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KD Thompson

@katrinadalythompson.com

610 followers 840 following 540 posts

Evjue-Bascom Professor in the Humanities (Religious Studies) & Director of SLA, UW-Madison. Ethnographer of language, gender, & sexuality in Muslim communities. Swahili-speaker 🇹🇿 Kung-fu-learner 🥋 Meditator 🧘📿 https://bookshop.org/shop/kd_thompson

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KD Thompson @katrinadalythompson.com · 11h

act.nilc.org/page/88106/p...

Sign Our Petition: Free the Merlos Family

Sign our petition to demand the immediate release of Jackie, Carlos, and Juana Merlos. Help bring this family back together.

act.nilc.org

KD Thompson @katrinadalythompson.com · 15h

Zimbabwe's Cinematic Arts would smell like "Shona culture" (how my rural host mother described the smell of the fire in her kicheni), Popobawa like butt, and Muslims on the Margins like chai.

L. D. Lewis, Peach Jolly Rancher 🍬 @ldlewiswrites.blacksky.app · 1d

What would *your* book smell like if you engaged in a mega weirdo scented pages promotional campaign?

KD Thompson @katrinadalythompson.com · 20h

Don't forget this! bsky.app/profile/katr...

KD Thompson @katrinadalythompson.com · 6d

Wisconsinites!

Keep calling your representatives and @govevers.wisconsin.gov and urge them to oppose this bill & protect free speech. There are better ways to fight antisemitism.

Say NO to the IHRA Bill — Say YES to Free Speech

The fight against antisemitism is vital, but the IHRA definition is the wrong tool for legislation. Originally designed for education and data collection, it’s ill-suited for U.S. law and threatens First Amendment protections.

🔹 Free Speech at Risk: Of IHRA’s 11 examples of antisemitism, 7 target criticism of Israel. This risks criminalizing terms like “apartheid” or “genocide” when used to describe Israeli policies, conflating political critique with hate speech.

🔹 Academic and Political Chill: Codifying IHRA has led to censorship—shutting down student groups, firing professors, and prosecuting activists. It endangers open discourse, especially on campuses and in advocacy spaces.

🔹 Widespread Opposition: Hundreds of scholars, legal experts, and over 40 Jewish organizations oppose IHRA’s legal use. The ACLU warns it undermines free speech. Many say it’s been weaponized to silence Palestinian rights advocacy.

🔹 Coordinated Suppression: The bill is part of a broader strategy—backed by Project Esther and ALEC—to label pro-Palestinian activism as extremist. This politicizes antisemitism and stifles dissent.

🔹 Political Consequences: Supporting IHRA could alienate key Democratic voters. Polls show only 12% of Democrats sympathize more with Israelis than Palestinians, and 77% believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. In Wisconsin’s tight races, this matters.

🔹 A Better Path Forward: The Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA) offers a clearer, rights-respecting alternative. It distinguishes antisemitism from legitimate criticism of Israel and protects civil liberties.

Equating critique of Israeli policy with antisemitism weakens the fight against real hate. We urge Governor Evers and Wisconsin legislators to reject IHRA codification and defend free speech.

📎 Source materials available via Linktree.

KD Thompson @katrinadalythompson.com · 1d

actionnetwork.org/petitions/tr...

Trump Higher Ed Compact 2025

We stand for education—for science, for students and for freedom—and against this backward, anti-American policy. We call on university leaders, faculty, staff and students to unite in rejecting the T...

actionnetwork.org

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KD Thompson @katrinadalythompson.com · 1d

What is this monstrosity, Duo?

KD Thompson @katrinadalythompson.com · 1d

resist.bot/petitions/PV...

Prevent Student Loan Privatization and Protect Borrowers

Text SIGN PVPIJA to 50409 to send this to your officials.

resist.bot

KD Thompson @katrinadalythompson.com · 1d

“If you’re paying more attention to the form other people are assuming than what’s taking place inside your self, that means something is seriously wrong with you.” — Butter app.thestorygraph.com/books/82cda3...

Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder by Asako Yuzuki

Journalist Rika Machida is facing an unusual assignment: she is tapped to investigate serial kill...

app.thestorygraph.com

KD Thompson @katrinadalythompson.com · 1d

tinyurl.com/NoOfficialLa...

Opposing the EO that Designates English as the Official Language of the US

tinyurl.com

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KD Thompson @katrinadalythompson.com · 6d

Wisconsinites!

Keep calling your representatives and @govevers.wisconsin.gov and urge them to oppose this bill & protect free speech. There are better ways to fight antisemitism.

KD Thompson @katrinadalythompson.com · 8d

resist.bot/petitions/PB...

No Military in Our Cities. No Pay Cuts for Federal Workers.

Text SIGN PBSGZP to 50409 to send this to your officials.

resist.bot

Reposted by KD Thompson

tenuretracker.info @tenuretracker.bsky.social · 9d

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is hiring:
Assistant Professor of Buddhist Studies

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KD Thompson @katrinadalythompson.com · 8d

More info at handsoffchicago.us⁩

RAPID RESPONSE
RAPID RESPONSE RAPID RESPONSE RAPID RESPONSE RAPID RESPONSE
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: FIGHT THE REGIME
HANDSOFFCHICAGO.US
EIS
HANDS OFF CHICAGO
WISCONSIN FIGHTS BACK -
EMERGENCY PROTEST TIME ANNOUNCEMENT
WEDNESDAY (10/8) @ 5:30 PM
• MADISON: CAPITOL, KING STREET | MILWAUKEE: CATHEDRAL SQUARE
The TEXAS National Guard has ARRIVED in Chicago.
Recruit THREE people to come show solidarity.
The military is being used against us - this is the fight of our lives.
Protests in Chicago happening at the SAME time (hence date/time change).
Bring water, signs, American flags. SHARE this and INVITE others NOW.

KD Thompson @katrinadalythompson.com · 9d

"Hope is often misunderstood.
People tend to think that it is simply passive wishful thinking:
"I hope something will happen but I'm not going to do anything about it." This is indeed the opposite of real hope, which requires action and engagement".
- Dr Jane Goodall

KD Thompson @katrinadalythompson.com · 9d

www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

Energy Dept. adds ‘climate change’ and ‘emissions’ to banned words list

It is the latest in a series of Trump administration efforts to dispute, silence or downplay climate change.

www.politico.com

Reposted by KD Thompson

RobinRedneck @robinredneck.bsky.social · 9d

In a world full of Trumps be a Jane Goodall.

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KD Thompson @katrinadalythompson.com · 10d

Neighborhood chalk art

KD Thompson @katrinadalythompson.com · 10d

This might be good academic.oup.com/book/7401/ch...

Fasting in Islam

Abstract. This chapter examines the annual practice of fasting during the holy month of Ramadan in Islam. For Muslim adults, this means complete abstention

academic.oup.com

KD Thompson @katrinadalythompson.com · 12d

resist.bot/petitions/PE... @npr.org @pbs.org

Restore Funding for NPR & PBS — Protect Local News Access

Text SIGN PERVGI to 50409 to send this to your officials.

resist.bot

Reposted by KD Thompson

Mike Galsworthy @mikegalsworthy.bsky.social · 12d

History repeats.

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KD Thompson @katrinadalythompson.com · 12d

Thank you @markpocan.bsky.social for standing up for free speech.

Wisconsinites, please keep calling your district representatives and urging them to vote against AB446/SN445. And ask @govevers.wisconsin.gov to veto it.

October 3, 2025
Dear Members of the Wisconsin State Legislature,
I write to share my experience regarding past legislative efforts in the House of Representatives to require federal agencies to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, and its contemporary examples, when investigating incidents to determine whether antisemitism was a motivating factor, and to share the reasoning behind my opposition.
The IHRA working definition of antisemitism is controversial and faces steep opposition from a broad coalition of civil liberties and human rights groups as well as Jewish and Palestinian advocacy organizations. The definition wrongly conflates legitimate criticism of the State of Israel and its government and policies with antisemitism, which, if codified into law, could have a significant chilling effect on freedom of speech. Branding legitimate criticism of the Israeli government and state as antisemitic is no more than an effort to silence Palestinians and critics of the Israeli government and its actions. Beyond this deeply troubling attack on free speech, the definition is also overly broad and vague, and scholars have said it is too imprecise to be used as the basis for policy or legislation.
For these reasons, I voted to oppose H.R. 6090, the Antisemitism Awareness Act, in the House of Representatives on May 1, 2024. This bill would have required the Department of Education to utilize the IHRA working definition of antisemitism and its contemporary examples when investigating possible civil rights violations. While I support good-faith efforts to address rising instances of antisemitic rhetoric and violence, this legislation would have drawn a false equivalence between legitimate criticism of the Israeli government and actual antisemitism, and could have silenced advocates for Palestinian rights at educational institutions across the country.
I urge you to consider my perspective on past legislative effor…

Reposted by KD Thompson

AltReclamation 💦 @altreclamation.altgov.info · 14d

Words to live by

You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make. Quote By Jane Goodall.

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KD Thompson @katrinadalythompson.com · 14d

Library book booty #BookSky

A stack of four horizontally arranged library books sits on a black metal shelf in an academic setting. From top to bottom, the titles are: You Just Don’t Understand by Deborah Tannen, Understanding Pragmatics by Verschueren, African Language Media edited by Phillip Mpofu, Innocentia J. Fakoya, and Thabo T. Tšehloane, and Be the Refuge by Chenxing Han. Each book has a spine label, and a bulletin board with papers and decorations is visible in the background.

KD Thompson @katrinadalythompson.com · 16d

Lulu and the new rug (aptly named Zen Coffee)

A dog (mountain cur mix) in a living room

Reposted by KD Thompson

Eli Friedman @elifriedman.bsky.social · 16d

In today's "fighting antisemitism" news, Cornell has suspended a Jewish professor and cancelled his classes because they disagreed with his political views

Cornell Cut Classes by a Pro-Palestinian Professor After an Israeli Student’s Discrimination Complaint

Dr. Eric Cheyfitz, who has taught at Cornell for more than two decades, claims the university is attempting to silence him as part of a broader crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism.

www.thenation.com

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KD Thompson @katrinadalythompson.com · 16d

Good morning, blue jay. #BirdSky