Sarah Parkinson
@separkinson.bsky.social
Political scientist at Johns Hopkins. MENA/SWANA, disasters, political violence, ethics, humanitarian crises, & qual methods. Wrote a book about Palestinian org evolution & social change in wartime Lebanon: http://bit.ly/3VEw64B. EMT. Opinions my own.
Pinned
Sarah Parkinson
@separkinson.bsky.social
· Jun 24
"In an era of media fatigue, Andor provides a useful vehicle to think seriously about what it means and takes to challenge power and offers realistic scenarios to consider the moral imperatives involved."
If you think Andor is irrelevant to current politics, you aren't paying attention to either.
If you think Andor is irrelevant to current politics, you aren't paying attention to either.
One of my big concerns is that these guys will convince the US/Israel to let them experiment with the “blank slate” [how they’ll frame it] of Gaza. Read versions of the Riviera plan & you’ll see shared themes of technofascism, “buying people out of land,” & anti-democratic, feudal governing systems.
I would say this because I edited it but @mshannahmurphy.bsky.social's piece on tech bros founding their own for-profit cities really is unmissable reading www.ft.com/content/b127...
Tech elites are starting their own for-profit cities
They want to escape from regulation and ‘failing’ democracy — but are they more opportunistic than libertarian?
www.ft.com
December 7, 2025 at 12:01 PM
One of my big concerns is that these guys will convince the US/Israel to let them experiment with the “blank slate” [how they’ll frame it] of Gaza. Read versions of the Riviera plan & you’ll see shared themes of technofascism, “buying people out of land,” & anti-democratic, feudal governing systems.
Reposted by Sarah Parkinson
NEW — I put together a list of independent journalism subscriptions that would make great holiday gifts. From music to politics, astronomy to alcohol, tech to social justice, there’s something for [almost] everyone. Support indie media *and* surprise and delight your loved ones!
My guide:
My guide:
Giving the gift of independent journalism: a guide
The Handbasket has subscription suggestions for almost everyone on your list.
www.thehandbasket.co
December 6, 2025 at 3:38 PM
NEW — I put together a list of independent journalism subscriptions that would make great holiday gifts. From music to politics, astronomy to alcohol, tech to social justice, there’s something for [almost] everyone. Support indie media *and* surprise and delight your loved ones!
My guide:
My guide:
Reposted by Sarah Parkinson
It's #ReadPalestine week, we encourage everyone to read in an act of solidarity with Palestinian writers and stories.
AFSC has released two books featuring the writings of Palestinian writers including Refaat Alareer, and testimonies from Palestinians in the midst of genocide.
AFSC has released two books featuring the writings of Palestinian writers including Refaat Alareer, and testimonies from Palestinians in the midst of genocide.
December 3, 2025 at 7:03 PM
It's #ReadPalestine week, we encourage everyone to read in an act of solidarity with Palestinian writers and stories.
AFSC has released two books featuring the writings of Palestinian writers including Refaat Alareer, and testimonies from Palestinians in the midst of genocide.
AFSC has released two books featuring the writings of Palestinian writers including Refaat Alareer, and testimonies from Palestinians in the midst of genocide.
Reposted by Sarah Parkinson
If you are a historian with policy-facing interests who has recently submitted their PhD (or will do so imminently), this fantastic new London-based postdoc fellowship in Applied History could be for you. www.history.ac.uk/fellowships/...
Robert Mcintosh Applied History & Policy Fellowship
Robert Mcintosh Applied History & Policy Fellowship
www.history.ac.uk
December 4, 2025 at 7:44 AM
If you are a historian with policy-facing interests who has recently submitted their PhD (or will do so imminently), this fantastic new London-based postdoc fellowship in Applied History could be for you. www.history.ac.uk/fellowships/...
Meanwhile the anti-science administration that Open AI is enthusiastically supporting has already cut billions in NIH/NSF research funding & hundreds of millions in support for mental health programming.
December 2, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Meanwhile the anti-science administration that Open AI is enthusiastically supporting has already cut billions in NIH/NSF research funding & hundreds of millions in support for mental health programming.
Not hard to see why no one wants to sign up to play enforcer under a plan that has had, once again, zero real Palestinian input.
The US & Israel want a fall guy for when the plan fails.
The US & Israel want a fall guy for when the plan fails.
”‘They want the international stabilizing force to come into Gaza and restore, quote unquote, law and order and disarm any resistance,‘ a senior official in Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. ‘So that’s the problem. Nobody wants to do that.’” www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...
International force at heart of Trump’s Gaza plan struggles to find takers
The U.S. administration is trying to drum up troop commitments, but concerns are mounting over whether foreign soldiers would have to use force against Gazans.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 1, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Not hard to see why no one wants to sign up to play enforcer under a plan that has had, once again, zero real Palestinian input.
The US & Israel want a fall guy for when the plan fails.
The US & Israel want a fall guy for when the plan fails.
Go ahead, re-post your "edgy" commentary that maybe the Middle East just needed a Trump to strong arm Netanyahu & achieve peace
UN says 32,000 Palestinians forced from their homes in the Israeli-occupied territory with major assault ongoing.
‘In cold blood’: Israeli troops kill unarmed men during West Bank assault
UN says 32,000 Palestinians forced from their homes in the Israeli-occupied territory with major assault ongoing.
bit.ly
November 27, 2025 at 8:48 PM
Go ahead, re-post your "edgy" commentary that maybe the Middle East just needed a Trump to strong arm Netanyahu & achieve peace
I feel physical pain reading these announcements. I think of the brilliant graduate students that I know studying, e.g., food systems, political violence, & civic engagement & see one of the biggest opportunities for them to bring their work to fruition being extinguished out of malice & ignorance.
NEW from me - NSF cancels grant scheme for social science research.
Seems the NSF quietly archived ALL calls for DDRIG grants in the SBE directorate. This is a massive blow for PhD students wanting to do cutting-edge social science research. 🏺🧪
Seems the NSF quietly archived ALL calls for DDRIG grants in the SBE directorate. This is a massive blow for PhD students wanting to do cutting-edge social science research. 🏺🧪
Today's biggest science news: Doomed comet explodes | Comet 3I/ATLAS course alteration | Dark matter detected?
Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025: Your daily feed of the biggest discoveries and breakthroughs making headlines.
www.livescience.com
November 27, 2025 at 2:18 PM
I feel physical pain reading these announcements. I think of the brilliant graduate students that I know studying, e.g., food systems, political violence, & civic engagement & see one of the biggest opportunities for them to bring their work to fruition being extinguished out of malice & ignorance.
Props to her on a flawless delivery, which is how most of us can only fantasize about revenge on a nemesis after a decade. Plus, she got to televise it.
Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷
November 26, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Props to her on a flawless delivery, which is how most of us can only fantasize about revenge on a nemesis after a decade. Plus, she got to televise it.
Fellowship opportunity for for three scholars from SWANA/MENA countries to attend the Institute for Qualitative and Multi-Method Research in summer 2026. Apply by December 14 (scroll down for info).
Direct link to PDF call here: web.apsanet.org/mena/wp-cont...
Direct link to PDF call here: web.apsanet.org/mena/wp-cont...
Institute for Qualitative & Multi-Method Research
www.maxwell.syr.edu
November 26, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Fellowship opportunity for for three scholars from SWANA/MENA countries to attend the Institute for Qualitative and Multi-Method Research in summer 2026. Apply by December 14 (scroll down for info).
Direct link to PDF call here: web.apsanet.org/mena/wp-cont...
Direct link to PDF call here: web.apsanet.org/mena/wp-cont...
Reposted by Sarah Parkinson
I’ve been running around asking tech execs and academics if language was the same as intelligence for over a year now - and, well, it isn’t. @benjaminjriley.bsky.social explains how the bubble is built on ignoring cutting-edge research into the science of thought www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
November 25, 2025 at 1:54 PM
I’ve been running around asking tech execs and academics if language was the same as intelligence for over a year now - and, well, it isn’t. @benjaminjriley.bsky.social explains how the bubble is built on ignoring cutting-edge research into the science of thought www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
Reposted by Sarah Parkinson
Could argue the misogyny Summers expressed both publicly while president of Harvard and in emails to Epstein says more about the culture at our most elite institutions than any of the frontpage freakouts over academia in the past few years but hey
November 17, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Could argue the misogyny Summers expressed both publicly while president of Harvard and in emails to Epstein says more about the culture at our most elite institutions than any of the frontpage freakouts over academia in the past few years but hey
Le Due Torri going a little hard with the Minas Morgul cosplay tonight
November 16, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Le Due Torri going a little hard with the Minas Morgul cosplay tonight
Remember when we all thought Furbies were terrifying?
sts researchers: :spend decades tracing the way well-intentioned design choices constrained by culture, capital, and the material environment can have negative outcomes in aggregate:
ai companies: lets put a chatbot in a doll that tells kids to set fires
futurism.com/artificial-i...
ai companies: lets put a chatbot in a doll that tells kids to set fires
futurism.com/artificial-i...
AI-Powered Toys Caught Telling 5-Year-Olds How to Find Knives and Start Fires With Matches
AI-powered toys are flying off the shelves -- but they're engaging in horrifically inappropriate conversations with children.
futurism.com
November 16, 2025 at 8:54 AM
Remember when we all thought Furbies were terrifying?
Worth your read, great for understanding (& teaching) media literacy.
"if you have enough money to get somebody, anybody, to produce a white paper for you, which you can then put on some think-tank stationery? Then, my friend, you are ready to enter into the rushing current of elite reportage."
"if you have enough money to get somebody, anybody, to produce a white paper for you, which you can then put on some think-tank stationery? Then, my friend, you are ready to enter into the rushing current of elite reportage."
Maybe Don’t Talk to the New York Times About Zohran Mamdani
It’s remarkable, the people you’ll hear from. Teach for even a little while at an expensive institution—the term they tend to prefer is “elite”—and odds are that eventually someone who was a studen…
lithub.com
November 15, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Worth your read, great for understanding (& teaching) media literacy.
"if you have enough money to get somebody, anybody, to produce a white paper for you, which you can then put on some think-tank stationery? Then, my friend, you are ready to enter into the rushing current of elite reportage."
"if you have enough money to get somebody, anybody, to produce a white paper for you, which you can then put on some think-tank stationery? Then, my friend, you are ready to enter into the rushing current of elite reportage."
GBBO: Charming grandma from Essex innocently presents beaver cake, gentle laugher ensues
Bake Off Italia: Nonna sporting huge green glasses & speaking at at rate that suggests she's slammed 5 Monster energy drinks cajoles hosts to stir chocolate & unstick her plastic wrap, then throws plastic wrap
Bake Off Italia: Nonna sporting huge green glasses & speaking at at rate that suggests she's slammed 5 Monster energy drinks cajoles hosts to stir chocolate & unstick her plastic wrap, then throws plastic wrap
November 15, 2025 at 7:03 PM
GBBO: Charming grandma from Essex innocently presents beaver cake, gentle laugher ensues
Bake Off Italia: Nonna sporting huge green glasses & speaking at at rate that suggests she's slammed 5 Monster energy drinks cajoles hosts to stir chocolate & unstick her plastic wrap, then throws plastic wrap
Bake Off Italia: Nonna sporting huge green glasses & speaking at at rate that suggests she's slammed 5 Monster energy drinks cajoles hosts to stir chocolate & unstick her plastic wrap, then throws plastic wrap
Reposted by Sarah Parkinson
Nuzzi's fawning coverage of the sociopathic conspiracy crank she was having an affair with aided his rise to political power, which he is using to perpetrate the worst intentional public health catastrophe of our unnecessarily shortened lifetimes, and THAT is the STORY.
November 15, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Nuzzi's fawning coverage of the sociopathic conspiracy crank she was having an affair with aided his rise to political power, which he is using to perpetrate the worst intentional public health catastrophe of our unnecessarily shortened lifetimes, and THAT is the STORY.
Reposted by Sarah Parkinson
"Israel is breaching international law by continuing to impose restrictions on aid flows into Gaza, where the population remains critically short of food and life-saving goods as winter sets in"
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Israel breaching international law by limiting Gaza aid, says Unrwa official
Natalie Boucly says supplies are ready but only about half of what is needed is getting into territory
www.theguardian.com
November 15, 2025 at 12:22 PM
"Israel is breaching international law by continuing to impose restrictions on aid flows into Gaza, where the population remains critically short of food and life-saving goods as winter sets in"
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
The act "would deny federal funding to any U.S. scientist who collaborates with anyone “affiliated with a hostile foreign entity,” a category that includes four countries: China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea."
The Chronicle noted in June that there are 12,500 Iranian grad students in the US.
The Chronicle noted in June that there are 12,500 Iranian grad students in the US.
“The prohibited activities would include joint research, co-authorship on papers, and advising a foreign graduate student or postdoctoral fellow. The language is retroactive, meaning any interactions during the previous 5 years could make a scientist ineligible for future federal funding.”
U.S. Congress considers sweeping ban on Chinese collaborations
Researchers speak out against proposal that would bar funding for U.S. scientists working with Chinese partners or training Chinese students
www.science.org
November 14, 2025 at 10:59 AM
The act "would deny federal funding to any U.S. scientist who collaborates with anyone “affiliated with a hostile foreign entity,” a category that includes four countries: China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea."
The Chronicle noted in June that there are 12,500 Iranian grad students in the US.
The Chronicle noted in June that there are 12,500 Iranian grad students in the US.
Reposted by Sarah Parkinson
"Pro-Israel and right-wing advocacy organizations – including those without any campus presence – have driven the surge in antisemitism investigations; in at least 78% of the complaints we analyzed, such groups either represent complainants or act as complainants themselves."
AAUP/MESA Report: 'Most government investigations of antisemitism are prompted by complaints received from outside campuses... Of the 102 complaints filed with the Office of Civil Rights that the report analyzes, all but one focus on speech critical of Israel.'
www.aaup.org/news/new-rep...
www.aaup.org/news/new-rep...
New Report: Civil Rights Law Weaponized to Chill Speech
A report published today is the first systematic empirical study of government investigations and private lawsuits against US colleges and universities under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
www.aaup.org
November 12, 2025 at 1:51 PM
"Pro-Israel and right-wing advocacy organizations – including those without any campus presence – have driven the surge in antisemitism investigations; in at least 78% of the complaints we analyzed, such groups either represent complainants or act as complainants themselves."
Reposted by Sarah Parkinson
@aloner.bsky.social surveys the “systemic destruction” of Gaza’s cities—which some are calling “urbicide”.
“Rafah doesn’t exist. East Khan Younis doesn’t exist. East Gaza [City] doesn’t exist,” says Eyal Weizman from @forensicarchi.bsky.social.
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/middle...
“Rafah doesn’t exist. East Khan Younis doesn’t exist. East Gaza [City] doesn’t exist,” says Eyal Weizman from @forensicarchi.bsky.social.
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/middle...
How Gaza’s cities were destroyed
Israel has razed large parts of the Gaza Strip since the war began in October 2023. The evidence points to systemic destruction
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
November 12, 2025 at 8:47 AM
@aloner.bsky.social surveys the “systemic destruction” of Gaza’s cities—which some are calling “urbicide”.
“Rafah doesn’t exist. East Khan Younis doesn’t exist. East Gaza [City] doesn’t exist,” says Eyal Weizman from @forensicarchi.bsky.social.
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/middle...
“Rafah doesn’t exist. East Khan Younis doesn’t exist. East Gaza [City] doesn’t exist,” says Eyal Weizman from @forensicarchi.bsky.social.
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/middle...
Hey, so, funny story about police and data...
November 10, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Hey, so, funny story about police and data...
A friend just texted me this WSJ article about Italian pasta disappearing from US stores due to 107% tariffs & followed up with: "This cannot be tolerated. This bitch is getting between the American people and their carbs. As John Paul Jones said, 'I have not yet begun to fight.'"
November 10, 2025 at 5:03 PM
A friend just texted me this WSJ article about Italian pasta disappearing from US stores due to 107% tariffs & followed up with: "This cannot be tolerated. This bitch is getting between the American people and their carbs. As John Paul Jones said, 'I have not yet begun to fight.'"
Reposted by Sarah Parkinson
“… It is literally the same people. Club owner. Government. Football match. Bodies. The choice is simple. You either care or you don’t.”
Important piece by @barneyronay.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/football/202...
Important piece by @barneyronay.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/football/202...
Silence over Sudan: why do Manchester City’s owners get away with so much?
Two midweek matches in England had a backdrop of war and geopolitics, but only one drew large protests
www.theguardian.com
November 8, 2025 at 12:24 PM
“… It is literally the same people. Club owner. Government. Football match. Bodies. The choice is simple. You either care or you don’t.”
Important piece by @barneyronay.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/football/202...
Important piece by @barneyronay.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/football/202...
Reposted by Sarah Parkinson
One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc
The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
November 6, 2025 at 9:00 PM
One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc