Matt deTar
@mattdetar.bsky.social
comm studies prof @ ohio university, global rhetoric, amateur woodworker, union organizer, ask me about my cats, #teamrhetoric
Erik Johnson and I wrote about how Cory Booker's speech offers the beginnings of a media strategy to counter Trump. If you've been following (dwindling) media coverage of this speech, you're probably already familiar with how headlines repeat a unified message about the speech's meaning.
Cory Booker’s long speech offers a strategy for Trump opponents in a fragmented media landscape
The length of Booker’s speech grabbed headlines, but the senator’s media strategy helped sustain attention afterward while disrupting Trump’s public spotlight.
theconversation.com
April 16, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Erik Johnson and I wrote about how Cory Booker's speech offers the beginnings of a media strategy to counter Trump. If you've been following (dwindling) media coverage of this speech, you're probably already familiar with how headlines repeat a unified message about the speech's meaning.
ProPublica withholding names and identifying details of US academics is both responsible and a clear statement of the end of free speech rights in the US.
"What emerges is a more intimate picture of Öztürk and how a child development researcher charged with no crime ended up in a crowded cell in Louisiana." www.propublica.org/article/rume...
American Rendition: Rümeysa Öztürk’s Journey From Ph.D. Scholar to Trump Target Languishing in Louisiana Cell
“So horrifying and so heartbreaking”: Öztürk’s close friend provides an intimate look into one of the hundreds of foreign students who have had their visas revoked — and in dozens of instances have be...
www.propublica.org
April 13, 2025 at 7:21 PM
ProPublica withholding names and identifying details of US academics is both responsible and a clear statement of the end of free speech rights in the US.
This sortable tracker of the Trump Administration's actions to date is both genuinely useful and an innovation in doom scrolling
All of the Trump Administration’s Major Moves in the First 100 Days (Gift Article)
The New York Times is tracking the actions and significant statements of President Trump and his administration during the first 100 days of Mr. Trump’s second term.
www.nytimes.com
April 10, 2025 at 2:07 AM
This sortable tracker of the Trump Administration's actions to date is both genuinely useful and an innovation in doom scrolling
Reposted by Matt deTar
One thing about this kind of thing is that if it works to get attention and energy, the next step is to do it again. And the step after that is to do something bigger.
Currently 31,885 watching Senator Cory Booker’s substantive Senator Floor speech Live on his YouTube—more watching on C-Span.
11,000 when I 1st tuned in. Attendees have been growing for hours.
Huge achievement. Not just impact on Senate—*he’s holding a live rally with tens of thousands of people*
11,000 when I 1st tuned in. Attendees have been growing for hours.
Huge achievement. Not just impact on Senate—*he’s holding a live rally with tens of thousands of people*
April 1, 2025 at 2:31 PM
One thing about this kind of thing is that if it works to get attention and energy, the next step is to do it again. And the step after that is to do something bigger.
Cory Booker is 16 hours into a speech that's still going. I wrote with Erik Johnson about how these kinds of performances in history disrupt and redirect media. Is that still possible? www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
The Long Speech: Rhetorical Abundance in Circulation
This essay analyzes excessively long speeches in order to argue that circulation naturalizes rhetorical processes that govern meaning within texts. In our view, abundant acts of address unsettle do...
www.tandfonline.com
April 1, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Cory Booker is 16 hours into a speech that's still going. I wrote with Erik Johnson about how these kinds of performances in history disrupt and redirect media. Is that still possible? www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
If your academic professional org hasn't gotten its act together to say anything about federal (and state) attacks on higher ed, an important reminder: "Anticipatory obedience is neither a defense against repression nor a viable strategy to avert risk." mesana.org/advocacy/let...
Middle East Studies Association
In the current national climate, as institutions of higher education and their mission of critical inquiry face unprecedented attack, MESA unequivocally supports efforts to stand up for freedom of exp...
mesana.org
March 14, 2025 at 11:36 PM
If your academic professional org hasn't gotten its act together to say anything about federal (and state) attacks on higher ed, an important reminder: "Anticipatory obedience is neither a defense against repression nor a viable strategy to avert risk." mesana.org/advocacy/let...
Reposted by Matt deTar
"The fact is, the battle over “DEI” has always been a fight about labor, work, and who has access to the jobs and political institutions that build and protect wealth. If we ever forgot that, we’re learning it again now."
me for @slate.bsky.social
slate.com/news-and-pol...
me for @slate.bsky.social
slate.com/news-and-pol...
Why Corporate DEI Is Such a Perfect Target for Trump
It’s an attack on labor. But he can frame it as something else.
slate.com
March 10, 2025 at 11:34 AM
"The fact is, the battle over “DEI” has always been a fight about labor, work, and who has access to the jobs and political institutions that build and protect wealth. If we ever forgot that, we’re learning it again now."
me for @slate.bsky.social
slate.com/news-and-pol...
me for @slate.bsky.social
slate.com/news-and-pol...
Reposted by Matt deTar
one great mystery of our age is how the only way to motivate rich people to work is to give them loads of money for no reason but the only way to motivate poor people to work is to take away loads of their money for no reason
March 11, 2025 at 9:15 AM
one great mystery of our age is how the only way to motivate rich people to work is to give them loads of money for no reason but the only way to motivate poor people to work is to take away loads of their money for no reason
Just a Valentine's Day Eve reminder that "speech that must be authorized is not free" www.thenation.com/article/acti...
Universities Have Been Doing Trump’s Work for Him
The University of Chicago, despite its free speech reputation, has laid the groundwork for the president's threats against students who protest for Palestine.
www.thenation.com
February 13, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Just a Valentine's Day Eve reminder that "speech that must be authorized is not free" www.thenation.com/article/acti...
Reposted by Matt deTar
“Don’t feed the trolls” also extends to bad opinion pieces in papers of record.
They run them bc people react to them the most.
If we stop linking to bad columns and instead post thinkers we find valuable (& generate convo around it), incentives change.
It’s not easy and takes constant practice!
They run them bc people react to them the most.
If we stop linking to bad columns and instead post thinkers we find valuable (& generate convo around it), incentives change.
It’s not easy and takes constant practice!
December 2, 2024 at 6:19 PM
“Don’t feed the trolls” also extends to bad opinion pieces in papers of record.
They run them bc people react to them the most.
If we stop linking to bad columns and instead post thinkers we find valuable (& generate convo around it), incentives change.
It’s not easy and takes constant practice!
They run them bc people react to them the most.
If we stop linking to bad columns and instead post thinkers we find valuable (& generate convo around it), incentives change.
It’s not easy and takes constant practice!
Reposted by Matt deTar
Right on cue Democrats will spend a week eating each other alive over the pardon while Trump keeps setting up the most unfit government in history to rip apart lives on Day 1 unfettered by a coherent opposition.
December 2, 2024 at 2:55 PM
Right on cue Democrats will spend a week eating each other alive over the pardon while Trump keeps setting up the most unfit government in history to rip apart lives on Day 1 unfettered by a coherent opposition.
I taught about the '80s salmon hats last term. Humans are good at anthropomorphizing or at least centering themselves in the unknowable. It's almost like our own species' perspective is the only one available to us.
Orcas have started wearing dead salmon as hats again, just fyi
www.iflscience.com/wearing-a-sa...
www.iflscience.com/wearing-a-sa...
Wearing A Salmon On Your Head Is Back In Fashion For Orcas, After A 37-Year Break
In 1987, there was a strange trend amongst killer whales. Recent sightings show it's back in fashion.
www.iflscience.com
November 28, 2024 at 4:15 PM
I taught about the '80s salmon hats last term. Humans are good at anthropomorphizing or at least centering themselves in the unknowable. It's almost like our own species' perspective is the only one available to us.
Reposted by Matt deTar
For the next two weeks, we’re offering ten free ebooks for getting free
Another world is possible if we fight for it
www.haymarketbooks.org/blogs/517-te...
Another world is possible if we fight for it
www.haymarketbooks.org/blogs/517-te...
November 9, 2024 at 8:22 PM
For the next two weeks, we’re offering ten free ebooks for getting free
Another world is possible if we fight for it
www.haymarketbooks.org/blogs/517-te...
Another world is possible if we fight for it
www.haymarketbooks.org/blogs/517-te...
I finished Parable of the Sower last night for the first time. Trying to reflect on advice for how to manage in an unimaginable future.
November 6, 2024 at 12:28 PM
I finished Parable of the Sower last night for the first time. Trying to reflect on advice for how to manage in an unimaginable future.
Reposted by Matt deTar
When a woman underscores the need to phase out fossil fuels, will we celebrate her intellectual contributions? A very smart & clear interview on language & negotiations at COPs
I spoke to @BBCNews about the language around fossil fuels in the #Cop28 draft text.
Remarkably, the climate segment is the first segment on the program. You can listen here. 👇
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w...
Remarkably, the climate segment is the first segment on the program. You can listen here. 👇
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w...
BBC World Service - Newsday, Fossil fuel backlash puts UN climate talks in jeopardy
COP28 had appeared close to calling phase-out of fossil fuels until last-minute changes
www.bbc.co.uk
December 12, 2023 at 3:51 PM
When a woman underscores the need to phase out fossil fuels, will we celebrate her intellectual contributions? A very smart & clear interview on language & negotiations at COPs
Reposted by Matt deTar
lol Biden was opposed to the ceasefire because he thought it might allow people to see more of how bad Israel is.
November 22, 2023 at 4:16 PM
lol Biden was opposed to the ceasefire because he thought it might allow people to see more of how bad Israel is.
Reposted by Matt deTar
If you read Ministry of the Future you might remember the central role that discount rates play in galvanizing efforts to act on climate change.
The White House has lowered the “discount rate,” the way agencies calculate the future value of a regulation. I wrote about how Biden is tweaking cost-benefit analysis to reclaim it from economists broadly skeptical of government action:
prospect.org/economy/2023...
prospect.org/economy/2023...
Washington Tweaks How It Prices the Future
An updated document from the Office of Management and Budget will make it easier to enact regulations.
prospect.org
November 22, 2023 at 2:57 PM
If you read Ministry of the Future you might remember the central role that discount rates play in galvanizing efforts to act on climate change.
If, like me, you're not at #NCA, you might not have heard about the #palestine walkout. Palestiniancommscholars on instagram has an informative post for y'all #NCA2023 #NationalCommunicationAssociation #CommunicationStudies #teamrhetoric www.instagram.com/p/Cz1etdtu59...
November 19, 2023 at 11:38 PM
If, like me, you're not at #NCA, you might not have heard about the #palestine walkout. Palestiniancommscholars on instagram has an informative post for y'all #NCA2023 #NationalCommunicationAssociation #CommunicationStudies #teamrhetoric www.instagram.com/p/Cz1etdtu59...
Reposted by Matt deTar
Mike Pence should be forced to carry his Presidential campaign to term.
October 28, 2023 at 6:53 PM
Mike Pence should be forced to carry his Presidential campaign to term.
Which circle of hell is the car mechanic waiting room with the Biden impeachment inquiry hearing on full blast?
September 28, 2023 at 3:13 PM
Which circle of hell is the car mechanic waiting room with the Biden impeachment inquiry hearing on full blast?
Reposted by Matt deTar
I am thrilled to say we are hiring a tenure-track assistant professor with specialization in Asian American Rhetorics!
Full URL of Job Ad:
osu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/OSUCareers/j...
Full URL of Job Ad:
osu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/OSUCareers/j...
Assistant Professor - Asian American Rhetorics
Screen reader users may encounter difficulty with this site. For assistance with applying, please contact hr-accessibleapplication@osu.edu. If you have questions while submitting an application, pleas...
osu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com
September 21, 2023 at 10:25 PM
I am thrilled to say we are hiring a tenure-track assistant professor with specialization in Asian American Rhetorics!
Full URL of Job Ad:
osu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/OSUCareers/j...
Full URL of Job Ad:
osu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/OSUCareers/j...
Will always repost posts celebrating a positive union vote. Hoping to have my own to post this year.
Northeastern Uni graduate students voted for a union today AND WON! By a landslide!!! An incredible victory after almost 10 years of hard work ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
September 24, 2023 at 8:52 PM
Will always repost posts celebrating a positive union vote. Hoping to have my own to post this year.
Reposted by Matt deTar
Parents of college students complain about their grades, 1908 edition
In which Prof. A. B. Hart receives a telegram from a father asking for a "correction in grade" that will allow his son to graduate, enroll in Harvard Law, and maintain the "ancestral pride" of a long line of Harvard alums.🗃️
In which Prof. A. B. Hart receives a telegram from a father asking for a "correction in grade" that will allow his son to graduate, enroll in Harvard Law, and maintain the "ancestral pride" of a long line of Harvard alums.🗃️
September 22, 2023 at 11:08 PM
Parents of college students complain about their grades, 1908 edition
In which Prof. A. B. Hart receives a telegram from a father asking for a "correction in grade" that will allow his son to graduate, enroll in Harvard Law, and maintain the "ancestral pride" of a long line of Harvard alums.🗃️
In which Prof. A. B. Hart receives a telegram from a father asking for a "correction in grade" that will allow his son to graduate, enroll in Harvard Law, and maintain the "ancestral pride" of a long line of Harvard alums.🗃️