Mark Crescenzi
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Mark Crescenzi
@creshman.bsky.social
Professor of Political Science at UNC Chapel Hill. Studying Peace Science, International Relations, etc… Here to cheer on my amazing students and colleagues in Peace Science.
Pleased to share that UNC PoliSci is hiring in political methodology! unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/307...
Assistant Professor
This tenure-track position includes 40% teaching, 40% research and 20% service to the department/college. The service portion includes, but is not limited to search committees, review committees and a...
unc.peopleadmin.com
September 26, 2025 at 1:51 AM
Reposted by Mark Crescenzi
"We accumulated a large amount of dollars so that you can use something other than a dollar to do what a dollar does, and we promise you it’s worth a dollar. Guaranteed."

It’s the Political Economy of Shitcoins!
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
August 20, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Reposted by Mark Crescenzi
Congratulations to Prof. Scott Gates on receiving a prestigious ERC Advanced Grant! The project "Waging of War" (WOW) will examine how the organization of warring parties affects the conduct of war and how the fighting impacts the belligerents' organizational structure.
www.sv.uio.no/isv/english/...
Scott Gates receives EU funding for research on warfare - Department of Political Science
Scott Gates at the Department of Political Science receives the ERC’s prestigious Advanced Grant of 30 million kroner. He will research the waging of war, and how internal organization affects the str...
www.sv.uio.no
June 18, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Reposted by Mark Crescenzi
🧵IR scholars, let's start a thread of what we know that's relevant for a US attack on Iran. Won't change any minds, but might help us teach this crisis and learn new angles. Please add (incl. your own work!), forgive/correct omissions. Nobody can cover everything and it's great to find new work. 1/?
June 18, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Reposted by Mark Crescenzi
I’m one of 20 assistant professors in A&S at UNC who has had their tenure decision deferred.

I was planning to spend my summer editing my third book. Now? 🤷🏻‍♀️

www.wral.com/video/unc-fa...
UNC faculty concerned over lack of tenure for professors
WRAL has obtained a letter from the faculty chair to the dean and chancellor at UNC-Chapel Hill expressing concern about a lack of tenure for certain professors.
www.wral.com
May 30, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Reposted by Mark Crescenzi
On Friday, UNC faculty learned--via an email from the chair of the faculty, not from the admin--that the Board of Trustees declined to do their pro forma approval of this year's tenure conferrals (the entire slate, health sciences excepted). We are still waiting for an explanation.
At Chapel Hill, Only Health-Sciences Professors Have Been Getting Tenure
The UNC Chapel Hill board hasn’t tenured a single professor in fields outside the health sciences since January. The inaction has prompted confusion and alarm among faculty.
www.chronicle.com
May 28, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Getting tenure anywhere is hard, especially in this era of hyper-productivity. Getting tenure at UNC is a gauntlet, a sprint and a marathon at the same time. The faculty who have earned this accomplishment deserve to receive it free of the burden of politics.
May 28, 2025 at 2:43 AM
Reposted by Mark Crescenzi
It's hard to find the words. NSF just terminated the grant for Journeys, a mentoring workshop that tried to tackle underrepresentation of women in international relations. Future scholarship will be the worse for it. But this photo from our last gathering will motivate me to keep fighting.
April 25, 2025 at 9:22 PM
After eight years in the role, today I ran my last faculty meeting. Went a lot like the meetings we’ve had over the years, doing the hard work in pursuit of our values and ambitions. I’m looking forward to sitting with them while Navin Bapat takes his turn leading us. We couldn’t be in better hands.
April 26, 2025 at 12:14 AM
Reposted by Mark Crescenzi
In honor of long COVID awareness day, I wanted to speak about what my experience is like, 25 months in.

I am much better but still only leave the house a couple times a week.

1/
March 15, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Reposted by Mark Crescenzi
I am accepting submissions for my emerging writer series at gay.submittable.com. You should have three publications or fewer and no book contract. Yes, this is a paid opportunity. Guidelines at the link. Plz follow the guidelines.
Roxane Gay Books & The Audacity Submission Manager
THE AUDACITY, my newsletter, features an emerging writer twice a month. I define emerging writer as someone with fewer than three article/essay/short story publications and no published books or book ...
gay.submittable.com
March 6, 2025 at 10:44 PM
Reposted by Mark Crescenzi
Gutting the Minerva program means the loss of one of our last funding sources for long-term, risky, ambitious data collection on political violence. Almost impossible to replace with other sources (though we should try). Not even penny-wise, just foolish. This makes us dumber and less safe
Pentagon guts national security program that harnessed social science
Dozens of U.S. academics lose grants from Minerva program for studies related to terrorism, drug trafficking, and other threats
www.science.org
March 3, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Reposted by Mark Crescenzi
I keep reading that Zelensky shouldn't have risen to the bait.

The man is human. He's seen tens of thousands of Ukrainians murdered, their cities blown apart & their children stolen.

He was sitting by a man who's looting his country's minerals & praising Putin.

And for 40 minutes, he held it in.
February 28, 2025 at 10:44 PM
Reposted by Mark Crescenzi
Very interesting to see the Times weakest on this. Telegraph and Mail have been robust. And yet the alleged paper of record is hedging.
NEW: The first front pages of Saturday’s newspapers in the UK.

“Ukraine Hero Ambushed”

“Trump stuns world with vile rant at Zelensky”

“A spectacle to horrify the world”

Trump is obliterating the global reputation of the US.
February 28, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Reposted by Mark Crescenzi
Journalists, please do not describe what happened at the White House today as a "spat", "heated exchange" or as Zelensky-Trump "going at each other". Zelensky was ambushed by Vance while very calmly explaining why Ukraine needs security guarantees and doesn't trust a ceasefire...
February 28, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Reposted by Mark Crescenzi
Howard University is now a R1 university, the first HBCU with a research one designation. H-U definitely knows!
Howard University Receives “Research One” Carnegie Classification Indicating Highest Level of Research Production
The American Council of Education (ACE) today announced that Howard University has been conferred a Research One (R1) Carnegie Classification, indicating “very high research spending and doctorate pro...
thedig.howard.edu
February 13, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Reposted by Mark Crescenzi
What these days are teaching me is that in this life we can't take anything for granted.
February 11, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Reposted by Mark Crescenzi
What a day to teach about the modern state. Topics to include

- Developmental state
- Rentier state
- Predatory state
- Failed state

Reading assignment is @pavisuri.bsky.social, "Endogenous State Capacity," ARPS 2024
February 5, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Reposted by Mark Crescenzi
Industry leaders in science, international studies, and higher education must speak clearly about their essential role in national security. The U.S. has no peer competitor in this space, and the current administration's policies threaten U.S. power and interests.

tompepinsky.com/2025/02/04/s...
Science and International Studies are the Foundation of American Power
The second Donald Trump administration has targeted science and international studies for devastating cuts in financing, coupled with unprecedented levels of ideological screening of scientific and…
tompepinsky.com
February 4, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Reposted by Mark Crescenzi
How do autocrats stay in power?

Our new research dives into the strategies of political control—repression, co-optation, and indoctrination—used across 229 autocracies from 1946 to 2010. What we found will change the way you think about authoritarian resilience. 🧵👇
January 24, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Reposted by Mark Crescenzi
Undergraduates are not doing well right now, and the consequences are tragic. Take care of your community, but especially look after your students.
November 12, 2024 at 2:11 AM
Reposted by Mark Crescenzi
Political Scientists Reassure Americans That Stripping Minorities Of Citizenship Usually Where Descent Into Fascism Peters Out
Political Scientists Reassure Americans That Stripping Minorities Of Citizenship Usually Where Descent Into Fascism Peters Out
CHAPEL HILL, NC—Responding to concern about the Trump administration accusing hundreds of Hispanic people living near the U.S.–Mexico border of having fraudulent birth certificates and revoking their ...
theonion.com
October 26, 2024 at 5:48 PM
Reposted by Mark Crescenzi
UNC will be hiring two--count them, two!--tenure-track positions in American politics in the fall. The search is wide-open with respect to specialty, so please encourage all interested parties to apply. The application deadline is 9/16.

timryan.web.unc.edu/wp-content/u...
timryan.web.unc.edu
August 6, 2024 at 5:39 PM
UNC Political Science is searching this Fall to fill two positions in the American Politics subfield, both at the Assistant Professor level.
Assistant Professor
The Department of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill invites applications for two tenure-track positions at the rank of Assistant Professor, with appointment beginnin...
unc.peopleadmin.com
August 6, 2024 at 5:25 PM