J. Michelle Coghlan

What we get wrong about the Montgomery bus boycott – and what we can learn from it | Jeanne Theoharis The movement’s success was never a given. It took much longer and required tremendous sacrifice without certainty it would work

Like @prisonculture.bsky.social, I've been worried about the ways popular myths of the civil rights movement make it hard to see how to struggle today. On the 70th anniversary of the Montgomery bus boycott, the things we get wrong & what a fuller history shows us: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

One of the things I remember learning about in the college course I took on the French Revolution was how an important precondition for the anti-aristocratic terror was the culture of brutal public violence practiced by elites against the lower classes in the mid 18th century e.g.

Higher education didn’t ‘find itself’ in a ’financial situation’. Smith speaks like the crisis happened naturally, without human agency. It has happened by choice, because of the decisions of this government & the ones before it. It’s her choices that keep the sector collapsing now.

During ratification of the 14th Amendment, senators discussed whether the Citizenship Clause would apply to the children of immigrants and resoundingly concluded that it did. The text and history all point in one direction and the counter-arguments are patently fraudulent. I am going to lose my mind

Worksheet: Staying Whole in 2026 If you want to enter 2026 with intention, I encourage you to take twenty minutes to write yourself a plan — not a resolution, but a map for staying intact. Write by hand if you can. Don’t worry about ...

Today, in Understory (a support group for activists that I co-facilitate), we talked about the writing exercise I created to help folks get oriented for the year ahead. I don't think we can balance caring for ourselves, tending to our relationships, and taking action by accident in these times.

this is an absurd, staggering amount of money to lose and the thing is that it basically didn’t matter at all because Meta prints money

the AI bubble is not going to completely destroy tech because many of the people funding it are sitting on gigantic money spigots and can go “oops”

You must react everyday to what is happening. But that is no way to write a book or a sentence.

-James Baldwin, intv w Joe Walker, 1972

A Death Row Inmate Was Released on Bail After His Conviction Was Overturned. Louisiana Still Wants to Execute Him. Months after a judge tossed out his 1998 murder conviction, Jimmie Duncan is free on bail. But prosecutors have asked the Louisiana Supreme Court to reinstate the death penalty for Duncan, even as the...

Jimmie Duncan walked out of prison and into his parents’ arms after 27 years on death row. He spent Thanksgiving with his family, then celebrated his 57th birthday.

“We thank God for Jimmie coming home,” his stepmom said.

But Duncan's journey to freedom is far from over.

W/ @veritenews.org

Feminists are supposed to be the man-haters, but here's a guy who equates masculinity with murder.

WEEKEND READING: Knowledge and skills in higher education: coherence, conflict or confusion? - HEPI Join HEPI for a webinar on Thursday 11 December 2025 from 10am to 11am to discuss how universities can strengthen the student voice in governance to mark the launch of our upcoming report, Rethinking ...

'The skills turn in policy and political discourse has, in many cases, sidelined or muted knowledge. This is not the case in academic literature. The Oxford Review of Education, recently published a special issue Knowledge crises and democratic deficit in education.' 1/2

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Three-year-old child forced to serve as her own attorney in Tucson immigration court More than a dozen undocumented minors were forced to make their case in front of an immigration judge as the Trump administration ramps up removal proceedings.

There is no sight that more efficiently puts the lie to immigration “court” than the common sight of children “representing themselves.” Children too small to climb into the chair, children in pajamas who don’t know where they are, children not yet old enough to speak.

Horrifyingly fascinating. Would benefit from some sustained gender analysis. Free to read.

I'm lost for words. All I can say is that if you're okay with this level of bigotry, you need to unfollow me.

my great-grandparents arrived in the UK in the 1890s with nothing.
they sold pickles from the front room window, took in laundry, worked as tailors.
their children were nurses, teachers, salesmen.
their grandchildren were professors, designers, opticians, doctors, magistrates, entrepreneurs.

CRUCIAL! by Stephanie Foote

"I...lived through the devastation of a solid public university by a professional grifter who imagines himself as a visionary, and who takes every opportunity to express his vision. That person was Gordon Gee, and the university he destroyed was West Virginia University"

Chichester settles with students over axed African history course Institution agrees to pay undisclosed sum after cutting unique master’s programme amid review of provision

'Jacqueline McKenzie, the head of immigration and asylum and human rights team partner at Leigh Day who represented the students, said: “Both parties confirm that they have reached agreed settlement terms in relation to the dispute which is subject to a confidential settlement agreement.”'

You can’t fix OfS’ quality proposals without fixing the NSS There's a lot wrong with OfS' proposals on quality regulation – like the punishment of students in providers that get Bronze, the abandonment of educational gain despite students repeatedly requesting...

'the thing that’s been really nagging at me since October is the cheek of proposing to fundamentally restructure quality assessment without looking at whether the National Student Survey (NSS) – which sits at its heart – is fit for the purpose OfS wants it to serve.'

'Four university-led efficiency projects have been backed by the Scottish Funding Council under a new funding stream designed to address the sector’s financial sustainability.

The news comes a week after Jacqui Smith...ruled out a similar national fund' for England.

Pastor Black: While I was in the middle of using the words of Jesus, they opened fire on me. It was so clear that they had been so poorly trained, or — the alternative — that they had been deliberately told to escalate violence against peaceful protesters.

Counting the cost of financial challenges in English higher education Stephen Roper and Tim Vorley present new survey findings showing how financial sustainability concerns are reshaping university behaviour Stephen Roper and Tim Vorley present new survey findings showi...

'Low research intensity institutions are most exposed, with 95 per cent in deficit or reduced surplus, while high research intensity universities fare slightly better at 79 per cent. Arts and music colleges also show significant vulnerability, with nearly nine in ten reporting financial strain.' 1/4

English lit - 6.4% unemployed

Maths - 7.5% unemployed

So kid, in your heart you want to study humanities but you worry about your job prospects? Let’s play a game.

On the latest data, who is more likely to be unemployed after 15 months after graduation. The English Lit grad or the Maths grad?

WRONG!

When's the last time you heard a VC whose university has financial woes speak openly & eloquently about why what his/her/their institution does really matters & merits investment? Why can't/won't university leaders work to change the conversation? With this profile, this VC should be able to. 2/2

Breaking even a 'challenge' for the University of Aberdeen New principal Prof Peter Edwards says there needs to be a

'He told BBC Scotland News he hoped redundancies could be avoided, but said there needed to be a "fundamental look" at the current funding model for universities.'

He's right of course about the funding model, for Scotland, the other UK nations and the UK.

But surely VCs should say more. 1/2

'Our research clearly illustrates that large areas of the country are becoming “cold spots” for social sciences, humanities and arts (SHAPE) subjects, meaning that students face starkly shrinking opportunities'. 1/2

'That this split also quietly duplicates the one between the kinds of provider who have been expanding home student recruitment, and the ones who have failed to recruit well as a result of this behaviour is probably something DfE officials should have an eye on.' Quite. 3/3

'What this illustrates to me is that the DfE’s “specialisation” agenda does, in fact, have teeth. The change represents a net benefit to the kinds of providers who charge international students very high fees, and a net cost to those with more modest financial entry requirements.' 2/3

HESA has updated financial data to the delight of international fee levy modelers everywhere Boldly redefining spring, we can now do a better model of the fee levy

'I’ve...put together a comparison between the new approach to the levy (a flat fee of £925 charged on every international student above 220) and the one we all initially modelled because it was used in the immigration white paper (6 per cent of international fee income).' 1/3

Boards hampered by ‘power imbalances and over-familiarity’ New ‘ethical code’ attempts to address criticism that university governance is ‘dominated by cliques’

'An updated “code for ethical university governance” has been published calling for a “clearer separation between governance and management” and greater transparency on boards.' 1/2