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Sam Vortherms

@svortherms.bsky.social
939 followers 178 following 16 posts

Poli Sci Asst. Prof UCI | Comparative Politics | China | Migration | Development

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Reposted by Sam Vortherms
Lev Nachman @lnachman32.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
I'm happy to share my newest op-ed "Taiwan Believes Japan Will Help Defend Against China: Opinion polling shows that trust in Tokyo is surprisingly deep" with @poscwty1.bsky.social for @foreignpolicy.com! This is a gift link, so there is no paywall! 🧵 foreignpolicy.com/2026/07/07/c...
foreignpolicy.com
Taiwan Believes Japan Will Help Defend Against China
Opinion polling shows that trust in Tokyo is surprisingly deep.
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Sam Vortherms @svortherms.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Looking forward to seeing how hukou reforms filter down through the welfare systems, coincidentally one of the things I'm focusing on measuring this summer!
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Reposted by Sam Vortherms
The New York Times @nytimes.com · 28/05/2026
In @nytopinion.nytimes.com “A system of fuzzy borders, in which powerful states treat territory as negotiable and sovereignty as conditional, is not a viable alternative to the liberal world order,” Stephen Hanson and Jeffrey Kopstein write.
nyti.ms
Opinion | Trump Is Remaking the World Map. What Could Go Wrong?
A system of fuzzy borders, in which powerful states treat territory as negotiable and sovereignty as conditional, is not a viable alternative to the liberal world order.
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Sam Vortherms @svortherms.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
Thrilled that my book was reviewed alongside Ruixue Jia and Hongbin Li' new book on the gaokao in the LA Review of Books lareviewofbooks.org/article/mani...
lareviewofbooks.org
Social Mobility and Stagnation | Los Angeles Review of Books
How the university entrance exam and residency permits structure life for in China.
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Rachel Schwartz @raschwartz.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
My colleague, Dr. Vahid Abedini, was illegally detained by ICE on Saturday. He is currently being held without a court date in sight, despite being in the country legally. Please spread the word! We must ensure his due process rights are upheld. www.oudaily.com/news/ou-prof...
oudaily.com
OU College of International Studies professor reportedly arrested by ICE
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reportedly arrested an OU professor at Will Rogers International Airport Saturday.
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Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 30/06/2025
The White House has ordered the US Dept. of Justice to prioritize denaturalization: voiding the citizenship of US citizens. Who will it denaturalize? "Any" case that it "determines to be sufficiently important". Point 10 leaves the criteria opaque and arbitrary. substack.com/redirect/169...
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Sam Vortherms @svortherms.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
As the academic year comes to a close, I am delighted to reflect on all that happened this year, even in these stressful times. My book came out in October, completing a decade long research and writing process.
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Reposted by Sam Vortherms
Guy Grossman @guygrossman.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
This link should work docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com
Navigating the Tenure Track System
Please use this form to register for Navigating the Tenure Track System. Date: June 16th Time: 12pm
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Sam Vortherms @svortherms.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
*is likely experiencing a rapid acceleration in...
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Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 23/05/2025
This is a sickening and illegal perversion of power. The damage being done right now is incomprehensibly large and permanent. Carving out the heart of Americans’ future.
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Reposted by Sam Vortherms
Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 10/05/2025
5. This is of course directly in line with the Project 2025 vision of destroying expertise, institutional knowledge, and independent thought within the federal agencies so as turn the entire federal government into an extension of the President's agenda.
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Sam Vortherms @svortherms.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
The Fulbright Hays program was essential for supporting me while I did fieldwork for my PhD. Every day, a new blow for the furtherance of science and research. www.insidehighered.com/news/global/...
insidehighered.com
Fulbright-Hays Grants Canceled for the Year
The grant programs have supported the international research of students and scholars for more than 60 years.
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Sam Vortherms @svortherms.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
One of the small ways you can have an impact: comment opposing the politicization of career civil servants. This proposal would dramatically accelerate the politicization of a huge range of federal offices, including the politicization of scientific research.
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Reposted by Sam Vortherms
Victor Shih @vicshih.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
Oops the pasted link didn’t work. Here it is www.higheredjobs.com/region/detai...
higheredjobs.com
Postdoctoral Scholar - China Data Lab at the 21st Century China Center - HigherEdJobs
Jobs in higher education. Faculty and administrative positions at colleges and universities. Updated daily. Free to job seekers.
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Victor Shih @vicshih.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
By the way, we are searching for a postdoc for China-focused data analysis at our China Data Lab, would love to have you join us! higheredjobs.com/region/details…
higheredjobs.com
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
A 50% cut to science funding (which is close to what Trump is proposing for NIH) would result in huge negative long-term economic outcomes: *7.6% cut in GDP *8.6% cut in federal revenues *equivalents of making the average American $10,000 poorer
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Xiaobo Lü | 吕晓波 @xiaobolu.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
We invite you to submit presentations for Fall 2025. We welcome working papers by scholars at various career stages, using any method, in the fields of comparative politics and international relations. Please fill out the form below by May 15:
docs.google.com
Chinese Politics Research in Progress Call for Paper (Fall 2025)
Timing: Fridays on 1-2PM (EST) / 12-1 PM (CST) / 10-11AM (PST) in Fall, 2025 Venue: Zoom Contact us at cnpoliticsresearchinprogress@gmail.com
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Stanford APARC @aparc.stanford.edu · 23/04/2025
🤝 Come work with us! APARC is #hiring: 🔸 A full-time China Program Coordinator 🔸 A full-time Center Administrative Associate 🔸 A research assistant for a project on the economics of robotics in nursing homes in Japan (for Stanford students only) Learn more ⬇️
stanford.io
APARC Jobs
Stanford University
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Hakeem Jefferson @hakeemjefferson.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
A colleague at Stanford’s business school used The Stanford Daily to argue—poorly—against DEI. The piece was riddled with historical errors and left one searching for fact, so I broke my public writing hiatus to respond. I hope you’ll read and share the piece. stanforddaily.com/2025/04/22/w...
stanforddaily.com
What DEI threatens isn’t merit. It’s monopoly.
Political science professor Hakeem Jefferson argues for DEI's importance to de-monopolizing universities.
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Sam Vortherms @svortherms.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
NSF's new research "priorities" seems absurd: research should not "directly/indirectly exclude individuals or groups. Research projects with more narrow impact limited to subgroups of people based on protected class or characteristics do not effectuate NSF priorities." www.nsf.gov/updates-on-p...
nsf.gov
Updates on NSF Priorities
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 27/03/2025
jesus christ they want her dead
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Sam Vortherms @svortherms.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
Sometimes I feel like I've woken up in another authoritatian country I know well...
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Manfred Elfstrom @manfrede.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Xiaojun Li and I have a new article in @scidjournal.bsky.social. China's economic growth has slowed. We use a survey experiment to examine the effects of state media messaging on who and what people blame for their difficulties. #chinasky #china 🧵 link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
Propaganda and Blame Attribution during Economic Downturns: Evidence from China - Studies in Comparative International Development
Amidst sluggish growth, Chinese authorities have sought to spin the narrative about their economy. But does “soft” propaganda—positive messaging, selective presentation of facts, redirection of anger—...
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 19/03/2025
1. For the past thirty years I've had the best job in the world. 
I've had the opportunity to follow my curiosity; explore the workings of nature and society; mentor students and junior colleagues in the same process; and teach generations of students about it all.
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Reposted by Sam Vortherms
Anna Grzymala-Busse @annagbusse.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
I wish university leaders would a) read this, and b) reconsider their silence. This administration is coming for higher education. Failing to point out the illegality, the violation of basic legal rights, and attacks on research and what they mean isn't going to save us.
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The Onion @theonion.com · 14/03/2025
Chuck Schumer Helps Pull Democrats Back From Brink Of Courage
Chuck Schumer Helps Pull Democrats Back From Brink Of Courage
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James S. Murphy @jamessmurphy.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
This is who was fired from the union workforce at the Department of Education yesterday. Every single number is a person who served the nation and whose life was wrongly disrupted. That's the first tragedy, but it's clearly not the only one.
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AAUP @aaup.org · 14/03/2025
We condemn in the strongest possible terms any university that would sacrifice its own students to the demands of an authoritarian government. This is absolute cowardice & capitulation to an administration hellbent on the destruction of American higher education. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/13/n...
nytimes.com
Columbia Disciplines Students Who Occupied Campus Building Last Year
Sanctions for the Hamilton Hall occupation include expulsions and suspensions.
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
I’m told this is a real letter. It basically says, “We’ll destroy Columbia unless you destroy it first.”
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Rebecca Spang @rlspang.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Since the 1950s, Summer Language Workshops at Indiana University have provided training in Russian, East European, and Central Asian languages. Generations have come to Bloomington to study Romanian, Polish, Kazakh, etc. Rubio just cancelled all of them languageworkshop.indiana.edu/summer-langu...
languageworkshop.indiana.edu
Title VIII: Funding: Summer Language Workshop: Language Workshop: Indiana University Bloomington
Title VIII Fellowships
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Adam Bonica @adambonica.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
The DOGE firings have nothing to do with “efficiency” or “cutting waste.” They’re a direct push to weaken federal agencies perceived as liberal. This was evident from the start, and now the data confirms it: targeted agencies overwhelmingly those seen as more left-leaning. 🧵⬇️
Scatterplot titled “Empirical Evidence of Ideological Targeting in Federal Layoffs: Agencies seen as liberal are significantly more likely to face DOGE layoffs.”
	•	The x-axis represents Perceived Ideological Leaning of federal agencies, ranging from -2 (Most Liberal) to +2 (Most Conservative), based on survey responses from over 1,500 federal executives.
	•	The y-axis shows Agency Size (Number of Staff) on a logarithmic scale from 1,000 to 1,000,000.

Each point represents a federal agency:
	•	Red dots indicate agencies that experienced DOGE layoffs.
	•	Gray dots indicate agencies with no layoffs.

Key Observations:
	•	Liberal-leaning agencies (left side of the plot) are disproportionately represented among red dots, indicating higher layoff rates.
	•	Notable targeted agencies include:
	•	HHS (Health & Human Services)
	•	EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)
	•	NIH (National Institutes of Health)
	•	CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau)
	•	Dept. of Education
	•	USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development)
	•	The National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE), despite its conservative leaning (+1 on the scale), is an exception among targeted agencies.
	•	A notable outlier: the Department of Veterans Affairs (moderately conservative) also faced layoffs despite its size.

Takeaway:

The figure visually demonstrates that DOGE layoffs disproportionately targeted liberal-leaning agencies, supporting claims of ideological bias. The pattern reveals that layoffs were not driven by agency size or budget alone but were strongly associated with perceived ideology.

Source: Richardson, Clinton, & Lewis (2018). Elite Perceptions of Agency Ideology and Workforce Skill. The Journal of Politics, 80(1).
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Perry Bacon @perrybaconjr.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
Lots of leaders of colleges and other key institutions are staying silent, either out of fear or a misguided view of "neutrality." But not Michael Roth. wapo.st/4k1ueQt
wapo.st
Opinion | The college president who is fighting back against Trumpism
Wesleyan University’s president is advocating for values in higher education while others stay silent.
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kim yi dionne (she/her) @dadakim.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
Trump and Musk are so misinformed about South Africa's Expropriation Act that white nationalists in South Africa are correcting them. Read @carolyneholmes.bsky.social in @goodauth.bsky.social: goodauthority.org/news/misinfo...
goodauthority.org
What South Africa's new land act really says.
The Trump administration's executive order against South Africa makes unfounded claims about the new land act.
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Michael Tesler @tesler.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
Some strategists think Dems shouldn't defend USAID because foreign aid is unpopular But this @goodauth.bsky.social piece shows strong support for many types of aid Americans also dislike changes to status quo and are increasingly concerned about Musk's influence goodauthority.org/news/how-dem...
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Anna Grzymala-Busse @annagbusse.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
In the Soviet Bloc, the Communist Party assigned political minders/ commissars to every school, factory, army unit, etc to ensure ideological compliance and loyalty to the regime. Hiring was based on class background and demonstrated loyalty. Obviously, this is very different.
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Sam Vortherms @svortherms.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
Pleased to announce my latest article: Variation in FDI in China leads to variation in urbanization through China's hukou and welfare systems.
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Sam Vortherms @svortherms.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
"Around 10,000 research grants have been flagged for review... Grants in one area... are being distributed to directors in a separate area of science... the geosciences division is examining grants from the division of social, behavioural and economic sciences" www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Exclusive: how NSF is scouring research grants for violations of Trump’s orders
The US National Science Foundation has unfrozen grant funding, but it continues to scrutinize research projects, sowing turmoil.
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Jeff Wasserstrom @jwassers.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
20 notable 2024 China books; shouts out to & summaries of 10 non-fiction titles (eg ones by @chinarhyming.bsky.social @ewong.bsky.social @tsmullaney.bsky.social & Yuan Yang) & 10 lit in translation ones (blurbs for those by @sabinak.bsky.social among others) chinabooksreview.com/2024/12/19/b...
chinabooksreview.com
Best China Books of 2024 | China Books Review
Party luminaries. TV chefs. Poetry. Scandal. Our annual round-up of notable titles on or from China, split across nonfiction and translated literature, nominated by a roster of experts.
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Stanford University Press @stanfordpress.bsky.social · 15/10/2024
In Manipulating Authoritarian Citizenship, Samantha A. Vortherms examines the crucial case of China—where internal citizenship regimes control who can and cannot become a local citizen through the household registration system. #ReadUP www.sup.org/books/politi...
Light blue square featuring the book cover for Manipulating Authoritarian Citizenship: Security, Development, and Local Membership in China by Samantha A. Vortherms
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Andrew Dessler @andrewdessler.com · 13/03/2024
There is no chance that this will turn out to be a terrible idea www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...
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Steven Klein @stevenklein.bsky.social · 07/02/2024
Very excited we will be hiring in political theory, with a specialization in gender and political theory. Please encourage people to apply! www.kcl.ac.uk/jobs/083947-...
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NORC at the University of Chicago @norc.org · 05/01/2024
Are you a student passionate about social sciences and research? Join NORC's nine-week summer program! This paid internship offers invaluable hands-on experience in survey research, data analysis, and methodology.    careers.norc.org/en-us/job/50...
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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 19/12/2023
Breaking News: A 5.9-magnitude earthquake in northwestern China has killed at least 111 people and injured more than 200, Chinese state media reported.
nytimes.com
Earthquake Kills More Than 100 in Northwestern China
The 5.9-magnitude quake, which struck around midnight, injured more than 200 other people, state media said.
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Erica De Bruin @edebruin.bsky.social · 14/12/2023
I'm looking to hire a part-time grad student research assistant/lab manager this spring for the Policing Lab at Hamilton College. More details about the lab are here: www.hamiltonpolicinglab.com. Please help spread the word! cc polisky, intsec, dictatorsky
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samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 14/12/2023
it's wild that R, the ubiquitous statistical computing language, was co-created by a Māori prof (Ross Ihaka) — and yet the vast majority of scientists who use R don't know this is like inventing the toaster. possibly the largest impact of a single member of an indigenous community on modern science
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Leta Hong Fincher洪理达 @letahongfincher.bsky.social · 11/12/2023
Many thanks to CSIS for hosting this wonderful discussion about the 10th anniversary edition of my book LEFTOVER WOMEN: THE RESURGENCE OF GENDER INEQUALITY IN CHINA. We get into China’s plummeting birth rates, young women rejecting marriage, repression under Xi Jinping.. www.csis.org/events/lefto...
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Sam Vortherms @svortherms.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
Nearly 10 years after national urbanization reforms picked up hype about dissolving the Chinese hukou, reforms stall in the face of competing economic and security interests, and the floating population is larger than ever. www.reuters.com/world/china/...
reuters.com
China's push to loosen Mao-era residence rules runs into hurdles | Reuters
In recent months, Chinese authorities have fanned hopes that the internal passport system that has largely tethered people's destinies to their place of origin since the 1950s may be in its dying days...
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Sara Wallace Goodman @saragoodman.bsky.social · 08/11/2023
That's right! Jen and I edited a book (coming Jan 2024, Oxford): Doing Good Qualitative Research. It's an accessible volume with 40 chapters, taking the reader from choosing a research question to publishing. It's the book we wish we had as grad students. polisky global.oup.com/academic/pro...
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