Advertisement · 728 × 90

Posts by Christopher Fariss

Picked my bracket the scientific way, running a bunch of simulations on an xgboost model based on 20 years of tournament data; eyeballing the results; deciding I don’t like them; and picking based on logos, mascots, and previous teaching affiliations.

1 month ago 109 6 6 0
Preview
Russia’s Lawfare Playbook: How the Kremlin Weaponized Human Rights Courts to Launder Disinformation When the Kremlin wants to legitimize a lie, it doesn’t just hold a press conference – it files a lawsuit.

Proud to publish this piece from my former student, who writes that Russia's lawfare in the European Court of Human Rights is "transforming [it] into an unwitting accomplice in one of the most sophisticated disinformation operations of the modern era.”

americansunlight.substack.com/p/russias-la...

5 months ago 120 52 5 10
Preview
US withdraws from key UN human rights report, draws criticism from rights advocates The United States will not participate in a U.N. review of its human rights record, officials said, a move that rights advocates called a worrying retreat from Washington's global engagement on rights and justice issues.

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a peer-to-peer evaluation of a country's rights record. All 193 UN member states are expected to participate, and even states like Russia and China do.

Today, the US took the unprecedented step of withdrawing from the UPR www.reuters.com/world/europe...

7 months ago 45 33 2 7
Preview
Rubio recasts long-held beliefs with cuts to U.S. human rights reports The State Department’s annual human rights reports arrive a half-year late with significant cuts and little fanfare from America’s top diplomat.

May infamy follow him for the rest of his days. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

8 months ago 70 29 3 5
Post image

As of today, Elon Musk is thought to be responsible for the death of 300,000 adults and kids due to the illegal closure of USAID (source: www.impactcounter.com/dashboard?vi...)

That's a 103 deaths per hour, each day. And it will get worse.

His legacy is one of death, destruction, and failure.

10 months ago 4057 1589 107 80

On Friday, my son stayed home from school because he had a sore throat and wasn’t feeling well. He went with my husband to his office for the morning while I handled our daughter. When he came back at lunch, he was not interested in eating, saying his throat hurt too much. 1/n

11 months ago 1135 391 37 142
Post image
11 months ago 19 11 0 4

If we know where they were sent, but it isn’t to detention: exile.

If we know where they are & it’s in detention: extraordinary rendition.

If we don’t know where they are, but we know someone’s holding them: kidnapping.

Otherwise, if we don’t know where they are: disappearance.

11 months ago 252 141 2 15

Heparin is just like an iPhone, except it's a bit more compact and you use it to prevent blood clots instead.

1 year ago 741 169 14 6
Advertisement

The only way forward, that I can see, requires both courage and collective action. If we’re not going to fight for our students and our scholarship, then what the hell are we doing anyway?

1 year ago 1626 456 30 9

A good reminder to follow everything Eunji Kim does. She is so smart and just has an intuitive understanding of how people engage with entertainment media. She’s also hilarious. oh and her new book is coming out in a month:
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

1 year ago 40 9 2 0

As someone educated outside the elite doctoral programs, EITM was huge for me.

If you want to be good enough at finding stuff out (i.e., "research") to be paid to do it, there's no substitute for being around the best of the best and trying to learn from them.

1 year ago 14 6 0 0

This year we will be in Michigan in August. Apply if you are midway through your PhD program in the social sciences to learn from the best in the discipline how theory and empirical methods come together!

1 year ago 9 7 0 1

This segment from @maryannefranks.bsky.social is an incredibly tight argument that captures the breadth of the Trump assault on free speech perfectly and in less than a minute.

Spread it far and wide.

1 year ago 4694 1982 49 52

I knew Dan Drezner when his headings were like "Sanctions work somewhat better than you think."

1 year ago 1780 336 29 8

A competent Democratic Party would have this clip all over the airwaves and social media inside of 24 hours.

1 year ago 2230 657 99 39
Preview
Current and Historical Challenges to Birthright Citizenship The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow restrictions on birthright citizenship to partly take effect, even as the initial executive order is blocked nationwide by three federal a...

I'll be moderating a panel on Birth Right Citizenship at @umfordschool.bsky.social (and try to bring a comparative perspective). The panel includes legal scholars and historians (see below), join us on FRIDAY March 28th!

fordschool.umich.edu/event/2025/c...

1 year ago 16 14 0 1
Advertisement

The people Attorney General Bondi is calling “terrorists” have had no trial and no chance to defend themselves. We do not know who they are. Ignoring the Constitution does not make us safe. It puts us all in peril.

1 year ago 38171 10771 686 332
Preview
Ex-Facebook Employee Is Blocked From Promoting Tell-All Memoir Meta has forcefully denied the allegations in a new memoir, “Careless People.” Now, an arbitrator has prohibited the author from distributing it.

Great way to advertise the book 👍🏼 I didn't know about it but now I do and immediately bought the book.

www.vanityfair.com/news/story/m...

1 year ago 181 65 8 2

They will not stop until Americans stand up to them. Today, the Senate Democrats failed that test. Tomorrow, I hope that the rest of us come together to defend our values and principles.

1 year ago 54 12 0 0

vote your vote, but don't lie to constituents. have some fucking dignity.

1 year ago 1 1 0 0

...topics such as the Civil War..."???

It literally became a national cemetery *because of the Civil War.

We're not a serious country. Or, more accurately, this isn't a serious government

1 year ago 1019 257 55 11

Trump and Republicans set this up as an unprecedented power grab so they can slash and burn government services on their terms.

I’m a firm NO — on cloture and final passage — on this ‘CR’

1 year ago 7642 945 811 152

Again, if university presidents/leaders want to shape public opinion & the politics of the moment, rather than idly sitting by why Trump destroys free speech & dismantles the entire business model of 🇺🇸 higher education, here is the opportunity to do that. Loudly. Collectively. Publicly. Immediately.

1 year ago 87 21 4 1
Post image

Last week, I presented at my final Conflict & Change PhD Workshop @uclspp.bsky.social. Once again, ECRs from around the world shared their projects. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have been involved as both an organizer and a presenter from the beginning of my PhD! Hope to come back someday. 🙂

1 year ago 17 1 0 0
Advertisement

We find similar evidence from residence of Texas across two different types of natural disasters: doi.org/10.1016/j.gl...

1 year ago 18 3 1 2
Post image

Another paper showing climate shocks lead to support for climate action among conservatives. Analyzing data collected in Florida, the paper finds Republican positions change after personally experiencing loss from climate-exacerbated extreme events.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

1 year ago 269 91 18 26
Video

Tyranny requires your fear, your silence, and your compliance.

Democracy requires your courage.

1 year ago 77254 21043 2367 1666
Video

📢 “He’s trying to steal Medicaid to enrich himself. He’s gutting NASA to line his pockets with SpaceX. He’s looting everything good in America for private profit.” - @aoc.bsky.social at today’s #SaveOurServices NYC rally.

The fight isn’t over. Join us: go.savepublicservices.com

1 year ago 32714 9314 548 353