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Matthew Clair

@mathuclair.bsky.social
1.3K followers 454 following 103 posts

Associate Professor of Sociology and, by courtesy, Law at Stanford. Author of PRIVILEGE & PUNISHMENT www.matthewclair.org

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Matthew Clair @mathuclair.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Apply! bsky.app/profile/stan...
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Public Books @publicbooks.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
“This archive is produced by a group of academics to honor and commemorate these lives and those of the many other teachers and researchers in higher education murdered in Gaza during the genocide.” www.publicbooks.org/remember-the...
publicbooks.org
Remember Them: Palestine Scholars Murdered in the Gaza Genocide - Public Books
“In Palestine, some 87,000 students have suffered a near total disruption of their studies for the duration of the genocide, and more than 1200 have been killed. Upwards of 200 academic staff have…
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Hakeem Jefferson @hakeemjefferson.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
One of my big academic rules: only write papers you really care about on topics you really care about. I try to follow this rule 99% of the time. This paper is one of the best examples of that, and I’m stoked it’s one step closer to being in the world. We’ve corrected proofs & you’ll have it soon!
First page of article proofs for “The Politics of Black Classification: Sociopolitical Cues and Racial Perception”
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Stanford Sociology @stanfordsoc.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
NEW in @pnasnexus.org: Prof. Forrest Stuart, Caylin Moore, and Patrick Janulis find that deploying unarmed safety practitioners to high-crime intersections can reduce behavioral-health related crime. The study examined the effect of practitioners in San Francisco. academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
academic.oup.com
Civilianized safety practitioners reduce crime and disorder: Evidence from a quasiexperimental evaluation in San Francisco
Abstract. Cities across the United States are experimenting with civilian-led alternatives to policing, yet rigorous evidence of their effectiveness remain
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Ann Owens @annowens.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
ICYMI in the run-up to ASA: @cicojournal.bsky.social is hosting a conference showcasing the future of urban sociology! 🌟Graduate students and postdocs, submit by 11/15. 🌟 tinyurl.com/cicoconfinfo Senior folks, please share widely! @asanews.bsky.social #sociology #CUSS
tinyurl.com
Conference_CfS.docx
To commemorate the 25th anniversary of City & Community, the Editors-in-Chief are pleased to announce a one-day conference to be held at Georgetown University on April 23, 2027. The conference will sh...
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Brenden Beck @brendenbeck.net · 28/07/2026
Homicides of white and wealthy people get more press attention. In this excellent new study, @jbenmenachem.com interviews journalists to understand why. Short version: journalists often recognize the inequity but feel constrained by resources and demands for novelty. doi.org/10.1111/1745...
doi.org
Which deaths count? Debating homicide coverage amidst newsroom scarcity
Past research documents disparities in which homicides receive news coverage and how victims are portrayed, yet the organizational processes producing these patterns remain understudied. This paper a...
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Prison Journalism Project @prisonjournalism.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Today, we're launching Unlocking Lived Experience, a 12-day campaign to raise $15,000 — with every dollar you give matched 1-to-1, up to that $15,000, thanks to a commitment from generous donors! Can you help us reach our goal?
prisonjournalismproject.fundjournalism.org
Donate | Prison Journalism Project
Prison Journalism Project is supported by people like you. Support Prison Journalism Project today.
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Princeton University Press @princetonupress.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
A huge congratulations to Shannon Malone Gonzalez, whose book The Secrets of Silence received a Gold Medal for the Independent Publishers Book Awards' Outstanding Book of the Year! Read a preview here: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Picture of The Secrets of Silence Photo of Shannon Malone Gonzalez
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Austin Kocher, PhD @austinkocher.com · 10/07/2026
The government has issued 65,000+ fines to immigrants with deportation orders, seeking over $36B. Individual fines reach $1.8M, and private debt collectors are adding interest. Reporting by The Marshall Project. www.themarshallproject.org/2026/06/20/m...
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Stanford Sociology @stanfordsoc.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Congrats to Prof. @mathuclair.bsky.social who received the William Julius Wilson Early Career Award from the American Sociological Association's IPM Section! @asa-ipm.bsky.social @asanews.bsky.social sociology.stanford.edu/news/matt-cl...
sociology.stanford.edu
Matt Clair receives William Julius Wilson early career award | Department of Sociology
Associate Professor Matt Clair has been awarded the William Julius Wilson Early Career Award, recognizing his outstanding scholarship and significant contributions to the study of inequality, poverty,...
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Public Books @publicbooks.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
New at PB: Founding editor Caitlin Zaloom interviews author and scholar @ninabandelj.bsky.social about her new book “Overinvested: The Emotional Economy of Modern Parenting” (@princetonupress.bsky.social), the latest installment in our partnership with @casbsstanford.bsky.social.
publicbooks.org
The “Emotional Economy” of Parenting: A Conversation with Nina Bandelj - Public Books
“I am an observer of how intellectual ideas travel and enter into everyday life, or how they come to be performed by families in ways that give those ideas a reality of their own.”
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Matthew Clair @mathuclair.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Excited to see my review article on “the cultural study of law and social crisis” is now online—and open access www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
annualreviews.org
The Cultural Study of Law and Social Crisis
This article reviews cultural sociological approaches to law and considers how they may sharpen analysis of social crises. As the United States faces myriad law-related crises, such as rising authorit...
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Asad L. Asad @asadasad.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
NEW in Ethnic & Racial Studies: we offer a framework for bridging conventional & critical perspectives on immigrant integration that specifies for whom, under what conditions, and why group boundaries enable or constrain access to resources and life chances. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
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Prof. Aviles @nataliebaviles.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
My new piece in @issuesinst.bsky.social with @cyberlyra.bsky.social comes at an urgent moment in science policy. New OMB rules and EOs threaten to politicize science and strip it of the democratic norms, autonomy, and pluralism meant to protect science as and for democracy issues.org/merton-redux...
issues.org
Merton Redux: Re-Confronting the Norms of Science in Democracy
The decimation of democratic processes that undergird state-sponsored research may be ultimately more consequential than funding cuts.
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Matthew Clair @mathuclair.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Starting today, I’m a tenured professor at Stanford. I’m thrilled and grateful to my generous mentors and brilliant students. www.linkedin.com/posts/matthe...
Me standing in front of Stanford’s main quad in my doctoral regalia. I’m holding books in my left hand, which I needed to return to the library just before that year’s graduation ceremony
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Matthew Clair @mathuclair.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
thenation.com
The Practical Politics of Police Abolition
In Becoming an Abolitionist, Derecka Purnell examines how one cannot separate putting an end to policing from broader struggles for freedom.
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Jen Jennings @jenjennings.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Three Decades Since Kathy Edin's Making Ends Meet - two special issues from Russell Sage! @ffcws.bsky.social
rsfjournal.org
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences: 12 (1)
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Stanford Sociology @stanfordsoc.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Prof. @mivich.bsky.social's book The Division of Rationalized Labor is a finalist for the C. Wright Mills Award. Congrats, Michelle! @sssp1org.bsky.social www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/...
sssp1.org
The Society for the Study of Social Problems | 2025 C. Wright Mills Finalists
2026 AM: 2025 C. Wright Mills Finalists
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
"The structure whose supports our elites are steadily kicking down is also the one that props up their own personal safety from disaster and political invulnerability to accountability. And all of this can go away." me in @bostonreview.bsky.social www.bostonreview.net/articles/a-y...
bostonreview.net
A Year of Magical Thinking
Elite impunity has fueled the fantasy that catastrophes are for other people.
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Princeton University Press @princetonupress.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
A revealing account of how agents have shaped book publishing and the literary canon from the 1950s to today. @lbmcgrath.bsky.social's Middlemen is now available (23 June UK pub)! Order yours: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Middlemen: Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction by Laura B. McGrath
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Matthew Clair @mathuclair.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
New article theorizing the relational mechanisms that reproduce criminal legal inequalities. Come for the theory; stay for the review of cutting-edge research showing how social closure, exploitation, and claims-making drive inequality under the law compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
A Relational Theory of Inequality in the Criminal Legal System
This article outlines a relational theory of legal inequality through a review of recent studies of crime, law, and deviance. I argue that three relational mechanisms—claims-making, social closure, a...
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Ilana Friedman @ifriedman01.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Forthcoming in American Criminal Law Review! @georgetownlaw.bsky.social
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Asad L. Asad @asadasad.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
NEW (and open access!) in @pnas.org: We find that Secure Communities triggered “preemptive” immigration enforcement, increasing detentions, transfers, & removals even before formal county activation. Joint with @cvargas100.bsky.social and @immigrationlab.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....
Screenshot of title and abstract of article, “Reconsideration of Secure Communities rollout reveals preemptive local-federal cooperation in immigration enforcement.”
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Hakeem Jefferson @hakeemjefferson.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Precisely this. As Coates wrote about him preciously, “[Trump's] ideology is white supremacy, in all its truculent and sanctimonious power.”
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Matthew Clair @mathuclair.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
How do eviction courts funnel tenants into settlements with landlords that often reproduce housing insecurity? Check out our new article in LSR on the organizational mechanisms that compel settlements in a California eviction court. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Abstract

Many legal disputes are resolved through settlement. The dominant theory explaining settlements – known as “bargaining in the shadow of the law” – assumes that litigants are informed, rational actors inclined to bargain toward a settlement prior to court proceedings. Yet many settlements are negotiated after litigants have appeared in court expecting to go to trial. This article argues that court organizational mechanisms play an undertheorized role in facilitating settlement agreements. To build theory on organizational mechanisms, we examine the case of eviction settlements. Drawing on ethnographic observations and interviews in a California eviction court, we find that organizational rules and workgroup norms funnel mostly unrepresented tenants – sometimes, in coercive ways – into unregulated hallway conversations with landlord attorneys and/or participation in the court’s mediation program. Through relational interactions with legal professionals in these organizational spaces, tenants are taught the risks of trial and the benefits of settlement. As a result, most tenants in our sample come to recognize their legal culpability and view settlement agreements as legitimate, even as their negotiated settlements reproduce their housing insecurity. We discuss implications for bargaining theory and research on housing insecurity.
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Jotwell @jotwell.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Jotwell Crim: Jonathan Simon, Burden in the Court! The Spatial Powers of Courts and Their Environment, JOTWELL (Feb. 23, 2026), crim.jotwell.com/burden-in-th....
Jonathan Simon
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Matthew Clair @mathuclair.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
“Throughout the conference, panelists noted the importance of public institutions, and successfully working within them, to a functional democracy.” Appreciated the chance to be part of this thought-provoking conference @ucberkeleylaw.bsky.social! www.law.berkeley.edu/article/pion...
law.berkeley.edu
Pioneering Center for the Study of Law and Society still blazing new trails to show how law operates in the real world
Its 65th anniversary conference addressed criminal justice, inequality, democracy and civil society, and lessons for and from the legal profession.
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Matthew Clair @mathuclair.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
“External powers pursue their own strategic and geopolitical objectives, and these are likely, sooner or later, to conflict with the aspirations of a genuinely democratic Iran.” www.bostonreview.net/articles/ira...
bostonreview.net
Iran After Khamenei
An interview with sociologist Asef Bayat on the U.S.-Israeli war, democratic opposition to the Islamic Republic, and the country’s uncertain future.
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Sandeep @sandeepinbk.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
🧵: my latest draft paper ‘The Legal Realism of W.E.B. Du Bois’ is still looking for a law review home 🤞🏽 Here are some brief highlights for anyone interested
Abstract which states: The problem of the Twentieth Century was the problem of the color line. That problem, however, never seriously preoccupied the Legal Realists. This may come as disappointment to many scholars today who see the Realists, particularly those who critiqued courts, free markets, and oligarchic power, as intellectual ancestors. Then again, the answer depends on who we count as a Realist.
The great writer, activist, and scholar W.E.B. Du Bois saw his career unfold and unwind alongside the development of Legal Realism. Though he is better remembered as a political theorist and historian, his work also contained theorizing about law that tracked key Realist insights. But this Article shows that Du Bois wasn't simply another Legal Realist. He was an outstanding one, whose own Realism emerged not through colorblind critiques of classical legal thought, but through thinking, organizing, and propagandizing against race hierarchy.
This Article traces how Du Bois's insights matured over the course of his career, including by examining works that receive little attention today, especially among legal scholars. From Du Bois's dissertation on the slave trade, to his studies of the South's political economy, to his collection of essays in Darkwater, where he developed an idea of whiteness as property.
This long pattern of thought congealed most powerfully in the "dictatorship of property," an idea Du Bois developed in his famous Black Reconstruction. This memorable phrase and concept merged public and private, political and economic, and the traditionally separate domains of property and sovereignty. His profound legal-theoretical insights came through studying slavery and sharecropping; through responding to Lynch Law and race riots; through reacting to cases like Bailey v. Alabama, rather than Lochner v. New York; through historiographical battle with the Dunning School; and even through factional fights within the NAACP. After World War II, Du Bois would also…Table of contents and opening paragraph of paper
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Elizabeth D. Katz @elizabethdkatz.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
I'm excited to be chairing the American Society for Legal History Projects and Proposals Committee this cycle. We look forward to receiving funding applications for conferences, museum exhibits, pedagogical experiments, and more! We are accepting submissions until Sept. 1. aslh.net/award/projec...
aslh.net
Projects and Proposals Funding | American Society for Legal History
The Projects and Proposals Committee of the American Society for Legal History invites proposals for the funding of new initiatives in the study, presentation, and production of legal historical schol...
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Septima P. Snark @drsubini.blacksky.app · 03/03/2026
THIS. I get an email like this every few weeks. They are selling hard to academic to offload the work to make space for other "more important" work. But analysis & writing IS the work that honors the voices of intellectual ancestors, centers the participants & connects the two to to build theory
a logo that says AILYZE and some bullshit about AI analysis being faster & higher quality for qual research.
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Samantha Schuyler @sdschuyler.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Applications for the summer/fall 2026 session of @thenation.com internship are now open! 🔴 $20/hr, 35 hrs/week 🔴 6 months long, starting June 22 🔴 application deadline April 19 thenationfund.org/apply/
thenationfund.org
Apply – The Nation Fund for Independent Journalism
Apply now for our journalism internship program.
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Heather Martin @biblioheather.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
"The John Hope Franklin Research Center is pleased to share that the archive of philosopher, scholar, and author Sylvia Wynter will be opened to the public beginning March 3." Alt text: photograph of Sylvia Wynter.
blogs.library.duke.edu
Franklin Research Center Announces the Opening of the Sylvia Wynter Papers, Exhibition, and Symposium - The Devil's Tale
Post contributed by John B. Gartrell, director John Hope Franklin Research Center  The John Hope Franklin Research Center is pleased to share that the archive of philosopher, scholar, and author Sylvi...
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Jeremy Levine @jeremylevine.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
Justice after trauma? Race, red tape keep sexual assault victims from compensation
news.umich.edu
Justice after trauma? Race, red tape keep sexual assault victims from compensation
Bureaucratic hurdles and racial disparities restrict access to victim compensation for adult survivors of sexual assault, deepen justice system inequities and compound trauma.
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Modern American History @modamhist.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
Now on First View: The latest MAH Q&A on how the national crisis in higher ed affects historians of the modern United States. Lauren Jae Gutterman speaks to Julio Capó, Jr., Joan E. Cashin, Alex Lichtenstein, and Melanie Newport. Read the full Q&A here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
cambridge.org
Crisis in Higher Education | Modern American History | Cambridge Core
Crisis in Higher Education
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Law and Society Association @lawandsociety.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Our February #LSAMemberSpotlight is Board Trustee @asadasad.bsky.social, @stanfordsoc.bsky.social Asst Professor and author of Engage and Evade: How Latino Immigrant Families Manage Surveillance in Everyday Life. (@princetonupress.bsky.social) Learn more about Prof Asad here! bit.ly/LSAAsad
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Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
We have a Boston Review Forum out today on the Democratic Party in a time of authoritarianism www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-no...
Senator Chuck Schumer conducts a news conference in the U.S. Capitol in May 2025. Image: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images
FORUM
How Not to Defeat Authoritarianism
Moderation used to help Democrats win, but its advantages now have been greatly exaggerated.
Adam Bonica, Jake Grumbach
With responses from →
Cori Bush, Amanda Litman, Matthew Yglesias, G.
Elliott Morris, Julia Serano, Eric Rauchway, Suzanne Mettler & Trevor E. Brown, Thomas Ferguson, Timothy Shenk, Jared Abbott & Milan Loewer, Jenifer Fernandez Ancona, Lily Geismer, Danielle Wiggins, William A. Galston, and Henry Burke
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Stanford Sociology @stanfordsoc.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
At this week's community lunch, we celebrated faculty books published in the last 5 years, covering a range of social issues from immigration and criminal justice to the division of labor in society and economic development in the Asia-Pacific region.
About 30 or so Stanford students and faculty eating lunch. A slideshow of books published in the Stanford Sociology Department are displayed on a screen in the backgroundProf. Michelle Jackson and Prof. Gi-Wook Shin hold up cupcakes with images of their book covers on top of the icing. Physical copies of their books are in the foreground. A slideshow of other recently published books in the Stanford Sociology Department are in the background
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Michelle Jackson @mivich.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
My new book, The Division of Rationalized Labor, is now shipping! A brief summary of the argument to follow…
Front cover of The Division of Rationalized Labor. The cover includes four pictures: pen and paper, microscope, factory tower, police badge. Modern-looking yellow lines and graphs are superimposed.
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Michelle S. Phelps @michellesphelps.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
I tried to turn my rage yesterday into something that brings us some light. For @newrepublic.com, I wrote about how 2020 prepared Minneapolis for the current crisis of Trump's DHS. newrepublic.com/article/2050...
newrepublic.com
Minneapolis Knows How to Resist This Violence
From George Floyd to Renee Good, the city has become all too familiar with fatal violence by law enforcement—and it knows exactly how to respond.
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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
It is EXHAUSTING not only being made responsible for coming up with new kinds of assignments for our students; it's also tedious reading op-eds that suggest the core problem is a crisis in teaching. But, as Chris and I lay out here, this isn't a crisis in teaching; it's an attack on learning.
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Tiffany J. Huang @tiffjhuang.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
New in @socprobsjournal.bsky.social w/ @estelabdiaz.bsky.social: the rapid growth of the admissions consulting industry has raised questions about inequality, privilege, and merit. We combine two original data sources to ask how consultants make sense of their work. academic.oup.com/socpro/advan...
academic.oup.com
Inequality and moral meaning-making in the admissions consulting profession
Abstract. Prior research has described how middle-class and affluent families draw on private supplemental educational resources to help their children mai
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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
@npr it’s not a principle. It is a constitutional guarantee.
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Matthew Clair @mathuclair.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
A wonderful fellowship opportunity for criminal legal scholars at Penn Law. JDs and PhDs are eligible. Apply! bsky.app/profile/quat...
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Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice @quattronecenter.org · 01/12/2025
Former Quattrone Center Fellow @mathuclair.bsky.social shares how the fellowship supported the fieldwork for his book, expanded his network, and shaped his career. If you’re doing justice-focused research, he says: apply! Deadline: December 31 Learn more + apply: www.law.upenn.edu/institutes/q...
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Anna R. Haskins @annarhaskins.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
2-yr postdoc opportunity in @ndsociology.bsky.social at the Center for Research on Educational Opportunity (CREO). iei.nd.edu/initiatives/...
iei.nd.edu
CREO Postdoc Promotion | Institute for Educational Initiatives
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Alex Burness @burness.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
A Republican sheriff in a swing county that Trump won by 0.1% signed a contract to help ICE, then lost last week by 11. New by me in @boltsmag.org: boltsmag.org/sheriff-of-b...
boltsmag.org
Voters Ousted This Pennsylvania Sheriff After He Signed Up to Collaborate With ICE - Bolts
A populous, swing county replaced its GOP sheriff on Tuesday after months of controversy over his joining ICE’s 287(g) program. The Democratic winner promises he’ll end the contract.
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Hajar Yazdiha @profhajaryazdiha.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
⚡️Coming soon: a special symposium on Du Bois’s Black Reconstruction at 90 organized by @alimeghji.bsky.social & Jose Itzigsohn! Early look at my piece here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
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Denzil Streete, PhD @drdenzilstreete.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
Paid summer research opportunity for undergraduates at MIT. Applicants must be undergraduates at a USA institution. Deadline: Jan 20. Info sessions: 11/6 and 12/10 - mit.zoom.us/meeting/regi... **Please Share**
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