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Dustin Avent-Holt

@daventholt.bsky.social

610 followers 360 following 40 posts

Professor of Sociology at Augusta University. Opinions are my own, not my employer.

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Dustin Avent-Holt @daventholt.bsky.social · Nov 15

Sharing my new paper in @econsocjournal.bsky.social. We argue that the adoption of national accounts in post-WWII econ transformed debates over what counts as economically productive activity. Read if interested in how economic statistics shape economic theory and discourse. It’s open access.

What counts as productive? Redefining ‘producers’ in economic discourse, 1890–1960

In this paper, we analyse economic discourse in debates over the production boundary, asking how the boundaries around economic categories change over time. Using a sample of economic textbooks fro...

doi.org

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Dustin Avent-Holt @daventholt.bsky.social · May 24

Funding awards are down in nearly every division, and total new awards approximate levels of new awards in the early 1990s. 🧪

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades

The lag in funding extends far beyond D.E.I. initiatives, affecting almost every area of science: chemistry, computing, engineering, materials and more.

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Dustin Avent-Holt

Sociology papers (journals + SocArXiv) @socpaperbot.bsky.social · May 15

The four-day, thirty-two-hour week: analysing organisational success and failure https://osf.io/5mvcq The four-day week signals a shift in how work is organised, but what determines whether that shift takes hold across workplaces? While there is considerable evidence that a four-day week #sociology

Reposted by Dustin Avent-Holt

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · Apr 15

As a reminder here: this is not Trump's money! He is impounding funds illegally based on the most obvious fig leafs to settle grievances. It is an extraordinary abuse of his public office.
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/u...

As he finished lunch in the private dining room outside the Oval Office on April 1, President Trump floated an astounding proposal: What if the government simply canceled every dollar of the nearly $9 billion promised to Harvard University?

The administration’s campaign to expunge “woke” ideology from college campuses had already forced Columbia University to strike a deal. Now, the White House was eyeing the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university.

“What if we never pay them?” Mr. Trump casually asked, according to a person familiar with the conversation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private discussion. “Wouldn’t that be cool?”

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Dustin Avent-Holt @daventholt.bsky.social · Apr 10

Trump administration canceling National Endowment for the Humanities' grants

www.npr.org/2025/04/10/n...

Where did U.S. humanities grants go? To projects from a baseball film to AI research

From AI research to historical preservation, programs funded by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities reach every corner of the U.S. Now the government has terminated those grants.

www.npr.org

Reposted by Dustin Avent-Holt

Andrew Whitehead @andrew-whitehead.bsky.social · Apr 8

"those who credit manufacturing jobs f/ a glorious past America mistake correlation f/ causation. . .In reality, their parents & grandparents had that life b/c of unions, pensions, high marginal tax rates & strong social policies"

🎯 @jessicacalarco.bsky.social

www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

Opinion | The manufactured nostalgia of Trump’s tariffs

Those who credit manufacturing jobs for a glorious past America mistake correlation for causation.

www.msnbc.com

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Reposted by Dustin Avent-Holt

Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · Apr 7

Universities’ current strategy—cower and capitulate—is failing spectacularly. They should go to court. www.thenation.com/article/soci...

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Reposted by Dustin Avent-Holt

John Holbein @johnholbein1.bsky.social · Apr 6

Wow!

Three scholars at Columbia, Michigan, & Maryland just introduced a measure of the partisan leanings of employers in the U.S.

The data is constructed by linking voter registrations to online worker profiles.

VRscores capture the political affiliations of 21.8M workers across 2.6M employers.

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Reposted by Dustin Avent-Holt

Dan Hirschman @asociologist.bsky.social · Apr 6

“At a time when the world is down to a single drug that can reliably cure gonorrhea, the U.S. government has shuttered the country’s premier sexually transmitted diseases laboratory, leaving experts aghast and fearful about what lies ahead.”

www.statnews.com/2025/04/05/c...

CDC’s top laboratory on sexually transmitted diseases is shut by Trump administration

The Trump administration fired everyone in a CDC lab that is crucial to tracking drug-resistant gonorrhea and other sexually transmitted diseases. "We are blind," an expert says.

www.statnews.com

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Dustin Avent-Holt @daventholt.bsky.social · Apr 6

Problem is tariffs seem to be what is most angering to broadest coalition. Should start there and then broaden protest out.

Reposted by Dustin Avent-Holt

McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · Apr 5

"I get my news from a broad variety of sources. I follow not only Elon Musk directly but also outlets that screenshot his posts without analysis."

I’m a Free-Thinking Centrist with Only Right-Wing Ideas

You’ve probably wondered about me, the independent thinker in your social network. I’m one part libertarian, one part populist, and one part common...

www.mcsweeneys.net

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Dustin Avent-Holt @daventholt.bsky.social · Apr 4

The administration is hobbling the #NEH. State humanities councils are gutted. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/a...

Groups Are Told That Federal Humanities Grants Are Canceled

Letters informed grant recipients that funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities would be redirected to furthering “the president’s agenda.”

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Dustin Avent-Holt

Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · Apr 4

This is politics by extortion.

K-12 schools are being forced to choose between getting the federal funding they need and throwing their students under the bus.
www.chalkbeat.org/2025/04/03/t...

The U.S. Department of Education is giving state education agencies 10 days to certify that their schools do not engage in any practices that the administration believes illegally promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Those that do not sign a certification that they are in compliance with the administration’s controversial interpretations of civil rights law will not receive any federal funding, officials said. Federal funding represents about 10% of all K-12 funding nationwide but makes up a larger share of local budgets in high-poverty districts.

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Reposted by Dustin Avent-Holt

Kevin Gannon (now a Moo Deng fan account) @thetattooedprof.bsky.social · Apr 4

The Tumblr meme factory has kicked into gear

A man on his knees wearing a maga hat and the caption says "thank you president trump for defeating my WOKE retirement savings"

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Dustin Avent-Holt @daventholt.bsky.social · Mar 23

If this is how universities reapond to a survey from the Chronicle of Higher Education… #highered www.chronicle.com/article/we-a...

We Asked Colleges How They Would React to Demands From Trump. They Wouldn’t Say.

The possibility became more real on Friday, when Columbia University agreed to make changes in response to a letter from the Trump administration.

www.chronicle.com

Reposted by Dustin Avent-Holt

PEN America @penamerica.bsky.social · Mar 22

“Columbia’s concessions today strike at core principles of academic freedom and self-governance in the higher education sector,” says Kristen Shahverdian, PEN America's program director for Campus Free Speech.

Full statement: pen.org/press-releas...

Columbia University’s Concessions Strike at Core Principles of Academic Freedom and Self-Governance - PEN America

Columbia University capitulates to federal government setting dangerous precedents striking at core academic freedoms

pen.org

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Dustin Avent-Holt @daventholt.bsky.social · Mar 16

“What is really happening here is an attack on the American faith in knowledge as a value and a public good that has served us well.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/o...

Opinion | The View Inside Trump’s Assault on Universities (Gift Article)

The Trump administration’s attacks on universities will lead to the permanent diminishment of vital American institutions.

www.nytimes.com

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Dustin Avent-Holt @daventholt.bsky.social · Mar 14

A lot of comments on the attempt to dismantle an academic department. Equally alarming is the demand to centralize power into the university president.

Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · Mar 14

I’m told this is a real letter. It basically says, “We’ll destroy Columbia unless you destroy it first.”

Reposted by Dustin Avent-Holt

David Rothkopf @djrothkopf.bsky.social · Mar 14

"Why Welcoming the Nazis is Better for the People of France" by Marshal Philippe Petain.

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Dustin Avent-Holt @daventholt.bsky.social · Mar 13

Trump targeting the NEH.
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/12/a...

Chair of National Endowment for the Humanities Leaves at Trump’s ‘Direction’

Shelly C. Lowe, a scholar of higher education and the first Native American to lead the agency, was appointed by former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Dustin Avent-Holt

The Wall Street Journal @wsj.com · Mar 11

The Trump administration has terminated $800 million in grants to Johns Hopkins University, spurring the nation’s top spender on research and development to plan layoffs and cancel health projects

Johns Hopkins Plans Staff Layoffs After $800 Million Grant Cuts

Local and international health research efforts are already winding down as the university braces for even more potential cuts.

www.wsj.com

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Reposted by Dustin Avent-Holt

Dan Hirschman @asociologist.bsky.social · Mar 12

Information produced by the state is a public good. This administration seems dead set on destroying basically all public goods, from public health to education to weather forecasting. It’s breathtaking in its simplicity and its harm.

Andrew Koricich @drandrewk.bsky.social · Mar 12

I’ve heard from an extremely reliable source that the entire National Center for Education Statistics is **gone**

Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · Mar 12

New — Absolute bloodbath at US Dept. of Education in light of today’s Reduction in Force (RIF) announcement.

Hearing from department sources that offices in Dallas, Boston, New York, SF, Philly and Cleveland have all been shut down. Some staff in remaining offices fired, too.

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Dustin Avent-Holt @daventholt.bsky.social · Mar 11

Because the military is not a social institution I guess… 🧪

Science Magazine @science.org · Mar 10

The U.S. Department of Defense is ending all of its funding for social science research, stopping 91 ongoing studies related to threats such as climate change, extremism, and disinformation. scim.ag/4hqu6HA

Pentagon abruptly ends all funding for social science research

More than 90 studies on threats such as climate change, extremism, and disinformation are halted

scim.ag

Reposted by Dustin Avent-Holt

Richard M. Carpiano, PhD, MPH @rmcarpiano.medsky.social · Mar 10

“It is the policy of NIH not to prioritize research activities that focuses gaining scientific knowledge on why individuals are hesitant to be vaccinated and/or explore ways to improve vaccine interest and commitment...Therefore, the award is terminated.”

NIH to terminate or limit grants related to vaccine hesitancy and uptake

The order covers more than 40 awards to researchers around the country seeking to understand why vaccine acceptance has declined.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Dustin Avent-Holt @daventholt.bsky.social · Mar 11

Elysium.

Reposted by Dustin Avent-Holt

Barbara J Risman @drbjrisman.bsky.social · Mar 9

Pure scientific censorship. Welcome to the American Soviet Society …https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00703-1
@academicsky

Exclusive: NIH to terminate hundreds of active research grants

Studies that touch on LGBT+ health, gender identity and DEI in the biomedical workforce could be terminated, according to documents obtained by Nature.

www.nature.com

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