Author | Lightnews

Ava Ayers @avaayers.bsky.social · 5d

I feel like "Marilynne Robinson" covers it. -- "Sorry Mary Shelley, we're not interested in your followup to 'History of a Six Weeks' Tour through a Part of France, Switzerland, Germany, and Holland: with Letters Descriptive of a Sail round the Lake of Geneva, and of the Glaciers of Chamouni'"

Reposted by Ava Ayers

Tita Chico @titachico.bsky.social · 15d

Lisa Moore: "like the medieval monks and nuns who buried precious manuscripts to hide them from the kings who burned their abbeys, we will preserve this knowledge and progress for another time in the future."

Tita Chico @titachico.bsky.social · 15d

www.statesman.com/opinion/colu...

After 35 years at UT Austin, I hardly recognize my university | Opinion

What was once a beacon of access and discovery is now fighting for its soul and mission as political attacks upend norms, rules and rights, Lisa L. Moore writes.

www.statesman.com

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Ava Ayers @avaayers.bsky.social · Sep 19

I suppose I'll make these a chain. Another great book: "The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams," by Jonathan Ned Katz." Bio of a queer activist in the 1920s, with heartbreaking excerpts from her deportation proceedings, and the sweetly beautiful text of her short book "Lesbian Love."

A hand holding up "The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams," by Jonathan Ned Katz," in front of two bunnies who are crouched somewhat defensively under a chair. I just take these pictures wherever I can find the buns. This is where they happened to be hanging out.

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Reposted by Ava Ayers

The Transfeminine Review @thetransfemininereview.com · Sep 13

What's a book by a transfemme author that you've NEVER seen anyone discuss?

And I do mean never. Nobody. I want the books that you're convinced you are the only person who's ever read it.

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Ava Ayers @avaayers.bsky.social · Sep 13

I'm delighted to report that the scifi writer James Blish (whose game I was not familiar with) pluralized "footnote" as "feetnote."

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Ava Ayers @avaayers.bsky.social · Sep 9

"Assume the artist knew what they were doing" seems like a good starting place for appreciating anything.

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Ava Ayers @avaayers.bsky.social · Sep 8

Brilliant book: Camille Walsh, "Schools, Segregation, and Taxpayer Citizenship, 1869-1973." Fantastic exploration of the history of rhetoric about "citizens who pay taxes" and its role in protecting white supremacy. Will change the way you hear arguments about what government owes "the taxpayers."

A copy of Camille Walsh's book "Racial Taxation" being sniffed by two rabbits as if it was an irresistible vegetable.

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Ava Ayers @avaayers.bsky.social · Sep 7

Does anyone know the source for this picture? I'd like to use it in my Immigration class, but not if I can't credit anyone

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Ava Ayers @avaayers.bsky.social · Sep 5

Brilliant book: "Fear City: New York's Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics" by Kim Phillips-Fein. How the mid-70s crisis let financial elites use their status as debt-holders to force NYC to end social services. Explains a lot about inequality in today's NYC and austerity everywhere.

A hand holding up the book "Fear City" by Kim Phillips-Fein. In the background there are two rabbits in a little wooden tower.

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Ava Ayers @avaayers.bsky.social · Sep 4

I just saw a message in my spam filter whose subject line ended with "I want employed clothed attorneys!" and I feel like someone should try aiming a little higher

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Michael Stipe @michaelstipe.bsky.social · Aug 30

I can

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Ava Ayers @avaayers.bsky.social · Sep 4

Oh that's an excellent idea! Good lord.

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Ava Ayers @avaayers.bsky.social · Sep 4

Highly recommended: Linda Bosniak's "The Citizen and the Alien: Dilemmas of Contemporary Membership." Probably if you're interested in citizenship you've already read this, but if not: no matter how you think about citizenship, the first two chapters will likely make you think differently.

A hand holding up Linda Bosniak's book "The Citizen and the Alien: Dilemmas of Contemporary Membership." Next to it are two rabbits snuggled together in a two-story wooden tower. They're very pretty and they're good rabbits although Misty is a bit of an escape artist.

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Ava Ayers @avaayers.bsky.social · Sep 4

Thank you! I'm on an academic sabbatical and it seemed like a good use of social media to share what me and the rabbits have been studying.

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Ava Ayers @avaayers.bsky.social · Sep 3

It's 2025 and Microsoft Windows still can't change the name of a file while it's open

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Ava Ayers @avaayers.bsky.social · Sep 3

Highly recommended: "On Community" by ‪@caseyplett.com‬. Works both as an essay, carrying you through thoughts and experiences, and as a work of political philosophy that should be important to people studying things like membership, citizenship, and, obviously, community.

A hand holding up Casey Plett's book "On Community." Under it you can see one rabbit, and, if you look very carefully, a second, barely-visible black rabbit behind it.

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Reposted by Ava Ayers

Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · Sep 2

Here's my new post on how CIS, the federal agency, has ousted the League of Women Voters and other nonprofit civic groups from their longstanding role in offering voter registration to new Americans at naturalization ceremonies.

CIS kicks voter registration groups out of naturalization ceremonies

For decades, the League of Women Voters and similar civic groups have welcomed new citizens with a voter registration table. No longer.

walterolson.substack.com

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Ava Ayers @avaayers.bsky.social · Sep 2

Highly recommended: "The Oxford Handbook of Citizenship," ed. Shachar, Bauböck, Bloemraad, and Vink. Amazing job of covering a huge number of perspectives in concise, accessible articles. An excellent place to start.

Two rabbits sniffing at "The Oxford Handbook of Citizenship." They are beautiful bunnies.

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Ava Ayers @avaayers.bsky.social · Aug 11

And "Matrix Resurrections" is a breathtaking masterpiece, I will die on this hill.

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Ava Ayers @avaayers.bsky.social · Aug 11

"Jupiter Ascending" and "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets." Just absolute neon space nonsense in both cases. Not "good," not even "coherent," but magnificent in the way that the movie "Purple Rain" is magnificent.

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Reposted by Ava Ayers

Yonah Freemark @yonahfreemark.com · Aug 8

I’m happy to have played a small part in renaming DC’s Swann St after William Dorsey Swann, a former slave, arguably 1st drag queen, & early fighter for queer liberation.

Check out new plaque @ Swann St & New Hampshire.

Read Channing Joseph’s history of Swann: www.thenation.com/article/soci...

The plaque, at the park at Swann St & New Hampshire in DC.

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Reposted by Ava Ayers

Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · Aug 8

If you cannot go to the bathroom at work, you cannot go to work. If you cannot go to the bathroom at school, you cannot go to school. This effectively bans transgender people from a broad swath of public life in the UK

Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️‍⚧️ @leftiestats.bsky.social · Aug 7

🚨 BREAKING | Labour is set to impose a sweeping ban on trans people using any "single-sex space".

In EHRC guidance that Labour is set to approve, trans people will be barred from accessing toilets, gyms and changing rooms that match their gender.

(Source: @TheTimes)

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Reposted by Ava Ayers

Neglected Books @neglectedbooks.com · Aug 6

Places to get killed in Fargo, North Dakota, a thread.

#1: The Hotel Graver. "If you're staying there, your situation can't get any graver!" (A favorite joke of Fargo wits.)

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Ava Ayers @avaayers.bsky.social · Aug 5

Genuinely confused about "passenger attendants." That's like flight attendants, right? How is ChatGPT supposed to do that job?

Will Jennings 🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · Aug 4

Generative AI is the biggest bubble for some time. It can help with certain tasks, but my experience is that it cannot do even the most basic things unsupervised and regularly fabricates its work.

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Ava Ayers @avaayers.bsky.social · Aug 5

It's also jarring how easily one imagines a Breitbart headline like "Snowflakes Say It's Racist to Ask Their Zip Code"

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