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Sarah Parkinson

@separkinson.bsky.social

5.1K followers 1.9K following 820 posts

Political scientist at Johns Hopkins. MENA/SWANA, disasters, political violence, ethics, humanitarian crises, & qual methods. Wrote a book about Palestinian org evolution & social change in wartime Lebanon: http://bit.ly/3VEw64B. EMT. Opinions my own.

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Sarah Parkinson @separkinson.bsky.social · Jun 24

"In an era of media fatigue, Andor provides a useful vehicle to think seriously about what it means and takes to challenge power and offers realistic scenarios to consider the moral imperatives involved."

If you think Andor is irrelevant to current politics, you aren't paying attention to either.

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POMEPS @pomeps.bsky.social · 9d

POMEPS is thrilled to announce a call for proposals for POMEPS Travel – Research – Engagement (TRE) grants for 2026. Awards of up to $3,000 will be offered to support research travel to the broader Middle East. Deadline to apply: Oct. 15th. More info: pomeps.org/call-for-pro...

Call for Proposals: 2026 Travel Research Engagement Grants - Project on Middle East Political Science

The Project on Middle East Political Science announces a call for proposals for POMEPS Travel – Research – Engagement (TRE) grants for 2026. Awards of up to $3,000 will be offered to support research ...

pomeps.org

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Sarah Parkinson @separkinson.bsky.social · 12h

Also really driving home the gap in what I’m being told/told to teach students—that it is the AI world & everyone must learn to prompt—versus it is an AI world & everyone must learn data forensics & critical thought if they are to understand politics, violence, & the information environment.

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Sarah Parkinson @separkinson.bsky.social · 12h

“The blending of these elements gives the impression of seamless factual continuity. But instead of revealing hidden truths — as Israeli military officials insist, and as the international media readily amplifies — the visualizations actually blur them.”

Appreciate the research & the nuance here.

+972 Magazine @972mag.com · 4d

An analysis of dozens of 3D animations published by the Israeli army discovered digital assets sourced not from classified intelligence but rather from commercial libraries and content creators as far afield as Scotland and Port Orchard.

www.972mag.com/israeli-army...

@mekomit.bsky.social

How a Scottish maritime museum ended up in Israel’s 3D propaganda

An analysis of dozens of Israeli army animations discovered digital assets sourced not from classified intelligence but commercial libraries and content creators.

www.972mag.com

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Sarah Parkinson @separkinson.bsky.social · 7d

...& that number is actually an improvement.

(All credit to the student in my class who threw up those maps during a presentation in my Politics of Disaster course this week, to gasps from fellow students. I honestly hadn't realized those were the numbers, either.)

Sarah Parkinson @separkinson.bsky.social · 7d

I feel like this gets to Bakri's point a/b resilience v. resignation, though. We can talk about average effects & people's ability to adapt. But then you start looking at the metrics & realize, e.g., that 23% of the population, or about 1.16 million people, are experiencing acute food insecurity.

www.ipcinfo.org

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Sarah Parkinson @separkinson.bsky.social · 7d

Visiting in 2023, I was shocked that expensive restaurants in Beirut & the Shouf were still full. The friend who took me to one figured the wealth was all remittances & currency speculation. To him, the rich will coast until the bottom finally drops out for them too, when those left will also leave.

Erin A. Snider @erinsnider.bsky.social · 7d

“Two countries are living on top of each other, one buffered by generators, drivers and imported everything, the other left to negotiate survival in the margins. What’s most unsettling isn’t how shocking it feels, but how routine it is. Just like we speed through intersections without looking.”

Opinion | The Chaos of Driving in Lebanon Tells a Story of a Country Unraveled

www.nytimes.com

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 7d

Jerusalem tonight.
"We must resist against genocide"

Demonstrators against the Gaza Genocide in Jerusalem tonight. Still from a video posted by @RSolidarityNet on X

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Sarah Parkinson @separkinson.bsky.social · 8d

“…national average participation in the general strike stood at around 60%, halting all the main services in key sectors including transportation and schools.”

When they say national, they mean national. Took this photo hiking through the tiny hillside hamlet of Botteghino di Zocca today.

Photo of community billboard in Botteghino di Zocca, Italy. Poster advertises a unite Gaza rally for 27 September in the Pianoro town plaza. Poster image is of a Palestinian flag with the outline of two hands shaking in the middle.

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Sarah Parkinson @separkinson.bsky.social · 9d

Screen shot from Andor of Imperial riot forces preparing to deploy into Palmo Plaza

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Advancing Research on Conflict (ARC) Consortium @arcconsortium.bsky.social · 11d

Not ethnography:
1.) Two-week long field visit
2.) In-depth interviews
3.) Intermittently scanning social media
4.) Being professionally employed before grad school and later writing it up as "research" for a dissertation

Chuncheng Liu @cliu.bsky.social · 11d

I'm not an anthropologist but can we stop calling a two-week field visit ethnography

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Florian Hollenbach @fhollenbach.org · 11d

Are you interested in research on corruption/illicit finance/kleptocracy? We are hiring a Research Fellow at @acdatacollective.bsky.social: acdatacollective.org/wp-content/u...
Please share in your networks, this could be a great gig.

acdatacollective.org

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Sarah Parkinson @separkinson.bsky.social · 13d

Tony Blair Columbuses colonialism

Shibley Telhami @stelhami.bsky.social · 13d

A century removed from Western colonial powers casually drawing Middle Eastern borders with a ruler while disregarding the will of local populations, the region gets Tony Blair to dream up schemes of governing Gaza with little say by its people.
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

Draft of Tony Blair's Gaza plan: Remote governance, little Palestinian representation

Haaretz Reveals the Full Document Proposed by the Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for a Postwar Gaza Strip: A Regime Run by Affluent Foreigners With Palestinian Executives at the Bottom

www.haaretz.com

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Sarah Parkinson @separkinson.bsky.social · 15d

If UEFA doesn’t ban Israel, there are already protests planned for the day of the Italy-Israel World Cup qualifier in Udine (northeastern Italy). These would follow large Gaza solidarity protests this past Monday, which shut down public transport & major thoroughfares in several Italian cities.

Black and white flyer printed on A4 paper taped to a wall in a piazza in Bologna. Flyer reads (in English) “Show Israel the red card.” Below the writing, there is a drawing of protestors carrying a Palestinian flag and a soccer ball while chanting. Bottom of the flyer gives protest location for October 14 in Udine.

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Sarah Parkinson @separkinson.bsky.social · 16d

UEFA is likely voting on whether to suspend Israel next week; if suspended, it would mean Israel cannot play its World Cup qualifying matches. If the team is not banned, they have a qualifier against Italy Oct. 14.

Spain is threatening to boycott the World Cup if Israel does qualify & participate.

Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 16d

A Israeli academic asked his followers on X which sanction would really convince ordinary Israelis that they are isolated internationally.
"Expulsion from football tournaments" was the most popular answer, followed by "ending visa-free travel to Europe"

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Middle-East Tracker @me.skyfleet.blue · 17d

Microsoft revokes cloud services from Israel’s Unit 8200, following +972 exposé

The tech giant blocked access after we revealed the Israeli army had been using its servers to store millions of Palestinians' intercepted phone calls. The post Microsoft revokes cloud services from Israel’s Unit 8200, following +972 exposé appeared first on +972 Magazine .

www.972mag.com

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Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 18d

www.programmablemutter.com/p/the-villag... Blueskyism and Sewerism as alternatives.

The Village and the Sewer

Behind the "Blueskyism" debate

www.programmablemutter.com

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Sarah Parkinson @separkinson.bsky.social · 19d

Posted & deleted yesterday a/b yet another Israeli-backed Palestinian collaborator militia in Gaza (want to contextualize better). Violence takes innumerable forms.

Palestine is occupied & actively being colonized by Israeli settlers. Israel controls the borders. It’s recognition w/o sovereignty.

Dana El Kurd @danaelkurd.bsky.social · 20d

People in palestine are bracing for greater crackdown as Israel punishes them for statehood recognition by UK, Canada, & Australia.

As I, and many others, have pointed out - these proclamations of recognition do nothing to stop the violence.

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Sarah Parkinson @separkinson.bsky.social · 22d

“Our industry faces the most sophisticated, venomous, creeping evil in America’s history. There’s no standing above this conflict. No impartial observers. If you’re on the sidelines you’ve made a choice and must live with it.”—crossover to reality from Gilroy, who won an Emmy for Andor (Disney+)

J.M. Berger @jmberger.com · 22d

Fight the Empire deadline.com/2025/09/ando...

‘Andor’ Writer Dan Gilroy On Disney Suspending Jimmy Kimmel & Hollywood Facing “Venomous Evil”: “This Isn’t A Skirmish. It’s A Siege” – Guest Column

'Andor' Writer Dan Gilroy On Trump's Jimmy Kimmel Pressure Campaign: "Artists Are Censored First Because They Fear Us Most" -- Guest Column

deadline.com

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Sarah Parkinson @separkinson.bsky.social · 23d

Not an accident. Looking forward to watching Andor on DVD.

Sarah Parkinson @separkinson.bsky.social · 24d

"Of all the things at risk the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous. The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil. When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever screams at us the loudest"

a close up of a woman 's face with the word andor on the bottom right

Alt: Close of of Mon Mothma's face as she prepares to speak to the Imperial Senate, with the Disney+ logo on the bottom left and the Andor logo on the bottom right.

media.tenor.com

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Dana El Kurd @danaelkurd.bsky.social · Sep 11

I ramble on about what recognition of a Palestinian state means. I address recent arguments around this issue by Paul Poast, Noura Erekat, and others. Let me know what you think.

www.iheart.com/podcast/105-...

Recognizing Palestine as a State: Meaningful Farce feat. Dana El Kurd - It Could Happen Here | iHeart

<p>Dana El Kurd talks about the recent declarations by France, the UK, Canada, and others to recognize Palestine as a state. She discusses what this means, how these declarations are not tied to Pales...

www.iheart.com

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Sarah Parkinson @separkinson.bsky.social · 26d

It literally doesn't have to be this way. The EU has laws against this for a reason.

Opinion | What You Need to Know About Police Surveillance (Gift Article)

New tools allow law enforcement agencies to track us at an unimaginable scale.

www.nytimes.com

Sarah Parkinson @separkinson.bsky.social · 26d

No clue on Turley, but Dershowitz is an invited speaker at the HKS Middle East Institute tomorrow 🤡

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Political Science @ JHU @poli-sci-jhu.bsky.social · 28d

Professor @separkinson.bsky.social quoted in @51st.news ‘s article on Trump resistance at Washington Spirit game. Check out the article! 51st.news/dc-spirit-tr...

Washington Spirit games provide a field for Trump resistance

Women's soccer fans have taken to the stands with banners, flags, and pro-D.C. chants.

51st.news

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Sarah Parkinson @separkinson.bsky.social · Sep 12

Well, they had it wrong, because they copy pasted from an email that's two years old.