Thanks, Matt. We’re grateful for your support and active participation.
09.03.2026 01:30
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Thanks, Matt. We’re grateful for your support and active participation.
Between the uncompromising statement on Ed Tech and agentic AI released recently and most importantly, this hands on legal intervention and public information sharing , I am proud to be supporting this organization.
Thank you @modernlanguage.bsky.social, @historians.org, and @acls1919.bsky.social for pushing through the BS and tirelessly fighting for the NEH. This is how you as professional orgs are supporting all of us: www.mla.org/Resources/Ad...
Want more info than you got in the NYT article on DOGE and the NEH? Go here: www.mla.org/Resources/Ad...
I love that @modernlanguage.bsky.social has posted the depositions of the DOGE bros who gutted the National Endowment for the Humanities. All part of the lawsuit the MLA, AHA, and ACLS have filed against the federal government.
And now we learn that the acting NEH chair in fact recommended "that wherever the
'DEI Rationale' on the spreadsheet makes clear that there is no DEI component to the project, there is no justification for
canceling the project's funding and you should allow it to continue. youtu.be/pX5_27IKRIg?...
You can view more details about the suit and access the discovery materials at www.mla.org/Resources/Ad...
Come for the Times article but stay for the motion. If you want to learn the details of how DOGE took over #NEH, click on the “view the motion” link here.
www.mla.org/Resources/Ad...
Prompt asking ChatGPT to classify a grant description as DEI with yes or no and 120 character justification. Response reads: Yes, DHRIFT aims to provide equitable access to technical training and pedagogical support in digital humanities, addressing inequities in distribution of resources.
If you had a grant cancelled, I really recommend you look at the spreadsheet the DOGE bros created with ChatGPT to determine if a grant was DEI. Here is what they said about mine: DHRIFT.org
Resharing for those who missed yesterday’s post. Correct me if I’m wrong, but this might be one of the only lawsuits where the DOGE bros have been deposed.
Call for contributions on Precarity and Resilience (and other topics about the profession) for the annual pub PROFESSION, now an issue of PMLA. www.mla.org/Publications...
There are a number of #MLA27 calls for papers focused on contingent faculty — please check them out…
mla.confex.com/mla/2027/web...
Major news: A @nytimes.com story today reports on developments in our lawsuit, filed with @modernlanguage.bsky.social and @acls1919.bsky.social, opposing the illegal dismantling of the NEH.
The article covers newly released discovery in the case.
Here’s what discovery confirmed:
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NEH's budget is tiny—not just compared to NSF/NIH, but compared to humanities funding in every other wealthy nation. What little was there was largely rescinded and several programs were cut in full last year. It decimated not merely individual projects but whole corners of the humanities in the US.
This is a gift link to Jenny Schuessler’s essential article about the DOGE assault on funded peer reviewed humanities research at NEH.
And about the lawsuit by @historians.org @modernlanguage.bsky.social and @acls1919.bsky.social that is bringing the details to light.
Picture of DOGE guy Nate Cavanaugh
Screenshot of my DOGE letter “Dr. Joseph Rezek Dear NEH Grantee, This letter provides notice that the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is terminating your federal grant (Grant Application No. FEL29509824) effective April 3, 2025, in accordance with the termination clause in your Grant Agreement. Your grant no longer effectuates the agency's needs and priorities and conditions of the Grant Agreement and is subject to termination due to several reasonable causes, as outlined in 2CFR§200.340. For instance, NEH has reasonable cause to terminate your grant in light of the fact that the NEH is repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the President's agenda. The President's February 19, 2025 executive order mandates that the NEH eliminate all non-statutorily required activities and functions. See Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy, E.O. 14217 (Feb. 19, 2025). Your grant's immediate termination is necessary to safeguard the interests of the federal government, including its fiscal priorities. Any objections or appeals to this termination will be managed in strict accordance with the President's Executive Orders,
Last year, this guy (left) from DOGE used ChatGPT to find NEH grants that were too “DEI” for Trump, and canceled them, including mine, as shown by the letter I received last April (right). Huge new NYT article on the back story link below
It smells like the left wing of the day of judgment
More evidence that what we have been witnessing is the hostile takeover of the government to advance the agenda of the few. There is nothing legal or just behind what happened in DOGE takeovers. Only the unscrupulous exercise of power to mislead and control the public for personal gain.
As someone who watched the careful stewardship of grants over many years, the lack of care and the dismissal of the hard work of scholars and NEH program staff described here is devastating and shameful.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/a...
Read the motion for summary judgement and view discovery documents and videos at www.mla.org/Resources/Ad...
MLA, ACLS, and AHA lawsuit reveals use of ChatGPT in illegal termination of grants by DOGE. Motion for summary judgment asserts violations of the First Amendment; violations of the Equal Protection Clause; and violation of the separation of powers. mla.org/NEH-Lawsuit
The MLA, @acls1919.bsky.social, and @historians.org have filed a motion for summary judgment in our lawsuit to restore the NEH. Discovery documents reveal that DOGE rather than the acting chair led grant terminations and targeted grants using ChatGPT. More at mla.org/NEH-Lawsuit
Here at #4C26 w awesome @modernlanguage.bsky.social colleagues! Chat w me about our Reading and Writing Pedagogy Institutes, summer professional development for chairs and program leaders, workshops and webinars and more! Find me and @jasonrhody.bsky.social around and at our session Saturday 8am. 🌞
View our new web page for resources for teaching about current events, supporting students during crisis, and information related to immigration issues. mla.org/Teaching-Crisis
We're excited to be participating in this important effort! The MLA committee will be examining past reform efforts, finding out what works and where, and determining how best we can scale successful practices as well as what vital concerns still need to be addressed.
Very excited about this first online sighting of ENGLISH MAJORS AT WORK: CAREER AND LIFE PATHWAYS:
www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/english-majo...
Quick reminder: This Tuesday, the HAVI team @schmidtsciences.bsky.social will be doing a webinar about our current digital humanities/AI RFP. It is January 20, 2026, 1PM EST. Register here: www.schmidtsciences.org/opportunity/...
PROFESSION is becoming an annual issue of PMLA! Here's this year's CFP: www.mla.org/Publications...
No worries at all -- a lot of lawsuits & moving parts these days!
Thanks, yes -- that's our lawsuit (although for some reason I think Politico only mentions the Author's Guild, whose case is on the same docket as ours).
Ah, that's so kind. As is so often the case, there were many generous & thoughtful people who made those resources possible (including @alondra.bsky.social!).