International Students

Queer Spawn Point

Spotted in Amsterdam

Funding Terminations

Research funders like the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health have been cutting grants across the United States. Some amazing people have created trackers to collect and visualize the decimation of science funding and what kind of research is being cut. I think we can all guess what kind of research it is. It will look similar to what will happen or already is happening in other countries, in the Netherlands, for example.

NSF Grant Terminations 2025. https://airtable.com/appGKlSVeXniQZkFC/shrFxbl1YTqb3AyOO

NIH Grant Terminations in 2025. https://airtable.com/appjhyo9NTvJLocRy/shrNto1NNp9eJlgpA

Matthews, D. (2024). Far-right governments seek to cut billions of euros from research in Europe. Nature, 635(8037), 15–16. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-03506-y

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.

These Witches Don’t Burn

“She’s my ex,” I whisper, my stomach clenching as I wait to see how [he] responds. Coming out is always nerve-wracking, no matter how many times I do it. [...]

[He] pauses a moment, considering me. Then he lets out a knowing sigh. “My first boyfriend broke up with me a few months before he went to college, too.”

“Yeah?” I ask, instantly feeling a tighter kinship with my new coworker, like seeing a familiar face in a crowd of strangers.

“What happened?”

“Some of it was the usual stuff, [...]. Mostly, though, I don’t think he wanted to date a guy.” When [he] sees my confused expression, he clarifies. “I’m trans. I came out senior year.”

Sterling, I. (2019). These Witches Don’t Burn. Razorbill.

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.

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons

Which lesson would you like to know more about?

Do not obey in advance.

Defend institutions.

Beware the one-party state.

Take responsibility for the face of the world.

Remember professional ethics.

Be wary of paramilitaries.

Be reflective if you must be armed.

Stand out.

Be kind to our language.

Believe in truth.

Investigate.

Make eye contact and small talk.

Practice corporeal politics.

Establish a private life.

Contribute to good causes.

Learn from peers in other countries.

Listen for dangerous words.

Be calm when the unthinkable arrives.

Be a patriot.

Be as courageous as you can.

Snyder, T. (2017). On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. Crown.

Fuzzy's January 2025

I listened to three audiobooks this month, which is two more than I usually do. I also read academic books, articles and more, as well as blogs, stories and news online. This has brought a lot of amazing ideas and concepts to my mind and inspired me to write and blog more. It has also made me feel anxious, but the latter is more due to the current state of the world. It's been a January, you know.

I cannot begin to explain to you the disappointment I felt on finding out that “match my freak” was a sexual thing and not a level of how insane you are with your friends

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

Hope and hopelessness

Feeling Revolutionary is feeling that our current situation is not enough [...]. Feeling revolutionary opens up the space to imagine a collective escape [...]. Practicing educated hope, participating in a mode of revolutionary consciousness, [...] is the enactment of a critique function. It is not about announcing the way things ought to be, but, instead, imagining what things could be.

Duggan, L., & Muñoz, J. E. (2009). Hope and hopelessness: A dialogue. Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory, 19(2), 275–283. https://doi.org/10.1080/07407700903064946