iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kristin Vekasi @profvekasi.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

New article in Pacific Affairs! Takaichi Sanae’s 2026 electoral victory has been widely interpreted as signaling a more hawkish turn in Japanese foreign policy.

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Program on US-Japan Relations, Harvard University @harvardusjapan.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Check out Japan Decides 2024, edited by @kmcelwain.bsky.social (2005-06), Robert Pekkanen, and Faculty Associate @profdansmith.bsky.social, with contributions by Kenya Amano (2023-24), Faculty Associate Saori Katada, @profvekasi.bsky.social (2021-22), and others. link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

link.springer.com

Japan Decides 2024

This book provides a coherent overall explanation for understanding in the election in both historical and comparative perspective

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Dan Smith @profdansmith.bsky.social · 23/11/2025

Features contributions from top scholars of Japan, including @kmcelwain.bsky.social (co-editor with Robert Pekkanen and me), Axel Klein & @levimclaughlin.bsky.social, @robfahey.net, @profvekasi.bsky.social, Ko Maeda, Kuniaki Nemoto, Masahiro Zenkyo, Masaki Taniguchi, Saori Katada, & many others.

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Chip Stewart @medialawprof.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

“There’s a particular kind of despair that comes from watching an institution abandon its principles in real time…What’s the political cost of supporting our own people versus the cost of quietly surrendering?” Powerful words from a TCU colleague. www.texasobserver.org/tcu-eliminat...

texasobserver.org

My University Just Taught Extremists How to Eliminate Academic Programs They Don't Like

Texas Christian University handed its power to the people working hardest to dismantle learning itself.

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Karen K. Ho @karenho.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

I should probably mention if TV or radio producers need a knowledgeable art reporter specializing in art crime to talk about the theft at the Louvre, I am available

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

They are terrified of the No Kings rallies and doing everything they can to discredit them. If you're on the fence about going, just think of how much it'll piss off these assholes.

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Lucia Orth @luciaorth.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

"If your first amendment rights are threatened, and you don't show up because you're afraid, then you already don't have first amendment rights." Ezra Levin #Maddow See you Saturday, October 18, for No Kings demonstration.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 08/10/2025

i desperately want everyone involved in the destruction of USAID to have to, st the very least, answer to the american people for the suffering and misery they have caused apnews.com/article/myan...

apnews.com

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

The elimination of USAID is a moral atrocity and all involved made a choice to enable, and then lie about, ending the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) - Mohammed Taher clutched the lifeless body of his 2-year-old son and wept. Ever since his family's food rations stopped arriving at their internment camp in Myanmar in April, the father had watched helplessly as his once-vibrant baby boy weakened, suffering from diarrhea and begging for food.
On May 21, exactly two weeks after Taher's little boy died, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat before Congress and declared: "No one has died" because of his government's decision to gut its foreign aid program. Rubio also insisted: "No children are dying on my watch."
That, Taher says, "is a lie."

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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Trump's higher ed ransom note is here - everyone would have to acquiesce to their unprecedented demands or not be "given priority for grants," plus they can demand "reimbursement" for "violations" www.wsj.com/us-news/educ... A mechanism to enforce fealty. An attack on academic freedom and democracy

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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Which university will be the first to fail the latest Lando Test? www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/u...

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永原宣 Hiromu Nagahara @hiromunagahara.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

"Please clap." (LDP presidential candidate Motegi Toshimitsu edition) At 1:50~ mark in this clip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Vfy...

LDP presidential candidate telling his audience, "This is where I should be receiving applause."

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McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 27/09/2025

Part of ICE’s efforts will be setting up random traffic stops and checkpoints throughout the city and making educated guesses about who to detain and who not to detain. These 'Guess Stops' will be staffed by special agents known as Guess Stop Officers, or 'Guess-Stop-O for short.

buff.ly

ICE’s Training Manual for Determining Who to Terrorize

“The Supreme Court on Monday lifted a federal judge’s order prohibiting government agents from making indiscriminate immigration-related stops in t...

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Laura Sell @laurasell.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

"More professors in the United States have been fired for controversial views in the past week than any other week in all of American history." www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

insidehighered.com

Censorship Is the Authoritarian’s Dream

The right to free expression must include the right to say horrible and evil things.

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Freedom of the Press Foundation @freedom.press · 19/09/2025

Mario Guevara is here legally and is not facing any criminal charges. He is being thrown out of the country for nothing but reporting news.

theguardian.com

US appeals court orders deportation of Atlanta journalist detained by Ice

Mario Guevara faces imminent removal from US as his attorney files emergency petition

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P H Lee 🪬 @p-h-lee.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

When the state was well-governed, Master Ning Wu was wise, but when the state was ill-governed, he pretended to be foolish. His wisdom can be surpassed, but his foolishness is unsurpassable. 子曰：「甯武子邦有道則知，邦無道則愚。其知可及也，其愚不可及也。」

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Mary Anne Madeira @maryannemadeira.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

Thrilled to share my new book about trade politics, corporate lobbying, and the backlash to globalization in developed countries. #polisci #PoliticalEconomy #Economics #Polisky

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Sara Mitchell @sbmitche.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

53 of my articles and books used to train the AI without my permission 😳

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Josh Chafetz @joshchafetz.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

I just filled out the form. I encourage my fellow academics and other authors to do the same!

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NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

Opinion | American democracy is gone. I'm not going to miss it. by Bret Stephens

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Rob Shum @robshum.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

The real Thucydides Trap all along: Athens succumbing to demagoguery.

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Sasha Senderovich 🌻 @returnstosender.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

A massive attack on several humanities units (Arabic Studies, Judaic Studies, Holocaust Studies, Classics, Religion, German & Scandinavian, Russian/East European/Eurasian Studies) *and* tenure now unfolding at the University of Oregon (a blue state!). Closure of units and faculty layoffs threatened.

I've now been allowed and asked to share more details about what's going down at the University of Oregon, which involves imminent announcement of firings, among others, of tenure-track and tenured faculty. Given the units impacted (see below), please share this with your professional networks in related disciplines and start getting ready to put pressure (or begin putting pressure already) on the University of Oregon upper admin to abandon this alleged plan before they finalize it.

It appears that, with no prior consultations, the departments of Religion and Classics (two separate units), and the programs in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, German & Scandinavian, Judaic Studies, Arabic Studies, and Holocaust Studies (the latter five all parts of a previously-consolidated mega unit called the Schnitzer School of Global Studies and Languages) are facing imminent announcement of elimination (expected the week of Sept 7), with layoffs of pre-tenure, tenured, and career faculty in these units. The reason given is "financial exigency" -- upper administrations of several universities across the country (and in blue states like Oregon also) appear to be giddy to use the context of Trump attacks on higher ed to dismantle the humanities.

Faculty at OU won a faculty union not long ago; this may be, in part, a retaliation for that, I've been told. The union is working with AAUP, etc.; my understanding is that the maximum spotlight is needed at this point.

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Kristin Vekasi @profvekasi.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

Big personal news! After 11 years at UMaine, this fall I will start a new position as the inaugural Mansfield Chair of Japan and Indo-Pacific Affairs at the University of Montana. I will miss my colleagues and students in Maine, and am thrilled for this next adventure! www.umt.edu/news/2025/02...

umt.edu

UM Center Hires Inaugural Mansfield Chair of Japanese and Indo-Pacific Affairs

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Jennifer N. Victor @jenvictor.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

Must read. Incredible and thoughtful first-person account. Surprisingly, the most shocking part is not journalists and college professors being arrested. It’s police trapping the crowd—giving a disperse order while blocking all the exits. via @smotus.bsky.social smotus.substack.com/p/arrested-i...

smotus.substack.com

Arrested in L.A.

My interview with a fellow scholar who was recently arrested for participating in an anti-ICE protest

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Kristin Vekasi @profvekasi.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

Very excited to listen to this new series! @empirepoduk.bsky.social is absolutely fabulous and I recommend starting at the very beginning with British imperialism in India. @willdalrymple.bsky.social's work on the EIC is an essential (and horrifying) lens for the contemporary moment.

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Kristin Vekasi @profvekasi.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

Nice. Political scientists could edit this to: "These claims have been made [by economists] in the apparent absence of any awareness of the theoretical framework of [pick any political phenomena]...that has existed for decades."

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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

East German-style reporting people to the authorities

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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 04/06/2025

It's the one year book-iversary of Holding It Together, and I think its message is more urgent than ever. Because the book is about how the US came to rely on women as its safety net. But that story is fundamentally a story of what happens when billionaires don't want to pay their fair share. 1/

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Will Oremus @willoremus.com · 29/05/2025

Ah yes, as guaranteed in the First Amendment, Americans may enjoy free speech as long as it’s in sync with what the administration is trying to accomplish

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Sarah McLaughlin @sarahemclaugh.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

actually i think people in the united states, citizen or not, should feel able to speak their minds without fear of government retaliation and that this is a pretty basic requirement for human freedom in this country or elsewhere

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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Agree with this. The US starts out w a lot going in its favor. Location, scale, resources, etc But of the ways the US has *made* its success (as opposed to lucking into it), these 3 rank very high. All connected by university system. A saboteur could not do more than Trump + servile GOP are doing

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Dani Rodrik @drodrik.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Three things made the US a rich and powerful nation: the rule of law, its science & innovation system, and openness to foreign talent. Remarkable how Trump has taken a sledgehammer to all three. No enemy of this country could do more.

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Maria Popova @popovaprof.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

It's a failure of the IR field that Mearsheimer's 2014 FA article has 2400+ citations and is still considered credible despite being falsified by events, whereas Grigas' 2016 book, which predicted Ru's further expansion and its tools/pretexts, has >300 citations. yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

yalebooks.yale.edu

Beyond Crimea

How will Russia redraw post-Soviet borders? In the wake of recent Russian expansionism, political risk expert Agnia Grigas illustrates how—for more than tw...

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Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 21/05/2025

You have three days, starting today, to leave a public comment with the FDA about, say, why COVID-19 boosters should remain available to everyone and also free. "Individual consumer" is the category you most likely want (unless you are one of the other categories; if so, choose that).

regulations.gov

Regulations.gov

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Rep. Zooey Zephyr @zoandbehold.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

This was SB99 from 2023. I spoke against this bill on 3 different occasions on the house floor, including the "blood on your hands" speech. I am glad this bill has been permanently defeated. And that Montana's constitution continues to protect trans people from government overreach and animus.

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Moira Donegan @moiradonegan.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Overjoyed by the release of another political prisoner.

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Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Several Columbia Univ student journalists are suspended after covering protests (while wearing press ID) in the main library. Their access to campus is blocked, and they can't take final exams. Also: Columbia's acting president is a former ABC journalist www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2025/05...

columbiaspectator.com

Barnard suspends WKCR and Spectator reporters who covered Butler Library protest

Barnard and Columbia issued interim suspensions Thursday afternoon to four student journalists who covered a Wednesday pro-Palestinian protest in Butler Library, citing “information received” from Pub...

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John Holbein @johnholbein1.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

You've heard of the many analysts projects, right? Scholars give the same dataset/question to a bunch of researchers & they still get different answers. Why is that? Data cleaning! This is consistent with Gelman's "garden of forking paths." Small coding decisions often drive results.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

“What makes you so much worthier of your peace… of protecting your children… of your citizenship… of safety?” This is it. This is precisely it.

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Kelly Barnhill @kellybarnhill.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

If they're willing to erase some people, they are prepared to erase all people. We need to treat these actions as assaults - on everyone.

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Dani Gilbert @danigilbert.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

If we know where they were sent, but it isn’t to detention: exile. If we know where they are & it’s in detention: extraordinary rendition. If we don’t know where they are, but we know someone’s holding them: kidnapping. Otherwise, if we don’t know where they are: disappearance.

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Josh Zingher @zingherpolisci.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

One thing you have to keep in mind with history is that everything seems impossible until it isn't. This is why you have to fight for what is right even if it seems impossible. Trumpism seems overwhelming now, but that doesn't mean it's going to last forever. It might suddenly collapse! 1/x

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Jackie Llanos @llanosjackie.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

🚨A U.S. born citizen was arrested in Florida for entering the state as an “unauthorized alien.” His mother and a community advocate showed his birth certificate during a hearing in Leon County. The judge said she had no authority to release him.

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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

Here is the chart (even from the NYT!) that illustrates the abject poverty of this op-ed. We need to stop writing about "What Higher Education Institutions Must Do" by ignoring the large, fat end of this distribution of institutions/students & pretending the small, thin end is the entire system.

nytimes.com

Opinion | For Most College Students, Affirmative Action Was Never Enough (Published 2023)

The loss of affirmative action is an opportunity to refocus on supporting middle- and lower-tiered colleges.

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