Dr. G
banner
freeintellectual.bsky.social
Dr. G
@freeintellectual.bsky.social
“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste much of it.” – Seneca
Reposted by Dr. G
Reposted by Dr. G
Reminder:

@kenlburns.bsky.social excellent documentary on the American Revolution starts streaming tonight!

Don’t miss it!
A couple of months ago, I had the chance to watch @kenlburns.bsky.social six-part doc on the American Revolution.

It was, unsurprisingly, fantastic — and like I do with all of Ken’s documentaries, I’m going to rewatch it soon.

All six parts start streaming this Sunday night on all PBS platforms!
November 17, 2025 at 2:46 AM
When we first meet Don Quixote, Cervantes does something curious. He insists that he is not the real author of the book at all. Instead, he tells us he merely translated an Arabic manuscript.

And here is the fascinating story of a stand-up comedian 👇

open.substack.com/pub/islamandth…
September 26, 2025 at 10:28 AM
While discussing Kimmel’s cancellation and politics of satire, I invite you to reflect on the fascinating story of Roman Ramirez.

My new piece 👇

open.substack.com/pub/islamand...
Don Quixote, Islam, and the Inquisition’s Cancel of a Morisco Comedian
As Jimmy Kimmel’s cancellation makes us think about authoritarianism and the culture of irony, how can we not remember Román Ramírez—and Don Quixote?
open.substack.com
September 21, 2025 at 3:17 AM
My students at American University know how I love to unpack the symbolism behind the Temperance Movement & the women’s campaigns.But recently, I stumbled across a far earlier—and far stranger—example of women’s mobilization to save their men from…coffee!
open.substack.com/pub/islamandth…
July 28, 2025 at 12:47 AM
It’s a storytelling podcast and here is why I tell these stories 👇

open.substack.com/pub/islamand...
Why "Islam and the Idea of America"?
With thousands of podcasts out there, why this one? Maybe because it tells a story we’ve forgotten to tell: how Islam was never just the 'other,' but a voice woven into the very idea of America itself
open.substack.com
July 13, 2025 at 1:38 AM
1652 Londra. Kralın kellesi gitmiş, cumhuriyetçiler gelmiş. Kuran’ın ilk İngilizce çevirisi dolaşıyor & ilk kahve evi açılıyor.
“Kahve geldi, Kur’an da hemen arkasından!” diyor “Muhammedan Berry” dedikleri bu içecekle Cumhuriyet devrimini ilişkilendirenler
youtu.be/ACkf6ren4Yk?...
Doğu-Batı Masalı 2: Kahve veya Diğer İsmiyle "Muhammedan Berry" (Londra, 1652)
YouTube video by Mustafa Gurbuz
youtu.be
June 29, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Reposted by Dr. G
Who is Leonard Leo?

He's a lawyer, but he's never argued a case in court. He's never held elected office. But for years he rebuilt the American legal system, resulting in the Supreme Court's right-wing supermajority.

By @andykroll.bsky.social
(Published Oct. 2023)
We Don’t Talk About Leonard: The Man Behind the Right’s Supreme Court Supermajority
The inside story of how Leonard Leo built a machine that remade the American legal system — and what he plans to do next.
www.propublica.org
June 6, 2025 at 2:00 AM
SEZON FİNALİ 🙌
Son 5 dakika sizi şaşırtacak
#DoğuBatıMasalı

youtu.be/fQ8yv6migpQ?...
Doğu-Batı Masalı 11: Büyük Türk'e Hitap: "Yaptıklarının Kuran'da Yeri Yok!" (Londra, 1680)
YouTube video by Mustafa Gurbuz
youtu.be
May 23, 2025 at 8:56 PM
Reposted by Dr. G
"Within minutes after DOGE accessed the NLRB's systems, someone with an IP address in Russia started trying to log in. The attempts were 'near real-time'...

"Whoever was attempting to log in was using one of the newly created DOGE accounts..."

www.npr.org/2025/04/15/n...
A whistleblower's disclosure details how DOGE may have taken sensitive labor data
A whistleblower tells Congress and NPR that DOGE may have taken sensitive labor data and hid its tracks. "None of that ... information should ever leave the agency," said a former NLRB official.
www.npr.org
April 15, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Reposted by Dr. G
As the death toll from Myanmar's worst earthquake in more than a century rose past 2,000, many people have taken to social media to plead with foreign governments to redirect aid into Sagaing, a rebel stronghold where residents say that over 80% of the town has been destroyed. nyti.ms/4iJ43wR
March 31, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Reposted by Dr. G
Can you please circulate?

PhD Scholarship:

The Effectiveness of Authoritarian Sharp Power Online in Influencing Diaspora Groups

www.deakin.edu.au/study/fees-a...
HDR Scholarship - Sharp power effectiveness
PhD Scholarship to research The Effectiveness of Authoritarian Sharp Power Online in Influencing Diaspora Groups
www.deakin.edu.au
March 30, 2025 at 11:52 PM
Reposted by Dr. G
Why is Pete Hegseth bringing his wife to top security meetings and hiring his brother at the Pentagon? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Pete Hegseth’s wife reportedly attended meetings with foreign defense officials
Defense secretary, already under fire for chat group blunder, faces new scrutiny for having wife in high-level meetings
www.theguardian.com
March 29, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Reposted by Dr. G
So good! Deeply moving and cathartic to be in community. Go watch the #Encampment at the Angelika!
March 30, 2025 at 1:14 AM
Reposted by Dr. G
"The question is, what can happen? The judiciary isn’t working anymore. People come out on the street, but we know that they can be put down. It’s very dangerous. Turkey will end up being a lesson in some way," @whitejenny.bsky.social told @ichotiner.bsky.social.
Is Turkey’s Declining Democracy a Model for Trump’s America?
After purging the judiciary, cracking down on the media, and jailing political opponents, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan faces protests on a scale not seen in a decade.
www.newyorker.com
March 29, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Reposted by Dr. G
In arresting his political enemies, Erdoğan counted on the support of Turks who hated the PKK and Fetullah Gulen more than they cared about the rule of law. Trump too is counting on the support of Americans who hate Hamas more than they respect the Constitution.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
We Study Repression in Turkey. Now We See It Here.
The detention of a Tufts graduate student echoes the violation of rights in her home country.
www.theatlantic.com
March 29, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Reposted by Dr. G
This is Yale Professor Timothy Snyder, who studies authoritarians and tyranny, with a warning.

He and another Yale professor, Jason Stanley, who studies similar topics at Yale, are moving to Canadian universities, a result of the political and academic climate here.
March 26, 2025 at 2:09 AM
Reposted by Dr. G
Kseniia Petrova, a Russian scientist at Harvard Medical School, was detained at Logan Airport after returning from France and sent to an ICE detention in Louisiana, The Insider reports.

A big critic of Putin and the war in Ukraine, she may now be deported to Russia.
March 27, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Reposted by Dr. G
BREAKING: Newly obtained footage of the abduction of Tufts student Runeysa Ozturk which includes audio of her kidnappers.
March 27, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Reposted by Dr. G
Over a thousand protesters gathered in Somerville, Massachusetts, on Wednesday to demand the freedom of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts PhD student and Fulbright scholar abducted by ICE agents.

Ozturk is believed to have been targeted for co-authoring an opinion piece for her student newspaper about Gaza.
March 27, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Reposted by Dr. G
So Rumeysa Ozturk is arrested in MA on Tuesday. Her lawyers rush to federal court on Tuesday night and obtain an order—ON TUESDAY NIGHT—not to move her out of MA. All day yesterday, ICE won’t say where she is. And now, on Thursday, they say she’s in Louisiana.
March 27, 2025 at 12:44 PM