Rusty Bee
@rustily.bsky.social
Burned out NTT Writing Professor. Theory. Gender. Sexuality. Disability. Art/Culture. Pedagogy. Chaos brain. He/They.
Reposted by Rusty Bee
one of the great, pernicious myths perpetrated about higher ed—which media, higher ed administrators, politicians, and a number of faculty are complicit in spreading—is that humanities departments close due to some combination of cratering student demand and unjustifiable cost. It’s not true
My humanities dept was relevant. Majors were up. Courses were 100% enrolled. Revenue positive, GE serving, etc etc. We were still eliminated.
The problem is ideological administrative destruction. Couldn’t write a report, a self study, or a spreadsheet against that.
The problem is ideological administrative destruction. Couldn’t write a report, a self study, or a spreadsheet against that.
'For humanities departments to continue to matter, they must challenge the modern world rather than accommodate it. Indeed, the most useful lesson the humanities have to offer today is a profoundly countercultural one: Difficulty is good, an end in its own right.' 2/2
December 15, 2025 at 1:37 PM
one of the great, pernicious myths perpetrated about higher ed—which media, higher ed administrators, politicians, and a number of faculty are complicit in spreading—is that humanities departments close due to some combination of cratering student demand and unjustifiable cost. It’s not true
The view outside my office window this afternoon is pretty fucking picturesque.
December 2, 2025 at 5:54 PM
The view outside my office window this afternoon is pretty fucking picturesque.
Reposted by Rusty Bee
“It’s at a scale never before seen...it’s completely unhinged.” – Todd Wolfson, AAUP President
#academicfreedom
#academicsky
#freespeech
#academicfreedom
#academicsky
#freespeech
Republican push for tips on Charlie Kirk posts drives firings of public workers • Stateline
Hours after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Suzanne Swierc shared two thoughts on her private Facebook page — that the killing of the right-wing activist was wrong, and that his death reflected “the vio...
stateline.org
September 26, 2025 at 3:36 PM
“It’s at a scale never before seen...it’s completely unhinged.” – Todd Wolfson, AAUP President
#academicfreedom
#academicsky
#freespeech
#academicfreedom
#academicsky
#freespeech
Reposted by Rusty Bee
Miami Herald: Two-Thirds of Immigrants Held at “Alligator Alcatraz” in July Have Disappeared
Miami Herald: Two-Thirds of Immigrants Held at “Alligator Alcatraz” in July Have Disappeared
In immigration news, hundreds of people who were once detained at the troubled immigration jail in the Florida Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” have disappeared.
www.democracynow.org
September 23, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Miami Herald: Two-Thirds of Immigrants Held at “Alligator Alcatraz” in July Have Disappeared
Reposted by Rusty Bee
"Common decency stigmatizes people that do not participate in it—removes them from voluntary association. We indeed have to live with one another, but terms and conditions apply."
me on why Ezra Klein should be ashamed / why shame is Good Actually
www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...
me on why Ezra Klein should be ashamed / why shame is Good Actually
www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...
How Can We Live Together? - Boston Review
Ezra Klein is wrong: shame is essential.
www.bostonreview.net
September 23, 2025 at 5:09 PM
"Common decency stigmatizes people that do not participate in it—removes them from voluntary association. We indeed have to live with one another, but terms and conditions apply."
me on why Ezra Klein should be ashamed / why shame is Good Actually
www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...
me on why Ezra Klein should be ashamed / why shame is Good Actually
www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...
One of the reasons I prefer to read print materials: I get to encounter wonderfully engaging essays like this that I would probably gloss over otherwise.
phosphorus is one of six elements unarguably necessary for the formation of life, and of those six it is the least: the least available, least accessible, and hence the limiting factor for consciousness on our planet. i wrote about it for @lrb.co.uk:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
James Vincent · Where the Power Is: Planet Phosphorus
Phosphates are locked inside rocks, folded into continental strata or scattered as sediment on the ocean floor. It is...
www.lrb.co.uk
August 22, 2025 at 8:56 PM
One of the reasons I prefer to read print materials: I get to encounter wonderfully engaging essays like this that I would probably gloss over otherwise.
Apparently there is a whole subset of puns out there I don’t get because when I read, I don’t read the words aloud in my head.
July 30, 2025 at 8:34 PM
Apparently there is a whole subset of puns out there I don’t get because when I read, I don’t read the words aloud in my head.
Reposted by Rusty Bee
The painter Amy Sherald canceled her exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery after learning that her portrait of a transgender Statue of Liberty might be removed to keep in line with Trump’s anti-trans mandates for federally funded museums.
Amy Sherald Cancels Smithsonian Show, Citing Censorship of Trans Artwork
The artist said the National Portrait Gallery was considering removing the painting after Trump issued anti-trans mandates for federally funded museums.
hyperallergic.com
July 24, 2025 at 7:28 PM
The painter Amy Sherald canceled her exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery after learning that her portrait of a transgender Statue of Liberty might be removed to keep in line with Trump’s anti-trans mandates for federally funded museums.
Reposted by Rusty Bee
This is a dramatic understatement of what UPenn agree to. They are also banning any and all Title IX protections for trans students and agreeing that trans people don't actually exist.
The University of Pennsylvania has agreed to ban transgender women from its women's sports teams to resolve a federal civil rights case.
Penn to ban trans athletes, ending Thomas case
The University of Pennsylvania has agreed to ban transgender women from its women's sports teams to resolve a federal civil rights case.
spr.ly
July 1, 2025 at 9:30 PM
This is a dramatic understatement of what UPenn agree to. They are also banning any and all Title IX protections for trans students and agreeing that trans people don't actually exist.
French Marxist theorists of (visual) culture and society keep showing up in podcasts I’m listening to and in my running notes. Makes me want to work on my French to read them in the original without translation.
June 24, 2025 at 7:11 PM
French Marxist theorists of (visual) culture and society keep showing up in podcasts I’m listening to and in my running notes. Makes me want to work on my French to read them in the original without translation.
Spring 2025 grades. Are. In. 🎉
May 12, 2025 at 11:42 PM
Spring 2025 grades. Are. In. 🎉
Reposted by Rusty Bee
i think the biggest public relations coup AI boosters scored was calling it “AI.” people genuinely think it is an intelligence, and that when they query it, it is providing reasoned answers
it's jolting how little AI skepticism has reached the general public. i've had many acquaintances ask whether i use AI for research and seem shocked when i tell them it's completely useless for that purpose. my wife recently told her colleagues about hallucinations and it was news to all of them.
May 7, 2025 at 4:57 PM
i think the biggest public relations coup AI boosters scored was calling it “AI.” people genuinely think it is an intelligence, and that when they query it, it is providing reasoned answers
Turning off my alarms for my classes at the end of the semester is so satisfying.
April 24, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Turning off my alarms for my classes at the end of the semester is so satisfying.
Sometimes I think: what if I became an interior designer?
March 22, 2025 at 2:28 AM
Sometimes I think: what if I became an interior designer?
Reposted by Rusty Bee
An open letter from eighteen constitutional scholars on the need to defend the First Amendment from the federal government’s recent threats to universities buff.ly/NXQk5ML
A Statement from Constitutional Law Scholars on Columbia | Eugene Volokh, Michael C. Dorf, David Cole
We write as constitutional scholars—some liberal and some conservative—who seek to defend academic freedom and the First Amendment in the wake of the
buff.ly
March 20, 2025 at 7:53 PM
An open letter from eighteen constitutional scholars on the need to defend the First Amendment from the federal government’s recent threats to universities buff.ly/NXQk5ML
Tfw your students propose research projects on the bands/albums you listened to in HS.
Idk if I should feel proud. Or old. 😅
Idk if I should feel proud. Or old. 😅
March 5, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Tfw your students propose research projects on the bands/albums you listened to in HS.
Idk if I should feel proud. Or old. 😅
Idk if I should feel proud. Or old. 😅
Reposted by Rusty Bee
These stories amount to "the left was so annoying about pronouns or liberals made people feel so guilty about plastic straws they had no choice but to get on board with the second coming of the Third Reich and the destruction of the planet."
The She Made Him Do It Theory of Everything
The rhetoric and logic of the abuse of power operates similarly at all scales, which is why I've found feminism such useful equipment for understanding authoritarians in public and political life. Bec...
www.meditationsinanemergency.com
February 26, 2025 at 10:45 PM
These stories amount to "the left was so annoying about pronouns or liberals made people feel so guilty about plastic straws they had no choice but to get on board with the second coming of the Third Reich and the destruction of the planet."
Starting to read Graeber’s Debt at the same time in the middle of a re-read of The Dispossessed is proving interesting so far…
February 26, 2025 at 2:13 AM
Starting to read Graeber’s Debt at the same time in the middle of a re-read of The Dispossessed is proving interesting so far…
I have a backlog of political and literary publications from a subscription spree I went on ca 20/21, and it’s kind of weird to be reading this Trump commentary in a new Trump era
February 18, 2025 at 5:28 PM
I have a backlog of political and literary publications from a subscription spree I went on ca 20/21, and it’s kind of weird to be reading this Trump commentary in a new Trump era
Reposted by Rusty Bee
Nowhere near enough media coverage about the interconnection between the destruction of content moderation, the proliferation of LLM "generative AI" bullshit engines, the death of consensus reality/knowledge making, misinformation and disinformation, & the aims of Western authoritarians and fascists
January 31, 2025 at 5:03 AM
Nowhere near enough media coverage about the interconnection between the destruction of content moderation, the proliferation of LLM "generative AI" bullshit engines, the death of consensus reality/knowledge making, misinformation and disinformation, & the aims of Western authoritarians and fascists
Reposted by Rusty Bee
If anyone hasn't seen this, here is our critical neurodiversity studies conference call for abstracts.
"We will focus on scholarship that synthesises a concern for neurodivergent liberation with other critical traditions and liberation movements globally."
medhumsplatform.org/call-for-abs...
"We will focus on scholarship that synthesises a concern for neurodivergent liberation with other critical traditions and liberation movements globally."
medhumsplatform.org/call-for-abs...
Call for Abstracts: Critical Neurodiversity Studies, 24–26 June 2025, Durham, UK
Submissions for Critical Neurodiversity Studies: Directions/Intersections/Contradictions close 28 February 2025.
medhumsplatform.org
January 29, 2025 at 10:22 AM
If anyone hasn't seen this, here is our critical neurodiversity studies conference call for abstracts.
"We will focus on scholarship that synthesises a concern for neurodivergent liberation with other critical traditions and liberation movements globally."
medhumsplatform.org/call-for-abs...
"We will focus on scholarship that synthesises a concern for neurodivergent liberation with other critical traditions and liberation movements globally."
medhumsplatform.org/call-for-abs...