Sign in

Melanie Bavaria

@mbavaria.bsky.social
1.7K followers 1.7K following 35 posts

Lecturer at AUP, Phd candidate NYU History and IFS (France, Fr Caribbean, race, colonialism, citizenship) and journalist (k-12 edu). Philly/Brooklyn/Paris. Columbia Journalism alum

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Danielle Kurtzleben @titonka.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
Anyway I have been a journalist for 15 years and have never seen an anonymity deal like that, that I can remember.
652166
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy @profciara.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
And it’s begun. ⚕️🏥🚫 #hospitalclosure #bbb
13313
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @aoc.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE. This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined. It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
43709648837471
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Lawprofblawg @lawprofblawg.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Since the dawn of this country, war plans included when ships left port. Sailers were cautioned that "loose lips sink ships." But a new body of scholarship questions the belief that mentioning when a craft departs and what was on board is a "war plan." #Satire
42611
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Karen Schwartz @pithywidow.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Confident stupidity is the defining trait of the modern GOP
441066156
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 26/03/2025
oh my god -- Comer thinks "editorial standards" literally refers to standards for editorials and is corrected by the NPR head
1764154543249
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Celeste Ng @pronounced-ing.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
Wait while I was at the typewriter store, we lost TikTok and maybe... got the ERA?! how long was I in there
1936216
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 07/12/2024
God i love @propublica.org so much
6943811406
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Karl Battams @sungrazercomets.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
I really, REALLY can't get over just how beautiful this comet is in our LASCO images! I mean, I've seen more than a handful of comets in this data over the years (~5,200 to be exact - not that I'm counting...) But I've really gotta say... this might be the pick o' the bunch right here. WOW 😱😍☄️☀️🔭
213335
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Kris Nordstrom @krisnordstrom.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
These results really appear to align with reductions in school funding effort and expansion of failed choice schemes
042
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
J. Smith @jooltman.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
Park Slopers, bring your Xmas trees to Prospect Park 3rd St. entrance for #mulchfest today and tomorrow. No amount of greenery donated too small, as this elderly neighbor’s cart attests. And puhlease take some mulch with you to make your street trees happy this winter. We have mountains!
Piles of Xmas trees and mulch
082
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Hester Blum @hesterblum.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
My draft of a syllabus statement on a.i. for my writing class, for what it is worth:
A NOTE ON GENERATIVE AI

This class helps you to be a better writer and thinker. Generative AI (ChatGPT and other platforms) is neither writing nor thinking. Any use of AI in this class (whether to write, brainstorm, outline, or summarize) will be considered a violation of academic integrity. It undermines your intellectual development, for one: AI content is often inaccurate or hallucinatory and is always boring, banal, and average. This is by design, as generative AI works by predicting the most obvious or basic sequencing of words. Good writing—writing that is persuasive, powerful, lively, funny, surprising, rousing, insightful, transformative, provocative—requires human work. Human creativity is weird and variable and uneven, but it holds the capacity for growth, revelation, empathy, and brilliance. I urge you not to abandon the glorious experiential potential of human messiness and transformation for the tedium of robot sentences.

One further reason to abjure generative AI, especially in a class on environmental literature: in addition to its counterproductivity to your work as a writer and thinker, AI is enormously environmentally destructive.
23532147
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Danya Henninger @danyahenninger.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
Know a deserving journalist in the Philadelphia region? Time to nominate them for the Philly News Awards! (hosted annually by the Pen & Pencil Club, the oldest continuously operating press club in the nation) Send in your noms here: docs.google.com/forms/d/1X5o...
A man stands in a room with dark red walls showing off a framed illustrated poster that says "Pen & Pencil Night"
043
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Nick Field @nickfield.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
So I went back to Senator Fischer's 2013 swearing in ceremony, and wouldn't you know it, her husband had no problem shaking then-VP Joe Biden's hand (twice). Video at 1:15:00 www.c-span.org/program/publ... bsky.app/profile/bria...
1136
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Job Itzkowitz @jobforphilly.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
Totally agree. Too often, American culture loses sight of the "magic" of childhood in favor of programming, predicability, and consumerism.
0152
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Tim Murphy @timothypmurphy.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
If you are anxious about what the next four years means for independent media and investigative journalism, can I suggest chipping in a few bucks to an outlet that relies on reader support to keep going? Honestly, I'd love if you just supported the people and the work you read, whoever that is...
411233
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
The Author, Séamas O'Reilly @seamas.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Been seven years since I first read this, on the English language's *completely universal but totally invisible* adjective hierarchy, and I can honestly say I've thought about it most days since.
Adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. So you da. Have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest you'll sound like a maniac. It's an odd thing that every English speaker uses that list, but almost none of us could write it out. And since since comes before colour, green great dragons can't exist."
- Mark Forsyth, quote from The Elements of Eloquence: How to turn the Perfect English Phrase
1202900777
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 20/12/2024
Hakeem Jeffries: "Republicans are marching America to a painful government shutdown that will crash the economy and hurt working-class Americans because they would rather enact massive tax cuts for their billionaire donors than fund cancer research for children."
376145744347
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Lee Zimmerman @zim2918.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Philly has beautiful murals all over the place. Here is one you can’t see from the ground - only from our hotel window
402203901920
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Hélène Devynck @devynckh.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
Tous coupables
08824
Melanie Bavaria @mbavaria.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
Unbelievable www.businessinsider.com/lil-wayne-ch...
businessinsider.com
How rich musicians billed American taxpayers for luxury hotels, shopping sprees, and million-dollar bonuses
Pop stars took advantage of the SVOG grant, using COVID relief funds for luxury spending. Lil Wayne bought Balenciaga and flew private.
010
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Judd Legum @juddlegum.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
This story is absolutely wild.
businessinsider.com
How rich musicians billed American taxpayers for luxury hotels, shopping sprees, and million-dollar bonuses
Pop stars took advantage of the SVOG grant, using COVID relief funds for luxury spending. Lil Wayne bought Balenciaga and flew private.
39595208
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
ABC's $15 million settlement w/ Trump is shameful. The sum, and the publicity, will make it harder for journalists to do their work in the years to come. That said, the Stephanopoulos interview that triggered the suit was a train wreck. It wasn't remotely worth $15MM. But it was bad A thread (1/)
26736107
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Dave Mazella @davemazella.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
Looking forward to confronting this in every class I teach until I die
2147
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
The reporting in this story, about conservatives' takeover of a small public college in Florida, is outstanding. Via @kathrynajoyce.bsky.social inthesetimes.com/article/new-...
inthesetimes.com
The New College Gambit
The right-wing takeover of Florida’s public honors college blurs the line between tragedy and farce, but attacks on universities are about to get worse.
97027
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · 22/03/2024
I don't know who needs to know this, but Pro Publica has an online thing that will format a letter to your US health insurance company to demand the records behind a claim denial. (which the insurance is then legally required to provide in most cases) projects.propublica.org/claimfile/
projects.propublica.org
Find Out Why Health Insurance Denied Your Claim
You likely have the right to access records that explain why your insurer denied your claim or prior authorization request. Use ProPublica’s free tool to generate a letter requesting your claim file f...
9161794010175
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Could you all share? We're advertising a 2 yr postdoc position for someone who works in #VastEarlyAmerica #VastEarlyAmericas to help coordinate the @jcblibrary.bsky.social projects and programs around 2026. Fuller info here: apply.interfolio.com/159279 and v happy to answer questions!
Ad for the position posted at interfolio @ apply.interfolio.com/159279
2189260
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
This, courtesy of the owner of the LA Times, is the worst “tech solution for journalism” idea since the CueCat.
Soon-Shiong does also plan to get directly involved with how the Times presents its news stories to readers. Speaking to Jennings as the latter hosted a radio show Wednesday, the • billionaire revealed that, behind the scenes, he is working on developing a "bias meter" powered by artificial intelligence that will be placed on both opinion and news stories. Soon-Shiong said that the hope is to roll out the new feature, which will use the technology to seemingly warn readers that his own reporters are biased, as early as next month.
"Whether in news or opinion... you have a bias meter," Soon-Shiong explained to Jennings.
"So that someone could understand as a reader that the source of the article has some level of bias. ... And then ... the reader can press a button and get both sides of that exact same story, based on that story, and then give comments."
1731202284
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 05/12/2024
Fabulous 2-year fellowship at @theul.bsky.social / @theulspeccoll.bsky.social! The Munby Fellowship has been doubled this year! They're particularly seeking applications that combine Bibliography/History of the Book & Natural History. Closing date 17 Jan, start October 2025. www.lib.cam.ac.uk/munby
lib.cam.ac.uk
Munby Fellowship
16036
Melanie Bavaria @mbavaria.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Semi-regular reminder that books make excellent gifts, but only (ok maybe not only, but ESPECIALLY) when purchased from your local independent bookstore! Just ask them to order it if you have something specific in mind. So many birds, one stone. #booksky #shoplocal #downwithamazon
020
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Robin Mitchell @parisnoire.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
So so so happy about this!!! Sara’s book is outstanding. Daut’s is next in my queue!
03410
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Michael E. Carter @deckofcarterhist.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
This is Tennis Court Oath energy.
072
Melanie Bavaria @mbavaria.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
What a feat of reporting this is
010
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Sharon Lerner @fastlerner.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
Right now you’re likely breathing in a tiny bit of formaldehyde, which can cause breathing problems and cancer more than any other chemical in the air. For the past year, the EPA has been working to regulate its use. Here's why that's proven to be tough 🧵
1132694
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Bobby Lee @bobbylee.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
I've heard about this project for years and now it's out - a bird's eye view of the US federal workforce, documented and mapped, from 1789 to 1829. Just a huge amount to take in. Looks amazing. Led by Peter Kastor #skystorians #academicsky #digitalhistory creatingafederalgovernment.wustl.edu
creatingafederalgovernment.wustl.edu
Creating a Federal Government | Washington University in St. Louis
The remarkable story of how the Founding Fathers built the institutions of the U.S. government and of the men and women who served in government during the crucial decades following the ratification of the Constitution
33116
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.com · 03/12/2024
cool cool cool
The EPA’s goal is to keep cancer risk from air toxics below 1 in 1 million and prevent it from exceeding 1 in 10,000. The incremental lifetime cancer risk from formaldehyde alone on this block is 1 in 56,000 which is about 79% higher than the midpoint of that range.
1431976
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Jake Wertz @jakewertz.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
Free universal high-quality public education is in much greater danger than most people realize. Far from being a popular model primed for expansion into early childhood and early adulthood, K-12 is primed for transformation by the revenue-driven private pre-K and higher-ed models
35012
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Dapo Adeola @dapsdraws.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
At this point it’s been said in a hundred different ways, so I think people are being intentional about not getting it.
19333106723
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 26/11/2024
Also sometimes people just don’t wanna drink alcohol on a particular occasion but do wanna drink tasty things and it is nice to have some options other than water and lukewarm mixers
351004114
Melanie Bavaria @mbavaria.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
Oh god this is devastating
010
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
ProPublica @propublica.org · 25/11/2024
NEW: Porsha Ngumezi is the fifth case we've reported on in which a woman died after not receiving a D&C or its second-trimester equivalent in time, or at all. Her case raises questions about how abortion bans are pressuring doctors to avoid standard care even in straightforward miscarriages.
propublica.org
A Third Woman Died Under Texas’ Abortion Ban. Doctors Are Avoiding D&Cs and Reaching for Riskier Miscarriage Treatments.
Thirty-five-year-old Porsha Ngumezi’s case raises questions about how abortion bans are pressuring doctors to avoid standard care even in straightforward miscarriages.
415106876014
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Ryan Boyd @ryanboyd.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
I've taught college for 15+ years and I'm as convinced as ever that the absolute best thing you can do for your kid's life is raise them to enjoy reading. Over and over and over, you see it: So many other complex skills are downstream of being able to focus on (even enjoy) a written text.
844970
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Jeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
Picked up this little book of writers’ writing rituals, & I think most of em are liars — “up at dawn, 6 hours at my desk, followed by calisthenics, liquor, & reading edifying works.” But David Lynch delivers the goods.
David Lynch describes going to to Bob’s Big Boy to drink vast sums of coffee and chocolate milkshakes
324155831824
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Jackie Mader @jackiemader.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
New from our team: What might happen if the Education Department were closed? A look at the impacts on early ed, K12 and higher ed: hechingerreport.org/what-might-h...
hechingerreport.org
What might happen if the Education Department were closed? - The Hechinger Report
The Trump administration has promised big changes, but he can’t make them alone.
099
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾) @jb4nay.bsky.social · 23/11/2024
The untapped potential of using your library card to read cooking magazines on Libby for recipes
961993172
Reposted by Melanie Bavaria
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 23/11/2024
I worry a little bit that too many people think that science fiction type technology is going to swoop in and save the day with respect to climate change
1061272143