Cathy Davidson
LightNews LightNews
banner
cathyndavidson.bsky.social
Cathy Davidson
@cathyndavidson.bsky.social
3.8K followers 3.4K following 1.4K posts

CathyDavidson.com. Advocate for active learning, student success. Author “The New Education” etc. Cofounder HASTAC.org ("world's first academic social network"--NSF). Science fiction fan. Lover of oceans. Opinions and typos my own. #SeaScrolling #Breathe .. more

Videos

Cathy N. Davidson is an American scholar and university professor. She is a Distinguished Professor of English, Digital Humanities, and Data Analysis and Visualization at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York where she founded the Futures Initiative. .. more

Political science 21%
Art 21%
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
cathyndavidson.bsky.social
Cathy Davidson @cathyndavidson.bsky.social · 6d
"The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows."--Audre Lorde. Here's the text to my acceptance speech for the 2025 #McGraw Prize in Higher Education: cathydavidson.com/blog/2025-mc...
2025 McGraw Prize in Higher Education: Acceptance Speech Nov 13, 2025 – Cathy N. Davidson
cathydavidson.com

cathyndavidson.bsky.social
Cathy Davidson @cathyndavidson.bsky.social · 13h
Congratulations @alondra.bsky.social and New York City! Fantastic choice!

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Cathy N. Davidson, R. M. Wilson

prisonculture.bsky.social
Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 14h
95% of authors are not making a living through book publishing. The public needs to understand this.

Reposted by Cathy N. Davidson

motherjones.com
Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 17h
If Trump doesn’t sign legislation before December 15 to extend ACA tax credits, millions of Americans will be forced to pay far more for health insurance, or forgo it altogether.
Even Trump wants to extend Obamacare—but Republicans stopped him
Tick, tock: the GOP is desperately trying to run out the clock on ACA subsidies.
www.motherjones.com

Reposted by Suresh Venkatasubramanian, Philip N. Cohen, Cathy N. Davidson , and 8 more

alondra.bsky.social
Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 18h
Honored to serve on Mayor-elect @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social Transition Committee on Technology. For too long, too many New Yorkers have been left behind. NYC deserves governance that centers affordability, equity, and the public good-looking forward to the work ahead. www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news...
NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announces transition committees
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani​ announced Monday the creation of 17 transition advisory committees made up of more than 400 people.
www.cbsnews.com

cathyndavidson.bsky.social
Cathy Davidson @cathyndavidson.bsky.social · 18h
Yes …and also DEI, Black and gender studies, climate change, the humanities, critical thinking, Pell grants, international students . Etc. They basically hate anything that might cast light on their exploitation.

Reposted by Cathy N. Davidson

sharonk.bsky.social
Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 19h
www.axios.com/2025/11/24/p...
Most Latinos say they're worse off under Trump's second term, per Pew
Latino pessimism is at its worst in nearly 20 years, Pew says.
www.axios.com

Reposted by Anders Nilsson, Cathy N. Davidson

parkermolloy.com
Parker Molloy @parkermolloy.com · 20h
And Carville had the audacity to invoke Mamdani's win to make his point? Mamdani didn't go "anti-woke" to win. Quite the opposite! www.readtpa.com/p/a-politici...
A Politician Actually Defended Trans People. It Shouldn't Be This Rare.
Many Democrats are treating trans people as politically toxic. NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani released a two-minute video proving there's another way.
www.readtpa.com

Reposted by Cathy N. Davidson

prismreports.org
Prism @prismreports.org · 22h
“[Movement journalism is] not in ‘business’ to funnel advertising dollars to the pockets of billionaires; we’re here to perform liberatory work” write @femmfeministe.bsky.social & @mayaschenwar.bsky.social. It’s time for progressive philanthropy to commit to funding journalism.
Progressive philanthropy needs to commit to funding journalism
Marginalized voices are facing new pressures amid industry cutbacks and increasing attacks from the Trump administration
prismreports.org

Reposted by Cathy N. Davidson

lexmcmenamin.com
Lex McMenamin (they/them) @lexmcmenamin.com · 22h
ironically they also ran a piece 4 days after I pubbed this one, just before the election was called, making this very point!
Zohran Mamdani's Establishment-Fighting Campaign Built Community for Young People
“What Mamdani has done is not only inspire and mobilize young people, but he has exposed the establishment and some of their calcified views of participation and inclusion.”
www.teenvogue.com

cathyndavidson.bsky.social
Cathy Davidson @cathyndavidson.bsky.social · 22h
Yep.

cathyndavidson.bsky.social
Cathy Davidson @cathyndavidson.bsky.social · 22h
The NYT of all places is writing this silliness? Despite NYT doing everything in its power to prevent his election, President Elect Mamdani won in large part because of 100,000+ volunteers, led by young people.

cathyndavidson.bsky.social
Cathy Davidson @cathyndavidson.bsky.social · 22h
I guess the richest person in the world is allowed to be the stupidest? Is that the algorithm?

cathyndavidson.bsky.social
Cathy Davidson @cathyndavidson.bsky.social · 23h
More and more of the undergraduates I interact with @cuny.edu are reaching this conclusion, even assuming that the same folks who say "higher education isn't worth it" are urging them to use AI and for the same reason: to shrink the middle class and have even more wealth/greed for the .0001%

cathyndavidson.bsky.social
Cathy Davidson @cathyndavidson.bsky.social · 23h
How big exactly is a trillion? Here's an analogy from the brilliant computer scientist Pat Hayes: "A million seconds is about 11 and a half days, but a billion seconds is 31 years and 8 months....A trillion seconds is over 31,000 years."
medium.com/@patrickjohn...
Medium
Member-only
medium.com

Reposted by Juan Cole, Cathy N. Davidson, McKenzie Wark , and 2 more

courtneymilan.com
Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 23h
I think it’s pretty clear at this point that one of the main impacts of LLMs is to disrupt thinking: to make it so that far too many people never properly learn how to do it, and then to control the output so there are thoughts that people never learn how to think.

Reposted by Cathy N. Davidson

atrupar.com
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d
Reposting this clip of Harry Enten talking about inflation to make clear that the numbers he cites comes from a poll about how Americans *feel* prices are going up, not percentages of prices increases themselves. It's still not good news for Trump politically.

Reposted by Robert W. Wallace, Cathy N. Davidson

rebeccasolnit.bsky.social
Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 1d
If there's one thing the mainstream news media love to overlook, it's the impact of the mainstream news media. The petite Tea Party in all its elite-backed astroturfiness was hailed like a sacred comet; the historically huge No Kings was played down by the NY Times, among other publications.
The absence of young people in protests against Mr. Trump’s authoritarianism matters, and not just for crowd counts. The No Kings protesters look like, and in many cases are, the same people who protested during Mr. Trump’s first term in office. But older people with signs are old news in the attention economy. As a result, the No Kings protests have had less effect on our politics than, say, the smaller Tea Party protests during Barack Obama’s first months as president, which helped spark a backlash before the 2010 midterm elections. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/opinion/boomers-protest-trump-gen-z.html?unlocked_article_code=1.3k8.ui6r.Ag1dMthOacrp&smid=url-share

cathyndavidson.bsky.social
Cathy Davidson @cathyndavidson.bsky.social · 1d
"A million seconds is about 11 and a half days, but a billion seconds is 31 years and 8 months....A trillion seconds is over 31,000 years.) Pat Hayes Medium gives us insights into wealth of today's improbable, immoral oligarchs: medium.com/@patrickjohn...
Avogadro’s Number
An essay about impossibly small things and impossibly large numbers.
medium.com

Reposted by Cathy N. Davidson

insidehighered.com
Inside Higher Ed @insidehighered.com · 1d
Career Advice | Thankful for Others

In your career search and in life, don’t underestimate the value of cultivating a human community. https://bit.ly/4rnH0fS

#EDUSky #AcademicSky #HigherEd
An illustration of people connected to one another with lines, suggesting a human network.

cathyndavidson.bsky.social
Cathy Davidson @cathyndavidson.bsky.social · 1d
Move fast with extractive infrastructure. Nice ring.

cathyndavidson.bsky.social
Cathy Davidson @cathyndavidson.bsky.social · 3d
"Hey, maybe being woke, supporting DEI, wasn't so bad after all. It's not too late to put some of those policies back in place on Facebook, right Zohran? Right?"

Reposted by Daniel Kim, Cathy N. Davidson, Joshua Goodman , and 1 more

tyburr.bsky.social
Ty Burr @tyburr.bsky.social · 3d
Why do I love living in Boston? Yo-Yo Ma playing the Bach cello suites before bringing Mayor Wu out to duet for an encore, that’s why.

Reposted by Cathy N. Davidson, Nathan P. Kalmoe

olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 3d
all i can say is that we are going to win

Reposted by Cathy N. Davidson

bcdreyer.social
Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 3d
It’s really doing that thing.
Sunset over the Pacific. Very fiery.

Reposted by Rosemary A. Joyce, Cathy N. Davidson, Edgar Morgenroth , and 1 more

chrisgeidner.bsky.social
Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 3d
Let’s be clear.

@zohrankmamdani.bsky.social got Trump so charmed that Trump posted two photos of the two of them with Franklin Roosevelt’s portrait behind them AND one of just Mamdani and FDR’s portrait.
Trump’s Truth social post Trump, Mamdani, and FDR. Trump, Mamdani, and FDR. Mamdani and FDR.

cathyndavidson.bsky.social
Cathy Davidson @cathyndavidson.bsky.social · 3d
Turns out, resolution notwithstanding, socialism is pretty cute.

Reposted by Cathy N. Davidson

theserfstv.bsky.social
The Serfs (youtube.com/theserfstv) @theserfstv.bsky.social · 3d
Zohran Mamdani standing beside the President of the United States just said that the US is funding Israel's genocide and yet can't take care of its own unhoused children on live television.

I never thought I'd see something like that in my lifetime
@Acyn Mamdani: I have spoken about the Israeli government committing genocide and our government funding it and I shared about the concern that New Yorkers of wanting their tax dollars to go to the benefit of New Yorkers and what we see right now we are in the ninth consecutive year of children being homeless…

cathyndavidson.bsky.social
Cathy Davidson @cathyndavidson.bsky.social · 3d
His genius is in always knowing how to step into the limelight (and not caring what or who is shining it) and, as @tressiemcphd.bsky.social, says to say outloud the thing people are saying to themselves.

cathyndavidson.bsky.social
Cathy Davidson @cathyndavidson.bsky.social · 3d
Of course that's his divide the Dems strategy . . . and, for progressives, this could be useful . . . sometimes (YUCK!) politics does make strange bedfellows . . .

Reposted by Steve Peers, Cathy N. Davidson, Jacob T. Levy , and 2 more

joshuajfriedman.com
Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 3d
A reporter asks if Mamdani stands by calling Trump a fascist. Mamdani starts to give a delicate answer.

Trump (smiles, pats Mamdani's arm): "That's OK, you can just say yes. It's easier. I don't mind."