@jstarling
Chair of Religious Studies at Lewis & Clark | Author of Guardians of the Buddha's Home | Research interests: being a Buddhist laywoman in modern Japan; ethics and emotions in religious volunteerism; religion in public in contemporary Japan
Yesterday, those who teach Intro to Sociology at Florida colleges (as opposed to universities) received a ready-made curriculum from the state and were ordered to teach it.
Yes, you read that correctly. The *state* is enforcing a curriculum on college profs, complete w/ the following restrictions:
Epstein’s economic power among academics was made possible by a capitalist system that makes higher education dependent on the charity economy rather than a public good supported by taxing the rich
Job Opportunity: Harvard Art Musuems are hiring for a position of Associate Curator for Asian Art, specialising in Japan. Please help us circulate widely!
careers.harvard.edu/job/abby-ald...
Lots of teargas at ICE tonight in Portland. People were just standing and chanting.
There were lots of angry, red-eyed parents and grandparents out there today. Probably the first time they’ve ever been tear gassed by their government. I suspect it will be radicalizing.
Princeton is hiring a one-year lecturer position in Asian Religions. Please spread the word:
apply.interfolio.com/180148
kind of darkly funny that "gender studies" is the stereotypical "useless degree" because gender studies will help you understand a large and important chunk of the current psychosis in american life
Religious Studies friends, a question:
I'm writing a response to the 2nd ed of Critical Terms for Religious Studies (2025). The first one was before my time, academically (1998), but some of its chapters--especially Smith (RRR) and Sharf (Experience)--cast long shadows on my grad school years -->
"This promise of an AI future, is really just a collective anxiety that wealthy people have about how well they're gonna be able to control us in the future."
- @tressiemcphd.bsky.social with an absolute mic drop moment about AI bullshit.
Incredible words.
Listen to all of it!
It’s useful to think about things like this in numbers of tenure track professors.
$33M is 358 assistant professors. Or about fourteen percent of the total number of full-time faculty at Michigan State.
Former UVA president Jim Ryan, who resigned over the summer due to pressure from the Trump Administration, just shared this 12-page letter with the Faculty Senate, detailing his experience with the Board of Visitors and DOJ.
It's a surreal--and troubling--read.
drive.google.com/file/d/1Is6x...
Universities must cut ties with OpenAI. And no, "cocaine is available on the streets, there's no reason we shouldn't dispense it in the dorms" is not a good argument.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/28/o...
Join me at Lewis & Clark next year to teach 3-5 courses in Korean Studies!
lewisandclark.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/Faculty/job/...
somewhere in portland, there's one person, or a small handful of people, who came up with the inflatable costume idea, and I feel like they deserve our immense respect for defining the obvious developing aesthetic of the contemporary battle against fascism
To the University of Virginia community: On Monday of last week, Rector Rachel Sheridan and I shared a message with the community regarding the proposed Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. We were asked to provide comments on the proposal no later than October 20. Today, I sent the letter below to the Secretary of Education and to White House officials. The letter confirms our core values and commitments while expressing our view that federal research funding should be based on merit. I want to thank personally the Faculty Senate, Staff Senate, Student Council, and many other members of our community who expressed their opinions on the proposed Compact, through the online form we provided and other means. Your thoughtful feedback shows a profound care for the University and a strong commitment to its future. We will continue to work to strengthen free expression and free inquiry, protect academic freedom, ensure affordability , promote intellectual pluralism, and maintain institutional neutrality in an increasingly polarized world. I am grateful for your continued dedication to the University and I look forward to working with you on these vital projects. Paul Mahoney Interim President University of Virginia
October 17, 2025 The United States Department of Education Washington, DC 20202 Dear Secretary McMahon, Ms. Mailman, and Mr. Haley, Thank you for your letter inviting comment on the proposed Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. We wholeheartedly agree that “American higher education is the envy of the world.” We also agree with many of the principles outlined in the Compact, including a fair and unbiased admissions process, an affordable and academically rigorous education, a thriving marketplace of ideas, institutional neutrality, and equal treatment of students, faculty, and staff in all aspects of university operations. Indeed, the University of Virginia leads in several of these areas and is committed to continuous improvement in all of them. We seek no special treatment in exchange for our pursuit of those foundational goals. The integrity of science and other academic work requires merit-based assessment of research and scholarship. A contractual arrangement predicating assessment on anything other than merit will undermine the integrity of vital, sometimes lifesaving, research and further erode confidence in American higher education. Higher education faces significant challenges and has not always lived up to its highest ideals. We believe that the best path toward real and durable progress lies in an open and collaborative conversation. We look forward to working together to develop alternative, lasting approaches to improving higher education. Sincerely yours, Paul Mahoney Interim President University of Virginia
UVA says no to the compact
DMing you
i am feeling, i am seeing, i am hearing, i am getting the vibes, that students this sem are better than they've been in years because learning offers a rare haven from authoritarianism, a place to convene, commune, think together, refuel for the fight
"This 'compact' is more like an invitation to borrow money from the mob, with substantial control and future penalties assured"
- Siva Vaidhyanathan, media scholar at UVA
newrepublic.com/article/2013...
under this language charlie kirk would not have been allowed to speak on clemson’s campus
Opinion | I’ve dedicated my career to promoting free speech on college campuses. Here’s why the murder of a red state college dropout by another red state college dropout means it’s time to fire liberal professors in blue states.
Each Friday, I summarize what is happening to American science & higher ed. 🧪
This was Week 34:
- UC Berkeley feeds the administration a list of targets
- Dept of Ed rescinds $350M from minority serving institutions
- faculty firings at Texas A&M
& so (SO) much more buttondown.com/liminalcreat...
The president plans to invade Chicago this week. Now to schedule the vet appointment and get the kids’ backpacks ready for school!
The attack on core departments, tenured, and tenure track faculty is now accelerating in blue states, building upon the assault on NTT colleagues. Far from resisting Trump’s assault on higher ed, University admins in Democratic run states are spraying fuel on the fire to make it burn faster.
I found this website full of usable resources as well as "solidarity solace for educators who might find themselves inventing wheels alone while their administrators, trustees, and bosses unrelentingly hype AI and nakedly enthuse the negative consequences for educator labor."
A fun reminder that a loss of 60,000 jobs in and around academia is ~50% more than all coal mining jobs in the entire country.
I'm so sorry to hear about the troubles at my graduate alma mater. I hope the faculty will keep fighting the good fight, as they have been. www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...
Fellow authors, I love you, and I know it feels like we don’t have a choice, but B&N and Am*zon both scheduled sales this week to preempt Independent Bookstore Day, a hugely vital source of income for indie bookstores. Please don’t promote their sales; please promote your local indie this week.
Come work with me for a year, and help make sure religion in the ancient world continues to be taught at Lewis & Clark! lewisandclark.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Facult...
