Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Alexandra Steinlight @asteinlight.bsky.social · 26d

Kid at kindergarten drop-off this morning with monogrammed backpack with initials “WMD.” Tell me your political consciousness wasn’t formed in 2003 without telling me

1 3

Reposted by Alexandra Steinlight

Briony Neilson @brionyneilson.bsky.social · Aug 4

One like, one Presses universitaires de France book cover from the 1990s

15 160 660

Reposted by Alexandra Steinlight

lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · Jul 12

Thing I am an absolute complete total reactionary about: there has not actually been invented a better model of conveying information in a learning environment than the basic structure of a traditional lecture. A speaker standing in some sort of unique focal point for the attention of listeners...

61 96 880

Reposted by Alexandra Steinlight

Laprofmme @laprofmme.bsky.social · Jul 5

As a historian, I have been curious (and appalled) by this choice of pseudo. The interpretation below is quite common, but not in fact correct. It was an 1865 law (sénatus-consulte) that made “Muslim Algerians” (a racial category divorced from actual faith) French nationals without citizenship 1/

Anil Dash @anildash.com · Jul 5

The name “Crémieux” that Jordan Lasker uses is a specific, deeply anti-Muslim dog whistle: a reference to the Crémieux Decree — the official anti-Islam policy of colonial France, making Muslims in Algeria second-class citizens. Who the fuck even *knows* that, let alone makes it their _name_? Bigots.

12 240 810

Reposted by Alexandra Steinlight

Samuel Moore @samuelmoore.org · Jun 17

'“I don't think that people appreciate how few people are working to keep these collections online, even at huge institutions,” Weinberg told me. “It's usually an incredibly small team, one person, half a person, half a person, plus, like their web person who is sympathetic to what's going on.'

AI Scraping Bots Are Breaking Open Libraries, Archives, and Museums

"This is a moment where that community feels collectively under threat and isn't sure what the process is for solving the problem.”

www.404media.co

3 230 480

Alexandra Steinlight @asteinlight.bsky.social · Jun 9

The slippage from bagel to croissant is disturbing, dangerous even

1

Reposted by Alexandra Steinlight

Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · Jun 7

found out tonight through some slightly random googling that Charlemagne is known as "Karl der Große" in German, a fact I find to be hateful and undignified

27 5 140

Reposted by Alexandra Steinlight

Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · Jun 6

“The Left controls universities”

Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · Jun 6

The University of Michigan spent $800,000 hiring private investigators--one of whom FAKED A DISABILITY--to surveil anti-genocide protesting students. I'm speechless.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Students say they have frequently identified undercover investigators and confronted them. In two bizarre interactions captured by one student on video, a man who had been trailing the student faked disabilities, and noisily – and falsely – accused a student of attempting to rob him.

The undercover investigators appear to work for Detroit-based City Shield, a private security group, and some of their evidence was used by Michigan prosecutors to charge and jail students, according to a Guardian review of police records, university spending records and video collected in legal discovery. Most charges were later dropped. Public spending records from the U-M board of regents, the school’s governing body, show the university paid at least $800,000 between June 2023 and September 2024 to City Shield’s parent company, Ameri-Shield.

20 82

Reposted by Alexandra Steinlight

Aviel Roshwald @avielroshwald.bsky.social · Jun 2

🗃️ Sad news of Pierre Nora’s passing away.

Le Monde @lemonde.fr · Jun 2

L’historien Pierre Nora est mort

Historien, maître d’œuvre des « Lieux de mémoire », publiés en sept volumes à partir de 1984, le créateur de la revue « Le Débat » est mort le 2 juin, à l’âge de 93 ans.

www.lemonde.fr

2 8 21

Reposted by Alexandra Steinlight

James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · May 31

Watch out bosses, the 5 year old has turned his attention to labor organizing

2 3 34

Reposted by Alexandra Steinlight

Andrea Matranga @andreamatranga.bsky.social · May 29

The tragic landslide in Blatten gives me the excuse to tell you the story of how we found out Ice Ages existed. It's a cool story and the most important bit is rather similar to what's happening now.

Melaine Le Roy @subfossilguy.bsky.social · May 29

Aerial view westward over the Blatten deposit and the newly formed lake upstream! 🧊🌊

📷Via Christian Petit/Linkedin

26 420 960

Reposted by Alexandra Steinlight

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · May 22

very cool that for ten years people at the heights of political commentary insisted to the point of rage that the paramount threat to free speech was “censorious” college students

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · May 22

after announcing that foreign students are being banned from Havard, Noem warns "this should be a warning to every other university to get your act together."

240 3K 13K

Reposted by Alexandra Steinlight

Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · May 18

say it again:

4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities

ROI for NIH and NSF for local economies is conservatively 4x, often close to 10x

demolishing higher education is economic sabotage

Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · May 18

There is a false dichotomy drawn between "the ivory tower" and "the real world," and I'm here to report that in a post-industrial society, your real-world economy absolutely hinges on the university.

University towns are factory towns. Universities drive economic activity, not the other way around.

Prof Christina Pagel @chrischirp.bsky.social · May 18

A must read

67 1.9K 4.8K

Alexandra Steinlight @asteinlight.bsky.social · May 18

What is the Bumpsy Grind, you ask? Evidently it is “an old-timey dance”

1

Alexandra Steinlight @asteinlight.bsky.social · May 18

A COMPLETE UNKNOWN was mediocre if entertaining, but it did afford me the opportunity to learn that @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social thought “threw the bums a dime in your prime” was “do the Bumpsy Grind”

1 6

Reposted by Alexandra Steinlight

will o’the wisp pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · May 16

“has let too many people leave their sticky fingerprints on her book”

wtf?

i finally read pedersen’s review of sasson’s ‘the solidarity economy’ and i just think there’s just a fundamental disagreement about scholarship, community, and gratitude here

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Sasson thanks, excluding family, some 250 people for help in producing her book.
It began life as a dissertation written at Berkeley under the supervision of Thomas Laqueur and James Vernon, whose students have done so much to document the way neoliberalism shaped every aspect of British life - financial markets, town plan-ning, culture, humanitarianism. (Sasson thanks Berkeley faculty and graduate stud-
ents, and 52 'fellow travellers of the mind and the archives' for support and encouragement.) She then took up a Past&Present postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute of Historical Research and a research affiliation at Cambridge,and thanks a host of scholars, seminar conveners and journal editors on both sides of the Atlantic for feedback during these years. She 'really began writing this book', though, as an assistant professor at Emory University inAtlanta - and thanks some forty to fifty Emory faculty members, students and staff for providing everything from 'the time and resources to work on the book' to mentorship and camaraderie. She thanks senior scholars (including Vernon) for flying in for a workshop on the manuscript and colleagues at Virginia,Yale,Stanford,Princeton,Manchester and Harvard for comments on talks. She thanks the peer reviewers for PrincetonUniversity Press (among them Baughan) and the editors and indexers who saw it into print. Sasson has recently taken up a job at Oxford.We all need conversation, and exchange and support, but these acknowledgments gave me pause. Sasson has let too many people leave their sticky fingerprints on her book; it would be better if it were less critical of'non-profits' and more self-reflective about the academy and its disciplining work. Admittedly, nothing is harder than clearing your mind of the frameworks and paradigms of the moment, but it is crucial to try. We want to address issues relevant to our time, of course, but to what extent? If we can't think our way outside it, the hive mind just speaks through us

5 3 13

Reposted by Alexandra Steinlight

Mary Lewis @profmarylewis.bsky.social · May 3

Outrageous behavior from the chief of Harvard University Press and kudos to the Crimson for exposing this.

Mary Lewis @profmarylewis.bsky.social · May 3

“Andreou “heaped scorn” on Jack’s first book, calling it “barely publishable.”

“The Privileged Poor” went on to win six awards … and was named one of National Public Radio’s best books of 2019.”

www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Harvard University Press Employees Say Director Drove Down Acquisitions and Morale | News | The Harvard Crimson

Since George T. Andreou ’87 became the press’s director in 2017, staff alleged — in interviews, union surveys, and letters to Harvard officials — that he belittled employees and mismanaged the publish...

www.thecrimson.com

16 66

Alexandra Steinlight @asteinlight.bsky.social · May 1

It was both enormous fun and a real privilege to get to work on this issue. We hope it is worthy of its subject!

1

Alexandra Steinlight @asteinlight.bsky.social · May 1

Finally, French Studies and its Publics opens out from scholarship and mentoring and considers the stakes of public engagement and the migration of ideas and texts across the Atlantic. Intro by Sarah Griswold and essays that follow by Laura Frader, @artgoldhammer.bsky.social, and Eric Fassin.

1 1 2

Alexandra Steinlight @asteinlight.bsky.social · May 1

The State and Expertise dossier features an intro by Ed Berenson and contributions from Evan Spritzer, Aro Velmet, Nicole Rudolph, and Phil Nord, all exploring the questions at the heart of Herrick's own scholarly work.

1 1 2

Alexandra Steinlight @asteinlight.bsky.social · May 1

The issue comprises three thematic dossiers--on Herrick's mentoring, scholarship, and the role of the French Studies scholar. The first, The Politics of Mentorship, features an intro by @profmarylewis.bsky.social and essays by Elizabeth Campbell, Molly Nolan, Alice Conklin, and Emmanuelle Saada.

1 1 3

Alexandra Steinlight @asteinlight.bsky.social · May 1

Thrilled to share this very special issue of French Politics, Culture & Society in honor of Herrick Chapman that I co-edited with Nicole Rudolph. The intro is open access: www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journal...

1 8 19

Alexandra Steinlight @asteinlight.bsky.social · Apr 27

At least he kept the borders safe??

1 1