Kiernan Mathews

"We never imagined [the Kalven Report] would be adopted by other institutions." Lots of insights (and opinions) here on free speech and academic freedom, especially with respect to college faculty, at this new Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression event at UChicago. news.uchicago.edu/story/uchica...

Evergreen insight: “We realized that the obstacle to these fixes is not always resources. It’s faculty culture and the absence of structured opportunities to surface and work through disagreement… and that requires a sustained investment in faculty development that most programs have yet to make.”

💃"Let's. Do. The Time. Warp. Again!!!"💃🍞👄 @nytimes.com 2001 --> @chronicle.com 2026

Best film adaption of The Odyssey, wrong answers only.

Another quality use of metaphor in explaining the illogics for Alito’s opinion eviscerating the Voting Rights Act.

From the brilliant @alvintilleryjr.bsky.social, the analogy we’ve been looking for Alito’s argument re: Louisiana v. Callais. “like arguing that a homeowner must tear down their fence because the fence discriminates against a burglar’s right of access.“ open.substack.com/pub/alvintil...

I'm looking for Hanover Research's 2023 report, "Higher Education Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Survey." Anybody have it? No longer on their website. "Insights Blog" post disappeared. LinkedIn posts about it deleted. The Internet Archive Wayback Machine: web.archive.org/web/20240812...

An Ivy+ Mellon Leadership Fellows gets Duke’s award for those who reject the false choice between being a great scholar and being a great teacher. #facultyadvancementnetwork

For the FAN Fellows engaging this year’s Institute on Faculty Voice & Collaborative Leadership, file this under “faculty rights and responsibilities“. #academicfreedom

This analysis of how ideas spread in the early scientific revolution, from person to person and place to place, lines up so nicely with @alliemorgan.bsky.social's 2018 paper on the diffusion of scientific ideas via modern faculty hiring networks epjdatascience.springeropen.com/articles/10....

“There is just one way to save yourself, and that’s to get together and work and fight for everybody.” – Woody [Text: Woody quoted in “Woody Guthrie: A Life,” Joe Klein, 1980, Alfred A. Knopf.]

"All of you workers everywhere, you will see, you will know, who’s on your side, who’s working and fighting for you." – Woody [Text: Quoted in “Woody Guthrie: A Life,” Joe Klein, 1980, Alfred A. Knopf.]

Building a playlist for music to meet the moment, I’ve only just discovered this sweet 2m40s from early in The Mountain Goats’ discography: themountaingoats.bandcamp.com/track/color-... “They came in by the dozens, walking or crawling / Some were bright-eyed, some were dead on their feet…”

This is a high-quality take on trustees in @insidehighered.com, incl. Toor's comparison of boards + profs: "As with faculty development, those who are eager to get better at their jobs attend learning sessions and those who most need training rarely show up." www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

"The world disappoints, but the universe never does." - Priyamvada Natarajan, Professor of Astronomy at @yale.edu

It has been loads of fun and is super popular (full auditoriums). It also happens to be very little work to organize. If you'd like to offer Guess Lectures at your institution, I wrote up a set of instructions to make it easier for you. Reach out with questions! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Recently recommended because the transcripts of confidential search committee meetings "will occupy real estate in your brain forever": When Two Bodies Are (Not) a Problem: Gender & Relationship Status Discrimination in Academic Hiring, by @larivera.bsky.social advance.charlotte.edu/wp-content/u...

“Brown Professor Avoids Defunding by Adding ‘For Bombs’ to Research Abstract” by Ray Theon “At press time, Norman was encouraging a colleague in the Africana Studies Department to add ‘for white people too’ to the title of her upcoming talk.” thenoser.com/article/Brow...

A statement from @bigtenacademic.bsky.social: That "mutual defense compact"? It's still not going to happen. btaa.org/big-ten-acad...

Perhaps there are proportionally fewer white men on Harvard's faculty because the 👏old 👏ways👏were👏 discriminatory--white men were OVERrepresented. Now (thanks to DEI?) processes are 👏less 👏discriminatory. (❤️ @emmajanepettit.bsky.social for White-Lewis insight, too.) www.chronicle.com/article/facu...

A truly wonderful experience for me, thanks to @dartmouthartsci.bsky.social & the inimitable @faculty.bsky.social & his team (I miss Dustin already!)

I'm inspired by these faculty who, many times over the course of a difficult year, found time away from the constant pressures of their work/lives to rethink + reinvent the "Ivy Plus" norms (+ other powers/privileges) they've inherited. #selfpromotion facultyadvancement.duke.edu/news/strengt...

Also by @garceslm.bsky.social + @jackiepedota.bsky.social: Universities must collectively invest in faculty capacity to navigate legal pressures + disrupt suppression. Include a history lesson on academic freedom because minoritized scholars are less protected. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

In "We're on Our Own Out Here," @jackiepedota.bsky.social + @garceslm.bsky.social show how silence from university leaders—not bills per se—pushed faculty to self-censor race teaching + research. But not if president, provost, dean, chair, sr. faculty speak out. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Another banger by @aaronclauset.bsky.social + @jenniebrand.bsky.social: When early-career researchers work in diverse teams, they're more likely to build their own diverse teams in the future — helping to break the usual pattern where people mostly work with others who are similar to themselves.

🧪 Reports from inside NSF - staff were informed another huge set of grants were terminated today, that NSF will have at least a 50% total RIF, & no Acting Director has been appointed. So, who is leading NSF? #SciSky @science.org @scinews.bsky.social @aaas.org @aeraedresearch.bsky.social

“How randomisation has changed the British Academy’s approach to research funding” 🧪

See this explainer from @bostonu.bsky.social: www.bu.edu/teaching-wri....

I was an altar boy in a parish convulsed by the "agony of the sex-abuse crisis". The Church's many failures of contrition pushed me out; Francis called me back. But to Douthat, compassionate, pastoral leadership is weak. It wasn't JP2 or Benedict, but Francis who ended "infallibility's mystique".

Strange Fondue

Early this morning I witnessed* how unremarkable men decided ¿Why not us? and left their corpses on the green as testimony to how truly effed up the situation had become. *a reenactment of

Jim Nantz inadvertently predicting the @uhoustonclass.bsky.social loss here. We sure will 'Remember the Alamodome,' Jim. We sure will.

As my mentor at Harvard told me 20 years ago: if you compromise your integrity, you have nothing.

Solid coverage by @mzahneis.bsky.social on this NATO-inspired agreement gaining steam among faculty senates. I’m not sure though that state schools can (or can politically) spend their residents’ tax + tuition dollars on defending faculty at out-of-state schools... www.chronicle.com/article/thes...

In economics, mentoring Ph.D. students and new doctorates from historically underrepresented minority groups appears to boost their probability of ultimately holding a tenure-track or tenured position. www.nber.org/papers/w33689

There may be a role for @bigtenacademic.bsky.social to play, but this is likely not it. It’s a mature (67yo), high-functioning consortium w/$12M+ in rev & a HQ in Champaign, but it’s largely does prof dev, communities of practice & shared services, w/occasional forays into research (e.g. CTE). /1