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awhf.bsky.social
Alex Hertel-Fernandez
@awhf.bsky.social
2.2K followers 630 following 85 posts
Columbia SIPA professor studying labor policy, politics of policy design, and political economy. Co-director of Consortium on American Political Economy & Columbia Labor Lab. Former Biden-Harris Department of Labor and Office of Management and Budget.
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Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
alondra.bsky.social
Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 10h
Congratulations to the brilliant @hahrie.bsky.social on her richly deserved @macfound.org Fellowship! Her research exemplifies social science that matters--work that is both rigorous and urgently needed for this moment.
hahrie.bsky.social
Hahrie Han @hahrie.bsky.social · 10h
Totally, completely flabbergasted. #MacFellow

hub.jhu.edu/2025/10/08/h...
Johns Hopkins political scientist Hahrie Han receives MacArthur genius grant
Han, who studies political organizing and collective action and who has led the university's SNF Agora Institute since 2019, among 22 individuals to receive coveted MacArthur Foundation recognition
hub.jhu.edu
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Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
katestarbird.bsky.social
Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 14h
Henry Farrell on the Trump admin’s proposed “compact” for universities, arguing that the rollout signals weakness, and that academics need to band together to reject this authoritarian attack on university independence and academic freedom.

Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o...
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Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
lorenraeds.bsky.social
Loren DeJonge Schulman @lorenraeds.bsky.social · 1d
Former OMB associate director on personnel here: This is blatantly false and inexplicably undermines Congress's authority. Congress made extremely clear in 2019 that furloughed feds are to be paid, full stop, period. There is no question, except why the Speaker would make such a statement.
atrupar.com
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d
Johnson: "It's true that in previous shutdowns, many or most furloughed employees have been paid for the time they were furloughed, but there is new legal analysis - I don't know the details, I just saw a headline - but there are some legal analysts saying that might not be appropriate or necessary"
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Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
aaup.org
AAUP @aaup.org · 8d
This case … squarely presents the issue whether non-citizens lawfully present here in United States actually have the same free speech rights as the rest of us.”

“The Court answers this Constitutional question unequivocally ‘yes, they do’.

— Judge William G. Young

#AAUPvRubio
Opinion
knightcolumbia.org
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Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
adambonica.bsky.social
Adam Bonica @adambonica.bsky.social · 9d
Poll after poll shows corruption is THE issue voters care about. And Jeffries goes out of his way to praise Adams, whose public corruption charges were dropped after Trump’s DOJ unceremoniously shut the case down?

Democrats have the winning hand right in front of them. Wild that they won’t play it.
statement titled “Leader Jeffries Statement on Mayor Eric L. Adams.” It says Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries thanked Adams for decades of service as an NYPD officer, state senator, Brooklyn Borough President, and New York City’s 110th mayor. The statement highlights achievements under Adams, including reduced violent crime, more affordable housing, and recovery from COVID-19. Jeffries acknowledges ongoing challenges like the high cost of living but says meaningful progress was made. He thanks Adams for his service and says that in the coming days his focus will shift to Republican healthcare and government funding issues, and that he will comment on the remaining mayoral candidates before early voting begins.
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Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 9d
Am I reading this correctly?

A grad student ... in Computer Science ... enrolled in an undergraduate seminar ... in the American Indian and Indigenous Studies program ... where he ignored the readings and hijacked discussions to talk about Israel and defend its actions in Gaza?

What the hell?
nkalamb.bsky.social
Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 9d
Cornell is cancelling a distinguished professor's classes on Gaza and suspending him because of the complaints of a student who previously served in Israel's military surveillance agency and was literally recording the comments of other students in class and deliberately derailing discussion.
Early last semester, Droubi said, students began approaching Cheyfitz with complaints that a graduate student in the “Gaza, Indigeneity, Resistance” class appeared to be recording them, possibly to “gather their names and comments” and intimidate them. “We believe that a student came to the course for the sole reason of surveilling and potentially harming students in the class,” Droubi said. “That ended up proving itself to be true because multiple students came forward and shared their concerns with Professor Cheyfitz.” Cheyfitz said one Palestinian student quit the class after telling him she felt upset and frightened. Current Issue Cover of October 2025 Issue October 2025 Issue According to Cheyfitz, the graduate student often steered conversations away from the assigned readings—which at that point mostly focused on definitions of genocide and international law on Indigenous rights—to defend Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza and argue with others in the class. “He clearly had not done the readings,” Cheyfitz said. “It was disruptive.” Cheyfitz said he met with the graduate student in late January and spoke to him about concerns from his classmates. During the conversation, he asked the graduate student to drop the course, and by the next class, he did, Cheyfitz said. The graduate student, Oren Renard, a PhD candidate in computer science whose identity was confirmed by other students in the class, previously served in Israel’s elite military surveillance agency, Unit 8200, according to his LinkedIn profile.
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jlray.bsky.social
JLRay @jlray.bsky.social · 11d
The primary reason TPUSA succeeded, thrived, and delivered significant political power is because wealthy ideologues patiently invested a huge sum of money for many years to give it time to establish a market presence.

A smart and correct strategy with huge pay-off!

fortune.com/2025/09/20/c...
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Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
asheeshksi.bsky.social
Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshksi.bsky.social · 15d
when the interview goes well: www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...
Screenshot from New Yorker interview by Isaac Chotiner with Cass Sunstein
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josheidelson.bsky.social
Josh Eidelson @josheidelson.bsky.social · 20d
New @businessweek.bsky.social feature: On a budget of $1 per American, NIOSH conducts or funds most US research on how to keep workers alive & well. The Trump Administration decided to blow it up.
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
Based on interviews with 40+ current/recent staff throughout NIOSH
How Trump Broke Corporate America’s Most Valuable Consultant
Businesses are begging the White House and RFK Jr. to rethink their massive cuts to Niosh, a workplace research agency that saves the US billions of dollars a year.
www.bloomberg.com
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Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
bbkogan.bsky.social
Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 18d
Shot/chaser
Trump enacted the biggest SNAP cuts in history Trump is cancelling the annual hunger survey
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lpeblog.bsky.social
LPE Blog @lpeblog.bsky.social · 19d
Over at Can We Will Govern, @awhf.bsky.social explains how social scientists could help to rebuild the federal government.
How social scientists could help to rebuild the federal government
Lessons from my time in the Biden administration
donmoynihan.substack.com
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Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
wendyyli.bsky.social
Wendy Y. Li @wendyyli.bsky.social · 20d
As I argued earlier this year, businesses have become increasingly incapable of working collectively towards their economic and political interests. Their silence and willingness to cave to the administration will hurt the economy, the rule of law, and democracy.

www.promarket.org/2025/05/09/t...
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awhf.bsky.social
Alex Hertel-Fernandez @awhf.bsky.social · 20d
Last, special thanks to @donmoyn.bsky.social and @pamherd.bsky.social for their public scholarship and willingness to engage with government folks on all these questions. A great model for how academics can build communities of researchers and practitioners around solving policy problems! /End
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awhf.bsky.social
Alex Hertel-Fernandez @awhf.bsky.social · 20d
Ultimately, having academics support sound federal policymaking could build the case for why the federal government should support higher education-and perhaps help rebuild public trust in what we do as academics.

No illusions that this will be easy, but now is the time to start thinking! 7/
How social scientists could help to rebuild the federal government
Lessons from my time in the Biden administration
donmoynihan.substack.com
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awhf.bsky.social
Alex Hertel-Fernandez @awhf.bsky.social · 20d
As I describe in the piece, economics already has a strong presence and there are good pipelines throughout the White House and agencies for junior and senior economists. But we should think about bringing in other disciplines too -- anthropology, political science, sociology, history. 6/
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awhf.bsky.social
Alex Hertel-Fernandez @awhf.bsky.social · 20d
In the future, you could imagine a new federal agency (with $) that could help other agencies identify and quickly place teams of academics to support research and policy making and implementation. Ideally this would span academic disciplines to include fields not traditionally represented. 5/
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awhf.bsky.social
Alex Hertel-Fernandez @awhf.bsky.social · 20d
I was so fortunate to work for leaders who were committed to this-but we should embed such opportunities more expansively and intentionally throughout a reformed federal government. That in turn could help quickly build capacity on day one post-Trump through temporary academic "tours of duty". 4/
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awhf.bsky.social
Alex Hertel-Fernandez @awhf.bsky.social · 20d
We should also be thinking about reforms to the federal government that could, among other things, create more diverse and stronger bridges between academics / universities and federal policymaking and administration. This happened pre-Trump, but often ad-hoc and dependent on individual leaders. 3/
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awhf.bsky.social
Alex Hertel-Fernandez @awhf.bsky.social · 20d
I draw from time in government to discuss how social science-and social scientists-could help collect knowledge we're losing from career folks and help turn that knowledge into actionable insights. We need to preserve that knowledge and that is something social scientists know how how to do!

2/
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awhf.bsky.social
Alex Hertel-Fernandez @awhf.bsky.social · 20d
So many immediate horrors right now, but I appreciated the invitation from @donmoyn.bsky.social to reflect on the future and how social scientists could help with the eventual federal government rebuilding.

As @sbagen.bsky.social has argued persuasively, we need to start now with that effort! 1/
donmoyn.bsky.social
Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 20d
State capacity that is being gutted now will need to be rebuilt in the future. Alex Hertel-Fernandez looks back at his time in the Biden administration to identify ways that governments could better use social scientists to improve public services.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/how-social...
How social scientists could help to rebuild the federal government
Lessons from my time in the Biden administration
donmoynihan.substack.com
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Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
ryanenos.bsky.social
Ryan Enos @ryanenos.bsky.social · 21d
A free society is not one in which the government can use its power to silence critical speech. Decent people must oppose this.
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Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
jonmladd.bsky.social
Jonathan Ladd @jonmladd.bsky.social · 21d
There’s competition, I know. But threatening to pull the broadcast licenses of the affiliates of an entire “big-3” television network unless they stop their evening talk show host from criticizing the president has to be one of the biggest First Amendment violations in U.S. history.
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maxberger.bsky.social
Max Berger @maxberger.bsky.social · 23d
Republicans: We intend to use the full power of the federal government to wage a holy war against the “domestic terrorist network” of progressive organizations.

Democrats: We want to engage in bipartisan negotiation.
sahilkapur.bsky.social
Sahil Kapur @sahilkapur.bsky.social · 23d
Schumer on government funding: "Our position remains this: We want to keep the government open by engaging in bipartisan negotiation where we can address some of the grave harms Donald Trump has caused to our health care system and help Americans with the cost of living."
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sethcotlar.bsky.social
Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 23d
Removing information about slavery at Harper’s Ferry is like removing information about hydroelectric power at the Hoover Dam. “John Brown went to Harper’s Ferry because he was so infected by the woke mind virus that he had a pathological hatred of states rights.”
paleofuture.bsky.social
Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 23d
They’re just completely erasing history.
At Harpers Ferry, staff flagged more than 30 signs, according to a person familiar with the matter and documents reviewed by The Post, that highlight information potentially in violation of Trump's policy. They include signs referring to racial discrimination and the hostility of white people to people who were formerly enslaved.
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aaronsojourner.org
Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 24d
I am sooooo tired of Why Is Child Care So Tough to Afford/Find/Staff/Operate stories that center anything other than this fact.
aaronsojourner.org
Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · Mar 12
We invest 9X less per child-year in care & education in the first 5 years of life than the next 13.

This gap in public investment is why K12 is free for parents & early care & education is expensive.
www.hamiltonproject.org/publication/...
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