Kiernan Mathews

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....

Photo: Woody Guthrie, NYC, 1943. Photograph by Robin Carson.

“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.]

Photo: (Untitled illustration), by Woody Guthrie, NYC, December 1942. © Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc. Courtesy of the Woody Guthrie Archives.

"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.]

Color in Your Cheeks, by the Mountain Goats from the album All Hail West Texas (Remastered)

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…”

A Few Words About Trustees (opinion) Most faculty and staff know very little about the president-trustee relationship, Rachel Toor writes.

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...

Where did you source that table? I’ve done some work on % of TT faculty *at* Ivies w/PhD *from* Ivies and the data could use some triangulating.

"The world disappoints, but the universe never does."

- Priyamvada Natarajan, Professor of Astronomy at @yale.edu

That’s a really good point! We’ve been designing a curriculum of communication strategy, crisis leadership, foundational knowledge (tenure, academic freedom, university finances), storytelling… but I think we’re missing an oppty if we don’t engage faculty with these modes/platforms. Thank you!🙏

A small start, but I’m curious for your insight: If someone delivered 50 tenured faculty randomly selected from across the Ivies and gave you 2 full days to help them find + use their voice/influence—internally and externally—how would you do it? What would that 2-day program look like?

(Emphasis mine btw)

A Tumultuous Spring Semester Finally Comes to a Close The biggest mistake that some universities have made is to presume that the White House is operating in good faith. It is not.

“Yet [Mordecai] firmly said that he would sooner shut down his university than allow anyone to dictate what its STUDENTS COULD OR COULD NOT LEARN.”

Is there a more crisp defense of academic freedom? This framing by @jelaniya.bsky.social seems unassailable.

www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Albany (NY) had a helpful sign on the way into the city that read, “We’ve got it Albany.” I don’t think the GA version of Albany would have this sign. (I thought they should have had a Paul Simon endorsement deal where he sings, “You can call me Albany!”)

Guess Lectures Instructions Guess Lectures Notes and instructionsJulia Strand, Carleton College The Premise: In Guess Lectures, faculty give 7-minute talks using someone else’s slides from an unrelated discipline, sight unseen...

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...

Table 2. Gender Breakdown of “Above the Bar” Candidates Whose Relationship Status Was Discussed in Hiring Committee Meetings by Discipline (Percent). Humanities Men: 0. Social Science Men: 20. Natural Science Men: 0. Humanities Women: 100. Social Science Women: 100. Natural Science Women: 100.

Lydia [to Mary]: Have you checked the New York Times weddings section? Mary: Yes, that's how I found out about Elizabeth's wedding. Lydia [looking up from her computer, surprised]: Does Elizabeth have an announcement? Mary [nodding yes]: Have you checked Weddingchannel[.com]? [She brings up a listing and later finds Elizabeth's wedding registry.] Lydia visits site, too. She then shows her computer to Ronald, who begins looking at the registry and commenting on the gifts. Ronald: Do people really need this stuff?

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 said Professor Amani Norman, looking up from her work that explores the intersec-tionalities between textuality and race in queer narratives. "And I figured if you can't beat 'em, bomb'em!" "My work focuses on analyzing how our heterodivergent pathologies shape media," said Norman, sitting next to a scale replica of an intercontinental ballistic mis-sile. "I aim to further our collective under- BY RAY THEON Amid nationwide research funding cuts, one Brown professor has managed to avoid defunding by adding "For Bombs" to her research abstract. "I realized there was a common denominator between the projects that were safe from cuts. They were for serving our nation's great military industrial complex," standing of cinematography and identity." This project is really gonna slay (people). "Of course this work is for the sake of supporting the creation of precision missiles for our great warriors in the Middle East," Norman added, thumbing through her copy of Marx's Capital. "This work will further the great mission of the United States military and is sponsored by a pioneering and innovating firm that shares my values of diversity, equity, and bombs. Thank you for your support, Lockheed Martin." 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.

“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 man in a suit and tie is giving a thumbs up and says `` not gonna do it '' Alt: Dana Carvey of Saturday Night Live, performing as George H. W. Bush, pointing index fingers up and saying, "Not gonna do it."

The @bigtenacademic.bsky.social issues a statement on those "mutual defense compacts":

btaa.org/big-ten-acad...

The @bigtenacademic.bsky.social has issued a statement!

That "mutual defense compact" faculty are excited about? It is (still) not going to happen:

btaa.org/big-ten-acad...

A statement from @bigtenacademic.bsky.social: That "mutual defense compact"? It's still not going to happen.

btaa.org/big-ten-acad...

Faculty Hiring Is Under Federal Scrutiny at Harvard The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has pointed to the university’s data showing a declining proportion of white, male professors.

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!)

Strengthening Academic Leadership in an Uncertain Time | Office for Faculty Advancement This year’s cohort of Duke Ivy+ Provost Leadership Fellows included Lisa Huettel, Jacquelyn McMillian-Bohler, Jian Pei, Jen’nan Read, Charlotte Sussman and Jennifer Clare

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...

Gratuitous self-citation to my skeets about this 17d ago:

bsky.app/profile/facu...

Fortunately for us, @guttergeek.bsky.social has unpacked the resolution's problems in detail.

The Big10 Mutual Defense Compact Resolution Minority Report In taking on my current role as secretary of the university senate, I gave up my vote as a senator. While it has taken some time, given my constitutional fondness for debate and co...

This by @guttergeek.bsky.social is required reading for anyone who thought a "NATO-like" defense compact at @bigtenacademic.bsky.social was viable. (TL;DR: It's not.)

campus-novel.ghost.io/the-big10-mu...

A Call to Build Coalitions to Disrupt a Climate of Suppression Published in Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning (Vol. 57, No. 2, 2025)

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....

“We’re on Our Own Out Here”: Faculty Member Responses to Legislative Threats to Academic Freedom and Scholarship on Race Colleges and universities nationwide are contending with a well-coordinated, well-funded legislative campaign that seeks to reverse decades of racial progress. Using sociolegal frameworks and conce...

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....