Making the Liberal Media | Columbia University Press Conservatives have disagreed about many things, but they have long been united by the belief that the mainstream—or “liberal”—media is biased against... | CUP

And if you’re not, you can find it here! (Use discount code CUP20 to save $7)

cup.columbia.edu/book/making-...

Students in the Texas Tech system (64k, give or take) are now PROHIBITED from researching or writing anything "centered on" sexual orientation or gender identity as part of an undergrad honors or graduate thesis. Not faculty, mind you. Students.

In a blatant 1st Amendment violation, students in the Texas Tech University system are completely banned from researching or writing anything related to sexual orientation or gender identity as part of their thesis.

📣 PhD opportunity at University of Sydney/University of Glasgow!

Come work with me, Sophie Chao, @sotiriagrek.bsky.social & @dremilinesmith.bsky.social on "Epistemic Infrastructures of
Planetary Health Governance in Southeast Asia"

#STS #hitmed #Planetary #PhDopportunity

1/13 Check out our new chapter, Philosophy and Race Science, co-authored with Sahotra Sarkar for The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Race. In it, we track the historical development, the temporary retreat, and the subsequent reincarnation of race as a biological concept: doi.org/10.4324/9781...

NOW #JMCQBookReview. #A.J.Bauer traces how the American conservative movement cultivated and sustained its belief in a hostile press. See the review by #Brian Creech.

Prof. Duana Fullwiley (Stanford University) kicks off our spring speaker series with the talk “Into the Lab: Racial World Building and its Discontents” on February 3rd. You can register to attend via zoom here: hugera.org/lecture-seri...

Live updates: Top Border Patrol official Bovino expected to leave Minneapolis as Trump sends Homan to the state | CNN Tom Homan is headed to Minnesota after the fatal shooting of ICU nurse Alex Pretti in an encounter Saturday with federal agents deepened outrage over the Trump administration’s surge, part of its nati...

Even if Bovino gets fired, ICE has to go.
Even if Noem is out, ICE has to go.
Even when Trump leaves office, ICE has to go.

As protests grow and ICE's popularity drops, we may see concessions and leadership changes, like Bovino's departure. ICE still has to go.
www.cnn.com/us/live-news...

Genetic Data From Over 20,000 U.S. Children Misused for ‘Race Science’

The New York Times reports that a group of “scientific” racists misused National Institute of Health data (that families were assured would be protected) to write bogus papers on supposed to biological racial differences. Gift link.

A poster announcing the "Situating Philosophy" pre-conference panel being held at the University of the Western Cape Life Science Auditorium.

I am looking forward to being a part of this pre-conference panel.

We conclude by calling on STS scholars to reflect on their (often implicit) citational politics and to work toward decentralizing the material infrastructures of knowledge production.

We explore canonization (or canon-formation) in STS, finding enduring asymmetries rooted in both historical sedimentation and ongoing structural exclusions.

Troubling the canon: Language, geography, and the politics of STS publishing in five decades of journal publications - Maurizio Meloni, Ayuba Issaka, Sam Cadman, Benjamin Hegarty, Luca Chiapperino, Te... STS is now a global endeavour, with journals, scholars, and associations in a wide range of regions, languages, and transnational networks of knowledge. Buildin...

🎉New year, new pub.🎯

OPEN ACCESS "Troubling the canon: Language, geography, and the politics of STS publishing in five decades of journal publications"

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

a cat driving a car with the words " hold on almost there " above it ALT: a cat driving a car with the words " hold on almost there " above it

When your first book manuscript goes into the folder 'FINAL FINAL'

I was told memes are fair use

Screenshot of the ARC website hosting the podcast interview

One of the things I enjoyed this year was this interview with Rasmus Bitsch where Tessa (@tessamuldvarp.bsky.social) and I discuss the work we have been doing mapping the history of racial classification in South Africa.

You can listen to this interview here: podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/a...

I’m not an alum but I just donated $100 to help support African American/women journalists at the University of Alabama. They were abandoned by their school, which shamefully buckled under Trump. Together we can support young journalists to maintain a free press & keep hope alive!!

The question what excites you about microbiome research? is at the center, a whale and indigenous knowledge, three laughing faces, mushroom, snails and microbes.

We invite you to submit a proposal for our special issue "The Human Diversity Dilemma: Navigating the Intersection of Microbiomes, Ethics and Society in Africa" to appear at the South African Journal of Science. Find the call here 👉 sajs.co.za/call-human-d... #philsci #philsky #HPS #hpbio #histsci 🦠

📣 Our second call for abstracts for our special issue is out! 🙌
If you work on the intersection of human microbiomes, ethics and society in Africa, this call is for you! Check it out there: sajs.co.za/call-human-d...
If not, you can still spread the message widely!
#histbio #philbio🐋🌱

Well-written and deeply researched, Making the Liberal Media delivers new and significant insights into how conservative leaders employed the "liberal media" claim to build a movement that came to dominate US politics and policy formation. Bauer is an exceptional storyteller. Sid Bedingfield, author of Newspaper Wars: Civil Rights and White Resistance in South Carolina, 1935-1965 With deep curiosity, creativity, and intellectual skill, A.J. Bauer has unearthed a story about the rise of the right that shifts the paradigm, by placing the habit of criticizing the media at the core of conservative identity. It is full of irony and richness, and utterly convincing. Rick Perlstein, author of Reaganland: America's Right Turn 1976-1980 Through meticulous archival research, AJ Bauer shows that “liberal media bias” is not just a slogan, but foundational to modern conservatism. From anti-communism to MAGA, newspapers to Joe Rogan, Making the Liberal Media traces the roots of right-wing media criticism and how it structured and legitimized the modern right. An essential read for understanding how conservative critiques of journalism became a political strategy, an identity marker, and a driver of media innovation. Alice E. Marwick, Director of Research, Data & Society

The blurbs are in!

Thanks to @sidbedingfield.bsky.social, @rickperlstein.bsky.social, and @alicetiara.bsky.social for their generous praise for *Making the Liberal Media* which is due out in March.

Journalists and academics interested in reviewing—hit me up and I'll connect you with my publicist!

Larry Summers and the Toxic Memo In 1991, Larry Summers signed a memo arguing for exports of pollution to countries with the lowest wages “to stimulate internal debate.”

Also the guy that thought it made great 'economic logic' to dump toxic waste in Africa. thesonification.org/2022/12/17/i...

Wow Phila! Congratulations 🎉

An anthropologist! My wheelhouse (another nautical idiom 😆). Check out CR Hallpike www.newenglishreview.org/articles/a-r...

Why I Withdrew From My Dream Job At Texas A&M, politicians, not professors, decide what is taught in classrooms.

"The message is clear: Texas A&M does not permit teaching LGBT topics. Politicians, not professors, decide what is taught in Texas classrooms. Anyone who crosses this line may be fired on flimsy pretext"

www.chronicle.com/article/why-...

Here I was talking about the consequences of the changes in classifications (and who was labelled as belonging in them) for conceptualising biological studies. Our discussion focused on the use of such classifications in microbiome research.

Amazing talk by @msimang.bsky.social at the "Human Diversity Dilemma" Workshop (@localmicrobes.bsky.social), Cape Town! Check out this great infographic on shifting racial classif. in South Africa 17-21C by @tessamuldvarp.bsky.social and Phila:
figshare.com/articles/fig...
#hpbio #philsky #race

Important point—in this argument (which I support), the anarchy is not apolitical, even if it's tempting to think so.

As someone who also lived there for a few years, I 100% get this feeling.

How to delete your account without agreeing to the new TOS:

In the dialogue box asking you to agree, DO NOT click agree. Instead, click on the TOS link which will open another tab. In the top right of that tab you can go to your account settings and delete your account.

If you haven't registered yet, please do so before September 22nd!
#hpbio #philbio #histbio 🐋🌱
October 1st to 3rd, 2025 – Interdisciplinary Workshop in South Africa (Cape Town) – The Human Diversity Dilemma: Navigating the Intersection of Microbiomes, Ethics, and Society in Africa

UCT researchers awarded for shaping the future of disease prevention UCT celebrates the university’s first recipient of the distinguished Wellcome Early-Career Award and a second Wellcome Trust Discovery Award.

So excited to share that earlier this year I received a Wellcome Trust Early Career Award for a 5-year project "DDT Relations: Tracing the Chemical Alterlife of South African Malaria Control." Can't wait to get started back at UCT's Department of Anthropology!
www.news.uct.ac.za/news/researc...