iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Joel Stillerman

Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 19/09/2026

"A Reader’s Guide To The Rubin Report." John Levi Martin on @ashleytrubin.bsky.social's disciplinary report on sociology: "focused on whether she actually marshaled evidence to support her arguments, and whether she correctly represents her sources." osf.io/preprints/so... @socarxiv.bsky.social

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Dr. Leonard Bright @drleonardbright.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

ACLU has filed a motion for preliminary injunction asking the Court to block Texas A&M's censorship policy until a final judgment is made. The Motion includes detailed allegations of how the censorship policy has been enforced throughout the A&M campuses. www.aclutx.org/cases/americ...

aclutx.org

American Association of University Professors, et al. vs. Albritton, et al. - ACLU of Texas

The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, American Civil Liberties Union, and pro bono counsel Yetter Coleman LLP have filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Texas A&M University  Sys...

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Joel Stillerman @jstillerman.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

His response is excellent. Look forward to reading yours.

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Joel Stillerman @jstillerman.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

This is really concerning. Could you point me to more information on this? Thanks.

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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

The AAUP chapters at Vanderbilt & Wash U have issued a joint statement denouncing the “State of Scholarship” report commissioned by their chancellors. Please, let’s make this as widely read as the gaslighting to which it responds.

Joint Statement on the "State of Scholarship" Report
The Vanderbilt University and Washington University chapters of the American Association of University Professors express our profound disagreement with the "State of Scholarship" report commissioned by our universities' chancellors. The report distorts the state of humanistic and social scientific scholarship at our universities and in the academy overall. Worse, it proposes a shocking intrusion of university administration into faculty governance and portends greater threats to academic freedom that should concern all faculty.
The report currently appears on Vanderbilt's website under the insignia of both Vanderbilt and Washington Universities. It is already receiving public condemnation. As the American Council of Learned Societies makes clear, the report is founded on false premises and anecdotal evidence and thus does nothing to "ensure deeper and more meaningful relations among scholars and members of the public." No doubt more rebuttals from scholars, departments, and professional societies will follow. It suffices for us to say that the report falls far short of the standards of political neutrality and disinterested inquiry it claims to champion. Historians, literary scholars, and anthropologists are singled out for caricature while the authors fail to acknowledge their own public biases against scholarship performed in the name of social justice. Nor does the report divulge its source of funding or conflicts of interest that may entail - standard practice for any work of humanistic or social scientific scholarship. In sum, the report is itself a clear example of "politicized" research that its authors attempt to decry.
What is most alarming is the guidance the report offers to its intended audience of university chancellors and presidents. By falsely arguing that humanities and social science departments are in the throes of an epistemological crisis, the authors lay the groundwork for university adminis…

Weakening faculty governance does nothing to solve the real challenges facing our universities, and undermines our ability to effectively address society's most profound problems and challenges, from the inequalities of wealth and white supremacy to the political consequences of climate change.
Indeed, the direst threats to public trust in higher education are not philosophical debates about the nature of truth. Currently, the federal government is dramatically cutting funding for the humanities and social sciences as well as for the natural sciences, engineering, medicine, public health, and the arts. In response, university administrations have instituted austerity measures, even as administrative salaries and administrative positions have taken up an increasing share of decreasing budgets.
The best way for scholars to cultivate diverse opinions and advance knowledge is by strengthening academic freedom. Political threats to higher education have degraded, and will continue to degrade, the quality of all fields of our universities' research, to the detriment of America's global standing.
We note that the organizations now working most actively and successfully to defend academic free inquiry from politicized federal interference are not university leaders but the American Council of Learned Societies, the Modern Language Association, and the American Historical Association - professional societies of the very disciplines chastised by the report.
We call on our chancellors to rescind the report and affirm their commitment to the intellectual autonomy of faculty, academic departments, and governing faculty bodies. Administrative interference into academic departments, as licensed by this report, is a violation of the standards of academic freedom that have made American universities the envy of the world. Rather than undermining these bedrock principles, administrators should vigorously and publicly defend them.
Vanderbilt University AAUP
vanderbiltaaup@gmail.com
Wa…

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Joel Stillerman @jstillerman.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Also great to commission someone that does not have a sociology PhD, publishes in a different field, and already has an axe to grind as evident in previous publications and public comments to write the report.

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Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I spent the morning reading John Levi Martin's absolutely brutal takedown of the Vanderbilt report's assessment of politicization in sociology. I recommend it and hope it gets as much attention as the initial (crap) Vanderbilt report. A Reader’s Guide to the Rubin Report osf.io/preprints/so...

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Joel Stillerman @jstillerman.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Levi Martin’s analysis is great. Can’t say the same for the sociology portion of the Vandy report, alas…

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Joel Stillerman @jstillerman.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

New open access article on fear of crime in Chile. Check it out! academic.oup.com/socpro/advan...

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Joel Stillerman @jstillerman.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

A question for #SociologyHiveMind: I’m teaching a social class inequality (aka social stratification) class for the first time this fall. If you’ve taught a similar class before and have found specific assignments, activities, or interactive websites/datasets effective please let me know! Thanks!

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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

The end of Pinochet's dictatorship in Chile in 1990 led to a rapid decline in poverty and the dramatic expansion of the middle class. Our video of the week maps the politics and consumption practices of this varied fraction of the Chilean population. Feat. @jstillerman.bsky.social buff.ly/GZAIdpp

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Joel Stillerman @jstillerman.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

My new chapter is out! This piece revisits longstanding debates about the relationship between middle classes and democracy through an examination of countries in the Global South. Check it out! academic.oup.com/edited-volum... #Middle Classes #Global South #Democracy #Development #Social Movements

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Joel Stillerman @jstillerman.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

This paper revisits classic discussions linking middle class expansion to democratization. I find that middle classes in the Global South have an ambivalent relationship to democracy that is context specific. #middleclass #GlobalSouth #democracy #politics

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Joel Stillerman @jstillerman.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

This paper focuses on conflicting attitudes regarding crime across different groups in Chile’s middle classes. Rather than holding uniformly punitive attitudes, middle class attitudes vary based on on social position and political ideology. The talk of crime is linked to symbolic boundaries.

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Joel Stillerman @jstillerman.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

New paper due out this fall in Social Problems. Check it out! Crime and Symbolic Boundaries in Unsettled Times: An Analysis of Middle-Class Responses to Fear in Chile osf.io/preprints/so...

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Joel Stillerman @jstillerman.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

*New Preprint Alert*: Will a Rising Middle Class in the Global South Reshape Politics? osf.io/preprints/so...

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Joel Stillerman @jstillerman.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Great idea: Bernie Sanders: A.I. Is a Public Resource. You Should Own Half of It. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | Bernie Sanders: A.I. Is a Public Resource. You Should Own Half of It.

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Joel Stillerman @jstillerman.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

So sad to see my Alma mater crash and burn. Horrible.

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Dr. Art Garfunky @chimpvsdog.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

Mainstream journalists are abdicating their duty. Cartoonists are the real heroes of the moment.

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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

He makes a persuasive case.

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Alt National Park Service @altnps.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

Omg! Huge shoutout to San Francisco, CA! Ocean Beach, you crushed it! 🌊

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Gaby Hinsliff @gabyhinsliff.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

the sobering detail here is that the Danes were prepared to fight while knowing exactly how that would likely end for them

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The Watchdog Coalition @thewatchdogco.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Pam Bondi swore an oath to the Constitution—not to Donald Trump. She’s betraying that oath every single day. Impeachment is the only answer—the rule of law depends on it. Tell Congress now:

actionnetwork.org

Tell Congress: Impeach Attorney General Pam Bondi

Contact Congress today!

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David_j_roth @davidjroth.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Having some of the most thoroughly redacted thoughts of my life.

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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

"The Peace President."

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Dan Immergluck @danimmergluck.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

People in the US arguing that it ok for a country to bomb another country because the second one has an oppressive, autocratic regime that hurts vulnerable populations might want to rethink that.

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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

The richest man owns X. The second and third richest men control Google. The fourth richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The fifth richest man owns The Washington Post. And now the sixth richest could soon take over both Paramount and Warner Bros. See the problem here?

nytimes.com

Netflix Backs Out of Bid for Warner Bros., Paving Way for an Ellison Takeover

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Joel Stillerman @jstillerman.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

I used to teach “The African Roots of War” as well — also useful analysis/critique of imperialism.

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Joel Stillerman @jstillerman.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

Taught an excerpt last semester. Great stuff as expected.

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Mark Lemley @marklemley.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

"In Chicago, of 92 people arrested for assaulting or impeding officers last fall, 74 cases have resulted in no charges; in 13 cases, charges were filed and dismissed; and five charged cases were still pending. . . there have been no convictions. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

theguardian.com

DoJ cases against protesters keep collapsing as officers’ lies are exposed in court

String of embarrassing defeats for prosecutors as experts condemn DoJ effort to cast people as ‘violent perpetrators’

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Outspoken™️ @out5p0ken.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

So the court that granted the guy presidential immunity ruled against him. So when he defies them, there will be no consequences.

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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

MAHA was always a con. It was always about the ego and ambition of a drug-addled narcissistic fraud.

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Allison Gill @muellershewrote.com · 19/02/2026

Must be nice to have a functioning Supreme Court.

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Mary Anne Franks @maryannefranks.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

If you are wondering what words the all-male Congress found so "blasphemous" that they felt compelled to literally scrape them off the monument, they were: ''Woman, first denied a soul, then called mindless, now arisen, declared herself an entity to be reckoned.''

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Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

I’m teaching about wealth inequality today and remembered this shameful story from 2022 about Nathan Connolly and Shani Mott’s home appraisal.

nytimes.com

Home Appraised With a Black Owner: $472,000. With a White Owner: $750,000. (Published 2022)

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Metro Weekly @metroweekly.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

LGBTQ athletes struck gold at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games. Breezy Johnson made downhill history, while Amber Glenn helped secure gold for Team USA’s hockey team.

metroweekly.com

LGBTQ U.S. Athletes Strike Gold at Milano Cortina

Breezy Johnson makes history in downhill while Amber Glenn and Team USA’s hockey stars add to the medal count.

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Ronan Farrow @ronanfarrow.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

For nearly a year, the administration has said that DOGE had no unauthorized access to your Social Security data. A new government filing admits that was false.

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