devastating to communities like where I come from. Write your congresspeople. www.insidehighered.com/news/student...

🧪FY26 Proposed Budget:
The president’s proposal would be disastrous for Americans’ health & scientific capabilities. The administration seeks to slash $18B from NIH (~40%), $3.6B from CDC (~39%), $5.2B from NSF (~57%), & AHRQ by 35% & stops future grants.
@aaas.org @researchamerica.bsky.social

Bowing to External Pressures: How the Threat of Lawsuits Dilutes Bias Response in Higher Education - Ryan A. Miller, 2025 Bias response teams (BRTs) have proliferated in colleges and universities as administrative mechanisms to respond to hate and bias incidents on campuses. Advoca...

Former Fellow Ryan Miller publishes new research examining bias response in higher education.

Read the full article here:
buff.ly/aDizjqJ

#HigherEd #FreeSpeech

Graphic of Washington Post poll from April 18-22, 2025, showing "Majorities of Americans oppose various Trump proposals" highlighting two lines in particular: "Increasing the Federal Government's role in how private universities operate" - 28 percent support, 70 percent oppose "Reducing federal funding for medical research" - 21 percent support, 77 percent oppose

University leaders need to understand: they are holding INCREDIBLY good cards.

It is so rare in today's polarized era to have the support of 70+ percent of the public against the Trump admiministration on anything. Universities have that—AND winning legal arguments.

Opinion | Higher Ed Is Adrift While colleges duck and cover, their employees feel angry and abandoned.

My latest. It’s feelings-forward and was hard to write.

“It’s an isolating experience when your industry, the source of your livelihood, is being uniquely targeted by your own government, and many Americans are either completely unaware or cheering on its demise.”
www.chronicle.com/article/high...

Thanks, Robert! Very excited to join y'all!

Life update: As of August 1, I will be Professor of Higher Education & Ph.D. program director at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I am grateful for the past 9 years at UNC Charlotte & excited for what lies ahead!

provost.uchicago.edu/reports/repo...

"... instances will arise in which the society, or segments of it, threaten the very mission of the university and its values of free inquiry. In such a crisis, it becomes the obligation of the university as an institution to oppose such measures and actively to defend its interests and its values."

Ironic given this part of the Kalven report on the university defending itself that the institutional neutrality advocates skip over -

More Than 200 Higher-Ed Leaders Decry Trump Administration’s ‘Unprecedented Government Overreach’ The statement marks college presidents’ largest collective rebuke of the White House’s actions to date.

“We’re all at risk of being a target, and we have two choices. We can either let that risk render us voiceless, or we can use our voices to speak out against these attacks on higher education,” Pasquerella said.

www.chronicle.com/article/more...

Bowing to External Pressures: How the Threat of Lawsuits Dilutes Bias Response in Higher Education - Ryan A. Miller, 2025 Bias response teams (BRTs) have proliferated in colleges and universities as administrative mechanisms to respond to hate and bias incidents on campuses. Advoca...

New open access article in @aeraedresearch.bsky.social AERA Open that extends my research on bias response in higher education and illustrates how institutions retreat from educationally and legally defensible practices purely to avoid the threat of lawsuits.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

New publication with @drantonioduran.bsky.social & @jaudrazona.bsky.social reviewing the last 15 years of research about disabled queer & trans college students published in the Journal of Diversity in Higher Ed
@apajournals.bsky.social

psycnet.apa.org/record/2025-...

Survey: Texas DEI Ban Negatively Impacts LGBTQ Students As DEI bans take hold nationwide, interviews with Texas college students and employees offer some hints about what could be on the horizon for universities and students across the country.

www.insidehighered.com/news/student...

(1/3) Publication Announcement!

I am thrilled to share: "A systematic literature review on disabled queer and trans college student scholarship," co-authored with my mentors @drantonioduran.bsky.social and
Dr. Ryan Miller, now available in the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education.

I think that many college leaders are operating from the "we're okay" fallacy. As in, our particular institution right now is not facing the challenges of [Columbia, Penn, etc.]. They don't see institutional futures as intertwined, aren't thinking in terms of cascading effects, aren't collaborating.

“I’m in a Different Place in Life”: A Qualitative Study of Rural Adult Transfer Student Choices Rural adult students’ intersectional identities inform many of their decisions about college, including the choice to transfer from a community college to a university. This qualitative study sough...

New publication on rural adult transfer student choices- congratulations to my doc advisee Tynsley Gilchrist on the publication!
50 free e-prints at the link:
www.tandfonline.com/eprint/9WDKJ...

UNC System schools ‘screening’ curriculum, ‘scrubbing’ websites to comply with DEI orders At least one school, East Carolina University, is scanning its curriculum for a list of keywords like “culture” in an effort to comply with anti-DEI orders.

This is not necessary! "The keywords ECU leaders are using to parse the university’s curriculum are not entirely new. Buddo told the Faculty Senate that the list has been in use for several months. ECU lawyers and other officials first developed it" www.newsobserver.com/news/local/e...

The same Texas A&M University that allowed neo-Nazi Preston Wiginton to host White Nationalist Richard Spencer for speech on campus in the Memorial Student Center.

The attack on DEI shows why liberals should stop arguing about "strategic" use of language forever. DEI stands for three uncontroversial virtues that most every American accepts, and the right still turned it into a vile slur. It doesn't matter what you say - they will poison it because YOU said it.