Caroline Levine

@carolinelevine.bsky.social

1.6K followers 190 following 78 posts

Cornell Professor, climate activist

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Caroline Levine is an American literary critic. She is the David and Kathleen Ryan Professor of Humanities at Cornell University. Her published works are in the fields of Victorian literature, literary theory, literary criticism, formalism, television, and climate change. .. more

Art 45%

Communication & Media Studies 18%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Caroline Levine @carolinelevine.bsky.social · Oct 7

Cornell alums!
Cornell continues to be pressured by the current administration in DC to reach a deal to restore federal research funding.
Please consider signing this petition!
Please also share widely with any Cornell graduates you know!

Alumni in Support of Cornell’s Independence, Democracy, and Academic Freedom

Please add your name below if you agree to be a signatory of the following message to be delivered to the Cornell Board of Trustees: Dear Members of the Cornell Board of Trustees, Ongoing attacks on A...

docs.google.com

Caroline Levine @carolinelevine.bsky.social · Aug 24

Very very smart analysis of what's happening at U of Chicago.

Reorg 101: The Past and Future of the Race to the Bottom

As the reorganization of the University’s Division of the Arts & Humanities commences, Clifford Ando warns that the fate of the humanities is up for grabs.

chicagomaroon.com

Reposted by Caroline Levine, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Nathan P. Kalmoe

Wagatwe Wanjuki @wagatwe.com · Aug 24

the thing about Third Way's list is that people love to focus on language to distract from actually doing anything to address the problems the language aims to solve

Caroline Levine @carolinelevine.bsky.social · Aug 23

I do think the comprehensives and commuter colleges in blue states (and maybe some red ones) may survive better because they don't depend on federal money and are still somewhat affordable. Most worried about the big ten and other research publics.

Caroline Levine @carolinelevine.bsky.social · Aug 23

I couldn't possibly love this more. Thanks, Anna Kornbluh!

The Point of Politics Is to Convince People, Not Grandstand

Instead of trying to persuade the hundreds of millions of Americans to our right, sometimes we leftists seem to be competing to prove our radical bona fides to each other. That’s not politics — it’s j...

jacobin.com

Reposted by Colin F. Camerer, Steve Peers, Philip Nel , and 9 more Colin F. Camerer, Steve Peers, Philip Nel, Joseph Schafer, Michelle Everson, Enzo Rossi, Robert Wolfe, Gerald Friedman, Melanie Simms, Ann Bartow, Caroline Levine, Manisha Sinha

Kate Ross @kateross.bsky.social · Aug 21

White woman puts Mexican flag on her truck to waste ICE’s time.

Scooby
I am as white as a hotel towel, and the closest thing to Mexican I am was a single all inclusive resort stay in Cancun. I put a Mexican flag sticker on my old Tacoma abd was promptly pulled over by ICE in San Antonio. I'm happy to waste their time
1d

RookaTX
This is the way

Scooby • RookaTX
Their big question was like, "why the sticker" I told them it was on the truck when I bought it-and they suggested I remove it. Obnoxious creatures.
1d

Reposted by Jonathan A. Foley, Caroline Levine

Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · Aug 20

There's a reason why sports teams don't chant "I believe that we will lose" before a game, a reason so obvious that I'm pretty sure it needs no explanation. Which is why it makes my head explode when people surrender in advance verbally, which they do all the time about politics.

On Not Surrendering in Advance, or During, or At Any Point Thereafter

There's a reason why sports teams don't chant "I believe that we will lose" before a game, a reason so obvious that I'm pretty sure it needs no explanation in that context. Words have power. They not ...

www.meditationsinanemergency.com

Caroline Levine @carolinelevine.bsky.social · Aug 19

It sounds so interesting. I wonder what I argued in it?

Reposted by Robert B. Reich, Caroline Levine

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · Aug 19

(Guardian) - Household electricity bills have increased by 10% since Donald Trump re-entered the White House, a new report has found, with its authors highlighting the impact of the president’s datacenter boosterism .. as part of the cause.

@theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Reposted by Caroline Levine

Mark Z. Jacobson @mzjacobson.bsky.social · Aug 19

Trump (and his entire administration) is shockingly dumb about (electric) power

@billmckibben.bsky.social

billmckibben.substack.com/p/trump-is-s...

Trump is shockingly dumb about (electric) power

It's not too soon to start working the politics of people's power bills

billmckibben.substack.com

Reposted by Caroline Levine

Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · Feb 25

🚨🚨ALERT🚨🚨: If you want Democrats to hold the line on Musk's illegal funding/firing spree, **RIGHT NOW** is time to make your voice heard. This update below is about just that. Not clear how hard a line they're taking. GOPS are abt to shutdown the govt. Their leadership wants Dem help outmaneuver...

Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · Feb 25

This looks like the battle is joined. Republicans are on course to shut down the govt because of their extremist wing. They're asking Dems for help. Dems are saying bill has to have agreement that Prez can't unconstitutionally "impound" appropriated money - i.e., allow Elon's crime spree.

Daniel Drezner @dandrezner.bsky.social · Feb 25

“Look, there's no way a Republican Senate and Republican House are going to limit what a Republican president can do.” www.politico.com/live-updates...

Reposted by Robert T. Tally, Richard Menke, Caroline Levine

Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · Jun 11

"At its heart the Trump Administration is violently divisive, isolationist, and segregationist, and solidarity is our first duty and most profound rejection of that agenda."

for this insight, Solnit has been suspended from fb

www.meditationsinanemergency.com/some-notes-o...

Some Notes on the City of Angels and the Nature of Violence

I think maybe it's begun, the bigger fiercer backlash against the Trump Administration which is itself a violent backlash against every good thing that's happened over the past several decades – the a...

www.meditationsinanemergency.com

Caroline Levine @carolinelevine.bsky.social · Apr 17

Cornell letter with 500 signatories is up!

Letter to Trustees (public).docx

April 17, 2025 Dear Members of the Cornell Board of Trustees, Ongoing attacks on American universities threaten bedrock principles of a democratic society, including rights of free expression, asso...

docs.google.com

Reposted by Caroline Levine, Tabitha Bonilla, Jesse H. Rhodes

Daniel Laurison @daniellaurison.bsky.social · Apr 17

PROFESSORS ARE INSISTING THEIR CAMPUSES STAND UP FOR DEMOCRACY AND HIGHER EDUCATION.

Today, we are releasing letters - most organized in under a week - with over 5000 signatures calling on campus leadership to stand up to Trump & fight for our values & our students.

bit.ly/CampusLettersTally

1. Condemn the attacks on higher education, even if your own institution has not yet been singled out.
2. Legally contest and refuse to comply with unlawful demands from the federal government.
3. Work with other universities to mount a coordinated opposition of administrators, faculty, and alumni to combat these anti-democratic attacks.

Harvard University - link to sign - 840 signatures so far
Stanford University - link to sign 1096 signatures so far
Yale University - link to sign - 970 signatures so far
Cornell University - link to sign - 505 signatures so far
Boston University - link to sign - 502 signatures so far
Northwestern University - link to sign - 329 signatures so far
Emory - link to sign - 276 signatures so far
Tufts - link to sign - 179 signatures so far
Brandeis - link to sign - 110 signatures so far
Suffolk University - link to sign - 91 signatures so far
UW Madison - link to sign - 84 signatures so far
University of North Carolina - link to sign - 70 signatures so far
Washington University in Saint Louis - link to sign - 33 signatures so far
SUNY Albany - link to sign - just started collecting

Reposted by Caroline Levine

TIAA-Divest! @tiaadivest.bsky.social · Apr 8

TIAA-Divest! members at #HandsOff this weekend across the country. The same systems that criminalize protest and target communities are driving environmental destruction. Our fights are connected—across campuses, borders, and movements. Where did you support from?

Reposted by Lusine Grigoryan, Talia Schaffer, Caroline Levine

We Are Higher Ed @wearehighered.bsky.social · Mar 30

Hello, Bluesky!! We are a collective of academics who are standing up for higher education. Join us: www.wearehighered.org

We Are Higher Ed

www.wearehighered.org

Reposted by Jonathan Renshon, Caroline Levine

Viktor Winetrout @viktorwinetrout.bsky.social · Mar 29

I bought Twitter for $44,000,000,000 and sold it back to myself for $33,000,000,000. I have 43 kids and no friends. Everything I make explodes

Reposted by Caroline Levine

Tracy O’Connell Novick @tracynovick.bsky.social · Mar 28

I know higher ed has a lot going on right now, but can I alert you to what Wellesley College is doing to students as a result of their non-tenured faculty strike?

thewellesleynews.com/21038/opinio...

Wellesley’s administration is forcing students to pay for their own mistakes

The college has willingly decided to threaten students with losing their financial aid or visa status if they do not attend scab lectures or replace their current lectures with completely unrelated co...

thewellesleynews.com

Reposted by Éric Gilbert, Caroline Levine

Hakeem Jefferson @hakeemjefferson.bsky.social · Mar 27

Let’s be clear:

If the government can arrest, detain, and disappear peaceful protestors, none of us are free.

That’s not law and order. It’s fascism. And we should all be outraged that this is being done in our name.

Reposted by Caroline Levine, Carissa Byrne Hessick

Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · Mar 27

JUST IN: Kari Lake has withdrawn the cancelation of Radio Free Europe’s grant, seeking to end a legal standoff.

Caroline Levine @carolinelevine.bsky.social · Mar 26

There's nothing I agree with more passionately than this ^

Caroline Levine @carolinelevine.bsky.social · Mar 26

Unbearable

Immigrant women describe 'hell on earth' in ICE detention

No shower for days, cameras trained on the toilet, women crammed into cells 'like sardines,' among the allegations.

www.usatoday.com

Reposted by Caroline Levine

Joyce White Vance @joycewhitevance.bsky.social · Mar 26

1/ He wasn’t kidding when he told people 2024 was the last election they’d ever have to vote in if he won www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose and

www.whitehouse.gov

Reposted by Caroline Levine

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · Mar 24

Every single Democrat in Congress should be demanding the resignation of Waltz and Hegseth. Every single one.

This is a massive scandal. There should be a serious price to pay.

AND THERE IS ZERO DOWNSIDE FOR EVEN THE MOST SCAREDY-CAT CONGRESSPERSON.

At the very least, NSA Michael Waltz – who set up the group chat and made the mistake of roping in the editor of a goddamn magazine – should be forced to resign. A former solider, Waltz filled DeSantis's old seat in the House of Representatives when he was first elected governor. He's literally a replacement level politician, and I can't imagine he'd be hard to replace again. (It's not just that he screwed up massively here. He screwed up because he had a journalist's contact info in Signal to begin with. That might cause some trouble in Trumpland.)
But Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth should also be on the block. Despite the very real concerns that his background as a weekend host for Fox & Friends and a semiprofessional alcoholic and sex pest might not have prepared him to oversee the American military machine. The bumbling approach revealed in this incident surely isn't a one-off, and suggests a slapdash approach to national security. (And yes, there have been even bigger warning signs. And even bigger than that.)

Reposted by Caroline Levine

Niko Bowie @nikobowie.bsky.social · Mar 25

Today, the AAUP–AFT is filing the lawsuits Columbia administrators were afraid to: one against Trump’s illegal funding cuts, the other his arrests of political opponents.

AAUP is also showing why faculty need to collectively organize to defend higher ed.

protectdemocracy.org/wp-content/u...

This action challenges the Trump administration's unlawful and unprecedented
effort to overpower a university's academic autonomy and control the thought, association,
scholarship, and expression of its faculty and students. The Trump administration is coercing Columbia University to do its bidding and regulate speech and expression on campus by holding
hostage billions of dollars in congressionally authorized federal funding-funding that is
responsible for positioning the American university system as a global leader in scientific, medical, and technological research and is crucial to ensuring it remains so. The Trump administration claims it is enforcing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, but neither Title VI nor any other law
authorizes the Trump administration's coercive tactics, which are in plain violation of statutory
requirements.

Reposted by Simon L. Lewis, Caroline Levine

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · Mar 21

WHOA. On March 15, a Cornell PhD student with UK and Gambian citizenship, here on a student visa, filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn Trump's EO aimed at foreign students accused of "antisemitism.

Last night, the DOJ emailed asking him to come to ICE to be detained and put into removal proceedings.

Last night at 12:52 AM, the Department of Justice contacted the undersigned via email. Under the subject line “Momodou Taal et al v. Trump, 25-cv-335 (NDNY),” the government informed the undersigned for the first time that the government intended to serve Mr. Taal with a Notice to Appear (NTA), and that they intended to take Mr. Taal into the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Given that this information confirms the factual basis for Plaintiffs’ request for an emergency temporary restraining order, ECF No. 23, and the increased urgency with which the Court’s intervention is needed, we respectfully request the Court construe this letter as any procedurally appropriate vehicle to obtain the same. Plaintiffs’ counsel is immediately available to follow up with any submissions the Court deems appropriate in this extraordinary situation. Attached to this letter is an affidavit from Counsel Eric Lee (Exhibit 4), the government’s 12:52 AM email (Exhibit 5), and Plaintiffs’ counsel’s reply (Exhibit 6). The email reads: My colleagues and I represent the United States in this matter. The applications for admission of Messrs. Stone, Moss, and myself to the bar of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York are pending, so we have not noticed our appearances yet. But we wanted to reach out to establish a line of communication, and relate some information concerning your client. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has asked us to convey to you the following. ICE invites Mr. Taal and his counsel to appear in-person at the HSI Office in Syracuse at a mutually agreeable time for personal service of the NTA and for Mr. Taal to surrender to ICE custody. Accordingly, if you are interested in proposing such a date and time, we will promptly forward it to ICE for consideration

Reposted by Caroline Levine

Justin Mikulka @justinmikulka.bsky.social · Mar 21

Reality of the economics of power generation is tough to ignore. The media and politicians are doing a great job of trying but reality is pretty relentless.

Two search result headlines from energy CEO that warn of "power crisis" if trump delays renewables and that renewables are "cheaper and faster" than methane (natural gas).

Reposted by Caroline Levine

Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · Mar 21

The Sudzha gas pipeline, a key route for gas from Russia into Europe, was just attacked. Pretty major sabotage, akin to the Nordstream attack

Caroline Levine @carolinelevine.bsky.social · Mar 14

God, so sorry

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