Good Research Practice And Academic Freedom

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My name is Fuzzy

Hearing someone say my Twitter and Tumblr username out loud is pretty much a spiritual experience.

Oseman, A. (2018). I was born for this. HarperCollins Children’s Books.

I can't overstate how much this quote means to me. So many years ago I came up with the username Leapfrog for a wiki page. It's based on a method used in numerical analysis and it is used in numerical weather prediction models, which is what I was working on at the time. Not much later, I started my first public social media profile, but Leapfrog was already taken. So I added Fuzzy. It's based on fuzzy logic, so again something I was just learning about. Whereas Boolean logic is based on only two truth values,

Fuzzy logic [...] is a special many-valued logic which aims at providing formal background for the graded approach to vagueness.

Novák, V., Perfilieva, I., & Močkoř, J. (1999). Mathematical Principles of Fuzzy Logic. Springer.

That is how I became FuzzyLeapfrog, or simply Fuzzy.

Both words capture my nature and soul very well. I always try to find a numerical solution, while acknowledging that the world is more complex and vague than that.

So I've been called Fuzzy online for over a decade now, but gradually Fuzzy has also found its way into offline interactions. It's not just about me though. So many people I meet offline are people I met online and we very often address each other with our online names anyway. This has brought me so much joy and probably caused a lot of confusion for people who are unfamiliar with our online names or even the concept of online names.

Anyway, it doesn't matter how often I hear it, having someone acknowledge our online connection by calling my Fuzzy loudly offline is an endless source of inner joy. I am Fuzzy.

A New Meaning of the Ivory Tower

This kind of turn can begin anywhere, anytime — like right this moment, here and now — wearing the mask of pragmatism and accommodation: let’s not make waves, let’s not use words or make speeches that draw attention, let’s make friendly connections to state legislators, let’s rename that program, let’s quietly defund that one center. Let’s not grant tenure to that person. Let’s encourage that professor to retire. Let’s look for a leader who is acceptable to interests that really hate the university and its values. Let’s take the money for an independent institute that pushes far-right economic philosophy. Let’s take away some governance from faculty, because they tend to provoke our enemies too much. Let’s compromise. Let’s be realistic.

Burke, T. (2022, Juni 30). Academia: Waiting for Heideggers. Eight by Seven. https://timothyburke.substack.com/p/academia-waiting-for-heideggers

We think it's necessary, that not much can be done, that it's just this one little thing, that it's not that important, that we're just protecting our people, at least most of them, forgetting that it won't stop there. We are gradually eroding our freedom one tiny step at a time. We are leaving people behind one tiny step at a time.

To understand what happens from the perspective of those we leave behind through compromise, we should consider the concept of slow violence.

By slow violence I mean a violence that occurs gradually and out of sight, a violence of delayed destruction that is dispersed across time and space, an attritional violence that is typically not viewed as violence at all. [...] a violence that is neither spectacular nor instantaneous, but rather incremental and accretive, its calamitous repercussions playing out across a range of temporal scales.

Nixon, R. (2011). Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674061194

So what can we actually do? Well.

Watch for those who will come forward with the aim of making us easier to deliver on a platter to some future monstrosity, and block their path whenever they step forward. Start building the foundations for a maze, a moat, a fortress, a barricade, for becoming as hard to seize as possible. Time for the ivory tower to take on new meaning.

Burke, T. (2022, Juni 30). Academia: Waiting for Heideggers. Eight by Seven. https://timothyburke.substack.com/p/academia-waiting-for-heideggers

Universities these days

Faculty members hold more power than many realize. Without their labour, research and expertise, universities cannot function.

Unfortunately, universities that no longer function are part of the goal, aren't they?

The US administration might hope that academics will remain siloed, too consumed with their own work — or too afraid — to resist. However, if faculty members unite across institutions, they can become a force that the federal government cannot ignore.

Hopefully, STEM will not abandon the humanities.

But words won’t be enough. Faculty senates must formally call on universities to refuse compliance. Such resolutions aren’t just symbolic — they create a record that can be cited in lawsuits, the media and advocacy.

If thinking about all of those who already lost, is not motivation enough, think about those who will see what you do now or in the distant future.

If faculty members are to take a stand, universities must back them up — protecting academic freedom, defending academics against retaliation and refusing to cave in to intimidation. [...] For some, organizing against this directive would not be just an act of resistance, it would be an act of professional and personal risk.

Hoping that universities, states and local communities will support their researchers and institutions.

Global institutions must also take a stand.

Don't forget that

[...] it’s not just in the United States. Rollbacks are also taking place in parts of Europe, for example.

And after all and most importantly:

This anti-DEI directive is not just an attack — it’s a test, a probe to see how much resistance universities will muster. Staying silent will not prevent more attacks. The only way to win is to act — together, decisively and now.

This is not a drill. It is a defining moment.

Calisi Rodríguez, R. (2025). ‘Silence is complicity’—Universities must fight the anti-DEI crackdown. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-00667-2

Grieving, grieving, constantly grieving. I mourn what could have been, what should have been, what will not be, what I cannot save.

The Librarian of Congress

Trump fires Librarian of Congress Hayden, the first woman and first African-American to hold the post

"And when you have a free public library in particular," she said, it was an "opportunity center for people all walks of life, and you are giving them the opportunity to make choices on which information, entertainment and inspiration means the most to them".

Choosing what to read in a library that offers the full range of human experience, writing and expression opens up the world to everyone and opens the way to empathy and to each other. Of course, that's not what the current administration in the United States wants.

The group, American Accountability Foundation, accused Hayden and other library leaders of promoting children’s books with "radical" content and literary material authored by Trump opponents.

We know what the political systems are called that ban democratic opponents and what they have to say.

Associated Press. (2025, Mai 9). Trump abruptly fires librarian of Congress in latest purge of government. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/09/trump-congress-librarian-fired

A Call for Constructive Engagement

As leaders of America’s colleges, universities, and scholarly societies, we speak with one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education. We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight. However, we must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses. We will always seek effective and fair financial practices, but we must reject the coercive use of public research funding. [...]

Signed by so many leaders of colleges and universities, even by some high profile ones such as Yale, Princeton and Brown.

https://www.aacu.org/newsroom/a-call-for-constructive-engagement

What and how we research

I know it's constantly stated that science is objective. I constantly emphasise that researchers are human beings and that their backgrounds, experiences and lives influence not only what they research, but also how they do it. That's why diversity in science is important. Yes, science is based on good scientific practice, transparency and reproducibility, but the what and how have degrees of freedom and are shaped by those who do the research.

’[...] But most of the research I do is more focused on sapphics, which would make sense, considering I am one.’ Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever had an openly queer teacher before. ‘That’s so cool,’ I say [...]. ‘Do a lot of professors end up researching things that, uh, also apply to them?’ ‘It depends,’ Fineman says. ‘In some fields, yes; a lot of my colleagues have a personal connection to their work. But not always. In any case, we’re very passionate about what we do.’

Zhao, A. (2024). Dear Wendy. Macmillan USA.

I don't know if I would do research on queer perspectives in library and information science if I wasn't queer myself. I don't know if I would choose a transformative research design if I didn't see inequalities and a need for change. Who we are shapes what we do and how we do it, whether it's in research or anywhere else.

Librarians

As a librarian working to preserve and disseminate knowledge and books, I hope that in the future people will enjoy finding everything we've saved and learning about all the people who didn't obey in advance and how.

Very grateful for the librarians.

Teaching to transgress

Again and again, it was necessary to remind everyone that no education is politically neutral.

hooks, bell. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.