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Benjamin Williams

@bkwilliams21.bsky.social
207 followers 350 following 13 posts

Assistant Prof of English @ Marshall University | All views my own, not my employer's

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Reposted by Benjamin Williams
Sheila Liming @seeshespeak.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Congratulations to CMU for taking dirty hedge fund money from a guy who believes neither in education nor in free speech! We always knew you had it in you!
Text of article from The Financial Times with the following material highlighted, “. In January, he called Harvard students “whiny snowflakes” and halted his donations to the school, which have topped $500 million. On Monday, he said the protests were the result of a “failed education system,” adding that the situation at Harvard looked better than at Columbia, where police raids last month cleared out protesters and their encampment.
When asked by the Financial Times what Harvard should do next, Griffin replied, “Harvard should put front and center [that it] stands for meritocracy in America and will educate the next generation of leaders in American business, government, healthcare, and the philanthropic community. Harvard will embrace our Western values that have built one of the greatest nations in the world, foster those values with students, and ask them to manifest these values throughout the rest of their life.”
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Benjamin Williams @bkwilliams21.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
International laborers united against apartheid is an undertold story. Go see it. Solidarity forever.
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Benjamin Williams @bkwilliams21.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Grateful to have edited this special issue with Alyssa Quintanilla for "Afterimage." A free access link for the full issue is available in the comments.
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ASAP/Review @asapjournal.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
“Wilson’s Whale Oil stylizes the stages of multiple, overlapping crises, it is a moment to reflect on blockages and breakages that might seem impossible to imagine.” Read our newest review, by @bkwilliams21.bsky.social, of Devin Wilson’s *Whale Oil*—out now! Link: asapjournal.com/review/infra...
asapjournal.com
Infrastructures at a Crisis Point in Devin Wilson’s Whale Oil - ASAP/Review
Oil circulates crisis. Paying forty bucks at the gas pump bankrolls war crimes; occupations abroad top off gas tanks at home. Speculation made in crude oil stocks monetizes occupation, and plunder finances endless consumption. Infrastructure’s deadly…
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Feminist Media Histories @femmediahist.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
In "Threadbare Politics: Feminist T-Shirts as Queer Media," Catherine A. Evans argues that T-shirts are, indeed, media, centering activist Kipp Dawson’s collection of over 250 political shirts. @caevans.bsky.social Read for free now! doi.org/10.1525/fmh....
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Sarah T Roberts, PhD @ubiquity75.xyz · 22/07/2026
Please share my post, share my outrage and sign, and share this petition: actionnetwork.org/petitions/op...
actionnetwork.org
Open Letter Concerning the Tenure Denial of Dr. Iván Chaar López
The denial of tenure to Dr. Chaar López has become a national concern because it raises questions that extend far beyond one faculty member or one institution. Scholars across disciplines depend upon ...
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Texas Conference of the AAUP @texasaaup.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
🚨Lauren Gutterman, former chair of the American Studies department and AAUP UT Austin Chapter VP: “Iván’s case is a warning for all faculty across the university, because it suggests that achieving excellence in your field is no longer enough to secure tenure and promotion.” ⬇️
statesman.com
UT border surveillance scholar was a shoo-in for tenure. UT denied him.
American Studies scholar Iván Chaar López fears UT’s unexplained tenure denial violated his academic freedom amid scrutiny of controversial fields.
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Benjamin Williams @bkwilliams21.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
I co-edited a special issue of Afterimage with @ucpress.bsky.social titled "Processing Forms: Political Aesthetics and the Materiality of the US-Mexico Border” with Alyssa Quintanilla. Read the introduction for free here: online.ucpress.edu/afterimage/a...
online.ucpress.edu
Processing FormsPolitical Aesthetics and the Materiality of the United States-Mexico Border
In late 2022, then Arizona Governor Douglas Ducey built a shipping container border wall in the Coronado National Forest on the outskirts of the Coronado National Memorial. Stacked two containers high...
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Benjamin Williams @bkwilliams21.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
A widespread rebranding of DH scholars to AI 'experts' is particularly bleak. The DH to techo-extractivist pipeline is real.
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Benjamin Williams @bkwilliams21.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
I sat down with Iván Chaar López, one of the most intellectually generous academics I know, to discuss his 2024 book, The Cybernetic Border (Duke UP) for the latest episode of @reverb-podcast.bsky.social You can listen here: www.reverbcast.com/podcasts/202...
reverbcast.com
E109: The Cybernetic Border (w/ Dr. Iván Chaar López) — re:verb
Episode 109: The Cybernetic Border: Drones, Technology, and Intrusion (w/ Dr. Iván Chaar López) On today’s show, Ben sits down with Dr. Iván Chaar López, Assistant Professor with the Department of A...
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Harsha Walia @harshawalia.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
I have a new piece out Reflecting on 20 years of migrant struggles, it goes into what abolish ICE does - and doesn't - mean; merging of immigration enforcement with policing & military power; and how fascism is made through bordering. Despite resisting it for so long, I also now define the border.
bostonreview.net
How Not to Abolish ICE
What have we learned from the past two decades of struggle?
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Benjamin Williams @bkwilliams21.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
My piece "Custodial Media: Carceral Handbooks as Infrastructures of Incarceration" is out (open source) now with @jcmsjournal.bsky.social. Read it here: quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/i...
quod.lib.umich.edu
Custodial Media: Carceral Handbooks as Infrastructures of Incarceration
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Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
"criticizing AI use in journalism or other creative industries is classist" NO IT IS NOT there is a class that benefits enormously from cognitive surrender, epistemic warfare, and the enclosure of all hitherto produced culture and it is NOT THE WORKING CLASS
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Benjamin Williams @bkwilliams21.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
My piece "Custodial Media: Carceral Handbooks as Infrastructures of Incarceration" is out (open source) now with @jcmsjournal.bsky.social. Read it here: quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/i...
quod.lib.umich.edu
Custodial Media: Carceral Handbooks as Infrastructures of Incarceration
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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 07/03/2026
Staff at the nation’s largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility have placed bets on which detainee will be the next to die by suicide, according to new reporting from the Associated Press based on 911 calls and detainee accounts.
motherjones.com
At Largest ICE Detention Camp, Staff Bet on Detainee Suicides, AP Reports
Camp East Montana has received several 911 calls in the span of five months about immigrants trying to harm themselves.
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Jeff Abbott @palabrasdeabajo.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Neighbors who live below the massive warehouses in Soccoro, Texas that DHS wants to convert into ICE detention facilities are concerned. Their quiet neighborhood in unincorporated El Paso County will now become the center of the Trump's inhumane immigration policy. My story:
elpasotimes.com
'Everyone is pretty upset about it': Socorro speaks out against ICE center
Residents who live below three warehouses in Socorro, Texas purchased by DHS for an ICE immigration detention center raise concerns.
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Shannon Heffernan @shannonheffernan.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
After detaining children and parents for weeks, or months, inside Dilley detention center, ICE is dumping them at a shelter in Laredo, TX. They are often thousands of miles away from where they were arrested, with no money to get back home. THREAD (1/) www.themarshallproject.org/2026/03/02/i...
themarshallproject.org
After Detention, Families Stranded in Border Town Face Harrowing Journey Home
Parents and children from a detention center in Texas found themselves dropped at a border town shelter with few means to leave.
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Jess A. Goldberg 🇵🇸 @jessagoldberg.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
The utterance of "A.I.'s inevitability" is one of the most stark pure performatives I've seen in my time working in higher ed. Every time it is uttered, it is clearly not reporting a fact about the world but instead actively trying to create the reality it narrates. We can and must refuse.
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Alexander Manshel @manshel.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
As some of you may know, I’m writing a book on the history of high school English in the United States, and I’m excited to share a new article from that project—“High School English and the Making of American Readers”—out today in American Literary History! 🧵 academic.oup.com/alh/article/...
academic.oup.com
High School English and the Making of American Readers
Abstract. The high school English classroom is the most influential literary institution in the United States, and the most overlooked by literary scholars
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Boston Review @bostonreview.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
Last summer, a sheriff put it plainly: the federal government “depends on sheriffs and county jails to have bed space,” and his ICE contract helps “pay the bills.” Marie Gottschalk on books by @briannanofil.bsky.social @jesspish.bsky.social @michellesphelps.bsky.social @equalityalec.bsky.social:
bostonreview.net
The Making of the Deportation Machine
The pillars aren’t new. They were built over decades, with bipartisan consensus.
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Benjamin Williams @bkwilliams21.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Recent LCS PhD alum here who landed a tenure-track job at an R2. Warren's statement exemplifies the classism I experienced regularly at CMU. But guess what? Jokes on them. I am proud to be teaching at Marshall University and I hope to never be this miserable or condescending.
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Benjamin Williams @bkwilliams21.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
Abolition now.
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Heba Gowayed هبة جويد @hebagowayed.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
“Abolish ICE” isn’t radical, it doesn’t go far enough. Latest in @theguardian.com written with my friend @victorerikray.bsky.social. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Abolishing ICE isn’t enough – it’s time to center people’s humanity | Heba Gowayed and Victor Ray
It’s far from radical to reject a system predicated on violence – despite what thinktanks might claim
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Boston Review @bostonreview.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
"Strangest of all is the liberal pipe dream that local police will stand up against ICE and CBP, when police have collaborated with ICE and been deployed to protect agents from protesters, even in so-called sanctuary cities." An interview with Robin D.G. Kelley www.bostonreview.net/articles/ren...
bostonreview.net
Renee Good's Murder and Other Acts of Terror
An interview with Robin D. G. Kelley on how to think about ICE—and the broader history of police violence.
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Sludge @sludge.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
New: We built an interactive map of every ICE contractor working with the Trump administration. readsludge.com/2026/01/16/t...
readsludge.com
The Companies Behind ICE
Sludge built an interactive map of every ICE contractor working with the Trump administration.
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Just Nancy @justnancy.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
www.thenation.com/article/acti... Hit them where it hurts them - boycotts can work
thenation.com
Want to Stop ICE? Go After Its Corporate Collaborators.
ICE can’t function without help from the private sector. So we should force the private sector to stop helping.
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ICE must be destroyed 🏳️‍⚧️🏴 @miawong.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
Abolish ICE is the conservative position abolishing DHS is moderate solution open borders is the liberal solution Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
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Boston Review @bostonreview.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
“The longer Americans indulge this preference for the language of the law over morality, the weaker their moral voice becomes. They lose the ability to say, forthrightly, that what the Trump administration has done is cold-blooded murder for which they and their partisans should be ashamed.”
bostonreview.net
The Moral Stupefaction of the American Public
Trump’s actions are illegal, yes. Worse than that, they are wrong—precisely what the legality debate is meant to obscure.
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Nick Turse @nickturse.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
ICE Drives Unmarked Cars. This Public Database to Tracks Their License Plates. by @noahhurowitz.bsky.social theintercept.com/2026/01/02/i...
theintercept.com
ICE Drives Unmarked Cars. This Public Database to Tracks Their License Plates.
ICE is terrorizing communities in unmarked cars. These Pacific Northwest activists built a public database that tracks their license plates.
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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
"We envision a resistance that is...a repudiation of the efficiencies that automated algorithmic education falsely promises: a resistance comprising the collective force of small acts of friction." "How to Resist AI in Education" by me & @cnygren.bsky.social www.publicbooks.org/four-frictio...
publicbooks.org
Four Frictions: or, How to Resist AI in Education - Public Books
We are calling for resistance to the AI industry’s ongoing capture of higher education.
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Benjamin Williams @bkwilliams21.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
Humanities programs shouldn't be pawns to gamble away with "big bets." This programmatic shift is contributing to the evisceration of critical fields. Read the non-PR account in the Chronicle here by @seeshespeak.bsky.social & @caevans.bsky.social share.google/ohGmlDXpsxM2...
share.google
Opinion | A Coup at Carnegie Mellon?
The university is replacing the humanities with more computers.
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Catherine @caevans.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
No one wants to watch their PhD program be eliminated. It’s nearly the same story when it’s “innovated” away. Me & @seeshespeak.bsky.social in the Chronicle. Read it below ⬇️ www.chronicle.com/article/a-co...
chronicle.com
Opinion | A Coup at Carnegie Mellon?
The university is replacing the humanities with more computers.
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Rebecca Colesworthy @rcolesworthy.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
🚨🚨 @utaustin.bsky.social is working to eliminate its Black studies, Latin studies, and gender studies depts -- utterly reneging on its mission and depriving students of the full educational opportunities they deserve. Please--scholars AND publishers--share & write to UT leaders. #SaveUT
UT Austin wants to eliminate its Black studies, Latino Studies, and gender studies departments. Tell them you won't stand for it. 
UT President, Jim Davis, president@utexas.edu
UT Executive Vice President and Provost, William Inboden, provost@utexas.edu
College of Liberal Arts Interim Dean, David Sosa, david_sosa@austin.utexas.edu 
#EducationalLiberty #SaveUT
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Catherine @caevans.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
Oh hey. I curated this show all about feminist tshirts at Chatham University. Please come through! Opening reception (Oct 15) will feature a talk by Dawson which will also be live-streamed. Register for the opening here: chatham.edu/events/detai... Design by the very talented Megan Urban
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