Laura Morris
@lhmorris.bsky.social
usually posting about global development, current events, evidence in policy, health economics, and misc nerd stuff. (she/her) https://scholar.harvard.edu/lauramorris
Pinned
Laura Morris
@lhmorris.bsky.social
· Nov 22
Will get a paper copy eventually, but this was nice to see in a very cold week (albeit not Boston-cold)
Reposted by Laura Morris
“If a reference cannot be found, this does not mean that the ICRC is withholding information. Various situations may explain this, including incomplete citations, documents preserved in other institutions, or— increasingly—AI-generated hallucinations.”
I wish a notice like this wasn't necessary.
www.icrc.org/en/article/i...
www.icrc.org/en/article/i...
Important notice: AI-generated archival references
www.icrc.org
December 10, 2025 at 12:45 PM
“If a reference cannot be found, this does not mean that the ICRC is withholding information. Various situations may explain this, including incomplete citations, documents preserved in other institutions, or— increasingly—AI-generated hallucinations.”
Reposted by Laura Morris
This is actually a good example of why the customer model is wrong.
I wouldn't have chosen poetry writing, but UNC made me take a class. And it absolutely made me become a much better writer, with an eye to concision and an ear now trained to the rhythm of words. I'm a better historian as a result.
I wouldn't have chosen poetry writing, but UNC made me take a class. And it absolutely made me become a much better writer, with an eye to concision and an ear now trained to the rhythm of words. I'm a better historian as a result.
If you are providing me with an education that is low utility in the world then it’s a disservice. My composition class spent four weeks on poetry. I’m sorry, but that only would’ve been useful if I wanted to be a poet. I don’t need to know iambic pentameter in order to be a victim advocate.
December 9, 2025 at 7:17 PM
This is actually a good example of why the customer model is wrong.
I wouldn't have chosen poetry writing, but UNC made me take a class. And it absolutely made me become a much better writer, with an eye to concision and an ear now trained to the rhythm of words. I'm a better historian as a result.
I wouldn't have chosen poetry writing, but UNC made me take a class. And it absolutely made me become a much better writer, with an eye to concision and an ear now trained to the rhythm of words. I'm a better historian as a result.
Reposted by Laura Morris
Today was World AIDS Day and I didn't post the most gutting piece of AIDS-related art, Keith Haring's Unfinished Painting. You all deserved better from me.
Unfinished Painting - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
December 2, 2025 at 6:17 AM
Today was World AIDS Day and I didn't post the most gutting piece of AIDS-related art, Keith Haring's Unfinished Painting. You all deserved better from me.
Reposted by Laura Morris
I'm really glad to see someone like Kelly finally saying this. bsky.app/profile/atru...
Mark Kelly: "This president, when he says things like 'third world countries,' what is he really saying? I think what he's saying is he doesn't want brown people in our country. And that's disturbing. It's un-American."
November 30, 2025 at 4:29 PM
I'm really glad to see someone like Kelly finally saying this. bsky.app/profile/atru...
Reposted by Laura Morris
"the essay sucks ass" is no doubt true, couldn't be bothered to read it, but consider that the essay may have been written to receive an F in order to instigate a campaign against the trans TA. in any case it's not a great dunk because this isn't about the essay, it's about purging trans ppl
December 1, 2025 at 12:11 AM
"the essay sucks ass" is no doubt true, couldn't be bothered to read it, but consider that the essay may have been written to receive an F in order to instigate a campaign against the trans TA. in any case it's not a great dunk because this isn't about the essay, it's about purging trans ppl
Reposted by Laura Morris
the primary thing that TPUSA provides to young conservatives is a blueprint for weaponizing the abject cowardice of university administrators against individual teachers and instructors, and university admins should take a long look in the mirror and think about what that says about them
OU has put the professor here on administrative leave:
November 30, 2025 at 8:51 PM
the primary thing that TPUSA provides to young conservatives is a blueprint for weaponizing the abject cowardice of university administrators against individual teachers and instructors, and university admins should take a long look in the mirror and think about what that says about them
Reposted by Laura Morris
Fewer workers. Fewer international students. More people leaving.
A "step in the right direction" according to the PM.
Impossible to take PM/govt seriously on growth if they are deliberately reducing it (and making the fiscal position worse) *as a matter of policy*.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
A "step in the right direction" according to the PM.
Impossible to take PM/govt seriously on growth if they are deliberately reducing it (and making the fiscal position worse) *as a matter of policy*.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
UK net migration falls sharply with drop in arrivals for work and study
Provisional figures for net migration to the UK show levels dropped to 204,000 in the year to June 2025.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Fewer workers. Fewer international students. More people leaving.
A "step in the right direction" according to the PM.
Impossible to take PM/govt seriously on growth if they are deliberately reducing it (and making the fiscal position worse) *as a matter of policy*.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
A "step in the right direction" according to the PM.
Impossible to take PM/govt seriously on growth if they are deliberately reducing it (and making the fiscal position worse) *as a matter of policy*.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Laura Morris
My dad told an apocryphal story about a PhD defense where someone on the committee went off the rails on questioning and the advisor butted in with “Now is neither the time nor the place to get answers to the questions that have been troubling you all your life.”
November 27, 2025 at 7:07 PM
My dad told an apocryphal story about a PhD defense where someone on the committee went off the rails on questioning and the advisor butted in with “Now is neither the time nor the place to get answers to the questions that have been troubling you all your life.”
Reposted by Laura Morris
I heard a story about a female academic giving a paper at the IHR who, after receiving a long and aggressive question from a senior male professor, simply leaned back with her hands behind her head and replied “Oh, do fuck off.”
One of my colleagues went to a seminar at Berkeley and when someone asked a question Derrida brushed it off saying ‘what you ask may be important but it is not interesting’.
This path leads to chaos.
November 27, 2025 at 6:16 PM
I heard a story about a female academic giving a paper at the IHR who, after receiving a long and aggressive question from a senior male professor, simply leaned back with her hands behind her head and replied “Oh, do fuck off.”
Reposted by Laura Morris
If you are U.K. based and angered by Shabana Mahmood's latest efforts to make migrants lives even more difficult (and I know some of you will be), please do take the time to submit a response to the Home Office consultation.
Dan's advice below is excellent as a guide on how to respond.
Dan's advice below is excellent as a guide on how to respond.
I am currently, because I know how to enjoy a Saturday morning, writing some guidance for people on filling this consultation in. As I do several things are highly apparent. Before I go through them though I don't want this to put people off of filling it in. It is important to do so nonetheless. 1/
Government has today published its consultation into "earned settlement", the forward alone contains a hot mess of misrepresentation of the current system by the Home Secretary. I would strongly urge anyone affected by the current system to respond.
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/691edd...
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/691edd...
November 22, 2025 at 9:03 AM
If you are U.K. based and angered by Shabana Mahmood's latest efforts to make migrants lives even more difficult (and I know some of you will be), please do take the time to submit a response to the Home Office consultation.
Dan's advice below is excellent as a guide on how to respond.
Dan's advice below is excellent as a guide on how to respond.
Reposted by Laura Morris
RFK Jr. is one of the most evil men on the planet and anyone who has supported or enabled him should never be able to live it down
November 22, 2025 at 7:38 PM
RFK Jr. is one of the most evil men on the planet and anyone who has supported or enabled him should never be able to live it down
Reposted by Laura Morris
It's infuriating to see so much of the media give Kruger the same kid gloves treatment that Rees-Mogg used to get because he is posh and polite and able to wrap his bigotry in enough intellectual tissue paper to make it seem like a political philosophy rather than an expression of white supremacy.
Reform are so dangerous and this headline doesn’t do it justice. I also think a piece like this should start with the politician‘s core views just to emphasise the urgency.
November 22, 2025 at 6:40 PM
It's infuriating to see so much of the media give Kruger the same kid gloves treatment that Rees-Mogg used to get because he is posh and polite and able to wrap his bigotry in enough intellectual tissue paper to make it seem like a political philosophy rather than an expression of white supremacy.
Reposted by Laura Morris
Amid a deepening ecological crisis and acute water shortage, Tehran can no longer remain the capital of Iran, the country’s president has said. www.scientificamerican.com/article/iran...
Iran’s Capital Is Moving. The Reason Is an Ecological Catastrophe
The decision to move Iran’s capital is partly driven by climate change, but experts say decades of human error and action are also to blame
www.scientificamerican.com
November 23, 2025 at 2:42 AM
Amid a deepening ecological crisis and acute water shortage, Tehran can no longer remain the capital of Iran, the country’s president has said. www.scientificamerican.com/article/iran...
Reposted by Laura Morris
I suspect tracking down Professor Biscuit was much easier than finding his human equivalent would have been... www.chronicle.com/blognetwork/...
November 21, 2025 at 5:08 PM
I suspect tracking down Professor Biscuit was much easier than finding his human equivalent would have been... www.chronicle.com/blognetwork/...
Reposted by Laura Morris
Speaking of things that were trendy despite being basically poison and got shoehorned in where they were unwanted and unneeded during the 20's, one of my local friends has begun referring to genAI as "radium"
November 21, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Speaking of things that were trendy despite being basically poison and got shoehorned in where they were unwanted and unneeded during the 20's, one of my local friends has begun referring to genAI as "radium"
Reposted by Laura Morris
Someone should invent a theory for this. Maybe a German? It could be called something like “charismatische Autorität”. You could even make a series of lectures that expand on the notion of politics as a job in rationalized society, some kind of vocation, a ”Politik als Beruf”, if you would allow me.
November 21, 2025 at 10:05 PM
Someone should invent a theory for this. Maybe a German? It could be called something like “charismatische Autorität”. You could even make a series of lectures that expand on the notion of politics as a job in rationalized society, some kind of vocation, a ”Politik als Beruf”, if you would allow me.
Reposted by Laura Morris
It's actually amazing how well trust in science has held up (scientists are still more trusted than every profession in the US except the military!) given the huge amount of money and effort that's been spent trying to delegitimize it.
November 20, 2025 at 2:11 AM
It's actually amazing how well trust in science has held up (scientists are still more trusted than every profession in the US except the military!) given the huge amount of money and effort that's been spent trying to delegitimize it.
Reposted by Laura Morris
This is not what the problem is. We have many excellent, talented, engaging science communicators.
Their reach is deliberately truncated by the social media companies, and billionaire-owned news outlets do not platform them.
Their reach is deliberately truncated by the social media companies, and billionaire-owned news outlets do not platform them.
Scientists are partly to blame by not learning to effectively communicate in lay language on modern communication channels. That information void is then ripe for disinformation to fill.
Embed lay comms & accessibility skills into academia.
Embed lay comms & accessibility skills into academia.
November 19, 2025 at 11:18 PM
This is not what the problem is. We have many excellent, talented, engaging science communicators.
Their reach is deliberately truncated by the social media companies, and billionaire-owned news outlets do not platform them.
Their reach is deliberately truncated by the social media companies, and billionaire-owned news outlets do not platform them.
Reposted by Laura Morris
This is a great way to organize feedback - I am going to try to do this! #linkoftheday
conventionalcomments.org
conventionalcomments.org
November 17, 2025 at 7:08 PM
This is a great way to organize feedback - I am going to try to do this! #linkoftheday
conventionalcomments.org
conventionalcomments.org
Reposted by Laura Morris
Higher education is one of our country's most successful export industries.
And the exports (i.e. international students coming here) make it more affordable for domestic students.
No decently run government would interfere with that, but here we are.
And the exports (i.e. international students coming here) make it more affordable for domestic students.
No decently run government would interfere with that, but here we are.
Of course the White House is leaning into this. Because apparently they don't realize we exported more higher ed last year than natural gas & coal *combined*
November 17, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Higher education is one of our country's most successful export industries.
And the exports (i.e. international students coming here) make it more affordable for domestic students.
No decently run government would interfere with that, but here we are.
And the exports (i.e. international students coming here) make it more affordable for domestic students.
No decently run government would interfere with that, but here we are.
Reposted by Laura Morris
Relevant now: "Exposure to a field-specific faculty sexual misconduct incident decreases degree completion in that field by 3.4 percent four years after the incident. This decline is driven by incidents occurring after 2015, among which we observe a 7 percent decline in in-field degree completion."
The parlance in Econ that implies that gendered “preferences” that contribute to wage/major gaps come fully formed and not shaped by society is one of the things that motivated me to start this project
www.nber.org/papers/w34456
www.nber.org/papers/w34456
The Consequences of Faculty Sexual Misconduct
Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...
www.nber.org
November 18, 2025 at 2:39 AM
Relevant now: "Exposure to a field-specific faculty sexual misconduct incident decreases degree completion in that field by 3.4 percent four years after the incident. This decline is driven by incidents occurring after 2015, among which we observe a 7 percent decline in in-field degree completion."
Reposted by Laura Morris
POV: you are a young woman celebrating a recent academic success
November 17, 2025 at 7:20 PM
POV: you are a young woman celebrating a recent academic success
Reposted by Laura Morris
Just a few years ago the economics profession completely marginalized @claudia-sahm.bsky.social for speaking out on this matter.
Summers conferred with Epstein frequently about how to extract sexual favors from a Harvard econ grad (AB '04, PhD '09)
The grad is from China
Epstein and Summers referred to her by the codename "Peril"
Racism and sexual exploitation in one efficient package
bit.ly/3LHpin8
The grad is from China
Epstein and Summers referred to her by the codename "Peril"
Racism and sexual exploitation in one efficient package
bit.ly/3LHpin8
As Summers Sought Clandestine Relationship With Woman He Called a Mentee, Epstein Was His ‘Wing Man’ | News | The Harvard Crimson
When former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers was pursuing a romantic relationship with a woman he described as a mentee, he turned to a longtime associate for guidance: convicted sex offender Jef...
bit.ly
November 17, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Just a few years ago the economics profession completely marginalized @claudia-sahm.bsky.social for speaking out on this matter.
Reposted by Laura Morris
the median voter model is a great example of a theoretical structure that is so powerful in people's thoughts that they actually forget it is just one model of political behaviour among many possible models. they think it's instead some kind of universal, unassailable truth about reality itself.
Fascinating how often political commentary in the UK still refers to the median voter. In a multi-dimensional space with salience endogenous to positions, it‘s unclear to me who that should be. In a multi-party system, winning the median voter is of course not necessarily a vote-maximizing strategy.
November 17, 2025 at 9:34 AM
the median voter model is a great example of a theoretical structure that is so powerful in people's thoughts that they actually forget it is just one model of political behaviour among many possible models. they think it's instead some kind of universal, unassailable truth about reality itself.