Daniel Laurison
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daniellaurison.bsky.social
Daniel Laurison
@daniellaurison.bsky.social
10K followers 4.2K following 3.4K posts
Sociologist at Swarthmore College, trans man. Wrote Producing Politics & The Class Ceiling & a bunch of articles on class & race & inequality &/or political participation.
DanielLaurison.com = me
WeAreHigherEd.org = standing up for education and democracy
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daniellaurison.bsky.social
I don't post every email like this but this is an especially nice one - and it came just as I needed a little boost.

(The class, 7 years ago, was actually "The Working Class and the Politics of Whiteness" bc part of what it was about was how "white working class" gets used in politics.)
Screenshot of an email: Hi Professor Laurison! I was just thinking of you because I started grad school this year (in an English PhD program [redacted]) and we had an assignment to grade each other's work from our first year of undergrad to prepare for teaching. I ended up pulling up one of my old paper's from our freshmen-year seminar on the White Working Class, which still to this day, was one of my favorite classes I have ever taken. I remember that you were the first professor that I spoke with about graduate school, and you took so much time to explain all of the very mysterious things about academia, and I wanted to let you know that it made a world of a difference for me and to thank you for helping me get to where I am today! I hope you and your family are doing well!!
November 10, 2025 at 9:36 PM
daniellaurison.bsky.social
This is a real picture that I took on my bike ride home today - probably the last time I'll ride home while it's light out for a while.
Suburban Street at sunset, Golden light, long residential street, lawns on either side, but the main thing is the blue sky and the giant pink/orange kinda glowing white clouds.
October 31, 2025 at 1:29 AM
daniellaurison.bsky.social
This is a great piece in @currentaffairs.bsky.social, making the case that ALL trans kids should have access to affirming care, not just those whose parents support them.

Of course it's terrible that even that is being rolled back, but we can aim for better.

www.currentaffairs.org/news/dont-ju...
Screenshot of article, highlighted part reads "But it’s at least equally disingenuous to insist that something as personal and subjective as an individual’s gender identity and relationship to their own body is a topic that anyone besides them—including their parents—has any special epistemic authority about which the individual themselves lacks."
October 25, 2025 at 5:16 PM
daniellaurison.bsky.social
True: most common response to Mamdani is "haven't heard enough to say."
Also true: the framing of the results in the OP is not entirely honest.
Also also true: mostly we do this as fav & unfav out of those who have opinions; when you do that, among people who've heard of him, he's not that popular.
image of a google sheet - available at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZN2rPSBtovLrL2v_oE5xW_LhibC0jPzTQm5upKfueaI/edit?usp=sharing - showing the percents described in the tweet; key thing is Newsome = 47% fav, AOC = 45%, Harris = 43%, Mamdani 37.5%, Schumer 32.5%
October 24, 2025 at 8:37 PM
daniellaurison.bsky.social
Saw this in the airport bathroom and I'm glad it's still there and I wish it were still practically true.

"People have rights in the United States, regardless of immigrant status."

(It's *legally* still true that immigrants have rights, but practically... And it was never as true as it should be.)
Sign with lots of text, gist is that if you're being trafficked here's info on how to get help. Key part for me is the first line under the heading - "people have rights in the United States, regardless of immigrant status."
October 18, 2025 at 5:07 PM
daniellaurison.bsky.social
I hope everyone who can is gone a no no kings protest today.

We all have to do what we can to curb fascism and protests are part of that.

I'm traveling and will miss the protests but I'm wearing my shirt though airports.

NO NAZIS
NO KINGS
GO BIRDS

(Get a shirt from @ccriot.bsky.social!)
White guy in glasses and a backpack with a black shirt that says, in all caps bold white letters: NO NAZIS NO KINGS GO BIRDS.
October 18, 2025 at 3:48 PM
daniellaurison.bsky.social
This is an away message. I am finishing a few things tonight/ tomorrow morning then turning off my phone and solo backpacking on the Olympic Peninsula for 3 days. I'll show you all more pictures when I get back.

Pic: Rainier

Turning off social media and putting on my auto response on my email now.
View of Mount Rainier from the ferry to Bainbridge Island. Light blue sky, blue and white mountain (maybe a hint of pink on the snow from the very beginning of sunset). Some water close by, then trees and mysterious large yellow industrial objects on the closest land across the water, then the mountain and the sky.
October 15, 2025 at 3:33 AM
daniellaurison.bsky.social
Sociologists, political scientists, other scholars & practitioners of US politics - submit a proposal to our People-Ing Politics conference as part of the Eastern Sociological Society's conference in DC this March 5 - 8th. Apply by 10/15 (unless they extend) & please share - ess2026.exordo.com/login
Call for paper flyer with too much text to type, but the gist is: Bringing the People Back In - Race, Class, and Inequality in US politics. People-Ing Politics Network Mini-Conference March 6-7, 2025, Washington DC Amid threats to democracy, this conference will bring together social scientists and practitioners who study US politics with a focus on race, class, inequality, and the influence of social and cultural forces. We are looking for papers that explore: - how people's cultures, identities, and social groups shape their political views and behaviors - how race, class, and other forms of inequality influence political engagement, representation, and policy outcomes - the roles played by behind-the-scenes actors such as campaign staff, organizers, and bureaucrats, as well as by marginalized communities, in shaping political institutions and procesess. visit https://www.essnet.org to apply; make sure to select this mini-conference when you do.
October 13, 2025 at 5:18 PM
daniellaurison.bsky.social
Today my trans existence is resistance shirt has gotten me:
1) a smile and nod from a woman ~my age.
2) a really unsubtle side-eye/glare from a priest (or guy in a priest's collar).
3) an exclamation from the woman who sold me pizza - "I love your shirt!" She repeated the message to her co-workers.
Bearded bespectacled white trans guy in a purple shirt at the airport. Shirt reads "trans existence is resistance" in white lettering.
October 10, 2025 at 5:33 PM
daniellaurison.bsky.social
Today my older kid turns 18. Her younger sibling (16 in February) wrote her a letter about how awesome she is, including pictures of them together through the years, and it was so lovely that it made her cry. Boy do we feel like we won at parenting/won the kids lottery today. Also we have an adult!!
Two teenagers at a dining room table with lavender-colored roses, pastries, berries, cards, and presents. Both are kind of smiling. Two teenagers at a dining room table with lavender-colored roses, pastries, berries, cards, and presents. The older one is leaning towards her younger sibling with a smile.
October 9, 2025 at 11:36 AM
daniellaurison.bsky.social
I've also been looking at this and it looks to me like a big part of the story recently is also a class one - turnout has been declining in low-income groups across race (but *less* among low-income whites), but steady or increasing among high-income people, including Black and Hispanic people.
Chart. headline = Validated Turnout by Race and Income, 2016 - 2024, CES Overview of data = White people over 100k/year went from 62% turnout in 2016 to close to 80% in 2020 & 2024; Black & Hispanic people at 100k/year or more whent from ~50% turnout in '16 to close to 60% in 2020 & a bit higher in 2024. White people earning less than 30k/year went from about 50% turnout in 2016 to closer to 40% turnout in 2024; Hispanic people at under $30k from ~35% in '16 to 25% in 2024; Black people at under $30k from a bit less than 50% in '16 to also close to 25% in 2024.
October 7, 2025 at 5:00 PM
daniellaurison.bsky.social
@smotus.bsky.social listened to Klein and Shapiro, and reports on Shapiro's account of what "radicalized" a segment of white Rs, which roughly accords with a lot of scholars' analyses - basically, they thought Obama promised they'd never have to think about or acknowledge racism ever again.
Text from a screenshot of a substack email: The basic idea was that there was some sort of deal: If conservatives permit the election of the first Black president, that will essentially signal the end of institutional racism in the United States, and then we won’t have to talk about race anymore. And any time Obama brought up race he was reneging on that deal. Now, that narratives breaks down somewhat in a few key areas, such as the fact that this “deal” only existed in conservatives’ minds, and they didn’t vote for Obama anyway. Also, MLK’s dream was about equality and justice, not about putting a Black man in the White House. But Obama, in his style of campaigning in 2007 and 2008,
September 28, 2025 at 4:35 PM
daniellaurison.bsky.social
For me, no amount of kind engagement across difference negates the truly awful things he said (and did).

But this makes it easier to see how people who seem reasonable and well-informed might have thought he was also reasonable.

wildernessdispatch.com/2025/09/15/w...
Screen shot from a blog, the wilderness dispatch. Charlie Kirk on a bench in a suit jacket and button down shirt and dark pants, looking over his shoulder with his elbow on the bench back. Headline says "we are remembering two different Charlie Kirks"
September 27, 2025 at 3:38 PM
daniellaurison.bsky.social
I've been following discussion of the Ds who voted for the Charlie Kirk resolution, and seen it characterized both as "honoring CK" (seems obvious voting for it is Not Good) and "condemning political violence" (Good) so I looked up the actual resolution.

www.congress.gov/bill/119th-c...
Text is at link in tweet, shown here are the last 3 clauses of the resolution, on a turquoise background. Starting with "3) extends its deepest sympathies..."
September 20, 2025 at 3:56 PM
daniellaurison.bsky.social
Just merged Thomas Piketty and Raj Chetty into one person in my head in preparing for a lecture on inequality, and was very confused when a search "Raj Piketty" didn't turn up the results I expected.

Anyway here's income inequality in the US over time from Piketty, I think it's very relevant.
chart - decades on the X axis, from 1910 to 2010; share of top decline in national income on the Y axis, starts at ~40%, rises to 50% in ~1930, declines steeply 1940-1944 to about 32%, roughly stays there until 1978 or so, when it starts rising pretty steadily (some ups and downs) until it's between 45 & 50% in the 2000s.
September 16, 2025 at 2:16 PM
daniellaurison.bsky.social
Some sunset from a west Philly grocery store parking lot this evening, for your timeline.
A silhouetted on the left, a multi-story brick building, but mostly a blue sky above it filled with brilliant, er ... tangerine-colored clouds? An orangey-pink, with some greys.
September 15, 2025 at 11:35 PM
daniellaurison.bsky.social
I think I need that! I was going to ask where it was but I see that Vancouver has a LOT of gelato per kilometer, at least around here.
Google maps of the area near the Vancouver convention center showing ~8 gelato places within a 10 minute walk of my location.
September 12, 2025 at 12:48 AM
daniellaurison.bsky.social
I am finishing my weekly 3.5 hours hanging out with a toddler while his Mama works. This morning I was thinking he is just the same stage as my kid was in a video of her I love. And then he basically recreated the video, toddling after a cat cutely. Stills from each, ~17 years apart.
Blond white toddler in orange and pink, grinning at the camera, in someone front yard, with an orange cat. Side/back view of a Black toddler, in a blue shirt and camp pants, grinning down at an orange and white cat. (You can't really tell he's grinning, but he is.)
September 3, 2025 at 3:00 PM
daniellaurison.bsky.social
Here's what they say colleges & universities can and should do to protect trans students, staff and faculty - all of which sounds good to me!
text: But it doesn’t have to be this way. Philadelphia’s universities can — and must — lead by example. Here’s what that leadership should look like: Publicly oppose anti-trans legislation and affirm that it has no place in higher education. Provide tangible support for trans students, staff, and faculty through expanded mental health services and peer support networks by partnering with community organizations. Create spaces for trans students, faculty, and staff to celebrate and build community, such as holding a lavender graduation to honor LGBTQ students’ accomplishments. Implement regular training for all faculty and staff on trans inclusion to ensure curriculums reflect gender-diverse experiences. Offer bridge funding for faculty whose trans-focused research was cut so their important work can continue. Reaffirm and publicly commit to providing gender-affirming healthcare, particularly at institutions like Penn, Temple, and Jefferson that run large health systems. Resist preemptive censorship or elimination of affirming resources based on preliminary threats from executive orders. Doing so only furthers the Trump administration’s agenda, which harms our communities. Demand action that situates trans lives within the wider fight against structural inequity that shows up in healthcare, housing, immigration, and beyond. True support for trans rights must be embedded in broader social justice efforts that address multiple and interlocking forms of oppression.
August 31, 2025 at 9:30 PM
daniellaurison.bsky.social
Yesterday I posted my op-ed in the Inquirer (gift link: share.inquirer.com/M8nPzg)

Today I want to highlight all the other excellent op-eds - anyone engaged with higher education should want to read these.

If you go to any one article in the collection, you'll get this box with all of them:
Image of text. Headline/bold: "You can't teach that." then a list of articles: You can’t teach that Under a regime hostile to academia, educators must walk an ideological tightrope. College professors and administrators from across Greater Philadelphia share nine essays on the tectonic shifts in higher education through the first six months of President Donald Trump’s second term. Read more in Inquirer Opinion: It’s getting harder to champion diverse learning, but we must persevere. | David W. Brown It’s time to put politics in STEM. | Philip T. Gressman I worry for children with Trump’s attacks on public media. | Amy Jordan Professors need to keep standing up for democracy. | Daniel Laurison What it’s like to run an academic department in 2025. | Jessa Lingel Community colleges can be pivotal to fighting attacks on higher education. | Marissa Johnson Valenzuela Trans students are under attack. Universities must respond. | A. Tai Simpson and Stephanie M. Hernandez How student journalists can help save their universities — and journalism. | Barbie Zelizer Trump’s executive orders put reliable science at risk. | Matt Zucker and Kendra Albert
August 31, 2025 at 9:23 PM
daniellaurison.bsky.social
My op-ed is part of a series of 5-6 articles (there's one I thought would be there that I don't see) by Philly-area professors about what's happening in higher ed (what the Trump admin's attacks are doing, to be specific) and how we are responding, from different disciplines & types of institutions.
image of the front page of the online opinion section of the inquirer, with images & headlines for a 5 articles. Biggest image, top left = an image of a person I read as Black, with a cap and gown, against a dark background. Text reads "With higher ed under attack, community colleges can play a pivotal role in helping professors fight back We need to stop treating Community College of Philadelphia like a lesser option and start prioritizing it for funding, attention, and other resources. Marissa Johnson Valenzuela, For The Inquirer" 2. a statue in front of a building. "Here’s what it’s like running an academic program in the humanities during Trump 2.0 Jessa Lingel, For The Inquirer" 3. an image of a No Kings banner in front of an outdoor protest, text reads "Amid Trump’s attacks on higher ed, professors need to keep standing up for our democracy. Daniel Laurison, For The Inq" 4. An image of the NSF logo/medallion thing on a wall (globe with NSF on top of it & pointy shiny things around) - text reads "Trump’s executive orders put science’s reliability at risk. "Matt Zucker and Kendra A..." 5. An image of people at a protest; a white-reading woman in a beanie and sunglasses is holding a sign with a hand-drawn statue of liberty with red hair and a human face, and the words "Science not Silence." Text reads - "To counter Trump’s attacks on higher ed, it’s time for STEM to get political. Philip Gressman, For The I"
August 30, 2025 at 3:06 PM
daniellaurison.bsky.social
My friend @anoosh100.bsky.social makes this shirt (and lots of others) for sale and I love it. www.bonfire.com/queer-as-in-...
Screenshot from the bonfire website with a blue hoodie that says "Queer as in Abolish ICE" in yellow ("queer as in") magenta/red ("abolish") and, you know, icey-blue ("ICE") lettering. Lettering reminds me of something from a superhero me movie poster or comic.
August 25, 2025 at 6:19 PM
daniellaurison.bsky.social
Image on the left shows predicted turnout by income group from a logistic regression with controls for age, gender, racial group, and state - each interacted with year, using the supplied weight for the survey.

Image on the right is just the % in each group who voted, with weights but no controls.
August 23, 2025 at 4:34 AM
daniellaurison.bsky.social
Class and race gaps in voting are widening a lot.

I just got results from the CES and voter turnout among low-income people has been declining steadily since 2012 - across racial groups. Only 25% of Black and Hispanic people in households making less than $30k/year voted in 2024.

(small thread)
chart from Stata showing income groups on the X axis, pr(vv1) - which means probability of having cast a vote for president - on the Y axis. There are 4 lines, one for 2012, for 2016, 2020, and 2024. 2024 is by far the steepest, with a 30 point difference in predicted turnout between those earning over $100k and those earning under $30k. Below are some of the key data points: under $30k in 2024 = 38% predicted turnout 2020 = 48%, 2016 = 51%, 2012 = 58% over $100k in 2024 = 73% predicted turnout 2020 & 2012 also about 73% 2016 = 60% chart from Excel, X axis is year (2012 - 2024) and Y axis is % turnout. 6 lines: whites in families earning over $100k, white less than $30k, Black over $100k, Black under $30k, Hispanic over $100k, Hispanic under $30k. All three lines for under $30k trend downward - declining turnout across these 4 elections. All three over $100k lines are flat-ish, with a dip in 2016 and a rise back up in 2020. Under $30k Black and Hispanic turnout in 2024 was about 25%, under $30k white turnout about 40%. Over $100k white turnout in 2024 was nearly 80%, over $100k Black & Hispanic turnout both about 60%
August 23, 2025 at 4:34 AM
daniellaurison.bsky.social
Printed a test one, looks good, gonna print a bunch more.
Cover of a mini-zine: text says How to Report ICE And help keep our neighbors safe Philly edition
August 17, 2025 at 1:05 AM