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Gerardo Martí

@gerardomarti.bsky.social

17K followers 4.5K following 42 posts

William R Kenan Jr Professor of Sociology @ Davidson College | Race, Religion, Power, Social Change | Past Roles: Editor Sociology of Religion Journal, President SSSR & ASR, Chair ASA Religion, AAR Religion & Social Science Unit | cv https://bit.ly/40mps8D

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Gerardo Martí @gerardomarti.bsky.social · 7m

Leadership of the State Senate in Virginia have sent a detailed letter to UVA leadership to reject The Compact.

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SENATE OF VIRGINIA
SCOTT A SUROVELL
HOUNT VERONA 23121
October 7, 2025
President Paul Mahoney
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400224
Charlottesville, VA 22904
Rector Rachel Sheridan
University of Virginia Board of Visitors
Office of the Board of Visitors Charlottesville, VA 22904
Proposed Trump Administration "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education"
Dear President Mahoney and Rector Sheridan:
We write to you today with grave concern regarding reports that the University of Virginia has been invited to sign the Trump Administration's "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education." As the leadership of the Virginia Senate, we are compelled to express our unequivocal opposition to this proposal and to make clear the potential consequences should the University proceed with signing this compact.
This latest federal overture must be viewed in the context of the Trump Administration's recent
and unprecedented interference in University operations. Just months ago, the Department of Justice forced the resignation of President James Ryan through what can only be described as extortionate tactics-threatening hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding and the livelihoods of employees, researchers, and students unless he stepped down. The Administration demanded his removal not for any failure of leadership, but because they disagreed with the University's approach to diversity and inclusion. President Ryan, who had led the University to record fundraising success and navigated it through extraordinary challenges, was sacrificed to federal political pressure.
The proposed compact represents an unprecedented federal intrusion into institutional autonomy and academic freedom. The conditions outlined-mandating sweeping changes to admissions and hiring practices, imposing so-called "institutional neutrality," freezing tuition for five years, capping international enrollment, and suppressing viewpoints-are fundamentally inco…

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Having already demonstrated its willingness to force out a university president who would not bend to its will, the Trump Administration now seeks to formalize its control through this compact. The pattern is clear: capitulation invites further interference, not protection. President Ryan's resignation was meant to spare the University from federal retaliation, yet here we are again, facing even more aggressive demands on institutional autonomy. The lesson is unmistakable-appeasing this Administration only emboldens further encroachment.
The University of Virginia was founded by Thomas Jefferson on principles of free inquiry and intellectual independence. To surrender these core values in exchange for preferential federal funding would betray not only Jefferson's vision but also the faculty, students, alumni, and citizens of the Commonwealth who have supported and sustained this institution for more than two centuries.
Beyond the fundamental assault on autonomy, the compact itself is rife with internal contradictions and operationally unworkable provisions that would cripple the University's ability to function. The document simultaneously demands that universities ban "belittlement" of "conservative ideas" while in the very next sentence proclaiming protection for "academic freedom in classrooms, teaching, research, and scholarship." These provisions are logically incompatible and would subject faculty, departments, and the University to arbitrary federal enforcement based on undefined and politically malleable standards.
Consider the practical impossibility: Under this compact, if a UVA economics professor teaches established free-trade principles-positions championed by Ronald Reagan and supported by rigorous empirical analysis-would that "belittle" the current administration's protectionist policies? Would the Department of Justice determine that such teaching violates the compact, triggering loss of all federal funding? The compac…

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The principle remains clear: decisions about the University's academic policies, admissions standards, and institutional values belong to the University and the Commonwealth-not to federal bureaucrats pursuing a political agenda. Having failed to protect President Ryan from federal extortion, we must now draw a firmer line. The General Assembly will not stand by while the University surrenders its independence through this compact.
Therefore, we call upon you to immediately cease all consideration of signing this compact.
Furthermore, we want to be explicitly clear: if the University of Virginia signs this compact, there will be significant consequences in future Virginia budget cycles. As the leadership of the Senate with responsibility for appropriations affecting higher education, we will work with our colleagues to ensure that the Commonwealth does not subsidize an institution that has ceded its independence to federal
doltical control
The University has difficult decisions to make regarding federal funding, but compromising your
core mission is not a viable path forward. We urge you instead to join with other leading institutions in resisting this federal overreach and protecting the academic freedom and institutional autonomy that are essential to genuine higher education. As multiple scholars have noted, this compact is incoherent, contradictory, and drafted by officials who demonstrate no understanding of how universities operate or are funded. It is not a partnership—it is a trap that would subject the University to arbitrary federal enforcement with catastrophic financial consequences.
Moreover, signing this compact would violate the University's fiduciary duty to its students, faculty, and the Commonwealth. The vague and contradictory terms create legal exposure far exceeding any promised benefits. No responsible board could expose the institution to such unlimited and undefined federal control.
We expect the University to im…

Governor Glenn A. Youngkin
Secretary Aimee R. Guidera
Senator Ghazala F. Hashmi, Chair, Senate Education and Health Committee Senator R. Creigh Deeds, 11" District
Speaker Don Scott
Delegate Charniele Herring
Delegate Sam Rasoul, Chair, House Education Committee Delegate Katrina E. Callsen, 54° District
Porter N. Wilkinson, Vice Rector UVA Board of Visitors:
Daniel M. Brody, Member, UVA Board of Visitors Marvin W. Gilliam, Jr., Member, UVA Board of Visitors Hon. Paul C. Harris, Member, UVA Board of Visitors Stephen P. Long, M.D., Member, UVA Board of Visitors Paul B. Manning, Member, UVA Board of Visitors John L. Nau IlI, Member, UVA Board of Visitors David O. Okonkwo, M.D., Member, UVA Board of Visitors Amanda L. Pillion, Member, UVA Board of Visitors David F. Webb, Member, UVA Board of Visitors Douglas D. Wetmore, Member, UVA Board of Visitors James H. Lambert, Faculty Representative, UVA Board of Visitors Gregory D. Perryman, Jr., Student Representative, UVA Board of Visitors

Gerardo Martí @gerardomarti.bsky.social · 1d

In case you missed it 👇

“…when spiritual conviction claims civic authority, how should a democracy respond?”

Leveraging Belief

In the canon of American innovation, Joseph Smith stands alongside Edison, Bell, and the Wright brothers—not for technology, but for theology.

www.commonwealmagazine.org

Gerardo Martí @gerardomarti.bsky.social · 3d

George Orwell, April 1946

Politics and the English Language | The Orwell Foundation

"Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."

www.orwellfoundation.com

Gerardo Martí @gerardomarti.bsky.social · 3d

“Blessed are the peacemakers”

CNN
now
President Trump says Hamas faces 'complete obliteration' if the group refuses to cede
power

Gerardo Martí @gerardomarti.bsky.social · 3d

Tonight’s reading

Academic Writing
as if
Readers Matter
Leonard
<Princeton 2025>

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Gerardo Martí @gerardomarti.bsky.social · 4d

“While Democrats are brandishing thermometers, Republicans power up flamethrowers.”

Bringing a Survey to a Gun Fight

“Pollingism” Has Failed Democrats and Voters. Here’s Why, and What to Do Instead.

open.substack.com

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Gerardo Martí @gerardomarti.bsky.social · 4d

5.0 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Purchased Sep 2025

Church Must Grow
or Perish

Robert H. Schuller and the Business of American Christianity

FOREWORD BY RICHARD J. MoUW
MARK T. MULDER AND GERARDO MARTÍ

Biography
(LRB) (36 books)
Options: 2 formats

5.0 ***** (1)

Paperback
$473 List: $32.99
You Earn: 5 pts vprime Two-Day
FREE delivery Sat, Oct 4

Reposted by Gerardo Martí

🪷MsGrumpyBunny🪷 @msgrumpybunny.bsky.social · 4d

Fun facts:
Charles Shultz was my ice skating coach when I was a kid 🥰 He was truly one of the kindest souls. And yes, I had a Dorothy Hamill haircut.

When Charles Schulz's distributor pressured him to eliminate Franklin from "Peanuts" because he might offend pro-segregation Southerners he told him: "Either you print it just the way I draw it or I quit. How's that?"

INCLUSIVENESS IS WHAT MAKES AMERICA GREAT

Peanuts cartoon is of Franklin (on the left) and Pigpen (on the right) shaking hands.

60 490 2K

Gerardo Martí @gerardomarti.bsky.social · 4d

Part of my reading today

SEARCH BOOK: SHEED AND WARD
$2.45

The Black Messiah

The religious roots of Black Power-a strong and uncompromising presentation by America's most influential and controversial black religious leader.

Albert B. Cleage, Jr.

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Gerardo Martí @gerardomarti.bsky.social · 6d

Published 1900
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Translations by
Edward FitzGerald, E. H. Whinfield, Justin Huntly McCarthy
Edited, with Introduction, by Jessie B. Rittenhouse
EDINBURGH
New York
Thomas Nelson and Sons London, Edinburgh, Paris and Toronto

Gerardo Martí @gerardomarti.bsky.social · 6d

An expansive 10-point memo, the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, a wide-ranging set of terms the administration says are intended to elevate university standards & performance. Universities that sign on will get “multiple positive benefits.”

WSJ 👉 apple.news/AJw8ckda3Q5-...

The memo demands that schools ban the use of race or sex in hiring and admissions, freeze tuition for five years, cap international undergrad enrollment at 15%, require that applicants take the SAT or a similar test, and quell grade inflation.

The compact asks universities to ensure a
"vibrant marketplace of ideas on campus" and to bar employees from expressing political views on behalf of their employer, unless the matter affects the school.

Letters on Wednesday were going out to solicit agreement and feedback from Vanderbilt Univer-sity, Dartmouth College, the University of Penn-sylvania, the University of Southern California, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Texas, the University of Arizona, Brown University and the University of Virginia, according to an administration official.

The White House chose the schools because it believed they are, or could be, "good actors,"
Mailman said.

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Gerardo Martí @gerardomarti.bsky.social · 6d

Started today — very rich in detail

Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during phe Civil War
WINNER of the
Pulitzer
Prize
EDDA L. FIELDS-BLACK
<Oxford University Press 2025>

Gerardo Martí @gerardomarti.bsky.social · 7d

Part of my reading today

SIMON SCHAMA

THE
EMBARRASSMENT
OF RICHES

An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age

Gerardo Martí @gerardomarti.bsky.social · 7d

“Spiritual Warfare”👇

“The proliferation of this kind of language is a sign of the growing momentum of a movement often known as the New Apostolic Reformation, which has become the vanguard of the broader Christian right, and whose ideas Kirk had begun to embrace before his death.”

Charlie Kirk and the ‘Third Great Awakening’

MAGA is embracing the language of a rising Christian movement.

www.theatlantic.com

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Gerardo Martí @gerardomarti.bsky.social · 8d

“Neoliberalism and Race shows that racial themes have always pervaded neoliberal thinking… neoliberal thought is constitutively racialized—its racial motifs cannot be extracted from neoliberalism without rendering it theoretically and politically incoherent.”

Neoliberalism and Race | Stanford University Press

Lars Cornelissen argues that the category of race constitutes an organizing principle of neoliberal ideology. Using the methods of intellectual history and drawing on insights from critical race studi...

www.sup.org

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Reposted by Gerardo Martí

Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 8d

This is true, & backed by the best peer-reviewed research.

@kevinshih.bsky.social of @ucrchass.bsky.social uses large shocks to international student supply in the past to test the hypothesis that they crowd out natives. They crowd *in* natives, via tuition revenue—>

doi.org/10.1016/j.jp...

Dave Vanness @djvanness.bsky.social · 9d

A lot of people think that every international student admitted means one fewer spot for domestic students, when the opposite is more likely true - the tuition revenue international students bring allows public universities to provide substantial discounts to domestic students, improving access.

Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 9d

30% drop year over year!

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Gerardo Martí @gerardomarti.bsky.social · 9d

Do LLMs hold implicit assumptions with regard to religious identities?

Evangelical Protestant pastors had easier to read artificial intelligence–generated sermons, whereas Jewish rabbis and Muslim imams had more difficult to read synthetic texts.

👉 SOCIUS journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10....

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Gerardo Martí @gerardomarti.bsky.social · 10d

Part of my reading today

Friedrich Nietzsche
and the Politics of Transfiguration
Expanded Edition
Tracy B. Strong

Gerardo Martí @gerardomarti.bsky.social · 10d

Done — overall good read of what human beings can do when feeling desperation

Gerardo Martí @gerardomarti.bsky.social · 10d

Nikole Hannah-Jones 👇

What the Public Memory of Charlie Kirk Revealed

www.nytimes.com

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Gerardo Martí @gerardomarti.bsky.social · 10d

Part of my reading today, published by Princeton University Press

"MASTERFUL"
-TONY BLAIR
“EPIC”
-MUSTAFA SULEYMAN

HOW
PROGRESS ENDS
TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND THE FATE OF NATIONS

CARL BENEDIKT FREY

AUTHOR OF THE TECHNOLOGY TRAP

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Gerardo Martí @gerardomarti.bsky.social · 11d

Amazing statistic👇

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 11d

When asked if Jesus “will return to Earth someday,” more than half of all U.S. adults (55%), including three-quarters of Christians, said this will happen.
www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

When asked if Jesus “will return to Earth someday,” more than half of all U.S. adults (55%), including three-quarters of Christians, say this will happen. Protestants in the evangelical (92%) and historically Black (86%) traditions are more likely than other Christians to say there will eventually be a second coming of Jesus. Roughly four-in-ten Americans either do not believe Jesus will return to Earth (25%) or say they do not believe in Jesus (16%).

Respondents who said they believe Jesus will return to Earth were also asked how certain they are that this will happen during their lifetime. One-in-ten Americans say they believe the second coming of Jesus will definitely or probably occur during their lifetime, 27% are not sure if Jesus will return in their lifetime, and 19% say the return of Jesus will definitely or probably not occur during their lifetime.

The proportion of Americans who say they believe Jesus will definitely or probably return during their lifetime is higher among Protestants in the historically Black tradition (22%) and evangelical Protestants (21%), and lower among Catholics (7%) and mainline Protestants (6%). And the share of Black (19%) and Hispanic (14%) Americans who believe that the second coming of Jesus will likely occur during their lifetime is greater than the corresponding share of White, non-Hispanic Americans (8%).

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Gerardo Martí @gerardomarti.bsky.social · 11d

Enjoyed this!

<Movie Poster>

One Battle After Another

Gerardo Martí @gerardomarti.bsky.social · 12d

If you have waited, THIS is the moment

Amazon - $5.70 Paperback

The Church Must Grow or Perish:

Robert H. Schuller and the Business of American Christianity

FOREWORD BY RICHARD. MOUW
MARK T. MULDER AND GERARDO MARTÍ

Part of: Library of Religious Biography
(LRB) (36 books)
Options : 2 formats

Paperback
$570 List: $3299

FREE delivery Sun, Sep 28
Add to cart

Gerardo Martí @gerardomarti.bsky.social · 12d

Very engaging new article on religion & political knowledge

On knowledge of both basic civics & current politics, atheists/agnostics’ advantage is strongest among liberals & Democrats and disappears among conservatives & Republicans

From @profsamperry.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/sf/article/d...

SOCIAL FORCES

Journal Article
Secularism, sorting, and Americans’ political knowledge Open Access
Samuel L Perry
Social Forces, soaf150, https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soaf150
Published: 24 September 2025 Article history

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