iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

I know it's been a month, but the spring #timechange is brutal for kids. We don't recover in terms of schedule regularlity until the next school year starts in August

000

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

My kids were playing with their plastic dinosaurs toys this morning that the police were chasing and trying to kill them. I asked them why, and they said “because we’re just trying to live.” My kids' dystopian playworld is Minneapolis #AbolishDHS

010

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

That Ben Johnson-Matt LaFluer postgame interaction felt like a guy who knows he's going to win a Superbowl in the next decade shaking hands with a guy who knows he'll be an offensive coordinator again soon* *After one more stop as an HC to develop a young QB & max out a team in the wildcard round

110

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

My favorite (relatable) line from In Your Dreams: "I'm a dad with two kids, I'm always down to sleep."

000

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

A sociological approach to New Year's Resolutions

000

Reposted by Adam Kotanko

Daniel Winchester @bishopofwestsaxons.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

Check out this OPEN ACCESS pub by my on-the-job-market PhD advisee, @akotanko.bsky.social. This is the article version of Adam's excellent master's thesis and the seed of inspiration for his even more excellent dissertation project on what he's termed "moral ambassadorship".

054

Reposted by Adam Kotanko

Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World @sociusjournal.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

What's the collective in this #collectiveaction? A. Kotanko’s (@akotanko.bsky.social) #Socius study of an #immigration clinic demonstrates how #socialmovement organizations draw on #personalidentity to encourage collective action participation. Read: doi.org/10.1177/2378...

052

Reposted by Adam Kotanko

Daniel Winchester @bishopofwestsaxons.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

NEW ARTICLE/OPEN ACCESS Proud to share my PhD advisee, @akotanko.bsky.social's, recent publication in Qualitative Soc. Adam and I worked on this one together, which was a great collaborative experience, but he is very much the lead author. The first of many to come from the future Dr. Kotanko!

link.springer.com

Making a Martyr?: Scandal, Symbolic Power, and the Controversial Death of Evangelical Missionary John Chau - Qualitative Sociology

How do groups respond to accusations of scandal? Because scandals pose significant risks of moral stigma and loss of status to those associated with them, sociologists have analyzed how actors within ...

032

Reposted by Adam Kotanko

Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 12/05/2025

They want more MOMS at home. And not just because they hate women. Their *economic* model depends on unpaid labor. And the most effective way to coerce unpaid labor is to create a second class of people and teach them that they're only "naturally" suited for labor they're forced to do for free.

From the NYT:

Not Just More Babies: These Republicans Want More Parents at Home
As the Trump administration shrinks federal child care programs, Republicans are backing policies they hope will allow more parents to scale back at work.

351394483

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

So contrary to many post-election analyses, Dems don't need to move rightward to win. Rather, they need to figure out what those nearly 40% of nonvoters want & how to help them vote. A good place to start: protect voting rights, make election-day a federal holiday, fight disenfranchisement, etc.

010

Reposted by Adam Kotanko

Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

Seeing someone use “woke” as a derrogatory descriptor is useful in that it lets me know I don’t need to take whatever they say next seriously.

251270186

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

Btw, substitute #healthcare for learning & the post is just as valid. Commodifying some things ruins them

000

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

AI, MOOCS, etc. = tech solutions for symptoms, not the disease. #Learning is a messy, inefficient, personal, relational process. It’ll never be rational (in the Weberian sense). We need to embrace the messy, costly process bc it’s good in itself, not instrumentally (eg for profit, jobs, etc.)

100

Reposted by Adam Kotanko

Alan Baxter @alanbaxter.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

When I was a young writer, I received a LOT of rejections. Now, after decades of hard work, I am no longer young.

1237433518

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

Tonight is a work night, as I try to finish giving students feedback on final projects--which is why I'm on Bluesky, bc staying focused in the middle of the night is difficult

000

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

I regularly wake up in the middle of the night. If I can't get back to sleep & don't start working, I often listen to a couple eps of Star Talk w/ @neildegrassetyson.com. It's perfect, bc it's fascinating/fun & not tied to my work. I'll usually understand the 1st ep & fall asleep during the 2nd

100

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

We're never going to catch everyone, or even a majority, who "cheat," esp given AI capabilities, & trying to do so is emblematic of a bigger problem in education: a focus on what students do wrong over over an emphasis on intrinsic reasons to care about learning even when it's difficult

000

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

My extroverted wife: My sister’s graduation party went until 4am Introverted me: That sounds horrible Wife: Everyone had fun

000

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

Kid: I’m hungry Me: You just ate Kid: I just ate FIRST bfreakfast. What abt second breakfast? Elevensies? Lunch? Tea time? Dinner? Supper? Once? Midnight snack? Pre-bfast snack? Random treats? My kids are basically hobbits

000

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

This post captures so much post-election analysis: some voters don't like reality, so Dems need to better embrace fantasy in order to win their votes. Oh, and throw some minoritized folks under the bus while you're at it

040

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

Finally, I started No Homework Mondays last year bc students deserve weekends free from homework. We do activities on Mondays based on the previous week's content (e.g., "create your own religion" after a module on solidarity, or "create McPurdue" after a section on rationality)

000

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

some groups complete a module on implicit bias, while others focus on weathering. They discuss their module in groups, & we conclude the class sharing between groups that did different modules or discussing each module as a full class

100

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

I'm also experimenting with what I call "choose-your-own-adventure" modules. We all do the same prep work/discussion on Wednesdays, but for Fridays, students choose from bt similar modules. For instance, on a Friday focusing on how stereotypes get inside of us...

100

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

There's no final exam, but students do complete & share w/ classmates an open-ended self-learning project, where they choose both the topic and medium of presentation (paper, presentation, board game, sociological short story, musical analysis, podcast, etc.).

110

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

Instead of exams, students watch doc films at the end of each section, & we talk about them in light of theory/empirical stuff that we've covered in that section (e.g., Merchants of Doubt -> cultural hegemony, social identity theory, etc.). Students collaborate in turning in group responses

110

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

A few more thoughts on how the class runs: we spend most of our time in small groups discussing readings/podcasts/videos. I check in with as many groups as possible during each class period, after a brief intro/preview of next class period. In the last 10 mins, we share big takeaways as full class

110

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

Also, during the 1st week of classes, we critique the artificiality of "industrial education," reading @susandblum.bsky.social, watching a Ken Robinson talk, & discussing what a better learning system would look like. I do this to prime students for why our class is different from other courses

110

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

Here's what works 4 me instead: I (mostly) give students credit for completing activities (bc the U requires a grade), & I give individualized (or group, depending on class size) written feedback for most assignments. It takes a lot of time (about 2hrs after every class period), but it's worth it

110

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

To distract you from end-of-term #grading, here's @alfiekohn.bsky.social's wonderful essay (which I have my students read in a module on Foucault & discipline) laying out reasons why u should stop (or at least minimize) grading www.alfiekohn.org/article/case... Big spoiler: grading impedes learning

alfiekohn.org

The Case Against Grades (##)

EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP November 2011 The Case Against Grades By Alfie Kohn [This is a slightly expanded version of the published article.] “I remember the first time that a grading rubric was attached...

110

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

I think a lot of us internalized the love part more deeply than the boundaries part, which why it’s still so hard for us to understand our CN family and friends.

120

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

So today, when your libertarian Uncle Ron extols the virtues of innovative capitalism, you might ask him about capitalism’s mundane exploitative innovation. You won’t convince true believer Uncle Ron, but you might have a great consciousness raising session after supper w/ Cousin Sally.

000

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

The key point is that capitalists’ goal is to increase profit in any way possible, and that frequently involves innovations that make life worse for lots of people—sometimes everyone. Exploitative innovation is a feature of capitalism, not a bug.

110

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

One of the greatest capitalist innovations of history involved justifying enslavement based on race through religion/science.

100

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

For the capitalist, dumping toxic waste on poor communities is just as good an innovation as creating a better product/service; outsourcing or slave labor is as good as hiring qualified experts; manipulative marketing of fabricated needs is wonderfully innovative, as is capturing legislative bodies.

120

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

They rarely explicitly acknowledge that capitalism promotes ALL innovation toward increased profit, including rare innovations that benefit consumers/humanity broadly (what they emphasize) AND more common detrimental innovations, which they downplay as exceptions to the tendency toward + innovation.

110

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

"Innovation" is one of the most powerful controlling ideas of capitalism. Defenders of neoliberalism flippantly assert that #capitalism drives innovation in ways that other economic systems don’t. They're right. BUT . . .

110

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

My wife: "I had a dream last night with either you or Henry Cavill." Me: "It's easy to confuse us. We're so similar."

000

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

I wonder if you're thinking about what Weber wants vs. what he describes? Weber worries abt the inflexibility of bureaucracy, lamenting that we're stuck in a cage of instrumentally rational systems (epitomized by bureaucracy). He wants flexibility (at least in some value spheres) but doesn't see it.

110

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

This is the irrationality of rationality (in the Weberian sense), where bureaucratic fidelity to procedure contradicts the purpose (learning) & public image of an institution/social system, hurting everyone, especially those who aren't the institutional default (e.g., straight, white, cis men).

1213

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Group threat theory & tribalism, implicit bias, & Bauman's writing on rational violence aren't the only reasons that white folks people voted for Trump. But they highlight how any post-election analysis that doesn't take race/gender seriously shouldn't itself be taken seriously.

010

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Trump did the same thing, promising to deport only undocumented black and brown people, which is why so many white folks seem to have shrugged when he said he would deport 12 million of their neighbors & friends.

110

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

One more thought: Bauman argues that the Nazis managed to get ethnic Germans who weren't interested in genocide to accept their neighbors' disappearances, murders, & humiliation by making it VERY clear that the attacks aimed at Jewish folks wouldn't ever be directed at them.

110

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

by pointing toward the economy, limited information, etc. To put it more concisely, many white people’s gut feelings drive them to prefer mediocre/bad white men to talented black women, especially when it comes to leadership ("Well duh!" say all the black women reading this post).

110

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

These voters think they would vote for a black woman. But that belief only applies in the abstract. When faced with any real black woman, no matter her qualifications or those of her opponent, their gut feelings will them no, & they’ll rationalize their vote in socially acceptable ways:

110

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Loads of data shows that many of us hold negative unconscious biases against black folks & women (esp. against black women) & that many of us map leadership onto white masculinity. Some voters had a gut feeling that Harris wouldn't make a good president bc she's black & a woman.

110

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

We all internalize feelings about a society’s important categories, like race/gender, & their combinations. We act on these feelings unconsciously, justifying behavior after-the-fact--i.e., unexamined gut feelings drive action, which we explain in ways that make us look good to others/ourselves.

210

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

They also worked bc of longstanding negative stereotypes about black, Latino, LGBTQ+, & feminist folks. These stereotypes help explain why so many white folks who don't embrace MAGA's explicit racism/misogyny/authoritarianism voted for Trump.

110

Adam Kotanko @akotanko.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

This rhetoric appealed to the white MAGA base (who’ll tell you as much), harnessing fear/anger at diminishing privilege & real economic problems by blaming marginalized groups. These appeals worked bc we're tribal creatures, especially when we see conflict in zero-sum terms.

110