2026-2027 Institute on Culture, Religion & World Affairs Call for Fellows: "Heretics Everywhere"
Join Aala Abdelgadir, Grace Davie, Philip Gorski, Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Murad Idris, and Shaul Magid for a yearlong conversation about heretics, now.
Apply: www.bu.edu/cura/researc...
Six months ago I published this book explaining how American primacy had been bad for the Middle East. It anticipated much of what we have just lived through and so many are still living through. I hope you’ll read it.
www.amazon.com/dp/B0FWRVH66...
Clip of Bsky Post about Boston university community members protesting administration for removing Pride flags.
April 6, 2026 Dear Members of the Boston University Community, Over the last several weeks, there has been a great deal of conversation about Boston University’s outward-facing sign policy. Thank you to the many community members who have met with me and the senior leadership team to discuss this issue. I appreciate hearing a range of perspectives. What began as questions regarding a long-standing, routine University policy has evolved into something that has surfaced deep questions and concerns for many of us about belonging, expression, safety, and respect. These issues deserve our full attention, now and always. In this moment, however, it is critical that we can hold these matters separate. One is a discussion about a policy; the other is a discussion about our core values and respect for members of our community. I am troubled that they became conflated. It signals to me that we need more time and opportunity to consider these matters. Given these challenges, I am temporarily pausing the removal of outward-facing signs. Our University and our policies exist within a larger social context—one that is dynamic and complex. In the public conversation about Boston University’s time, place, and manner policies, that spotlight has fallen disproportionately on our LGBTQIA+ community, and I have heard how difficult and painful that has been. I am deeply sorry. April 6, 2026 Dear Members of the Boston University Community, Over the last several weeks, there has been a great deal of conversation about Boston University’s outward-facing sign policy. Thank you to the many community members who have met with me and the senior leadership team to discuss this issue. I appreciate hearing a range of perspectives. What began as questions regarding a long-standing, routine University policy has evolved into something that has surfaced deep questions and concerns for many of us about belonging, expression, safety, and respect. These issues deserve our full attention, now and alway…
started / going.
when we fight we win. democratize your campus. @aaup.org #TerrierCourage
Boston U's AAUP uncovers a campaign of censorship on campus. A series. dailyfreepress.com/03/30/21/219...
“What kind of hegemony would it be, in the absence of any of the normative foundations or ideational appeal which theories of hegemony typically claim to be necessary?”
abuaardvarkghost.ghost.io/ir-theory-an...
Religious belief and religious belonging are good for democracy. Militant secularism, not so much.
Religious nationalism is bad. including Islamic nationalism. And Christian nationalism. And yes, even Jewish nationalism.
We stand with @jvp.bsky.social and the Northampton City Council against this outrageous lawsuit. No country is categorically immune to criticism or boycott over their actions, and cities should not be forced to invest in regimes they are morally opposed to.
www.wwlp.com/news/local-n...
In solidarity with my colleagues at BU, I've put up a Pride flag in my office window at Northeastern, facing Leon Street. Trans rights are human rights.
Protests and radicalization in the digital age
Well look who has a cover www.cambridge.org/us/universit...
For the record, Leading Jewish Group JFREJ is very much in favor of Mayor Mamdani hosting Mahmoud Khalil and his family for Iftar.
1: Tucker Carlson is spewing antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jewish power.
2: Netanyahu absolutely helped drag Trump into a needless war that benefits Israel more than the US.
We can distinguish between #1 and 2. it’s not hard. Conflating them helps the fascists. Don’t help the fascists.
Bibi redux
Antonio Guterres is up first at this Security Council meeting. He condemns this morning’s strikes by Israel and the US on Iran, and the return strikes by Iran on countries in the region. There is, he says, no alternative to the peaceful settlement of disputes
Exclusive: Prior to Iran attacks, CIA assessed Khamenei would be replaced by hardline IRGC elements if killed, sources say reut.rs/4l9SCAs
In the absence of material, strategic, or institutional incentives for war we must admit the ideological ones: Netanyahu and Trump are religious extremists, their power built on coalitions of Jewish and Christian supremacists. This is not just imperial power. It’s religious imperialism.
It’s time to grow up about the link between Epstein and this administration’s wars. I have lived through Republican administrations starting wars in the Middle East for 40 years. There’s no secret story, no conspiracy. The story in public is the story. It is a war for power over the Middle East.
People are hungry – desperate, even – for a place to be Jewish' outside of Zionism.
@haaretzcom.bsky.social @concernedjfaculty.bsky.social
So proud to work with @menchik.bsky.social and my other visionary colleagues at @bostonu.bsky.social: www.haaretz.com/jewish/2026-...
Tomorrow. 1,408 registered. SEE YOU THEN! www.bu.edu/cura/recent-...
'The underreported silent war: record levels of violence in the occupied West Bank since October 2023. More than 1,000 Palestinians — almost a quarter of them children — have been killed.'
www.unrwa.org/newsroom/off...
![Voting in Authoritarian Elections
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025
TURKULER ISIKSEL
Open the ORCID record for TURKULER ISIKSEL [Opens in a new window]
and
THOMAS B. PEPINSKY
Open the ORCID record for THOMAS B. PEPINSKY [Opens in a new window]
Show author details
Article
Figures
Supplementary materials
Comments
Metrics
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]
Abstract
Democratic theorists hold that voting contributes to some political good: individual and collective autonomy, equality, justice, pluralism, stability, better policies, and many others. But elections are common under authoritarianism, and empirical research finds that holding elections can stabilize authoritarian regimes. This creates what we term the democrat’s dilemma, where citizens who vote in authoritarian elections may bolster the regimes they wish to unseat, even when they cast a vote for the opposition. We identify three major ways of thinking about the democratic value of electoral participation—justice-based, epistemic, and proceduralist approaches—and use them to examine the complex moral considerations that confront voters in authoritarian regimes. We contend that authoritarian elections’ residual democratic value can justify voting, even when doing so could further entrench the autocrat. Our argument also implies that the democratic principles that justify voting in authoritarian elections oblige citizens to choose the most democratic alternative.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2c4hmyxdfk4aky3jeoulhog5/bafkreig6uaxlnavb3rnzc65gpm4f7rlwassqjaqgx5spnhay25qlar6h2y)
Voting in Authoritarian Elections Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025 TURKULER ISIKSEL Open the ORCID record for TURKULER ISIKSEL [Opens in a new window] and THOMAS B. PEPINSKY Open the ORCID record for THOMAS B. PEPINSKY [Opens in a new window] Show author details Article Figures Supplementary materials Comments Metrics Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window] Abstract Democratic theorists hold that voting contributes to some political good: individual and collective autonomy, equality, justice, pluralism, stability, better policies, and many others. But elections are common under authoritarianism, and empirical research finds that holding elections can stabilize authoritarian regimes. This creates what we term the democrat’s dilemma, where citizens who vote in authoritarian elections may bolster the regimes they wish to unseat, even when they cast a vote for the opposition. We identify three major ways of thinking about the democratic value of electoral participation—justice-based, epistemic, and proceduralist approaches—and use them to examine the complex moral considerations that confront voters in authoritarian regimes. We contend that authoritarian elections’ residual democratic value can justify voting, even when doing so could further entrench the autocrat. Our argument also implies that the democratic principles that justify voting in authoritarian elections oblige citizens to choose the most democratic alternative.
Alarmingly relevant new paper out in @apsrjournal.bsky.social by Turku Isiksel and @tompepinsky.com. They take on the question of whether citizens of authoritarian states should vote in their often unfair elections, & find reason to do so.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
📢 New on First View!
Andrei Mamolea (@andreimamolea.bsky.social) shows that a Latin American bloc with a common agenda emerged in Geneva in the 1920s.
#LeagueofNations #LatinAmerica #internationallaw #smallstates #transatlantic
Read Open Access here: doi.org/10.1017/S174...
Markets and Mobility: How Employers Structure Economic Opportunity
Intergenerational mobility, measuring the ability to achieve economic success regardless of family background, is a critical reflection of a society’s commitment to equality of opportunity. Rising income inequality has raised concerns about the potential erosion of upward mobility. While education has traditionally been viewed as the path to mobility, its transformative power is facing challenges in a rapidly evolving job market. This project reorients the focus of intergenerational mobility research by highlighting the labor market as an arena for the reproduction of advantage. It employs a comparative approach, using administrative data from four countries: Sweden, Austria, England, and the United States. It also incorporates evidence from a broader set of nations through cross-national surveys, longitudinal household surveys, labor force surveys, secondary data, and digital trace data. The project employs cutting-edge empirical methods, including quasi- experimental designs, event studies, within-family comparisons, decomposition analyses, counterfactual simulations, and diagnostic checks to rigorously assess the extent of inequalities in the labor market. The research investigates how family background influences the sorting of individuals to employers and workplaces, accounting for education and occupation, and explores variations in career progression within and between employers. It comprehensively catalogues and assesses mechanisms shaping workplace inequality, contributing to the development of social closure theory. Additionally, the project evaluates intervention strategies, encompassing both employer practices and government actions, to promote fair opportunity in the labor market.
JOB! I'm hiring a postdoc for 2 years on my ERC MaMo project.
Looking for someone with strong quant methods, ongoing work close to the project's aims, and a desire to publish in sociology. Start flexible in the next 12 months.
Formal call out shortly, but contact me first.
Secretary General of the Council of Europe says “International law is either universal or meaningless. Greenland will show which one we choose.” Yes, well. Did Gaza show which one we choose?
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/o...
Agree. I think our ability to talk about the severity of antisemitism is limited by binary categories. Maybe we need a scale.
Christian Zionism is 2 alarm fire antisemitism. White Nationalism is 5 alarm. The end of CZ may mean a return to WN. And that’s definitely worse for Jews.
This is a really thoughtful thread. But I do think you’re understating the antisemitic aspects of Christian Zionism. I’ve spent a lot of time around Southern Baptists, and they looooove Jews. But not real Jews. Not American Jews. Certainly not secular Jews. not me. Their love is 100% antisemitic.
If you read one thing today, it should be this
Iran report says 16,500 dead in ‘genocide under digital darkness’
www.thetimes.com/article/01ba...
🎉 Vol 51(6) is out!🎉
This SPECIAL ISSUE includes 8️⃣ new research articles as well as an introduction from the special issue editors, @jelenasubotic.bsky.social & @elifkalay.bsky.social. The articles are all free to read this month, so be sure to take a look and enjoy 👇
📚Read Here ➡️ buff.ly/WxL7JlR