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Karl Jacoby

@karl-jacoby.bsky.social
7K followers 666 following 2.1K posts

Professor of History at Columbia University; author of CRIMES AGAINST NATURE, SHADOWS AT DAWN: A BORDERLANDS MASSACRE AND THE VIOLENCE OF HISTORY; and THE STRANGE CAREER OF WILLIAM ELLIS. Working on a new project on the US-Mexico War (1846-1848).

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Reposted by Karl Jacoby
Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 2h
The Cornell report on the Future of the American University is a disaster, mainstreaming and endorsing profoundly reactionary right-wing diagnoses of higher education that have no business in a serious report on what higher ed is or should become.
Compare, for example, the Progressive Policy Institute’s report on The Distortion of American Studies
with a similar study of American political science from the Goldwater Institute: Richard D. Kahlenberg
and Lief Lin, “The Distortion of American Studies: How the Field’s Leading Journal Has Embraced a
Worldview as Slanted as Donald Trump’s,” Progressive Policy Institute, January 22, 2026,
https://www.progressivepolicy.org/the-distortion-of-american-studies; Timothy K. Minella, “Peer Review
Gone Wild: Flagship Political Science Journal Shows How Academic Gatekeepers Promote Ideology Over
Scholarship,” Goldwater Institute, December 2, 2025, https://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/policy-
report/peer-review-gone-wild/.12 Jenna Silber Storey and Benjamin Storey, “Five Reasons Viewpoint Diversity Makes Academic Sense,”
American Enterprise Institute, January 26, 2026, https://cfau.aei.org/five-reasons-viewpoint-diversity-
makes-academic-sense.
13 Richard D. Kahlenberg and Lief Lin, “The Distortion of American Studies: How the Field’s Leading
Journal Has Embraced a Worldview as Slanted as Donald Trump’s,” Progressive Policy Institute, January
22, 2026, https://www.progressivepolicy.org/the-distortion-of-american-studies
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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 57m
"The U.S. prison population is declining at an accelerating rate, and prison admission rates are predicted to fall an additional 50% within the next two decades, according to new research from University at Albany professor Shawn Bushway." "the decline is driven mainly by generational change."
phys.org
New research shows steep and continuing decline in prison population in the US
The U.S. prison population is declining at an accelerating rate, and prison admission rates are predicted to fall an additional 50% within the next two decades, according to new research from Universi...
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Hari Kunzru @harikunzru.bsky.social · 13h
Listening to the racist podcast about the “Indian Question” and wow mediocre 2026 white guys jealous of an Indian with a tech job is very much the new mediocre Central Valley white guys in 1941 jealous of Japanese with a thriving farm.
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I don’t think everyone realizes how bad things are for US science: For the fiscal year that just ended, the Trump regime withheld $1.4 billion from the National Science Foundation’s research budget, which is about 1/5 of its primary research budget.
nytimes.com
National Science Foundation Diverted $1.4 Billion in Science Funds Mandated by Congress (Gift Article)
The move, affecting about one-fifth of the National Science Foundation’s primary research budget, is the latest sign of how the White House is asserting more control over grants.
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Stuart McDaniel @stuartmcdaniel.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
“For four decades, the United States has run one of the most profitable trades in the world economy… import young people that the global labor market has underpriced—graduate students whose ability outruns their résumés—give them a place to prove themselves, and keep much of the upside”
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Princess Vimentin PhD | Cancer Biologist @princess-vimentin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
This is huge! Another cancer responds well to immunotherapy. A child had metastatic liver cancer. The patient had chemotherapy & a liver resection. No avail. Then: Two infusions, eight weeks apart. Doctors saw complete regression. No systemic toxicity. 🧪 www.bcm.edu/news/care-st...
bcm.edu
CARE study reports complete regression of liver cancer in a child treated with novel immunotherapy
A new report in the New England Journal of Medicine by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children’s Hospital and Seattle Children’s...
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𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖 𝔾𝕦𝕣𝕝 @sundaedivine.lol · 02/10/2026
“Did you or did you not sell hamburgers from a giant smiling head?” “Sir, that was Jack in the Box.”
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Michael J. Stern @michaeljstern.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
😂
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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 03/10/2026
I've been waiting for this to be published. Such a bonkers story: www.propublica.org/article/prop...
propublica.org
Almost Anyone Can Start a Private School. We Put This to the Test.
Our reporting has shown how easily people — some with questionable backgrounds — have founded their own private schools in barns, strip malls and other places. That led us to an experiment: If the hur...
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Karl Jacoby @karl-jacoby.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
A small Texas town stopped Trump’s border wall construction – for now www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
A small Texas town stopped Trump’s border wall construction – for now
As they had in the past, San Ygnacio residents banded together to stop a development threatening their town
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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 02/10/2026
Scoop: At a secret meeting this summer, an aide to Stephen Miller laid out Trump administration's plan to make it easier for states to round up and institutionalize mentally ill homeless people — by pushing a drastic policy change that would weaken the rights of millions of disabled Americans.
nbcnews.com
How Trump’s homelessness crackdown became a sweeping retreat from disability rights
After issuing a memo making it easier to institutionalize homeless people, the Justice Department began abandoning cases protecting disabled people’s right to live in the community.
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Anjali Dayal @anjalikdayal.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
not everyone has to go to college. there is lots of worthy work for which you don't need a degree, & lots of unworthy work for which you do. but articles like this obfuscate the unequal opportunity structure students face instead of questioning why all paths are not equally available to all students
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Unless Congress reclaims its power, this will just become the new normal. A good first step would be to impeach Vought. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/02/u...
nytimes.com
National Science Foundation Diverted $1.4 Billion in Science Funds Mandated by Congress
The move, affecting about one-fifth of the National Science Foundation’s primary research budget, is the latest sign of how the White House is asserting more control over grants.
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I don’t think the roman helmet guys on musk’s csam emporium know this one (from josephine quinn’s how the world made the West)
By now the Roman imperial economy depended heavily on African agriculture, manufacturing, and trade, much of which was in the hands of Africans themselves. At the same time, local landowners attained great power and status in Rome: by the 180s CE nearly a third of Roman senators were of African origin.[33] These were men like Septimius Severus,
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Cornbread Countess @breadbae.blacksky.app · 02/10/2026
Kids just be doing shit
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Yale AAUP @aaupyale.org · 01/10/2026
Tell President Maurie McInnis: Defend Yale’s public mission. Email president@yale.edu. Ask her to reaffirm public service and an ethical, diverse community, protect academic freedom, and give faculty, students, staff, and New Haven residents a meaningful voice in Yale’s future. 5/5
Cream AAUP Yale graphic with an illustration of a hand pressing “Send” on a phone displaying an envelope. Heading: “Tell McInnis: Defend Yale’s public mission.” Text: “Email Yale President Maurie McInnis: president@yale.edu.” Readers are urged to ask her to reaffirm Yale’s commitment to public service and an ethical, diverse community; protect academic freedom from political interference; and ensure faculty, students, staff, and New Haven residents have a meaningful voice in shaping Yale’s future. Closing text: “And read more at bit.ly/CHE_WhatAilsHigherEd.”
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Columbia Climate School @climate.columbia.edu · 02/10/2026
The current El Niño will break all sea-surface temperature records to date and will very likely deliver unprecedented weather-related impacts around the world. Learn more from our experts via State of the Planet: news.climate.columbia.edu/2026/10/0…
Fires rage in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, during the 2015-2016 El Niño season. Credit: Rini Sulaiman/Creative Commons.
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Karl Jacoby @karl-jacoby.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” ― George Orwell, 1984
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Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS @dimitridrekonja.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
It is depressing that few public officials are stepping up to defend the university of Minnesota from crippling cuts. Investment in it generates enormous return. You can’t trim 10-15% of the budget and pretend that all will be well. Austerity leads to mediocrity 🤦🏻‍♂️
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Karl Jacoby @karl-jacoby.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Hegseth, Trump et al. want us to be "proud of our history" but not to study it. It is history as propaganda--not as critical inquiry.
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H-Net Job Guide @h-net-job-guide.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
New job: Assistant Teaching Professor in Histories of the Environment, Science, and Technology Worcester Polytechnic Institute jobs.h-net.org/jobs/70339
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H-Net Job Guide @h-net-job-guide.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
New job: LGBTQ+ History Brown University jobs.h-net.org/jobs/70387
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H-Net Job Guide @h-net-job-guide.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
New job: Assistant Professor of Environmental Analysis (Critical Geography) Pomona College jobs.h-net.org/jobs/70422
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H-Net Job Guide @h-net-job-guide.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
New job: Associate or Full Professor of History of the American West and Director, Clements Center for Southwest Studies Southern Methodist University jobs.h-net.org/jobs/70465
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H-Net Job Guide @h-net-job-guide.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
New job: Mae and John Hueston Distinguished Professorship in Native American and Indigenous Studies Dartmouth College jobs.h-net.org/jobs/70479
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H-Net Job Guide @h-net-job-guide.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
New job: First Research Article Fellowship Program Max Planck Institute for the History of Science jobs.h-net.org/jobs/70506
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University of Washington Press @uwapress.uw.edu · 01/10/2026
We are thrilled to announce Bathsheba Demuth as the new series editor of Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books, succeeding Paul S. Sutter. We’re grateful to Paul for 12 years of extraordinary leadership and excited to see Bathsheba carry the series into its next chapter! @brdemuth.bsky.social
uwpressblog.com
Bathsheba Demuth Appointed Weyerhaeuser Environmental Series Editor
Bathsheba Demuth steps in as the new series editor for Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books at the University of Washington Press, succeeding Paul S. Sutter.
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Karl Jacoby @karl-jacoby.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
"[T]he Mamdani administration said it intends to take 'prompt' legal action against Columbia if College Walk—the thoroughfare that runs through the University’s Morningside Heights campus—is not 'immediately' opened to the public." www.columbiaspectator.com/city-news/20...
columbiaspectator.com
Mamdani threatens to sue Columbia to open campus gates
<i>Updated Sept. 30 at 11:14 p.m.</i>
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Karl Jacoby @karl-jacoby.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Carnegie Mellon better start studying climate change if they don't want to find their new campus in Miami under water in a few years. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/u...
nytimes.com
Donor Gives $3 Billion to Carnegie Mellon, the Largest University Gift Ever
The donation by Kenneth Griffin, intended mostly to help build a campus in Miami, was the biggest single gift in the history of U.S. higher education.
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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
This 33-year-old nurse told the FBI she knew she was “going to set him free” after border patrol agents brought in a man whose face was bloodied and seriously injured. She treated him and helped him escape, and she faces charges now. He got away, and they never relocated him.
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Holly Brewer @earlymodjustice.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Six of the tenured faculty that the president is firing are in history. (!) It’s arbitrary. None of the members of the committee that advised Bowie State’s president about “retrenchment” were elected by the faculty senate. That’s against USM policies. Here’s the resolution CUSF passed last May:
COUNCIL of UNIVERSITY
SYSTEM FACULTY
CUSF Resolution on Bowie State University Retrenchment and Shared Governance
Passed by the Council of University System Faculty (CUSF) on May 13, 2026
22 yea, 6 abstentions, 0 nay
Whereas, a year after a vote of no confidence in the Provost at Bowie State University, and a year after the Council of University System Faculty (CUSF) passed a resolution seeking to raise awareness of the concerns at Bowie State University, most are unresolved. An evaluation was commissioned as a result of the concerns that had been raised (the "Commodore Report" in July
2025). But nine months after the Commodore report on shared governance at BSU highlighted "a distressed working relationship exists between the faculty and Provost, with tense and at times hostile communications between parties and distrust and discord from the outset of the Provost's tenure," little has been done to address the problems. According to a survey of full-time faculty concluded on May 7, 2026, 61% of respondents* of BSU faculty reported that the President and Provost have not taken appropriate steps to restore faculty trust and confidence.
Whereas, the Commodore report repeatedly described the adverse effects of neglect of shared governance and provided recommendations intended to serve as a "foundation for strengthening shared governance practices at Bowie State University," these recommendations have not been effectively followed and to date, retrenchment is being initiated by the BSU administration without convening the relevant historical shared governance body, the Faculty Senate Committee on Budget and Retrenchment.
Whereas the Provost has repeatedly violated Appointment, Rank and Tenure policies and procedures and ignored faculty committees making decisions without justification;
Whereas 75% of BSU faculty respondents* reported "fear of retaliation when I consider sharing concerns with the BSU administration:"
Whereas the administrative dysfunction throughout the u…
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Mexico News @mexiconews.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Monterrey Mexico City of Bears Stray bear crossing the avenue using the overpass (NO AI) Ciudad de Osos
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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Ummmm…
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Every time I return to Paris, I notice they've done more to reclaim streets from drivers and cars, including removing on-street parking, protecting cyclists from drivers, and prioritizing pedestrians and cyclists in shared spaces. Other cities can learn a lot from Paris.
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Neil Lewis, Jr. @neillewisjr.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
"For many Black scholars, academia is a burning house. If we cannot extinguish that fire, Black scholars will always bear a greater risk of being burned–& therefore have to insulate themselves against the risk more than others." @cydneydupree.bsky.social www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/blac...
timeshighereducation.com
Black academics face extra scrutiny. Our research shows its consequences
Scholars of colour told us they engage in strategies to make it harder for them to be dismissed as biased or lacking rigour, says Cydney Hurston Dupree
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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The White House accord on AI that was signed by all the big tech oligarchs today misspells United States as “Unites States.”
Document signed by Trump, Sundar Pichai
Google
Dario Amodei
Anthropic
Mark Zuckerberg
Meta

Greg Brockman
OpenAl

Elon Musk
XAI

Jensen Huang
nvidia “Unites States”
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Karl Jacoby @karl-jacoby.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
It sounds to me like this guy is just too lazy to prep his classes.
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The EDU Ledger @theeduledger.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
A one-year admissions freeze at Temple University is raising urgent questions about the fate of the nation's first Black studies doctoral program.
theeduledger.com
Outrage Grows as Temple Halts Admissions to Nation's First Black Studies Ph.D. Program
A one-year admissions freeze at Temple University is raising urgent questions about the fate of a pioneering Black studies doctoral program.
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Alex Ip 葉清霖 @alexip718.com · 30/09/2026
Jesus Christ Cornell
What use was it to bring the writer and activist Chanel Miller to campus in the spring just for fraternity brothers to scroll, bored, on their phones as she movingly shared her experience as Emily Doe, the victim of Brock Turner? As I wrote at the time, I was floored and dismayed as I sat in the audience with one of my brilliant undergraduates; we heard Miller’s shattering account of being sexually assaulted by Turner behind a dumpster at Stanford University after a fraternity party. Her talk was riveting, and there was so much to learn from it. And yet many of the male students who hailed predominantly from fraternities — 15 percent of each chapter was required to be in attendance — were so tuned out that Miller commented ruefully: “You know, this has been my hardest gig, because they didn’t turn down the house lights. I’m not sure how you professors do it, because it’s so hard looking out at this sea of mildly disgruntled faces. I mean, I’m sure you’re all very moved, but …,” Miller smiled. The implication being, it didn’t seem like it, from her angle.
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Dr. Todd Arrington @btarrington.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
One year ago today, I got a life-altering phone call: Trump administration demanding my resignation or would fire me as Director of Eisenhower Pres. Library. I had over 27 years of federal service (civilian & military). This was my wife’s Facebook post about it. I married so out of my league.
This color image shows a long Facebook post about a man fired from his civil service job by the Trump administration.
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Jacob Öberg @profjacob.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
🚨🚨 @coe.int of Europe said yesterday that the #US formally notified it that it would leave the Group of States against Corruption, or #GRECO. Only two other countries have left GRECO before — #Russia and #Belarus. The fall of the #US on the world scene is striking. apnews.com/article/trum...
apnews.com
US withdraws from European anti-corruption panel in latest shift away from global groups
The Trump administration has withdrawn the United States from a top European anti-corruption watchdog.
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Christopher Webb @cwebbonline.com · 30/09/2026
This is priceless. Check out how local news is reporting on Sen Eric Schmidt’s clown-show grilling of Jack Smith. They found Jack Smith at the game… “Top corner, section 109, row 1. In fact, that seat doesn’t even exist in Atlanta.”
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Lukas Neville @lukasneville.com · 29/09/2026
do i know any chemists who want to come to canada
linkedin.com
Assistant Professor at University of Manitoba — Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada | LinkedIn Jobs
Apply for Assistant Professor at University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Full-time Not Applicable role. See responsibilities, qualifications, and similar jobs on LinkedIn.
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Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 29/09/2026
bsky.app/profile/fact...
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Actual names @actualnames.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
Sore Fuckmann New York, Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1925
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Noel Healy @drnoelhealy.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The assault on US universities didn't start in 2025. Our new paper traces the decades of corporate capture that made it possible, and why climate research is a primary target. Open access: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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Karl Jacoby @karl-jacoby.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Enjoyed this documentary a great deal, although they could have said more about the long history of African American involvement with Mexico, which stretches back to the antebellum period and the "underground railroad" to Mexico.
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
When they get back in power, Democrats need to go all-in on higher education. We need a campaign of reinvestment in public universities across the country that makes the Morrill Land-Grant Act look like nothing by comparison *and* a GI Bill of Rights-style program of tuition grants.
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Waitman Wade Beorn, PhD, FRHistS @waitmanwbeorn.com · 29/09/2026
Comedy gold.
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Are Black Democrats not a thing or…
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