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Robert Cassanello

@cassanello.bsky.social
96 followers 135 following 93 posts

Analog historian in a digital world. 👩‍💻

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Reposted by Robert Cassanello
United Faculty of Florida @unitedfacultyfl.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
"These are students who, again, came here when they may have been infants and have known only the United States of America." - @andrewspar.bsky.social, president of @floridaea.bsky.social www.gulfcoastnewsnow.com/article/flor...
gulfcoastnewsnow.com
Florida Board of Governors votes to ban students in US illegally from attending public universities
The Florida Board of Governors voted on Thursday on a proposal to prohibit students in the country illegally from enrolling in public universities.
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Bunnicula'd berries @frozen-cranberry.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
The Chronicle and Inside Higher Ed seem to be locked in a race for who can kick educators and students harder.
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United Faculty of Florida @unitedfacultyfl.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
"Gov. Ron DeSantis said in July that if a student is 'here illegally,' their spot should go to a 'Florida resident.' Dr. Casanello [UFF President] said that logic is 'absurd,' especially as college enrollment is declining nationally." www.tampabay.com/news/educati...
tampabay.com
Florida bans students without legal residency from public universities
More than 8,000 students lacking legal immigration status graduate from Florida high schools every year.
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
www.theguardian.com/film/2026/au...
theguardian.com
Tim Curry, star of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Stephen King’s It, dies aged 80
A prolific performer across stage, screen and TV, the actor starred in Legend, Clue and It, but will always be associated with the flamboyantly camp rock’n’roll musical in which he made his breakthrou...
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H-Net Reviews @hnetreviews.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
New book review: Morris on Cook, Ian M.: _Scholarly Podcasting: Why, What, How?_. Routledge, 2023. Published by H-Podcast. Read here: networks.h-net.org/node/20158269
networks.h-net.org
Cook, Ian M.. Scholarly Podcasting: Why, What, How?. : Routledge, 2023. 222 pp. $26.95 (paper), ISBN 9780367439446. Reviewed by Dan R. Morris (Podcast Magazine) Published on H-Podcast (August, 2026) Commissioned by Robert Cassanello (he/him/his) (University of Central Florida) Printable Version: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=59577
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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 29/07/2026
An English professor is suing the president of a Florida college that she says fired her for assigning a story that he called “political,” according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday. The instructor said in an interview that she had taught the story in her classes for nearly a decade without incident.
nyti.ms
Florida Professor Fired for Assigning a Profane Story, Lawsuit Says
South Florida State College fired an English professor after she assigned a story about a teacher who talks about sex with her students. Now the professor is suing.
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AAUP @aaup.org · 29/07/2026
“Genuine intellectual diversity requires time for reflection, institutional independence, historical depth, ethical questioning, & the freedom to pursue research unconstrained by immediate market demands. These conditions cannot flourish where knowledge itself has become increasingly commodified.”
truthout.org
Higher Ed Can’t Be Neutral in an Age of Brutality. It Must Choose Democracy.
Contemporary proponents of “institutional neutrality” fail to grasp that universities have never been outside politics.
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
www.rawstory.com/trump-smiths...
rawstory.com
Trump slammed for 'weak and petulant' order to slap right-wing propaganda on Smithsonian
President Donald Trump issued a new executive order on Friday demanding warning signs be placed outside the Smithsonian Museum of American History.The order, which is meant to alert visitors that the ...
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
myuff.org/educators-in...
myuff.org
Educators in Florida Win Case Against State Censorship – United Faculty of Florida
Today, a federal court of appeals has ruled unconstitutional the higher education provisions of a classroom censorship law that unfairly restricted an educators’ ability to teach about concepts like race, gender and more, commonly known as the Florida Stop W.O.K.E. Act.
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
theguardian.com
‘A sanitized view of America’: inside Trump’s campaign to erase US history from national parks
Critics say the Trump administration is trying to rewrite and whitewash history by removing and altering scores of signs on public lands
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
‘Dialogue is all the rage’: why is the right pouring millions into ‘civil discourse’ initiatives on US campuses?
Universities looking for a fix to relentless controversy are flocking to ‘civility’ initiatives. Critics say these efforts mask a darker project
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
www.wlrn.org/light/educat...
wlrn.org
WLRN
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
I told a reporter a story about our university trying to intimidate us in a meeting to engage in anticipatory compliance, read about poking the bear floridatrib.org/2026/06/03/g...
floridatrib.org
GOP restructuring of higher ed touches everything, including UF presidential search
The task of finding university and college presidents – once an academic exercise – is now a secretive, thorny project closely linked to Republican politics
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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 08/05/2026
The numbers don't lie.
motherjones.com
Is Trump a racist? Let’s look at the stats.
Whom does he call "low IQ" the most?
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
www.floridabookawards.org/node/643
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Reposted by Robert Cassanello
Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 12/04/2026
"The right’s characterization of higher education is a fiction. Students across the ideological spectrum feel free to express themselves, think their education is worth the cost and don’t think their views are silenced." Only 3% of Republican students feel out of place on campus for their views.
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Rex Huppke @rexhuppke.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
Putting the worst people in charge of America may have been a bad idea: "Turns out the government actually does stuff, and if we want it to continue to do stuff competently, we might need people in charge who AREN’T lunatics. I had the whole thing backward." www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
usatoday.com
There's a (small) possibility we shouldn't have elected Trump | Opinion
Even podcasters Joe Rogan and Theo Von, who both boosted Donald Trump during the presidential campaign, have seen the light.
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
youtu.be/4r50tItQgbc?...
youtu.be
FORUM: Beyond the Pages | Robert Cassanello
YouTube video by FloridaHumanities
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
I go an article in this magazine on the Florida constitutions. floridahumanities.online/media/forum-...
floridahumanities.online
Florida HumanitiesFORUM Magazine - Florida Humanities Online - Explore, Read, Watch and Enjoy Florida
Explore the latest articles from Florida Humanities' award-winning FORUM Magazine! Full issues about history and culture of Florida are available.
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
A Fight for Control www.aacu.org/liberaleduca...
aacu.org
A Fight for Control | AAC&U
The system that safeguards academic quality and independence is now a political battlefield
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Reposted by Robert Cassanello
McKenna Schueler @shecarrieson.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
Are ICE agents being deployed to Orlando International Airport? An airport spokesperson told me they haven’t heard anything about it yet from federal partners www.orlandoweekly.com/news/orlando...
orlandoweekly.com
Are ICE agents being deployed to Orlando International Airport?
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are being deployed to airports across the country Monday to fill TSA officer shortages, following an
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
thehill.com/opinion/educ...
thehill.com
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Miles Hentrup @miles-hentrup.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
Each year at FGCU, the Philosophy and Literature programs organize a Humanities Symposium to showcase the truly impressive work being done by our undergraduate students. Here's the schedule for the 2026 Humanities Symposium (taking place this Friday). #philsky #philosophy
Poster and schedule for FGCU's 2026 Humanities Symposium
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Did a ‘union buster’ really file a federal disclosure report from the grave? open.substack.com/pub/caringcl...
open.substack.com
Did a ‘union buster’ really file a federal disclosure report from the grave?
Records show a financial disclosure report was filed with the U.S. labor department in January, under penalty of perjury, with the signature of a man who died last year.
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Reposted by Robert Cassanello
McKenna Schueler @shecarrieson.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
In addition to talking points for HB 743, emails I obtained through a records request show a lobbyist for Do No Harm also wrote an op-ed in support of the bill. It was later published word-for-word by FloridaPolitics under both the Senate and House bill sponsors' names.
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McKenna Schueler @shecarrieson.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
Gender-affirming medical care is already banned for trans youth (and restricted for adults) in FL under state law. This new bill would have added more teeth to that. Still, despite advancing in the House, it failed to get a floor vote by either chamber before the end of session.
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Reposted by Robert Cassanello
McKenna Schueler @shecarrieson.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
New: Records I obtained show Do No Harm, a national group fighting "gender ideology," emailed draft language + talking points to the sponsor of a FL bill (HB 743) this session that sought to penalize anyone who aids or abets gender-affirming care for youth www.orlandoweekly.com/news/florida...
orlandoweekly.com
Emails reveal influential anti-trans group behind Florida bill targeting gender-affirming care providers
A pair of Florida bills filed this year sought to penalize healthcare providers who give gender-affirming care to trans minors, or any other person who "aids or abets" them.
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Abdelilah Skhir @abskhir.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
The politicians and activists pushing these attacks are part of a well-funded and coordinated nationwide effort to remove trans people from public life. We can fight for the future our families deserve. Resist these attempts to push people into the shadows based on who they are or who they love.
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...
theguardian.com
Jürgen Habermas, German philosopher and sociologist, dies aged 96
Habermas’ political consensus-building theory argued formation of public opinion vital for democracies to survive
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Reposted by Robert Cassanello
The Nation Magazine @thenation.com · 14/03/2026
Jürgen Habermas remains an indispensable guide to the unfinished project of democratic consciousness and enlightenment, wrote Peter E. Gordon in 2016. www.thenation.com/article/arch...
thenation.com
A Lion in Winter
Jürgen Habermas remains an indispensable guide to the unfinished project of democratic consciousness and enlightenment.
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
1/ A historian passed away who I found to be abusive to me as a graduate student and junior scholar. While in my PhD program he wrote me a 9 page letter telling me that he couldn't believe the program I was in would accept someone like me and their standards must have gone down.
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
newlaborforum.cuny.edu/2026/02/23/f...
newlaborforum.cuny.edu
From “Right-to-Work” to “No-Right-to-Exist”: Florida Public Education Sector Unions in an Age of Authoritarianism - New Labor Forum
Editor's Note This article appears as SB 1296 makes its way through the Florida Senate this month. SB 1296, which requires 50% of a bargaining unit to vote in favor of representation for union recerti...
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
Trump's war on history
As America's 250th anniversary approaches, the president wants to control the country's future by bulldozing its past.
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Reposted by Robert Cassanello
Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
There are so many jaw-dropping passages in this piece it's hard to pick one to quote, but ...
Another member of the chat, William Bejerano — who tried to start a pro-life group at Miami Dade College — was the primary user of the n-word in the group. At one point, he posted a block of text calling for dozens of acts of extreme violence against Black people, who he referred to using the n-word, including crucifying, beheading and dissecting people. Bejerano hung up the phone when reached by the Herald. 

Dariel Gonzalez, the College Republicans’ recruitment chairman at the time, responded in the chat: “How edgy.”
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Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
In 1966 the New Jersey Young Republicans gleefully sang racist and antisemitic songs at their gatherings. The lyrics to one went “Riding the Reich in my Mercedes Benz, shooting every kike, saving all my friends." Hartford Courant, 13 February 1966.
Jersey
Republicans infiltration
ranks of Young Republicans state by
an ugly.
wing youth group that is openly anti-Jewish,
anti-Negro, and anti-moder-
ate. Disclosure of the these young conservatives was made
by State Senator Nelson F. Stamler.
Since he pulled the
Rat Finks from
behind the woodwork of secrecy, he
himself has been the target of anonymous filth,
threats, and harassment.
This is a small price one pays for meeting any rat-fink group head on.
Jersey's Young
had been fearful of
Republicans making public
the presence of the Rat Finks, though members had been active at their national convention Now that Senator Stamler has posed them.
New Jersey
number
of troubled
Young Republicans have
joined him.
These young men charge
the Rat Fink radicals with using in-
and fear and threatening
reprisals against liberals and moder-
even,
genuine
conservative
members of the Young Republicans.
They
and Senator Stamler unite to
identify
as a group
treme,
right-wing bigots."
Behind the Headlines -
The Rat Finks in New Jersey's GOP
By Ralph McGill
have
measure of their success may be the recent statement by the national president of Young Republicans that officers would not renounce any organization claiming to be
members of
the Young Republicans.
Refusal to
condemn a self-confessing hate group is at least mildly interesting.
It sug-
gests how far the Rat Finks may have gone in influencing the influential.
Senator Stamler asks condemnation.
He said of this new extremist youth group:
"Simple exposure of these elements
Responsible leadership
must fight back in a responsible way.
To sit on the sidelines and decry or view with alarm that which requires
is to play
into the hands of the enemy. It can - only result in the takeover
0f
the
Republican Party by a group which does not represent the great pattern and principles of what the Republican
One of the activities of the GOP group.
themselves
as Rat Finks, was to pass out a song sheet. It contained anti-Semitic and racist songs, a…
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Reposted by Robert Cassanello
McKenna Schueler @shecarrieson.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
Anti-union bills are on the move in Florida. The latest: open.substack.com/pub/caringcl...
open.substack.com
What’s on tap: Florida labor bills on the move (Week 7 recap)
An overview of bills affecting workers rights that advanced during week six of Florida's 2026 state legislative session.
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Reposted by Robert Cassanello
McKenna Schueler @shecarrieson.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
At the same time, we continue to see new organizing in Florida and union members voting in favor of recertifying their unions, as is now required under state law for most public sector unions with a dues-paying membership of below 60% open.substack.com/pub/caringcl...
open.substack.com
Last month in Florida: New organizing and union election results (Feb. 2026)
Catch up on new union organizing, feat. restaurant workers at Tampa International Airport, union staff, supervisory public employees on the Treasure Coast and more.
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
www.sun-sentinel.com/2026/01/29/f...
sun-sentinel.com
Florida is replacing free inquiry with political indoctrination | Opinion
Two professors of sociology at Florida International University write that top-down decisions on how and what they can teach do not represent the ideals of higher education.
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
nacla.org/maduro-was-c...
nacla.org
Maduro Was “Captured,” Our Campus Doesn’t Have to Be
As a right-wing center harnesses public funds to bolster U.S. imperial power at FIU, a faculty member issues an urgent call to resist.
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
app.publicnewsservice.org/story/florid...?
app.publicnewsservice.org
Florida bill proposes 10% cap on foreign student enrollment
A proposal to limit international students to no more than 10% of enrollment at Florida’s public universities is moving through the legislature.Rep. Berny Jacques, R-Clearwater, who sponsored the bill...
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McKenna Schueler @shecarrieson.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
New roundup of activity reported by Florida’s union avoidance consultants (aka “union busters”) to the federal government, and the employers in Florida that hire them: open.substack.com/pub/caringcl...
open.substack.com
Busted: What Florida's union busters have been up to | Jan. 2026
A round-up of reported activity by Florida's union avoidance consultants and employers in Florida that hire them.
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
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Nancy Gowler @revnancyg.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
Great piece by @pastpunditry.bsky.social "For the right, this crackdown wasn’t a sign of the excesses of the early Cold War but rather the proper role of government: to police public life to make sure it conformed to conservative values." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | The Right Didn’t Catch Cancel Culture From the Left
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/m...
nytimes.com
What the Public Memory of Charlie Kirk Revealed
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
www.sun-sentinel.com/2025/09/27/h...
sun-sentinel.com
How Florida educators’ comments about Charlie Kirk are testing free speech rights
In what could be a test of free speech rights, educational institutions have been investigating or disciplining employees for social media posts surrounding Charlie Kirk’s death.
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/u...
nytimes.com
Texas Tech Moves to Limit Academic Discussion to 2 Genders
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
This is the latest in Florida if any one is paying attention. A portal to report violent political extremists by the political party who thinks violent political extremists can only be found on the left. www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/09/22/f...
orlandosentinel.com
Florida creates portal to report ‘violent extremism’ threats following Kirk death
Uthmeier dismissed criticism that the portal could be used as a government tool to crack down on free speech.
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
theguardian.com
Florida to end vaccine mandates for children as state’s surgeon general likens them to ‘slavery’
Joseph Ladapo, a long-time vaccine skeptic, says that every state vaccine requirement would be repealed
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
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Robert Cassanello @cassanello.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Why Trump’s attack on the Smithsonian matters | Kimberlé Crenshaw and Jason Stanley
The president’s assault on US museums, education and memory is a critical dimension of his fascist aims
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