Caleb Ward
@calebw.bsky.social
Social and political philosophy, feminism and social change, almost done with a book on the philosophy of Audre Lorde
Postdoc at Uni Hamburg
Photo by Frank Ward, 1999
https://www.calebward.xyz/
Postdoc at Uni Hamburg
Photo by Frank Ward, 1999
https://www.calebward.xyz/
Pinned
Caleb Ward
@calebw.bsky.social
· Sep 4
Using and Abusing ‘The Master’s Tools’ Caleb Ward's Audre Lorde Lecture
Audre Lorde’s statement that “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house” stands for uncompromising vision in the fight…
vimeo.com
“But can’t we use the master’s tools just this once, as a treat??”
Here’s my talk about Lorde’s master’s tools, which got such a heartening reception in New York. Thanks to everyone who turned out—professors, students, poets, activists 🌱
Here’s my talk about Lorde’s master’s tools, which got such a heartening reception in New York. Thanks to everyone who turned out—professors, students, poets, activists 🌱
It’s holiday season, which means Americans with too much money are about to do things like buy $350 AI chessboards and $700 iphone upgrades that could wait til next year. Imagine how many books you could buy with that money! Now go buy those books instead! 🎅
November 26, 2025 at 12:51 AM
It’s holiday season, which means Americans with too much money are about to do things like buy $350 AI chessboards and $700 iphone upgrades that could wait til next year. Imagine how many books you could buy with that money! Now go buy those books instead! 🎅
The Schlurfs in Vienna would hang out at public carousels and listen to swing records that their buddies the carousel operators put on the speakers for them. Nazis didn’t like it.
#OtD 25 Nov 1941 three Schlurfs were arrested by Gestapo in Austria for destroying a Hitler Youth noticeboard. Schlurfs were working-class youth who rejected Nazism, militarism and the work ethic, and listened to jazz music. More on WWII anti-Nazi youth: workingclasshistory.com/podcast/72-e...
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM
The Schlurfs in Vienna would hang out at public carousels and listen to swing records that their buddies the carousel operators put on the speakers for them. Nazis didn’t like it.
Perfect example of Sukaina Hirji’s oppressive double binds
And of course there’s no individual solution… only the collective political project of changing who has the power
And of course there’s no individual solution… only the collective political project of changing who has the power
November 25, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Perfect example of Sukaina Hirji’s oppressive double binds
And of course there’s no individual solution… only the collective political project of changing who has the power
And of course there’s no individual solution… only the collective political project of changing who has the power
This post is about the Home Alone movies.
The damned in hell are not more powerful for the fact that the fires do not consume them; it is part and parcel of their torment.
November 23, 2025 at 10:46 AM
This post is about the Home Alone movies.
Wow, see, this kind of hyper-local historical analysis is fascinating and so useful for deepening theorizing
Cool NWSA moment: Someone from Memoria (De)Colonial, which does tours & other public history/ed work in PR, was excited to discover this @sunypress.bsky.social book. PDFs of the Spanish original circulate but they didn’t know there was an English ed. Info abt the org: memoriadecolonial.com/en/home
November 22, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Wow, see, this kind of hyper-local historical analysis is fascinating and so useful for deepening theorizing
We've gotta get our best philosophers of slurs explaining this case immediately!
Hilarious! The Britain we knew but now transformed into a horrid island of hate.
This classic giddha song is about a woman singing she’s lost her ‘long’ (clove that women wear as nosepin). She’s calling the ‘jeeraywala’ (cumin-seed seller) to help her search for it. ‘Nigaah’ means eye, gaze or look.
This classic giddha song is about a woman singing she’s lost her ‘long’ (clove that women wear as nosepin). She’s calling the ‘jeeraywala’ (cumin-seed seller) to help her search for it. ‘Nigaah’ means eye, gaze or look.
November 22, 2025 at 2:40 PM
We've gotta get our best philosophers of slurs explaining this case immediately!
I'm just endlessly annoyed that feminist philosophers in the 90s did so much great work, and it was completely ignored by the mainstream of the discipline for 20+ years.
It's especially bad in moral philosophy, where ppl act like Cheshire Calhoun, Margaret Urban Walker, or Claudia Card don't exist
It's especially bad in moral philosophy, where ppl act like Cheshire Calhoun, Margaret Urban Walker, or Claudia Card don't exist
November 21, 2025 at 1:56 PM
I'm just endlessly annoyed that feminist philosophers in the 90s did so much great work, and it was completely ignored by the mainstream of the discipline for 20+ years.
It's especially bad in moral philosophy, where ppl act like Cheshire Calhoun, Margaret Urban Walker, or Claudia Card don't exist
It's especially bad in moral philosophy, where ppl act like Cheshire Calhoun, Margaret Urban Walker, or Claudia Card don't exist
I don’t understand any of the jargon in this article about how you can fool LLMs using poetry, but I’m happy to say that the article begins with a reference to Book X of Plato’s Republic
Looks like LLMs are *very* vulnerable to attack via poetic allusion: "curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates (ASR), with some providers exceeding 90% ..."
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
November 21, 2025 at 9:52 AM
I don’t understand any of the jargon in this article about how you can fool LLMs using poetry, but I’m happy to say that the article begins with a reference to Book X of Plato’s Republic
I mean, rule of law blah blah blah, but this is obviously outrageous given how publicly obvious corruption has been over the past year. But also:
November 21, 2025 at 8:08 AM
I mean, rule of law blah blah blah, but this is obviously outrageous given how publicly obvious corruption has been over the past year. But also:
Just spent a couple hours talking about Audre Lorde's erotic with an awesome student-led research group at FU Berlin on love/friendship and political action.
We read some of her erotic poetry too, and listened to her read it. I had a little epiphany about the first four lines of this poem 🧄
We read some of her erotic poetry too, and listened to her read it. I had a little epiphany about the first four lines of this poem 🧄
November 20, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Just spent a couple hours talking about Audre Lorde's erotic with an awesome student-led research group at FU Berlin on love/friendship and political action.
We read some of her erotic poetry too, and listened to her read it. I had a little epiphany about the first four lines of this poem 🧄
We read some of her erotic poetry too, and listened to her read it. I had a little epiphany about the first four lines of this poem 🧄
Reposted by Caleb Ward
New article in Hypatia about how social power is conferred by citing, and what to do with creepy ethicists accused of professional sexual misconduct. 👀
The authors propose citing them, but including a note about the allegations. Bibliography as whisper network 💀
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
The authors propose citing them, but including a note about the allegations. Bibliography as whisper network 💀
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Ethicists Failing Ethics: Citation Practice for Sexual Misconduct | Hypatia | Cambridge Core
Ethicists Failing Ethics: Citation Practice for Sexual Misconduct
www.cambridge.org
November 18, 2025 at 4:00 PM
New article in Hypatia about how social power is conferred by citing, and what to do with creepy ethicists accused of professional sexual misconduct. 👀
The authors propose citing them, but including a note about the allegations. Bibliography as whisper network 💀
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
The authors propose citing them, but including a note about the allegations. Bibliography as whisper network 💀
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Oh look, some good news for holding accountable transnational corporations. Nice when a week starts with humanity beating out profit.
From the weekly global newsletter by @shamjaff.bsky.social, which you should probably just subscribe to
From the weekly global newsletter by @shamjaff.bsky.social, which you should probably just subscribe to
November 17, 2025 at 8:43 AM
Oh look, some good news for holding accountable transnational corporations. Nice when a week starts with humanity beating out profit.
From the weekly global newsletter by @shamjaff.bsky.social, which you should probably just subscribe to
From the weekly global newsletter by @shamjaff.bsky.social, which you should probably just subscribe to
Ok, question for people up to date on the literature on Foucault: Has the understanding of Foucault’s account of power changed since the early 90s? I’m reading Sawicki’s feminist Foucault text, but don’t know how much I should trust its reading. I’ve read Amy Allen too
@perryzurn.bsky.social maybe?
@perryzurn.bsky.social maybe?
November 16, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Ok, question for people up to date on the literature on Foucault: Has the understanding of Foucault’s account of power changed since the early 90s? I’m reading Sawicki’s feminist Foucault text, but don’t know how much I should trust its reading. I’ve read Amy Allen too
@perryzurn.bsky.social maybe?
@perryzurn.bsky.social maybe?
One of the paradoxes of academia is that a paper’s argument grows stronger and stronger the more it gets cited, even if it‘s always cited as an example of something obviously wrong. Let’s call it the Benatar Paradox.
November 16, 2025 at 12:36 AM
One of the paradoxes of academia is that a paper’s argument grows stronger and stronger the more it gets cited, even if it‘s always cited as an example of something obviously wrong. Let’s call it the Benatar Paradox.
Reposted by Caleb Ward
Brave, funny, loving, shameless, compassionate, horny, and in solidarity with everyone fighting a good fight: Alice Wong was the example of how to live your life. Live it in such a way that people around the world gush about how much they loved you when you pass. Alice knew how to live!
November 15, 2025 at 7:40 AM
Brave, funny, loving, shameless, compassionate, horny, and in solidarity with everyone fighting a good fight: Alice Wong was the example of how to live your life. Live it in such a way that people around the world gush about how much they loved you when you pass. Alice knew how to live!
Tenure track assistant professorship in Chicago, pay is $65-68k. Thats extremely low, right? Like, what’s rent and groceries cost in Chicago???
November 15, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Tenure track assistant professorship in Chicago, pay is $65-68k. Thats extremely low, right? Like, what’s rent and groceries cost in Chicago???
New article from Ana Maria Miranda Mora looks interesting for ppl interested in love and freedom (and Hegel)
Love and Law: The Paradox of Marriage | Hegel Bulletin | Cambridge Core
Love and Law: The Paradox of Marriage
www.cambridge.org
November 14, 2025 at 10:02 PM
New article from Ana Maria Miranda Mora looks interesting for ppl interested in love and freedom (and Hegel)
Already got feedback on "Hot for Revolution", and the chapter is almost ready to go out as a preprint. I'm presenting it in the Emotion & Society Lab work-in-progress series in a couple weeks if you want to read it and talk about it with me 🤗
Info below and at emotionandsociety.substack.com
Info below and at emotionandsociety.substack.com
November 14, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Already got feedback on "Hot for Revolution", and the chapter is almost ready to go out as a preprint. I'm presenting it in the Emotion & Society Lab work-in-progress series in a couple weeks if you want to read it and talk about it with me 🤗
Info below and at emotionandsociety.substack.com
Info below and at emotionandsociety.substack.com
I'm researching this small section in my Audre Lorde manuscript about how her conception of power is different from common contemporary views of "privilege"... and let me tell you, even philosophers are quite confused about what privilege should mean
November 12, 2025 at 10:02 AM
I'm researching this small section in my Audre Lorde manuscript about how her conception of power is different from common contemporary views of "privilege"... and let me tell you, even philosophers are quite confused about what privilege should mean
"People aren't just hot for revolution because they eroticize change. People are hot for revolution because change is the condition of possibility for regaining agency over their sexual & erotic lives, which have been exploited & usurped by a hostile society."
I'm gonna finish this chapter today!
I'm gonna finish this chapter today!
November 10, 2025 at 12:28 PM
"People aren't just hot for revolution because they eroticize change. People are hot for revolution because change is the condition of possibility for regaining agency over their sexual & erotic lives, which have been exploited & usurped by a hostile society."
I'm gonna finish this chapter today!
I'm gonna finish this chapter today!
Here’s some important news I learned from @shamjaff.bsky.social’s global newsletter today: Australia secretively shipping people for indefinite detention in Nauru
This world sucks sometimes, but this newsletter is great, and you should sign up for it.
This world sucks sometimes, but this newsletter is great, and you should sign up for it.
November 10, 2025 at 9:57 AM
Here’s some important news I learned from @shamjaff.bsky.social’s global newsletter today: Australia secretively shipping people for indefinite detention in Nauru
This world sucks sometimes, but this newsletter is great, and you should sign up for it.
This world sucks sometimes, but this newsletter is great, and you should sign up for it.
German politics hot take: massively expanding German military in response to the threat of Russia is what Putin actually wants, because then when the AFD takes power, Germany’s withdrawal from NATO will give Putin a more powerful ally with which to bully the rest of Europe.
November 9, 2025 at 4:43 PM
German politics hot take: massively expanding German military in response to the threat of Russia is what Putin actually wants, because then when the AFD takes power, Germany’s withdrawal from NATO will give Putin a more powerful ally with which to bully the rest of Europe.
Olivia Perlow on Black feminism in the academy: "There's too much talking about liberation and too little being free."
November 8, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Olivia Perlow on Black feminism in the academy: "There's too much talking about liberation and too little being free."
Just want to note that closed captioning on zoom writes “herbivore” for “de Beauvoir”
November 7, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Just want to note that closed captioning on zoom writes “herbivore” for “de Beauvoir”
Audre Lorde: “We are functioning under a government which stands on the wrong side of every single battle taking place upon this globe.“
“Exclusive: US sold sniper rifles to Brazil police unit tied to deadly raid” - www.reuters.com/world/americ...
November 7, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Audre Lorde: “We are functioning under a government which stands on the wrong side of every single battle taking place upon this globe.“