Every intelligent speculative fiction universe missed the mark by assuming things would happen for reasons that make sense

Would also be very interested in hearing about this (how the American Anthropological Association boycott has developed since the resolution passed) - has this been written up anywhere ?

What went wrong in Israel? A genocide scholar examines ‘what Zionism became’ In his new book, Omer Bartov tracks how a liberatory strand of Zionism transformed into an extremist ideology that he sees as responsible for genocide in Gaza

An interesting profile of Holocaust historian and Brown U Prof Omer Bartov and his new book, "Israel: What Went Wrong?" www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

We Shouldn’t Fear Being “Divisive” in Pursuit of Justice We shouldn’t pretend that movements like BDS aren’t “divisive.” Instead, we need to make the moral and ethical case for why that divisiveness is necessary.

"Palestinians and progressives supporting our rights are making a clear demand to do no harm, and to end complicity. Is it divisive? You bet it is. Demanding justice and resisting injustice have always been, by definition, controversial, but they’ve also always been ethically necessary."

We Shouldn’t Fear Being “Divisive” in Pursuit of Justice We shouldn’t pretend that movements like BDS aren’t “divisive.” Instead, we need to make the moral and ethical case for why that divisiveness is necessary.

Would it be too much to send this article along to this morning's letter writers? www.thenation.com/article/acti...

It was literally two weeks ago that he promised to destroy the entire Iranian civilization. And a month before that, his military bombed an elementary school that killed at least 150 young girls.

Whatever the criticisms of his replacement - and yes, let's hold him to the highest standard, to be sure - this is just an unbelievably good development for progress in the world. On a personal note, it honestly makes me feel so much better about doing my job (which I love in substance). Thank you!

There are currently 6 permanent full time history jobs in the whole UK. 500+ PhDs being produced a year - not all of whom will want to pursue an academic year but likely most, and of course years will stack up onto each other. What a sector.

Two Associate Professorships in Organization Studies, Copenhagen Business School | Opportunities for SASE Members Application Deadline: 2 June 2026

📢 Career Opportunity

Two Associate Professorships in Organization Studies at Copenhagen Business School. Open to scholars in organization studies, sociology, ethnography, qualitative methods, and related fields.

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#AcademicJobs #SASE

Earlier today, @uofmpress.bsky.social sent me the front cover design of Xiaohong Xu’s forthcoming book. It will come out in October 2026. Gorgeous art by Dahong Liu. Provocative foreword by Ho-fung Hung. Brilliant scholarship by Xiaohong Xu.

These are documented migrants who are now terrified of interacting with the state. It would take a long time to restore this broken trust with even the most zealous effort.

In case you think migrant families in blue cities are breathing any easier these days, my kid’s best friend is transferring to a school right next to her house because her mother wants to minimize their time in cars to avoid any interaction with the authorities

Broad Coalition Files Suit to Stop Latest Unlawful Move in Trump-Vance Administration Crusade Against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Executive Order Targets Essential Federal Contractors with Unconstitutional Threats

My union @uam-umd.bsky.social did such a good job beating our bosses in the statehouse this year that we figured we'd go ahead and beat the White House too.

With allies from across higher ed and the good people at @democracyforward.org we're suing to stop the latest illegal anti-DEI order.

(cc @jeremylevine.bsky.social - dunno if addresses all your questions but I think it's relevant to something you were asking about!)

I'd love to hear from anyone involved in AAA about what the resolution has meant in practice since it passed. I couldn't find much coverage online since the initial debate and implementation. But knowing what's changed and what hasn't would be useful for sociologists contemplating the issue.

Text describing the implementation. Key part with what the boycott does *not* prevent: "The AAA academic institutional boycott does not prevent: individuals affiliated with Israeli academic institutions from registering for and attending AAA conferences, even if their institutions have paid for their expenses articles published in AAA journals from being reprinted or republished in journals not owned by Israeli institutions that are edited by individuals affiliated with Israeli academic institutions individuals affiliated with Israeli academic institutions from serving as journal editors or Section / AAA elected officials, even if their institutions have paid for related expenses (their institution would be identified as being subject to an institutional boycott) individuals affiliated with Israeli academic institutions from publishing in AAA journals, even if their institutions have paid for their expenses, and Israeli university libraries from subscribing to AAA journals, including AnthroSource."

In particular, I think the AAA's explicit discussion of how their resolution was implemented in ways that targeted Israeli institutions without preventing the participation of individual Israeli scholars is very useful given how similar S4P's proposals are to what AAA enacted:

learning from the aaa boycott In 2023, the American Anthropological Association passed a boycott resolution very similar (though not identical) to the one proposed by Sociologists 4 Palestine. Some of the materials produced by …

In 2023, the American Anthropological Association debated, passed, and implemented a resolution for an academic boycott of Israeli institutions. Many of the conversations and materials produced in that debate are useful for thinking about the current debate in @asanews.bsky.social.

Israel’s Universities Are a Key Part of Its Apartheid Regime Opponents of the academic boycott of Israel claim that its universities are havens of free inquiry. In fact, they supply vital support to Israel’s system of apartheid rule and are complicit in the vio...

"Israeli universities actively sustain Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid, as well as their own complicity in the ongoing violation of Palestinian rights as recognized under international law."

Current Opportunities at Vanderbilt Vanderbilt is committed to providing a meaningful, robust experience for postdocs. Below is a list of currently available postdoctoral opportunities. Postdocs interested in applying for a specific pos...

Vanderbilt seeks a Postdoctoral Scholar to support two grant-funded initiatives: the Improvement Scholars Network & the Network Health Project. Focuses on advancing improvement research & studying the development and effectiveness of education improvement networks. www.vanderbilt.edu/postdoc/pros...

This new article offers a fascinating history of how the Institute for Advanced Study almost hired Bruno Latour, but ended up rejecting his appointment after a groundswell of opposition from mathematicians and natural scientists. A Latourian treatment of a Latourian controversy!

Rao cites this short 1967 Howard Becker piece that I hadn't read before and also recommend: "Whose Side Are We On?" Becker argues that we inevitably take sides in conducting research, but that accusations of bias are structured by a "hierarchy of credibility".

The Problem with Rapport in Interview-Based Studies - Qualitative Sociology Rapport is an orienting principle in qualitative research. It is a capacious concept which, in practice, is deployed by researchers in a wide variety of ways. Despite its definitional ambiguity, in in...

"Being a stranger who wanders into (and often quickly out of) people’s lives may have some methodological advantages vis-à-vis allowing for intimacy and distance to commingle." Aliya Rao with a super useful article for thinking about rapport in qualitative research.

“Reverse emails,” Jared Kushner corruption edition

He also holds no Senate-confirmed Cabinet or senior government position & employing family as White House advisers violates every norm ever, but this, too, has been erased from the headlines. After years of HUNTER BIDEN, it’s shameful.

torn between "we need to soften IP law to stop the calcification of the culture" and "we need to give the Tolkien estate the right to extrajudicially execute these clowns at will"

The Orwellian “Freedom
Of Speech” act, ladies and gentlemen

Dana Nessel, Michigan’s AG, went over the head of a county prosecutor to file those charges because he refused to do so.
That county prosecutor just won the endorsement to replace Nessel as AG.

you love to see it

Title page of our paper, “The Politics of Black Classification: Sociopolitical Cues and Racial Perception,” with Lauren Davenport (Stanford) and Hunter Rendleman (UC Berkeley), dated April 14, 2026. Abstract: What makes someone Black in American society today? From Donald Trump questioning Kamala Harris’s racial identity to Joe Biden’s claim that hesitant Black voters “ain’t Black,” American politics frequently brings questions of racial authenticity and belonging to the surface. Yet political science often approaches race as a fixed attribute rather than a social construction. Here, we seek to understand how Americans define blackness in social and political life. Using a conjoint experiment with a racially diverse sample that includes Black, white, and mixed race Black-white respondents, we evaluate how ascribed and acquired traits influence perceptions of blackness. The results show that inherited characteristics—particularly parentage and skin tone, which are the strongest determinants of racial classification—play a central role, while sociopolitical cues such as partisanship, neighborhood context, and spousal race also influence racial classification. Using a continuous measure, we also show that respondents make graded assessments of blackness rather than purely binary classifications, with some individuals perceived as more Black than others. Black respondents are more likely than white respondents to classify a broader set of profiles as Black, consistent with a more inclusive understanding of racial membership, yet they also place greater emphasis on shared political identity. These findings clarify how racial categories are socially constructed and why that construction carries real political and social consequences.

Our paper, “The Politics of Black Classification: Sociopolitical Cues and Racial Perception” (w/ Lauren Davenport & @hrendleman.bsky.social), has been conditionally accepted at Perspectives on Politics!

Sharing abstract below. Long time coming, but we are really proud of this paper.

More soon!

THREAD: The IEA global energy review 2026

* CO2 record high, but growth nearly ground to halt
* Clean energy shaved 3bn tonnes off CO2
* Fossil-fuel power pushed into reverse
* Age of Electricity "confirmed"
* "Extraordinary" solar growth
* Batteries up 40%
* EVs up 20%
1/10

Browsing this company's website and the only way I can describe what I'm seeing is imagine a school shooter was a management consultant