Iris Soleil
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irissoleil.com
Iris Soleil
@irissoleil.com
860 followers 4.5K following 94 posts
Sociologist of Higher Education | Doctoral Student | Equitable Assessment & Pedagogy | Higher Education & Policy | Justice & Society | Technology & Learning | ASA | S4TJ | PacificSoc | SSSP | MLA | Connect in English, Español, 日本語 ♏️♐️♋️🏳️‍⚧️🌈🌱Ⓥ
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irissoleil.com
It says a lot about a publication when they can unironically start a headline with "Billionaires say..." 😂
Screenshot of a news headline reads: New York Post Billionaires say Al can transform schools for the better — it's not all 'doom and gloom' Yesterday • By Lydia Moynihan It is accompanied by a small thumbnail showing the faces of three people.
August 31, 2025 at 5:18 PM
irissoleil.com
Hello from the Oregon Coast. Had to finally stop to take a photo of this after passing it a few times.
Traffic signs on a single post. One reads "Gender Drive," above that "Dead End," and below those a Stop sign. in the background are trees and blue sky.
July 19, 2025 at 10:12 PM
irissoleil.com
This weather seems on point for today.

☁️😶‍🌫️☁️
⛈️🇺🇸⛈️
July 4, 2025 at 3:18 PM
irissoleil.com
NYT doing NYT 💩. The less terrible things they do and publish only make all the atrocious, dangerous things they do and publish more dangerous because it floats a little halo over the mountain of harm they do.
July 3, 2025 at 11:00 PM
irissoleil.com
I made a thing. Banana bread specifically. Vegan.
A loaf of freshly baked banana bread in the pan. There is a banana cut in half baked atop the loaf.
March 9, 2025 at 9:51 PM
irissoleil.com
Hello! I'm a big fan of #markdown for all the reasons (lightweight, human readable, future proof, broad and expanding compatibility, etc).

I would love to hear from you about your tools and workflow.

#phdchat #phdjourney #phd #phdstudent #phdlife #academicsky #sociology #Zettelkasten #research
Colorful markdown logo Below that is text that reads, "I need your opinion about markdown tools for grad school." Below that is a drawing of a wooden spool containing blue thread. The end of the thread turns into a downward-pointing arrow.
February 22, 2025 at 5:51 PM
irissoleil.com
What they said. (And a slight tweak.)
Fake magazine cover posted to twitter by the White Supremacy House account. It shows Resident Chump wearing a suit and tie in front of the New York City skyline. He is wearing a crown, and it has the text "Long Live the King." Superimposed on this image is one emoji turd on each shoulder and an emoji turn on his face. The letter "T" has been removed from the word "TRUMP" that is at the top of the image.
February 20, 2025 at 2:51 AM
irissoleil.com
Literary Organizations Release Joint Statement Decrying Anti-Trans Executive Order

"...a large number of major organizations in the book business and literary world released a statement decrying the move"

www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...
The logos of a large number of the literary organizations who released a joint statement decrying anti-trans executive order. They are a subset of the following: American Booksellers Association American Booksellers for Free Expression Andrews McMeel Annie's Foundation Audio Publishers Association Authors Against Book Bans Berry Powell Press Cardinal Rule Press Charlesbridge Publishing Chestnut Publishing House Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Deborah Sloan and Company and Kidsbuzz Developmental Texts Empowering Latino Futures EveryLibrary Firewater Media Group Florida Freedom to Read Project Foreword Reviews Freedom to Read Project Gryphon Publishing Consulting, LLC Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) IngramSpark Judging by the Cover: A Bookstore Lafayette Citizens Against Censorship Lambda Literary Latino 247 Media Group Lee Wind, author Levine Querido Library Futures Livingston Parish Library Alliance Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship Macmillan Children's Publishing Group The National Book Critics Circle National Coalition Against Censorship NorthSouth Books Nosy Crow Patagonia Publishers and Writers of San Diego and Orange County PEN America PFLAG Fresno PubWest Rattling Good Yarns Press Read Freely Alabama Red Comet Press LLC Rutherford County Library Alliance Sara Paretsky, Writer Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators SEAT SparkPoint Studio St Tammany Library Alliance Stone Bridge Press Texas Freedom to Read Project Walker Books Group for Candlewick Press, Holiday House Books, and Peachtree Publishing We Need Diverse Books
February 14, 2025 at 2:02 AM
irissoleil.com
Seeing this complete idiocy deployed is just wild. The richness of this, warning "LGB" people about possible risks when traveling abroad as the U.S. "administration" of butt-hurt, insecure tech bros and oligarchs are one of the greatest threats in the world to LGBTQIA+ folks, and many others now.
Screenshot of the U.S. Department of State's Travel.State.Gov website, specifically the 'LGB Travelers' section under 'International Travel.' The page provides information and warnings for LGBTQ+ travelers, but following the fascist coup, they are deleting all reference to trans and intersex people. The page highlights challenges this population may face abroad, including legal and safety issues related to same-sex relationships in various countries.
February 13, 2025 at 5:24 AM
irissoleil.com
Not just Google Maps. This is from Apple Maps. I don't know how much good it does for companies to fight it since the "U.S. Geological Service has officially adopted 'Gulf of America.'", but it is still asinine and infuriating.
🤢🤮

Just channeled that into the "Report an issue" option. 🤷🏻‍♀️
Screenshot of the Gulf of Mexico on Apple Maps. It reads "Gulf of America," in line with the illegal edict from Resident Chump. The information box for the location is present and next to the link for "Report an issue," the words "Do it" have been overlaid on it.
February 12, 2025 at 5:17 AM
irissoleil.com
FRIEND: "How ARE you?!"

ME: Well, apparently I no longer exist. And it is a strange feeling to simultaneously not exist — and also be both a spectacle and a target. So the bar is pretty low for how I'm doing. But all in all, I'm doing alright.
FRIEND: "How ARE you?" ME: Well, apparently I no longer exist. And it is a strange feeling to simultaneously not exist — and also be both a spectacle and a target. So the bar is pretty low for how I'm doing. But all in all, I'm doing alright.
February 11, 2025 at 10:00 PM
irissoleil.com
From a local paper in Portland.
A crowd of protesters gathers across the street from the Oregon Capitol steps in Salem on a sunny day. People hold various signs, including one that reads "Para mis padres que vinieron sin nada y me dieron todo" (For my parents who came with nothing and gave me everything), another that says "America was built by immigrants," and others with messages like "Deport Elon" and "Illegal on stolen land." Another sign reads, "Fascism arrived in America in a red cap wrapped in a Russian flag and bearing an iPhone poked by tiny orange fingers." Some attendees wear protective face coverings, and some are bundled in jackets for the cool weather. Leafless trees and government buildings are visible in the background.
February 6, 2025 at 8:43 PM
irissoleil.com
This is what floundering in the dark looks like. And for all the harm they've done, may they stay there. (Or sell off all assets, pay their employees what they deserve, and donate the balance to those trying to do good in the world. That would be fine, too.)

www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
Now, Meta is planning to take the next step: integrating these AI creations as Facebook and Instagram “users” in themselves. As reported by the Financial Times, the hope is that these semi-independent custom avatars will prove more engaging to the young people who are crucial to the survival of Meta’s flagship social networks. “We expect these AIs to actually, over time, exist on our platforms, kind of in the same way that accounts do,” Connor Hayes, Meta’s vice-president of product for generative AI, told FT. “They’ll have bios and profile pictures and be able to generate and share content powered by AI on the platform  …  that’s where we see all of this going.” The prospect seems an unusual one for websites predicated on the idea of human-to-human interaction...
December 31, 2024 at 8:15 PM
irissoleil.com
From a 2018 opinion piece by Evan Greer, "Powerful gay rights groups excluded trans people for decades — leaving them vulnerable to Trump’s attack"

As we're seeing, it has only gotten worse.

www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2018...
The Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis, two of the first formally organized gay and lesbian rights organizations in the United States, actively discouraged members from engaging in “deviant” expressions of gender and sexuality. Rather than challenge the rigid and repressive gender roles of postwar America, they embraced them in the interest of political gain. For example, their “Annual Reminder” pickets for gay rights in the late 1960s had a [strict dress code](https://whyy.org/articles/marking-50-years-of-struggle-and-a-week-of-equality-annual-reminders-to-march-again-in-philly/): Men had to wear white shirts and slacks, and women had to wear dresses. They fought against discrimination on the grounds that they were “normal homosexuals,” and trans people did not fit under that rubric. These groups thought that conforming to societal standards would advance their singular cause: acceptance.
December 31, 2024 at 6:10 AM
irissoleil.com
🧵⤵️ This is from an article in 2011. The dynamic Miss Major is talking about here has been the reality of trans people for nearly 80 years, with cis gays and lesbians actively throwing trans people under the bus in order to get ahead. Too little has changed.

sfonline.barnard.edu/this-is-what...
Miss Major paints a vivid picture of how she perceives the LGBT movement’s exclusion of herself and others, especially transgender people who are low-income, people of color, or have criminal records. She said, “I feel like we’ve been pushed to the outside and then prevented from looking in. It’s the stares, the noninclusion over decision-making, exclusion from events that would build this movement. I think if they could eradicate us, they would.” As a result, she now works primarily with other transgender men and women and only infrequently with lesbians and gays. She is deeply hurt by the exclusion, however, because she remembers fighting alongside multiracial transgender friends at the 1969 Stonewall riots that are credited with birthing the American LGBT movement. “Transgender people were the first to fight. Yet, [non-transgender] men and white people took over and fucked whoever was there before. It was an inclusive club until we stood up for ourselves, and then it became gay white men running stuff.”
December 31, 2024 at 6:10 AM
irissoleil.com
I've been an ethical vegan (not "plant based") for almost exactly 10 years. The evidence just keeps mounting to make me grateful I made that enduring commitment then.

"Listening...has taught Shane Gero the importance of seeing the animals he studies as individuals, each with a unique history." 🌐🔗👇
Over the past year, AI-assisted studies have found that both African savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana)1 and common marmoset monkeys (Callithrix jacchus)2 bestow names on their companions. Researchers are also using machine-learning tools to map the vocalizations of crows. As the capability of these computer models improves, they might be able to shed light on how animals communicate, and enable scientists to investigate animals’ self-awareness — and perhaps spur people to make greater efforts to protect threatened species.
December 30, 2024 at 10:20 PM