Sid Simpson
@sidsimpson.bsky.social
🇵🇭🇺🇸 | Assistant Professor of Political Theory at Sewanee | sidsimpson.com
Reposted by Sid Simpson
The entire business model of American R1 universities is not viable without restoration of federal funding, & every individual institution pretending it can solve this problem alone is also not viable. University presidents need to be speaking out, collectively & loudly about this, in DC, right now.
The University of Pittsburgh confirmed Friday that there would be no new Ph.D. offers of admission while Pitt works to understand how reduced federal aid could impact the institution.
The University of Pittsburgh pauses its Ph.D. admissions process amid research funding uncertainty
A spokesperson for the University told WESA Friday that the school has "temporarily paused additional Ph.D. offers of admission," while Pitt works to understand how proposed federal funding cuts could...
www.wesa.fm
February 22, 2025 at 5:14 AM
The entire business model of American R1 universities is not viable without restoration of federal funding, & every individual institution pretending it can solve this problem alone is also not viable. University presidents need to be speaking out, collectively & loudly about this, in DC, right now.
Reposted by Sid Simpson
Bari Weiss's fake university comes out against the plain reading of the text of the constitution
uatx.substack.com/p/is-birthri...
uatx.substack.com/p/is-birthri...
March 11, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Bari Weiss's fake university comes out against the plain reading of the text of the constitution
uatx.substack.com/p/is-birthri...
uatx.substack.com/p/is-birthri...
Reposted by Sid Simpson
We're hiring a Fellow in Political Theory! @lsegovernment.bsky.social : jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...
LSE Fellow Political Theory
LSE Fellow Political Theory,
,
<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span>LSE is committed to building a diverse, equitable and truly inclusive university</span></em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">...
jobs.lse.ac.uk
March 3, 2025 at 2:34 PM
We're hiring a Fellow in Political Theory! @lsegovernment.bsky.social : jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...
Reposted by Sid Simpson
We are hiring TWO political theorists as well as a PPE position which is open to theorists (focus on history of economic thought) - please apply and circulate!
www.kcl.ac.uk/jobs/108445-...
www.kcl.ac.uk/jobs/108445-...
Lecturer in Political Theory
www.kcl.ac.uk
February 25, 2025 at 12:14 PM
We are hiring TWO political theorists as well as a PPE position which is open to theorists (focus on history of economic thought) - please apply and circulate!
www.kcl.ac.uk/jobs/108445-...
www.kcl.ac.uk/jobs/108445-...
Reposted by Sid Simpson
Reposted by Sid Simpson
The deadline for APT proposals is coming up this Friday! #poltheory
One week left to submit your paper proposals to APT 2025 in Chicago!:
associationforpoliticaltheory.org/content.aspx...
associationforpoliticaltheory.org/content.aspx...
February 17, 2025 at 3:32 PM
The deadline for APT proposals is coming up this Friday! #poltheory
Reposted by Sid Simpson
Reposted by Sid Simpson
As. If. This. Weren't. The. Plan. All. Along.
Elon Musk’s mass government cuts could make private companies millions
Defense and tech firms – including Musk’s own – await potential contracts as Doge decimates US agencies
www.theguardian.com
February 17, 2025 at 2:28 AM
As. If. This. Weren't. The. Plan. All. Along.
Reposted by Sid Simpson
I wrote about some recent trends in the law of nations literature and international political thought for History of Euro Ideas, check it out here >> doi.org/10.1080/0191... (msg me for a copy)
The law of nations in international political thought
This review considers what role scholarship on the early modern law of nations (ius gentium) plays in the history of international political thought, which over the last decade has expanded far bey...
doi.org
February 8, 2025 at 6:38 PM
I wrote about some recent trends in the law of nations literature and international political thought for History of Euro Ideas, check it out here >> doi.org/10.1080/0191... (msg me for a copy)
Reposted by Sid Simpson
Me getting that email from the Chronicle this morning about a useless tool that nobody wants
January 28, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Me getting that email from the Chronicle this morning about a useless tool that nobody wants
Reposted by Sid Simpson
Interesting time for universities like mine to proudly declare their political neutrality.
As the saying goes, you can pretend not to care about politics, but politics certainly cares about you.
Now more than ever, universities need backbone—and leaders willing to stand up for them.
As the saying goes, you can pretend not to care about politics, but politics certainly cares about you.
Now more than ever, universities need backbone—and leaders willing to stand up for them.
January 28, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Interesting time for universities like mine to proudly declare their political neutrality.
As the saying goes, you can pretend not to care about politics, but politics certainly cares about you.
Now more than ever, universities need backbone—and leaders willing to stand up for them.
As the saying goes, you can pretend not to care about politics, but politics certainly cares about you.
Now more than ever, universities need backbone—and leaders willing to stand up for them.
Reposted by Sid Simpson
January 26, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Reposted by Sid Simpson
January 21, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Reposted by Sid Simpson
this is severe, untreatable, terminal lawyer brain. so many legal academics act like the constitution is not a vessel intended to secure actual human rights and dignity, but a mere matter of intellectual curiosity, meant to be batted around like a cat with a toy
That's a good question. But I think my answer is yes. I wouldn't assume good faith if someone made argument that we should, as normative matter, go back to Dred Scott. But if argument were that case was wrongly decided as a legal matter, I would try to understand and respond as best I could....
January 24, 2025 at 7:48 PM
this is severe, untreatable, terminal lawyer brain. so many legal academics act like the constitution is not a vessel intended to secure actual human rights and dignity, but a mere matter of intellectual curiosity, meant to be batted around like a cat with a toy
Reposted by Sid Simpson
A version of this happens on the academic job market where everyone - even people with wildly impressive publication records - has a hard time. DEI isn't keeping you from getting a tenure track job; a lack of jobs is keeping you from getting a tenure track job.
this confirms something i have long suspected, which is that certain people are told that their professional and academic failures are because of “affirmative action” or “DEI” as a way to avoid difficult conversations about their mediocrity www.wsj.com/lifestyle/ca...
You Blamed DEI for Hurting Your Career. Now What?
For people who pin their failures on diversity, corporate America’s DEI retreat removes a barrier—or maybe an excuse.
www.wsj.com
January 16, 2025 at 5:10 PM
A version of this happens on the academic job market where everyone - even people with wildly impressive publication records - has a hard time. DEI isn't keeping you from getting a tenure track job; a lack of jobs is keeping you from getting a tenure track job.
Reposted by Sid Simpson
A reminder that the Association for Political Theory conference will be held at Loyola in Chicago this year. Encouraging Chicago-curious theorists to apply! Applications due February 21. associationforpoliticaltheory.org
January 7, 2025 at 6:27 PM
A reminder that the Association for Political Theory conference will be held at Loyola in Chicago this year. Encouraging Chicago-curious theorists to apply! Applications due February 21. associationforpoliticaltheory.org
Reposted by Sid Simpson
Hours after Musk said 'only the AfD can save Germany', one of their supporters carried out a terrorist attack www.ft.com/content/5e2f...
December 21, 2024 at 1:51 PM
Hours after Musk said 'only the AfD can save Germany', one of their supporters carried out a terrorist attack www.ft.com/content/5e2f...
My latest in Philosophy & Social Criticism! "Dancing in the streets: Rousseau, the genealogy of vice, and the practice of freedom"
Check it out here:
sidsimpson.com/wp-content/u...
Check it out here:
sidsimpson.com/wp-content/u...
December 16, 2024 at 4:44 PM
My latest in Philosophy & Social Criticism! "Dancing in the streets: Rousseau, the genealogy of vice, and the practice of freedom"
Check it out here:
sidsimpson.com/wp-content/u...
Check it out here:
sidsimpson.com/wp-content/u...
Reposted by Sid Simpson
Very nice post-doc at Yale in Directed Studies, which (among other things) completely changed my dissertation supervisor's life and instilled him with a passion for all things philosophical and literary.
apply.interfolio.com/158738
apply.interfolio.com/158738
December 11, 2024 at 9:00 PM
Very nice post-doc at Yale in Directed Studies, which (among other things) completely changed my dissertation supervisor's life and instilled him with a passion for all things philosophical and literary.
apply.interfolio.com/158738
apply.interfolio.com/158738
Reposted by Sid Simpson
Fittingly massive volume. 50 essays. And “Du Bois’ last message,” which, strangely, I had not seen before.
December 3, 2024 at 3:11 PM
Fittingly massive volume. 50 essays. And “Du Bois’ last message,” which, strangely, I had not seen before.
Reposted by Sid Simpson
Universities are now in a semi-permanent reactive position, forced to satisfy contradictory demands:
Why don’t you allow free speech? Why don’t you punish X kind of speech?
Why do you teach X? Why don’t you teach Y?
Why don’t you offer X programs? Why haven’t you eliminate Y programs? 1/2
Why don’t you allow free speech? Why don’t you punish X kind of speech?
Why do you teach X? Why don’t you teach Y?
Why don’t you offer X programs? Why haven’t you eliminate Y programs? 1/2
December 1, 2024 at 2:45 PM
Universities are now in a semi-permanent reactive position, forced to satisfy contradictory demands:
Why don’t you allow free speech? Why don’t you punish X kind of speech?
Why do you teach X? Why don’t you teach Y?
Why don’t you offer X programs? Why haven’t you eliminate Y programs? 1/2
Why don’t you allow free speech? Why don’t you punish X kind of speech?
Why do you teach X? Why don’t you teach Y?
Why don’t you offer X programs? Why haven’t you eliminate Y programs? 1/2
Reposted by Sid Simpson
Landback is about governance and stewardship, not European and capitalist notions of ownership.
Comparing it to Naziism is the height of settler anxiety, propaganda, and bullshit. Nobody wants to sink to your level guys. Stop projecting.
Comparing it to Naziism is the height of settler anxiety, propaganda, and bullshit. Nobody wants to sink to your level guys. Stop projecting.
December 1, 2024 at 2:09 PM
Landback is about governance and stewardship, not European and capitalist notions of ownership.
Comparing it to Naziism is the height of settler anxiety, propaganda, and bullshit. Nobody wants to sink to your level guys. Stop projecting.
Comparing it to Naziism is the height of settler anxiety, propaganda, and bullshit. Nobody wants to sink to your level guys. Stop projecting.
Reposted by Sid Simpson
Journalists should have used the increasingly dubious quality of polls as an excuse to spend this election talking about actual issues but instead they doubled down on the horse race
The polls are a mess this year: we know that the polls were off in 2016 and 2020, mostly because people underestimated likely voters for Trump, and they’ve kind of back fit the model because of that, but we also know the polls were off—like way off—in 2022 because of abortion.
October 31, 2024 at 12:18 AM
Journalists should have used the increasingly dubious quality of polls as an excuse to spend this election talking about actual issues but instead they doubled down on the horse race
Reposted by Sid Simpson
"…the fear of offending students, faculty, and, especially, lawmakers and donors has led many academic leaders to retreat from the public sphere.
This is exactly the wrong time for such a retreat."
slate.com/life/2024/10...
This is exactly the wrong time for such a retreat."
slate.com/life/2024/10...
I’m a College President. Universities Aren’t Ready for What’s Coming.
“Institutional neutrality” is all the rage. But right now we should be anything but neutral.
slate.com
October 27, 2024 at 6:43 PM
"…the fear of offending students, faculty, and, especially, lawmakers and donors has led many academic leaders to retreat from the public sphere.
This is exactly the wrong time for such a retreat."
slate.com/life/2024/10...
This is exactly the wrong time for such a retreat."
slate.com/life/2024/10...
Reposted by Sid Simpson
I remember sometime in grad school reading that Bezos made all his managers read “Remains of the Day” to teach them the importance of the pursuit of excellence.
Missing the point of course that Stevens’ obsession with being the perfect butler ruins his life.
Missing the point of course that Stevens’ obsession with being the perfect butler ruins his life.
In 2006-7 I worked for Jeff Bezos. I only interacted with him in bi-weekly meetings, and this is over 15 years ago now, so he's only gotten more like this, but trust me when I tell you: Jeff Bezos isn't a person. Technically he is human, but that's as far as goes. He is a brand. 🧵
Racking my brain to come up with the least crazy “personal” reason Jeff Bezos wants to get to Mars…
October 27, 2024 at 3:27 AM
I remember sometime in grad school reading that Bezos made all his managers read “Remains of the Day” to teach them the importance of the pursuit of excellence.
Missing the point of course that Stevens’ obsession with being the perfect butler ruins his life.
Missing the point of course that Stevens’ obsession with being the perfect butler ruins his life.