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abizadeh.bsky.social
𝙰𝚛𝚊𝚜𝚑 𝙰𝚋𝚒𝚣𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚑
@abizadeh.bsky.social
7.9K followers 550 following 490 posts
Political philosophy prof at McGill

https://abizadeh.wixsite.com/arash
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abizadeh.bsky.social
𝙰𝚛𝚊𝚜𝚑 𝙰𝚋𝚒𝚣𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚑 @abizadeh.bsky.social · Nov 11
I often tell my advanced graduate students who are looking to get their work published that, if you're not getting multiple journal rejections, you're not doing your job right. So, to provide continuing inspiration, I've uploaded the annual update to my CV of Journal Article Rejections:
CV of Journal Article Rejections
I often tell my advanced graduate students who are looking to get their work published that, if you're not getting multiple journal rejections, you're not doing your job right. So, to provide inspirat...
abizadeh.wixsite.com
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alexusherhesa.bsky.social
Universal Language may be the most wonderful, batshit crazy love letter to any city, ever. The fact that it is specifically to Winnipeg, with inside jokes buried a mile deep (Rod Peeler bus stop ads in Persian, Revolutionary Modernist posters of Howard Pawley in Portage Place) just fills me with joy
January 3, 2026 at 1:40 PM
abizadeh.bsky.social
Bahram Beyzai, director of Bashu the Little Stranger, has passed.
Iranian cinema giant, Bahram Beyzai, dies aged 87
A restored copy of his film, Bashu, the Little Stranger, won an award at this year's Venice Film Festival.
www.bbc.com
December 28, 2025 at 6:18 PM
abizadeh.bsky.social
“Elicitory Structural Power and Agential Power” is now out in 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘌𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘚𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘗𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘺.

I defend the notions of structural power as a species of “elicitory” power (which does not operate by way of one’s intentional actions) and power efficaciously wielded without causing outcomes.
Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy
Many theorists assume that social power operates only by way of agents’ intentional actions and their causal influence on outcomes—where causality is understood to imply making a difference. This arti...
doi.org
December 16, 2025 at 5:23 PM
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openlibhums.org
We’re excited to announce the launch of Philosophical Logic at the Open Library of Humanities.

This follows another mass editorial resignation at Springer Nature (open letter linked in the announcement).

Read more:
Flagship Springer Nature journal flips to diamond open access at the OLH
We’re excited to announce the launch of a major new journal, following news of another mass editorial resignation (read open letter) at Springer Nature. This week, the Editors-in-Chief and Associate …
www.openlibhums.org
December 10, 2025 at 9:00 AM
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craft-oa.bsky.social
Do you work at an academic publishing house? This self-paced scholarly publishing training is for you, from #CRAFT-OA. It outlines the potential to automate certain stages of editorial work, e.g.,DOI registration & the use of Google Sheets as a publishing dashboard. iblpan.gitbook.io/craft-oa_tra...
December 10, 2025 at 11:55 AM
abizadeh.bsky.social
Montreal gains 15th spot in the 2025 Copenhagenize Index’s global ranking of bicycle-friendly cities, 1st in North America, and the only non-European country in the top 25.
Montréal – Copenhagenize index
copenhagenizeindex.eu
December 8, 2025 at 11:09 PM
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jacobtlevy.bsky.social
universityaffairs.ca/features/que...
Quebec universities weather an unprecedented storm - University Affairs
The province’s institutes of higher learning are navigating immigration restrictions, language policies, budget cuts and challenges to academic freedom.
universityaffairs.ca
November 27, 2025 at 1:10 PM
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tuthanhha.bsky.social
Vietnamese food has a concept I don't often see in western cuisine - "ngán."
It's translated as being bored but applies when your palate is dulled by the sameness in texture, taste.
We want our food to hit different notes. A bánh mì is simultaneously soft and crunchy, spicy and cool, fatty and sour.
November 26, 2025 at 6:02 PM
abizadeh.bsky.social
Arendt’s warning: “Though tyranny, because it needs no consent, may successfully rule over foreign peoples, it can stay in power only if it first of all destroys the national institutions of its own people.”
November 26, 2025 at 6:05 PM
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freeandequal.bsky.social
Congratulations to Ryan Pevnick, whose article “The Representation-Enabling Approach to Campaign Finance Reform” has win the 2025 Rockwell Prize for the Best Article on Ethics, Leadership, and Public Policy.

#poliphil #polisky #PolTheory
November 25, 2025 at 11:52 PM
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gripp-montreal.bsky.social
Call for applications: The Groupe de recherche interuniversitaire en philosophie politique de Montréal (GRIPP) invites applications for its 2026 manuscript workshop award.
2026 Annual GRIPP Montreal Political Theory Manuscript Workshop Award | GRIPP Montréal
grippmontreal.org
November 26, 2025 at 12:00 AM
abizadeh.bsky.social
Nyt article on randomly selected citizen assemblies in Belgium
Democracy Is in Trouble. This Region Is Turning to Its People.
www.nytimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 12:14 PM
abizadeh.bsky.social
Misinformation, democratic breakdown, social identity: An excellent set of reflections from @samuel-bagg.bsky.social
The Problem is Epistemic. The Solution is Not. | Blog of the APA
Doubts about the wisdom of the masses are as old as philosophy itself. Yet interest in democracy’s “epistemic” merits has surged in the last decade—and it is no mystery why. Democracy is collapsing ar...
blog.apaonline.org
November 22, 2025 at 12:49 PM
abizadeh.bsky.social
O wow: Chrystia Freeland (Prairies & St Antony’s 1991) has just been selected the next Warden of Rhodes House and CEO of the Rhodes Trust.

#canpol
November 20, 2025 at 12:15 AM
abizadeh.bsky.social
I reviewed Thomas Holden’s excellent new book, _Hobbes’s Philosophy of Religion_, in NDPR.

TLDR;: theological expressivism yes, justified theism no, rational piety yes.
Hobbes’s Philosophy of Religion
Commentators have traditionally assumed that the key interpretive question concerning Hobbes’s theology is whether he was a theist (as he proclaim...
ndpr.nd.edu
November 19, 2025 at 9:17 PM
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stefhaustein.scholcommlab.ca
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk 🎤

If you’ve read this far and still need convincing, please check out our preprint arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820 and this infographic: doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
10/10
The four-fold drain of scientific publishing: Money, Time, Trust, and Control.
November 13, 2025 at 8:17 PM
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stefhaustein.scholcommlab.ca
Over the past months (and at least 11 versions!), I was lucky to work with 11 amazing colleagues on a call to action to reform academic publishing.

Not another declaration, but an appeal to our powerful friends, research funders & institutions, to Stop the Drain of Scientific Publishing. 1/n
November 13, 2025 at 8:17 PM
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hansonmark.bsky.social
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision. A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
abizadeh.bsky.social
Back to the future: 1934 ad for electric car charger
October 28, 2025 at 1:20 AM
abizadeh.bsky.social
Do they DID know that smoking was bad for health in 1934
Aux fumeurs: Vous pouvez vaincre l’habitude de fumer en trois jours améliorer votre santé
October 28, 2025 at 1:10 AM
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jacobtlevy.bsky.social
montrealgazette.com/news/local-n...
Quebec’s brain drain: Universities warn CAQ foreign talent cuts threaten economic future
At National Assembly immigration hearings, universities are challenging what they call myths about international students — and warning that the Legault government's attitude toward newcomers will lea...
montrealgazette.com
October 27, 2025 at 10:43 AM
abizadeh.bsky.social
“Stalin’s method of accusing a fictitious enemy of the crime he himself was about to commit”

(Yes, am reading Arendt’s Origins of Totalitarianism for the first time.)
October 26, 2025 at 1:17 AM
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brenttoderian.bsky.social
Keep this in mind when people claim cars mean business — closing Central Madrid to cars over holidays resulted in a 9.5% boost in retail spending on its main shopping street: STUDY.

There was also a 71% drop in air pollution.

Via @carltonreid.com in @forbes.com. #citymakingmath #citiesforpeople
Closing Central Madrid To Cars Resulted In 9.5% Boost To Retail Spending, Finds Bank Analysis
City of Madrid significantly boosted the takings of its shops and restaurants last Christmas by banning cars from the CBD, finds an analysis by Spain's second largest bank.
www.forbes.com
October 24, 2025 at 12:36 PM
abizadeh.bsky.social
Interview with @manongarcia.bsky.social
On the Pelicot rape trials in France
‘These men think they’ve done nothing wrong’: the philosopher who tried to understand Gisèle Pelicot’s rapists
When 50 men went on trial in France, accused of raping a woman who had been drugged by her husband, Manon Garcia was in the courtroom – and in the prosecutors’ closing arguments. How does she make sen...
www.theguardian.com
October 13, 2025 at 1:09 PM
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yoshuabengio.bsky.social
This op-ed published in the @nytimes.com by Stephen Witt thoughtfully captures the urgency and complexity of navigating AI's risks, but also my sincere conviction that technical solutions are possible — we still have agency and an opportunity to act.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/o...
Opinion | The A.I. Prompt That Could End the World
www.nytimes.com
October 10, 2025 at 3:55 PM