Caleb Ward
@calebw.bsky.social
Social and political philosophy, feminism and social change, almost done with a book on the philosophy of Audre Lorde
Postdoc at Uni Hamburg
Photo by Frank Ward, 1999
https://www.calebward.xyz/
Postdoc at Uni Hamburg
Photo by Frank Ward, 1999
https://www.calebward.xyz/
Pinned
Caleb Ward
@calebw.bsky.social
· Sep 4
Using and Abusing ‘The Master’s Tools’ Caleb Ward's Audre Lorde Lecture
Audre Lorde’s statement that “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house” stands for uncompromising vision in the fight…
vimeo.com
“But can’t we use the master’s tools just this once, as a treat??”
Here’s my talk about Lorde’s master’s tools, which got such a heartening reception in New York. Thanks to everyone who turned out—professors, students, poets, activists 🌱
Here’s my talk about Lorde’s master’s tools, which got such a heartening reception in New York. Thanks to everyone who turned out—professors, students, poets, activists 🌱
"People aren't just hot for revolution because they eroticize change. People are hot for revolution because change is the condition of possibility for regaining agency over their sexual & erotic lives, which have been exploited & usurped by a hostile society."
I'm gonna finish this chapter today!
I'm gonna finish this chapter today!
November 10, 2025 at 12:28 PM
"People aren't just hot for revolution because they eroticize change. People are hot for revolution because change is the condition of possibility for regaining agency over their sexual & erotic lives, which have been exploited & usurped by a hostile society."
I'm gonna finish this chapter today!
I'm gonna finish this chapter today!
Here’s some important news I learned from @shamjaff.bsky.social’s global newsletter today: Australia secretively shipping people for indefinite detention in Nauru
This world sucks sometimes, but this newsletter is great, and you should sign up for it.
This world sucks sometimes, but this newsletter is great, and you should sign up for it.
November 10, 2025 at 9:57 AM
Here’s some important news I learned from @shamjaff.bsky.social’s global newsletter today: Australia secretively shipping people for indefinite detention in Nauru
This world sucks sometimes, but this newsletter is great, and you should sign up for it.
This world sucks sometimes, but this newsletter is great, and you should sign up for it.
German politics hot take: massively expanding German military in response to the threat of Russia is what Putin actually wants, because then when the AFD takes power, Germany’s withdrawal from NATO will give Putin a more powerful ally with which to bully the rest of Europe.
November 9, 2025 at 4:43 PM
German politics hot take: massively expanding German military in response to the threat of Russia is what Putin actually wants, because then when the AFD takes power, Germany’s withdrawal from NATO will give Putin a more powerful ally with which to bully the rest of Europe.
Olivia Perlow on Black feminism in the academy: "There's too much talking about liberation and too little being free."
November 8, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Olivia Perlow on Black feminism in the academy: "There's too much talking about liberation and too little being free."
Just want to note that closed captioning on zoom writes “herbivore” for “de Beauvoir”
November 7, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Just want to note that closed captioning on zoom writes “herbivore” for “de Beauvoir”
Audre Lorde: “We are functioning under a government which stands on the wrong side of every single battle taking place upon this globe.“
“Exclusive: US sold sniper rifles to Brazil police unit tied to deadly raid” - www.reuters.com/world/americ...
November 7, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Audre Lorde: “We are functioning under a government which stands on the wrong side of every single battle taking place upon this globe.“
Reposted by Caleb Ward
Lydia Davis' "Revise: 2", for anyone who is revising.
November 7, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Lydia Davis' "Revise: 2", for anyone who is revising.
Only in the afterlife of slavery and apartheid do you get this story: a Guatemalan woman shot to death for entering the front porch of the wrong house for a housecleaning job. In a neighborhood called *The Heritage* in fucking *Whitestown, Indiana*
"It's unclear if the shooter will be charged."
"It's unclear if the shooter will be charged."
Boone County Coroner releases cause, manner of death in shooting of housekeeper in Whitestown
The Boone County Coroner’s Office announced on Nov. 6 it has determined Maria Florinda Ríos Pérez de Velasquez's cause and manner of death.
eu.indystar.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:33 AM
Only in the afterlife of slavery and apartheid do you get this story: a Guatemalan woman shot to death for entering the front porch of the wrong house for a housecleaning job. In a neighborhood called *The Heritage* in fucking *Whitestown, Indiana*
"It's unclear if the shooter will be charged."
"It's unclear if the shooter will be charged."
Reposted by Caleb Ward
Thoughts on "rigorous" philosophy:
I'm back at the 6th Roundtable for Black Feminist & Womanist Theory, listening to Bailey Thomas introduce the event as "a space grounded not in hierarchy, but in care, collaboration, & rigor."
Time's ripe to reclaim "rigor" as a demand we make of philosophy 1/
I'm back at the 6th Roundtable for Black Feminist & Womanist Theory, listening to Bailey Thomas introduce the event as "a space grounded not in hierarchy, but in care, collaboration, & rigor."
Time's ripe to reclaim "rigor" as a demand we make of philosophy 1/
November 6, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Thoughts on "rigorous" philosophy:
I'm back at the 6th Roundtable for Black Feminist & Womanist Theory, listening to Bailey Thomas introduce the event as "a space grounded not in hierarchy, but in care, collaboration, & rigor."
Time's ripe to reclaim "rigor" as a demand we make of philosophy 1/
I'm back at the 6th Roundtable for Black Feminist & Womanist Theory, listening to Bailey Thomas introduce the event as "a space grounded not in hierarchy, but in care, collaboration, & rigor."
Time's ripe to reclaim "rigor" as a demand we make of philosophy 1/
Thoughts on "rigorous" philosophy:
I'm back at the 6th Roundtable for Black Feminist & Womanist Theory, listening to Bailey Thomas introduce the event as "a space grounded not in hierarchy, but in care, collaboration, & rigor."
Time's ripe to reclaim "rigor" as a demand we make of philosophy 1/
I'm back at the 6th Roundtable for Black Feminist & Womanist Theory, listening to Bailey Thomas introduce the event as "a space grounded not in hierarchy, but in care, collaboration, & rigor."
Time's ripe to reclaim "rigor" as a demand we make of philosophy 1/
November 6, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Thoughts on "rigorous" philosophy:
I'm back at the 6th Roundtable for Black Feminist & Womanist Theory, listening to Bailey Thomas introduce the event as "a space grounded not in hierarchy, but in care, collaboration, & rigor."
Time's ripe to reclaim "rigor" as a demand we make of philosophy 1/
I'm back at the 6th Roundtable for Black Feminist & Womanist Theory, listening to Bailey Thomas introduce the event as "a space grounded not in hierarchy, but in care, collaboration, & rigor."
Time's ripe to reclaim "rigor" as a demand we make of philosophy 1/
Classic case of the fox guarding the henhouse:
"One 2024 document notes the company shows its platforms’ users ~15 billion “higher risk” scam advertisements—those showing clear signs of being fraudulent—every day. Meta earns ~$7 billion in annual revenue from this category of scam ads each year."
"One 2024 document notes the company shows its platforms’ users ~15 billion “higher risk” scam advertisements—those showing clear signs of being fraudulent—every day. Meta earns ~$7 billion in annual revenue from this category of scam ads each year."
Meta's fraud problem: The social media giant projected 10% of its 2024 revenue would come from ads for scams and banned goods, documents seen by @Reuters show reut.rs/4qJTpdH
November 6, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Classic case of the fox guarding the henhouse:
"One 2024 document notes the company shows its platforms’ users ~15 billion “higher risk” scam advertisements—those showing clear signs of being fraudulent—every day. Meta earns ~$7 billion in annual revenue from this category of scam ads each year."
"One 2024 document notes the company shows its platforms’ users ~15 billion “higher risk” scam advertisements—those showing clear signs of being fraudulent—every day. Meta earns ~$7 billion in annual revenue from this category of scam ads each year."
This is gonna be fun. APA symposium on my master‘s tools paper!
November 6, 2025 at 10:30 AM
This is gonna be fun. APA symposium on my master‘s tools paper!
“Cognitive dissonance” is a myth. There’s no such thing as an “alpha dog.”
The replication crisis in social science is coming for all of us (and our presuppositions). Philosophers take note, before it’s too late
The replication crisis in social science is coming for all of us (and our presuppositions). Philosophers take note, before it’s too late
Ok, just wow. If the content of this article is right, this is depressing. We're slowly reaching the point where ~100% of what I was taught in Social Psych was either innocently wrong or plainly frauded
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Debunking “When Prophecy Fails”
In 1954, Dorothy Martin predicted an apocalyptic flood and promised her followers rescue by flying saucers. When neither arrived, she recanted, her group dissolved, and efforts to proselytize ceased....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 6, 2025 at 10:01 AM
“Cognitive dissonance” is a myth. There’s no such thing as an “alpha dog.”
The replication crisis in social science is coming for all of us (and our presuppositions). Philosophers take note, before it’s too late
The replication crisis in social science is coming for all of us (and our presuppositions). Philosophers take note, before it’s too late
This snippet from a French news story perfectly highlights the automatism of the criminal justice system:
Damaging your cell door is prosecuted as a crime, but police can legally smash down your door & shoot your dog while executing a warrant, even if they find nothing.
Damaging your cell door is prosecuted as a crime, but police can legally smash down your door & shoot your dog while executing a warrant, even if they find nothing.
November 6, 2025 at 8:45 AM
This snippet from a French news story perfectly highlights the automatism of the criminal justice system:
Damaging your cell door is prosecuted as a crime, but police can legally smash down your door & shoot your dog while executing a warrant, even if they find nothing.
Damaging your cell door is prosecuted as a crime, but police can legally smash down your door & shoot your dog while executing a warrant, even if they find nothing.
There’s an intellectual generosity I admire in what Darwall is doing with the final years of his career. He’s spent decades reading absolutely everything in the history of philosophy, and now he’s basically just trying to share as many of the insights he’s gained as possible. That’s nice.
New book - Modern Moral Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century by Stephen Darwall
#philsky #moralphil
www.cambridge.org/core/books/m...
#philsky #moralphil
www.cambridge.org/core/books/m...
Modern Moral Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century
Cambridge Core - Nineteenth-Century Philosophy - Modern Moral Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century
www.cambridge.org
November 5, 2025 at 10:13 PM
There’s an intellectual generosity I admire in what Darwall is doing with the final years of his career. He’s spent decades reading absolutely everything in the history of philosophy, and now he’s basically just trying to share as many of the insights he’s gained as possible. That’s nice.
Have any feminists out there read Abdullah Öcalan, the Kurdish anarchist freedom fighter? I knew Rojava in Syria was supposedly a feminist state, but actually reading Öcalan is wild... he's straight up a radical feminist.
"Masculinity must be killed"😮 👇
"Masculinity must be killed"😮 👇
November 5, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Have any feminists out there read Abdullah Öcalan, the Kurdish anarchist freedom fighter? I knew Rojava in Syria was supposedly a feminist state, but actually reading Öcalan is wild... he's straight up a radical feminist.
"Masculinity must be killed"😮 👇
"Masculinity must be killed"😮 👇
The poem I reference in this post is a great Lorde diss-track, against all the haters that NYC exposes a person to... sometime I should put together a zine of Lorde diss-poems
Hi NYC👋 I think about you so much, imagining Audre Lorde in Harlem & Staten while my grandparents & then my mom carved out life in the Bronx in the 30s–60s.
Here's to New York City and what Lorde calls its "doses of truth—that particular form of annihilation" that is NYC's regional delicacy. 🍎
...
Here's to New York City and what Lorde calls its "doses of truth—that particular form of annihilation" that is NYC's regional delicacy. 🍎
...
November 4, 2025 at 5:23 PM
The poem I reference in this post is a great Lorde diss-track, against all the haters that NYC exposes a person to... sometime I should put together a zine of Lorde diss-poems
Hi NYC👋 I think about you so much, imagining Audre Lorde in Harlem & Staten while my grandparents & then my mom carved out life in the Bronx in the 30s–60s.
Here's to New York City and what Lorde calls its "doses of truth—that particular form of annihilation" that is NYC's regional delicacy. 🍎
...
Here's to New York City and what Lorde calls its "doses of truth—that particular form of annihilation" that is NYC's regional delicacy. 🍎
...
November 4, 2025 at 10:21 AM
Hi NYC👋 I think about you so much, imagining Audre Lorde in Harlem & Staten while my grandparents & then my mom carved out life in the Bronx in the 30s–60s.
Here's to New York City and what Lorde calls its "doses of truth—that particular form of annihilation" that is NYC's regional delicacy. 🍎
...
Here's to New York City and what Lorde calls its "doses of truth—that particular form of annihilation" that is NYC's regional delicacy. 🍎
...
This is journalism! God I miss the good old days when journalists would actually try to cover these scoops
They lied as well as knew!
Exxon funded rightwing thinktanks to spread climate change denial across Latin America. Documents reveal a coordinated campaign to make the global south “less inclined” to support the climate treaty process. @geoffdembicki.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Exxon funded rightwing thinktanks to spread climate change denial across Latin America. Documents reveal a coordinated campaign to make the global south “less inclined” to support the climate treaty process. @geoffdembicki.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Exxon funded thinktanks to spread climate denial in Latin America, documents reveal
Texas-based fossil fuel company financed Atlas Network in attempt to derail UN-led climate treaty process
www.theguardian.com
November 3, 2025 at 7:35 PM
This is journalism! God I miss the good old days when journalists would actually try to cover these scoops
Having also successfully sued my landlord here in Berlin for our opaque utility bills, I will always be here for this and for the tenants unions that make it possible
Had me at "opaque utility fees"
Amazing deep dive at the utility-housing inequality intersection
shelterforce.org/2025/10/10/l...
Amazing deep dive at the utility-housing inequality intersection
shelterforce.org/2025/10/10/l...
LA Tenants’ Strikes Forced a Major Landlord to Refund Opaque Utility Fees. Their Fight Isn’t Over.
A commonly used billing system allows landlords to shift building utility costs onto tenants. Tenants say it’s time to stop the practice.
shelterforce.org
November 3, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Having also successfully sued my landlord here in Berlin for our opaque utility bills, I will always be here for this and for the tenants unions that make it possible
Reposted by Caleb Ward
This monumental work is out: 63 chapters! Incredible editing by Nina Lykke, Tara Mehrabi and Marietta Radomska. Honoured to have our chapter here with Magdalena Górska & Ewa Majewska on Metamorphic Necropolitics: Deadly Othering in European East–West Power Relations www.routledge.com/Routledge-In...
Routledge International Handbook of Queer Death Studies
This Handbook aims to provide a comprehensive, international cartography of Queer Death Studies, offering broad, in-depth insights into the field and its emergence through tentacular transdisciplinary...
www.routledge.com
November 3, 2025 at 1:53 PM
This monumental work is out: 63 chapters! Incredible editing by Nina Lykke, Tara Mehrabi and Marietta Radomska. Honoured to have our chapter here with Magdalena Górska & Ewa Majewska on Metamorphic Necropolitics: Deadly Othering in European East–West Power Relations www.routledge.com/Routledge-In...
Reposted by Caleb Ward
Here's an excellent piece of advisory philosophy of science, identifying best practices for empirical research looking at biological sex explanations. The examples of overlooked gender (NOT biosex) effects in women's drug sensitivity, COVID lethality, and ACL injury all are fascinating.
Three maxims for countering sex essentialism in scientific research - Biology of Sex Differences
To explain observed disparities in health outcomes between men and women, sex essentialist approaches assign causal primacy to sex-related biology. In this essay, we present three case studies to illu...
bsd.biomedcentral.com
November 3, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Here's an excellent piece of advisory philosophy of science, identifying best practices for empirical research looking at biological sex explanations. The examples of overlooked gender (NOT biosex) effects in women's drug sensitivity, COVID lethality, and ACL injury all are fascinating.
I know, even asking the 1st question below means I'll be blocked by you all & stripped of my PhD, but I must:
1. Do you prefer footnotes or endnotes for a scholarly book?
2. How do you read new academic books? (print, PDF, eReader, audio/screen reader, papyrus scroll, etc.)
#academicSky #philsky
1. Do you prefer footnotes or endnotes for a scholarly book?
2. How do you read new academic books? (print, PDF, eReader, audio/screen reader, papyrus scroll, etc.)
#academicSky #philsky
November 3, 2025 at 10:45 AM
I know, even asking the 1st question below means I'll be blocked by you all & stripped of my PhD, but I must:
1. Do you prefer footnotes or endnotes for a scholarly book?
2. How do you read new academic books? (print, PDF, eReader, audio/screen reader, papyrus scroll, etc.)
#academicSky #philsky
1. Do you prefer footnotes or endnotes for a scholarly book?
2. How do you read new academic books? (print, PDF, eReader, audio/screen reader, papyrus scroll, etc.)
#academicSky #philsky
A fantastic show last night, had me tipping my head back in meditation & reconsidering many of my life priorities.
I realized I saw these two in Philly in 2005 too… here’s the 2025 version
I realized I saw these two in Philly in 2005 too… here’s the 2025 version
October 31, 2025 at 11:28 AM
A fantastic show last night, had me tipping my head back in meditation & reconsidering many of my life priorities.
I realized I saw these two in Philly in 2005 too… here’s the 2025 version
I realized I saw these two in Philly in 2005 too… here’s the 2025 version
Remember folks, there’s no difference between cosplaying as a fascist and being a fascist. Cosplaying is essential to fascism
October 31, 2025 at 10:46 AM
Remember folks, there’s no difference between cosplaying as a fascist and being a fascist. Cosplaying is essential to fascism