anjali dassarma
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dassarma.bsky.social
anjali dassarma
@dassarma.bsky.social
phd candidate at @asc.upenn.edu | she/her
studying history, race, colonialism, capitalism & journalism

“the ultimate mark of power may be its invisibility; the ultimate challenge, the exposition of its roots.” - michel-rolph trouillot
Reposted by anjali dassarma
ICE Agents Assault Group of Reporters Documenting Arrests at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan
ICE Agents Assault Group of Reporters Documenting Arrests at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan
A journalist was hospitalized after masked federal agents assaulted a group of reporters documenting ICE arrests outside immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan. Video footage of Tuesday's attack…
www.democracynow.org
October 1, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Reposted by anjali dassarma
This is why we need @baltimorebeat.bsky.social.
It’s stunning how badly all the other outlets soft-pedaled the body-cam footage, missing virtually every important detail in their stories about the it. Now that it has been ruled a homicide, I hope other outlets pay better attention. Grateful to be able to cover this for the Beat.
Dontae Melton’s police custody death ruled a homicide as body camera footage reveals numerous failures in city’s crisis response system
baltimorebeat.com/dontae-melto...
August 28, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Reposted by anjali dassarma
📣 In this short essay, I describe how actions of the current administration constitute ➡️ state terrorism ⬅️ and outline how US universities (and professors and students and staff) can survive state terrorism, as people before us have survived.

academeblog.org/2025/08/05/h...
How US Universities Can Survive State Terrorism
BY CATHERINE D’IGNAZIO As a professor at MIT, I find myself navigating strange waters these days. Last semester, I advised the thesis of a student who left the country because she did not fee…
academeblog.org
August 5, 2025 at 5:18 PM
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“The thought of losing that history, particularly in this political moment, was devastating.” www.niemanlab.org/2025/07/miss...
Missouri’s oldest Black bookstore just closed. The Kansas City Defender plans to reopen it as a newsroom and public archive.
“The thought of losing that history, particularly in this political moment, was devastating.”
www.niemanlab.org
August 3, 2025 at 10:13 PM
Reposted by anjali dassarma
The “deal” that Brown made with the Trump admin is much more extreme than is being reported. It includes government oversight of course evaluations and no barrier to government interference in faculty hiring.

Read it for yourself here:

www.brown.edu/sites/defaul...
www.brown.edu
July 30, 2025 at 11:46 PM
Reposted by anjali dassarma
"ChatGPT is great for brainstorming!"

Actually we have a tool for that already! It's called thinking. We use our brain. It's called brainstorming! Clue is in the name.
July 31, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Reposted by anjali dassarma
going to keep saying: important for a society that would like to keep functioning to discourage baldfaced lying, especially by authorities
July 28, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Reposted by anjali dassarma
Super proud of this pub with an excellent mentor and collaborator
@sjjphd.bsky.social

Read this, and then make sure to read "News Inside" from @themarshallproject.org, too!
Sharing my latest pub, "News Inside: What Mainstream Journalism Can Learn From the Radical Humanism of Prison Journalism." Particularly proud b/c incarcerated/formerly incarcerated folks can teach us a lot about democracy & media. A pleasure to collaborate w/ @lizhallgren.bsky.social on this:
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
journals.sagepub.com
July 22, 2025 at 4:02 PM
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"I Do Solemnly Swear": Audio Series Highlights Federal Workers' Voices on Trump's Unraveling of Gov't
“I Do Solemnly Swear”: Audio Series Highlights Federal Workers’ Voices on Trump’s Unraveling of Gov’t
A new audio series published by the group Federal Workers Against DOGE looks at the plight of fired federal workers whose jobs and careers were cut short by the Trump administration’s systematic defunding...
www.democracynow.org
July 21, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Reposted by anjali dassarma
"I don't have the power to cover media anymore. My body is lean and I no longer have the ability to walk” www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-ea...
AFP journalists in Gaza at risk of starvation, warns journalists' association
'We have lost journalists in conflicts, we have had wounded, prisoners in our ranks, but none of us can recall seeing colleague die of hunger,' says French news agency's journalists' association - Ana...
www.aa.com.tr
July 21, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Reposted by anjali dassarma
NEW from me: after EPA announced it would officially do away with its scientific research arm Friday, officials at the Office of Research and Development had few answers for employees on a Monday call about how many of them will be reassigned to other offices—and how many will lose their jobs
EPA Employees Still in the Dark as Agency Dismantles Scientific Research Office
On Monday, some employees at ORD, the largest office in the agency, began receiving emails detailing that they had been assigned new positions within the EPA. "There is no action you need to take the ...
www.wired.com
July 21, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Reposted by anjali dassarma
Here's a new @media2070.bsky.social essay published by The Objective‬ that provides an overview of the role the FCC has played in undermining the 14th Amendment/equal protection rights of Black/marginalized communities since its inception, reinforcing racial hierarchy. @freepress.bsky.social
Reckoning with the Federal Communications Commission’s history of structural racism
Since the agency’s inception, FCC policies have undermined the 14th Amendment rights of Black people and Black communities.
objectivejournalism.org
July 18, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Reposted by anjali dassarma
Breaking news: Federal immigration officers may deport immigrants with as little as six hours’ notice to countries other than their own, even without assurances that the arrivals will be safe from persecution or torture, a top official said.
ICE memo outlines plan to deport migrants to countries where they are not citizens
The dramatic shift in policy could result in thousands of immigrants being deported to places where they lack family ties or even a common language.
www.washingtonpost.com
July 13, 2025 at 1:26 AM
Reposted by anjali dassarma
i am only through the first section of this (highly anticipated!) paper by my dear friend Anj but wow i wanna make all y'all read this!!!!! modern journalism centers whiteness above all else bc it *always* has!!!!!!
July 10, 2025 at 10:18 PM
📚📖 my newest article, entitled “truth-making, slavery and advertising in anglo-american newspapering” is now available from the journal of alternative and community media! @asc.upenn.edu
intellectdiscover.com/content/jour...
Truth-making, slavery and advertising in early Anglo-American newspapering: Publick Occurrences and the Boston News-Letter | Intellect
The origin story of Anglo-North American journalism has largely overlooked early print culture’s racialization processes and ties to slavery. This article focuses on cultural and economic structures o...
intellectdiscover.com
July 10, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Reposted by anjali dassarma
What looks like an amazing book by a brilliant Indigenous scholar is on sale through the link below (and blurbed by the greats @hiokinai.bsky.social Hi'i Hobart and @brdemuth.bsky.social Bathsheba Demuth). Arctic governance and colonial administration are the most fascinating topics!
hi if you're trying to buy my book while Duke Press is transitioning to a new distribution warehouse, you can find it at the link below, thanks for your interest! it will be available again through DUP after July 7th. folks in canada you can also buy it through the university of toronto press
Ice Geographies: The Colonial Politics of Race and Indigeneity in the Arctic
The Colonial Politics of Race and Indigeneity in the Arctic
bookshop.org
July 8, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Reposted by anjali dassarma
it’s absurd that NYT forced him to delete these skeets, which … convey the factual information that Zohran Mamdani is, in fact, a man of South Asian descent who was born and raised in Africa, and that the pseudonymous source of the hacked material is a white supremacist eugenicist.
July 4, 2025 at 3:05 AM
Reposted by anjali dassarma
With this vote, Congress makes ICE the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency in history, with more money per year at its disposal over the next four years than the budgets of the FBI, DEA, ATF, US Marshals, and Bureau of Prisons combined.
July 3, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Reposted by anjali dassarma
If you think trans people are a danger to anyone and not fascists and patriarchs and billionaires and bullies and zealots, or think universities don’t have power to resist, you are being manipulated by the bad guys or you are choosing the wrong side of history, that’s it.
July 1, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Reposted by anjali dassarma
In light of the news on my first day of sabbatical: gender is a social construct, trans women are women, no amount of complying with authoritarians who pretend they will only strip some people but not you of rights will keep you safe. And in 2025 university administrators should know all of that.
July 1, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Reposted by anjali dassarma
"...24.6 million people in Sudan facing acute food insecurity —nearly half the population, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. Aid workers say the war spiked market prices, limited aid delivery, and shrunk agricultural lands"

apnews.com/article/suda...
Driven to starvation, Sudanese people eat weeds and plants to survive as war rages
Amid battles and food insecurity across Sudan, many people are turning to weeds and wild plants to sustain them.
apnews.com
June 30, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Reposted by anjali dassarma
“It is critical that police officers be better prepared for such contacts, so that the individuals in crisis and the officers, family members, and other individuals responding to it are not at risk of further traumatization from the act of seeking help."
baltimorebeat.com/citys-crisis...
City’s crisis response system under scrutiny after three police-involved deaths in eight days
Baltimore City Council President Zeke Cohen is calling for a hearing to examine the city’s crisis response systems after three Baltimore residents died or were killed during interactions with police o...
baltimorebeat.com
June 27, 2025 at 11:48 PM
Reposted by anjali dassarma
I wrote this, the procrastinator’s delight. enjoy and go VOTE:
It’s Primary Day, New York. Here’s What to Know Before Heading to the Polls.
Remember a water bottle and don’t hold your breath for results tonight.
www.thecity.nyc
June 24, 2025 at 11:43 AM