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Rachel Smith Olson

@rachelso.bsky.social
226 followers 487 following 13 posts

PhD candidate. Digital and feminist rhetoric. Western Mass. 🐈Reese Witherspoon's personal shopper.

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Reposted by Rachel Smith Olson
NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 17h
I converted to Catholicism six weeks before running for office. Here’s what the pope gets wrong about live-streamed executions.
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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 06/10/2026
Uh, whoa. But if you're curious as to WHY the Kansas Senate race — which features Methodist megapastor Rev. Adam Hamilton as the Democratic nominee — is suddenly a toss up, I went down and spoke to and members of his church last month. What I found was striking: religionnews.com/2026/09/23/h...
religionnews.com
How megapastor Adam Hamilton could break the GOP's hold on Kansas
LEAWOOD, Kansas (RNS) — While Democrats have long been considered a longshot for statewide races in Kansas, the Rev. Adam Hamilton's candidacy has proven unexpectedly competitive.
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Mar Hicks @histoftech.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
ProPublica has made a database of all the incidents they could find where ICE detained citizens. Important work. This kind of data is too often hidden and lost.
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Adam Bonin @adambonin.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"Cornell has failed to protect its students. Cornell has failed to address the growing issue of sexual assault on campus with its pathetic task force. Cornell has failed the student allegedly raped by those seven men at Chi Phi in October 2024. Cornell has failed her. Cornell has failed us."
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Project Salt Box @projectsaltbox.com · 23/09/2026
Thanks to Jasmine Garsd at NPR for taking the time to talk to us about ICE’s solicitation for “mobile detention facilities” across Pennsylvania.
npr.org
ICE is looking into 'mobile detention facilities'
Buried in the paperwork for Immigration and Customs Enforcement's expansion in Pennsylvania is a document requesting "mobile detention facilities."
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Rachel Smith Olson @rachelso.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Really enjoyed reading this
theflytrapmedia.com
Sometimes You Need an Apocalypse to Survive
A summer of unrelenting pain revealed the disaster that is being disabled under late-stage capitalism.
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Emma @emmaeducating.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Markey’s win was fueled by the strong, vehement, and principled beliefs of MA voters that deliberately throwing transgender kids under the bus, as Moulton has done repeatedly the last 2 years, is not a winning message.
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Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 29/08/2026
I don't think that enough people realize how big of an issue sports gambling (including so-called "predictions markets") are on college campuses. Take a few minutes and read through this family's challenge with gambling addictions that led to stopping out of college and a mountain of debt.
espn.com
'We are broken': One family's fight against gambling addiction
For Amit, it all started with a college poker game. Now he's in recovery from a gambling addiction that consumed him and his parents.
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Bethany Mannon @drbethany.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
My favorite conference! I hope some of the #rhetoric folks who would normally have gone to Cs decide to go to FemRhet instead this year
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
“.. I hope that there will be some accounting someday — probably after President Trump is gone — about why we were there, and was it worth it? But none of that is gonna happen right now," that member said. @npr.org www.npr.org/2026/08/24/n...
npr.org
In candid interviews, National Guard members speak out about D.C. deployment
As President Trump's deployment of the National Guard to Washington, D.C., enters its second year, three guard members who served many months on the mission share their reactions with NPR.
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Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
*clears throat* *taps mic* criticizing the adult women who knowingly attach themselves to Trump - whether for his approval, proximity to fascist power, party status, or simply the joy of being evil - is not misogyny, no matter how much vicarious embarrassment it gives you to watch them do it
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Rachel Smith Olson @rachelso.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
"around the corner from the la colombe"🤣
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Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
no, no youve got it all wrong, its nothing weird like sex shes just worshipping him and sees herself as his ethereal caretaker and celestial concubine but theres no sex or anything crazy like that
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Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 12/08/2026
Incredible. When E—n M—k & his crew obliterated USAID in a weekend, they deleted a vast trove of publicly-funded knowledge: the Development Experience Clearinghouse. A Canadian high school student (!) happened to have downloaded the entire thing for a project. AidData has now posted it for all.
aiddata.org
Before reimagining development data, remember what we’ve learned
Why we’re publishing a free, searchable, and ungated archive featuring a quarter-century of USAID evaluation reports.
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Jack Mirkinson @jackmirkinson.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Today in @thenation.com: a harrowing piece written from inside the Dilley ICE detention center by Maryam Tahmasebi, a green card holder who's been locked up along with her husband and son for months despite none of them committing any crime. www.thenation.com/article/soci...
thenation.com
One Woman’s Message From the Hell of ICE Detention
My husband, son, and I have been locked up for months—despite being permanent residents with no criminal record. It is an unendurable, unending nightmare.
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Lauren 🎃'Neal @laurenoneal.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Famously, it was impossible to play D&D before 2025.
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Nathan Daniel Hernandez @natedhernandez.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Gotta shut down the factory that makes this kinda guy
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Mary Lewis @profmarylewis.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
It‘s quite possible that with this move, @harvard.edu could become the only Ivy League university without a writing center. www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...
thecrimson.com
Harvard College Lays Off Writing Center Director, Consolidates Center | News | The Harvard Crimson
The Harvard College Writing Center will no longer operate as a standalone unit after its director was laid off and its functions were consolidated as part of a restructuring in the Faculty of Arts and...
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Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they) @katjathieme.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
“Melissa Ianetta, now-former CCCC officer, first learned of NCTE’s plan to end CCCC on Wed afternoon during a meeting with NCTE officials. Ianetta and one other CCCC officer were told the ‘culture‘ threatened NCTE’s nonprofit status. She did not receive further explanation about what that meant.”
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Dr Rebecca Williams @augustaquarius.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Call for Chapters: Femininities in Video Games Edited by Dr Stephanie Harkin (RMIT University) & Heather Blakey (University of Western Australia) Palgrave Macmillan femininityinvideogames.my.canva.site
femininityinvideogames.my.canva.site
Home
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Rachael Sullivan @rachaelsullivan.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
it seems like @ncte.org will now be unimpeded in their delirious pro-AI pursuits now that they destroyed CCCC, which actually hosted rigorous conversations not about how to use AI but is ethical use even possible. so yay for them.
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Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhet & Comp @cfshrc.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Statement from the CFSHRC's Executive Board #SaveCCCC 💔
The Executive Board of the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition has been watching the social media posts regarding NCTE’s intention to dissolve the Conference on College Composition and Communication into their College Section. We too have found this news incredibly disheartening. We urge NCTE to take the time to hear from Cs leadership and our larger scholarly community before they make any decisions regarding the future of Cs. 
 

 While we await official statements and clarity from leadership of both NCTE and Cs, we wanted to express our appreciation for the immense impact Cs has had on the formation, growth, and sustainability of our field for over three quarters of a century. 

During this painful time, we see the deep care we have for our work and the endless generosity of time, talent, and expertise that so many in our community have donated to Cs and to us all over the years. We deeply appreciate the executive board and Cs leadership for their work during this difficult time.  Any organization is made up of people, and we will persist and thrive. 
It is our hope that the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition can be a place to gather, process, and support our colleagues. 
In solidarity,
Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition
Cristy Beemer, President
Rebecca Richards, Immediate Past President
Jess Enoch, Former President
Jen Almjeld, Vice President
Risa Applegarth, Secretary
David Gold, Treasurer
Kate Pantelides, Member-at-Large
Leslie Beegle, Graduate Student Representative
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Assigned Media @assignedmedia.org · 15/07/2026
@rikiwilchins.bsky.social 2026 Jul LawrenceTimes University of Kansas, reacting to the state's harsh new anti-trans bathroom law, begins enforcing it against their own staff. lawrencekstimes.com/2026/07/13/t...
lawrencekstimes.com
Transgender employee at KU reported for using the bathroom
A transgender woman who works at KU was notified Friday that she had been reported for using the women’s restroom.
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Robin James @robinjames.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
This is a tragic story but the underlying "choosing obedience to metaphysical abstractions over concrete relations with people" hit way too close to home for me bc this is one reason I no longer communicate w my mom. magazine.atavist.com/2026/pilands...
magazine.atavist.com
The Extremist in the Family
The Kerrs were devoted to one another and to their faith. But when one of their own rejected modern medicine in the name of God, they faced a dire question: What if her children ever needed a doctor t...
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Dr Matt Mahmoudi @docmattmoudi.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
So we’ve been cooking up some thoughts on Gen AI at @amnesty.org and I’m ecstatic to finally see it out in the world! Our 🗝️ conclusion: standalone gen AI systems, built on unlawful web scraping, constitute mass invasions of privacy by design & should be prohibited www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...
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The PS1 startup sound as a lesbian @janus.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
📞 Mr. Fukuyama, sir? Sir, excuse me, but I seem to remember you explicitly saying that history was ending. N-no... No sir, it is not ending. I’m looking at it right now
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Lauren Morrill @laurenmorrill.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Tipper Gore thought she heard Satan speaking in Judas Priest records and it was an emergency, but the computer that has literally convinced teens to kill themselves and others? Put that in the schools, baby!
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Meg Pillow @megpillow.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
This is a beautiful essay by Hanif Abdurraquib, a meditation on interconnectedness and the inconveniences of living in a world with other people. Y’all, please stop reading headlines and responding to them without actually reading the damn piece
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isaac @sevier.io · 15/04/2026
We cannot sustain a society with this level of brazen grift and corruption
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E z r a @bruit.eurosky.social · 14/04/2026
Hampshire college served a very specific purpose extremely well: it taught me and my friends to trust each other and know that some institutions actually valued their mission more than their survival. As it faces the inevitability of its own end it actually seems more human than most other schools
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Blake C. Stacey @blakestacey.myatproto.social · 09/04/2026
"Mass. residents could be forced to submit government IDs ... to tech companies to prove their age, according to state Reps. Erika Uyterhoeven and Mike Connolly, the only Democrats who voted against the bill." shoutout to @mikeconnollyma.bsky.social and @electerika.bsky.social
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Julia B. Chan @juliachanb.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
@19thnews.org is hiring a contract climate reporter! We're looking for a reporter to spend three months covering climate's impact on women and LGBTQ+ people, including how it intersects with housing, child care and health. Share or apply here: 19thnews.org/2026/04/cont...
19thnews.org
We're hiring a contract climate reporter
The 19th is seeking a full-time contract reporter to report, write and produce climate coverage, focusing on how politics and policies impact women and LGBTQ+ people.
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Billie Jean Sweeney @billiejsweeney.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
In assessing the nyt, I looked at publisher AG Sulzberger’s own words in an interview w David Remnick in ‘23. He defended its trans coverage while acknowledging there are “bad faith actors who are trying to undermine trans people and attack trans rights” What kind of actor has the nyt been?🧵
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Roxane Gay @roxanegay.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Eva Woods is a tireless community leader in Los Angeles who has, for years, spearheaded care for our neighbors in MacArthur Park. She was recently assaulted and needs help to pay for extensive medical bills. If you can support, friends have organized a GoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/support-a-...
gofundme.com
Donate to Support A Community Leader's Recovery, organized by Catherine Schetina
Hi, my name is Catherine Schetina, and I’m organizing this fundraiser on beha… Catherine Schetina needs your support for Support A Community Leader's Recovery
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Nate Zuke 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @natezuke.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
I’m transgender, I live in Kansas, if you want to help rn donate to either the ACLU of Kansas or the ACE foundation in Wichita - the ACE foundation especially is the organization that will help people with money for groceries, rent, etc. More orgs also included in attached img acefoundationict.org
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Aubrey Gordon @yrfatfriend.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
(1) Casey Means is a dreadful nominee and should not be confirmed. (2) I don't have any desire to defend for-profit advertising of any kind. (3) "Obesity is a national crisis" as a message both relies on and perpetuates bias against fat people.
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Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
Someone has sure already made this observation but the fact they can convert all those empty warehouses into prison camps means they could have converted them into housing, community centers, job training centers or, hell, libraries or schools all along. It’s always a matter of will not resources.
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snackerü @snackeru.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Hats off to these students.
mndaily.com
4 students chain themselves to Morrill Hall demanding a sanctuary campus
Shortly after 1 p.m. this afternoon, four demonstrators chained themselves to the outside of Morrill Hall, demanding University of Minnesota President Rebecca Cunningham declare the University as a sa...
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Rachel Smith Olson @rachelso.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
I'm looking back at my student teaching portfolio from 2019, and it's amazing how many of the ed tech platforms I was encouraged to use became empty AI shells. Gutted, stripped for parts, but now ~enhanced with AI~
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max🇵🇸 @mbrzz.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
As a Temple University graduate I feel compelled to share this. Please donate to Jerome's gfm if you could spare a few bucks. We will win. www.gofundme.com/f/support-je...
gofundme.com
Donate to Support Jerome Richardson's Legal Defense, organized by mary mccallum
Jerome Richardson is a youth leader and activist who has always stood up fo… mary mccallum needs your support for Support Jerome Richardson's Legal Defense
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Nina Turner @ninaturner.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
On May 13, 1985 in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania State Police dropped a bomb from a helicopter onto a Black neighborhood. 11 people were killed, 5 of whom were children. As we see ICE terrorize communities, understand that saying “this isn’t who we are” is false.
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j garcia @jasoncomix.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
Hello community! We are asking for more support for this fundraiser. Due to the extreme cold expected to linger in the Twin Cities for the next several days, we are seeing a huge need to help provide hot meals to unhoused people. Please help us continue to support our immigrant businesses!
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
"This is a verified page fundraising support for the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO and Working Partnerships' 2026 rapid response effort to meet the needs of impacted union members, worker center members, and their families..." workingpartnerships.betterworld.org/campaigns/su...
workingpartnerships.betterworld.org
Support Impacted Union Families! | Working Partnerships
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Norm Charlatan @normcharlatan.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
I don’t think people quite understand that the occupation by ICE in the Twin Cities has more or less erased non-white people from public life. They cannot safely exist in any space accessible to the public and moving between private places leaves folks vulnerable to kidnapping by armed masked goons.
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Rachel Smith Olson @rachelso.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
I...did not know UATX had a bust of Bari Weiss
A white marble bust of Bari Weiss on a brown wooden pedestal in the UATX library
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Billy Hanlon @bhanlon15.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
“Stand with Minnesota” “Support Minnesotans defending their communities from ICE” “Minnesota is under occupation by federal agents from ICE and CBP…Minnesotans are organized and activated to respond to this violence. But they need our help.” www.standwithminnesota.com?fbclid=IwVER...
standwithminnesota.com
Stand With Minnesota
A directory of places to give to as Minnesota defends itself from ICE occupation
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Assigned Media @assignedmedia.org · 15/01/2026
In 2026, we're launching an ambitious effort to track legacy news media's coverage of the trans community, with a focus on the words news outlets choose and how those are changing as right wing pressure threatens the independence of our press. www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-new...
assignedmedia.org
News Stories Shape Public Perception of Trans Lives. We’re Keeping Score. — Assigned
Our Trans News Tracking Project seeks to catalogue bias at major news organizations in the US.
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Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhet & Comp @cfshrc.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
Here we are again facing the promise and burden of January planning. Facilitated by Charlotte Hogg, this webinar invites you to find a comfy spot, settle in, & find strategies & practices to help navigate what too often feels like an onslaught. Join us on Zoom! us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
A graphic showing a hand-drawn cat balancing a coffee cup on its back. Text reads: Taking Back (some) Control of Your Days, Glenn Advancing the Agenda Webinar led by Charlotte Hogg, January 15 from 5:30 - 7:00 PM Central Time. Join us!
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