Susan Ferrari
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srferrar.bsky.social
Susan Ferrari
@srferrar.bsky.social
1.4K followers 3.5K following 490 posts
Sponsored programs, corporate and foundation relations, and research development at @GrinnellCollege. @UChicago alum, former scientist, liberal arts nerd.
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srferrar.bsky.social
How it started/how it’s going
Four gallon bags of frozen chopped tomatoes, plus a bowl of fresh tomatoes A large pot of bolognese sauce next to a large pot of marinara sauce
October 21, 2025 at 1:22 AM
srferrar.bsky.social
Huge crowd out today for the No Kings rally in Des Moines.
No Kings rally in Des Moines; in the foreground, a protestor holds up a sign reading, “Hegseth is a DUI hire”
October 18, 2025 at 6:10 PM
srferrar.bsky.social
Today I learned an appalling thing about Australia (maybe other countries too, but definitely Australia).
Cook's notes 15 MI Tablespoon Measures Are Used Throughout (1 Tablespoon = 3 Teaspoons). If You Are Using A 20 MI Tablespoon (1 Tablespoon = 4 Teaspoons), For Each Tablespoon Specified Reduce The Amount Of The Ingredient By l Teaspoon. All recipes in this book have been tested using a fan-forced oven. You may find cooking times vary depending on the oven and oven setting you are using. For conventional ovens, as a general rule, set the oven temperature to 20°C higher than indicated in the recipe. Unless otherwise stated, all eggs are large (65 g) and all dairy is full-fat. Vegan (VG) or gluten-free (GF) recipes are indicated next to the recipe title.
October 15, 2025 at 3:45 AM
srferrar.bsky.social
My furry little helper
A tortoiseshell cat with green eyes sitting on the arm of an armchair, looking very pleased with herself
October 5, 2025 at 9:20 PM
srferrar.bsky.social
I really think this company owes me an explanation of why there’s a shaker top on the bay leaves.
Jar of Simply Organic bay leaves with a plastic shaker top on it.
September 13, 2025 at 8:08 PM
srferrar.bsky.social
The Grants Office is ready for our meet-and-greet with new faculty today!
Plate of cookies shaped like dollar signs
August 7, 2025 at 1:15 PM
srferrar.bsky.social
A delightful cat-focused lithograph by Adam Dant at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.
Lithograph of the city of London featuring facts about cats
July 24, 2025 at 8:43 PM
srferrar.bsky.social
Welp, looks like it’s zucchini season
Food processor absurdly full of shredded zucchini
July 16, 2025 at 12:02 AM
srferrar.bsky.social
Berenjenas con miel (fried eggplant with honey)
Platter of fried eggplant with honey and lemon zest
July 6, 2025 at 12:29 PM
srferrar.bsky.social
NYT sheet pan tandoori shrimp with SeriousEats sarson ka saag
Sheet pan with shrimp on top of roasted vegetables next to Dutch oven with cooked greens
June 30, 2025 at 2:30 AM
srferrar.bsky.social
Barred owlets on a swingset
June 17, 2025 at 2:11 AM
srferrar.bsky.social
So…this is a wine spritzer with a marketing budget, right? I’m not judging, just asking.
Can of Underwood Riesling Radler
June 11, 2025 at 2:21 PM
srferrar.bsky.social
I wish I lived in an era when I could have gotten John Singer Sargent to paint me, because I think he is our greatest chronicler of resting bitch face.
A John Singer Sargent painting of a woman in a black dress
June 8, 2025 at 10:04 PM
srferrar.bsky.social
Weekend projects: Taiwanese popcorn chicken and strawberry buttermilk cake
Taiwanese popcorn chicken on a baking sheet Strawberry buttermilk cake on a metal plate
May 27, 2025 at 5:01 PM
srferrar.bsky.social
yesterday, the university chose to eliminate the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. This is an attempt to pre-empt federal action against the institution, federal action that is itself discriminatory and antithetical to academic freedom and freedom of speech. The rationale offered for cutting ODEl in the March 27, 2025 letter from President Ono, Provost McCauley, CFO Chatas, and VP for Medical Affairs Runge was vague, speaking to potential federal action and amplifying "some in our campus community" who "have voiced frustration that they did not feel included in DEl initiatives." Institutional efforts to create greater equity, diversity, and inclusion are difficult because they engage a wide range of constituents who all have their own free speech rights and operate within a context of academic freedom. This work was never easy. Yet, while the university has chosen to amplify "some" voices, many are also being marginalized, censored, and undermined at this moment. Eliminating ODEl cuts the jobs and livelihoods of individuals who have committed themselves to assisting our university in building more equitable, diverse, and inclusive communities. Their work was in alignment with the university's stated values. I abhor the elimination of ODEl, most especially the elimination of the staff positions in the office, staff who have been betrayed by the university. As I state this, I am thinking of a recent print made by our colleague, Senior Associate Dean for Research Creative Practice, and Graduate Education, Dylan Miner. The print calls for university leadership to protect our students, faculty, and staff. I commit to you to continue to protect our faculty, staff, and students so that they can do their work, live, and build creative lives in alignment with the imperatives of academic freedom and artistic freedom of speech. Image of a university hall with superimposed text reading: "UNIVERSITY LEADERS MUST AFFIRM THE INSTITUTIONAL VALUES THEY CLAIM TO HAVE HELD. UNIVERSITY LEADERS MUST MAINTAIN AND PROTECT ACADEMIC FREEDOM. UNIVERSITY LEADERS MUST PROTECT STUDENTS, FACULTY, AND STAFF. UNIVERSITY LEADERS MUST NOT REMAIN SILENT TO THE ATTACKS ON AND DESTRUCTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION. UNIVERSITY LEADERS MUST LEAD." Caption: Original artwork by Dylan AT Miner, Professor and Senior Associate Dean for Research, Creative Practice, and Graduate Education at the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design. What I have offered informally and formally in the past two years remains: we Original artwork by Dylan AT Miner, Professor and Senior Associate Dean for Research, Creative Practice, and Graduate Education at the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design What I have offered informally and formally in the past two years remains: we are living through a historically difficult moment, perhaps unprecedented. Difficulty defines our era. And yet difficulty must be confronted. Difficulty is at the center of our methods as artists and designers, which seeks to materialize new knowledge, ideas, and interventions to heal ourselves, our society, and its relation to the land. The path ahead will continue to be difficult, regardless of presidential, national, or university politics. By continuing to commit to a space with the widest possible freedom of speech, we can ensure that all subjectivities, all backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives can coexist and be debated through the most generative and healthy way possible, our work. Our work in the studios, our work in the community, our work together in supporting students, our work generating new knowledge and ways of being... our work is what will see us through. I call upon each of us to reaffirm our work, which includes a commitment to building healthier futures, which requires generating communities that are diverse, equitable, and inclusive. Yours, Carlos F. Jackson Dean and Professor
March 30, 2025 at 8:35 PM
srferrar.bsky.social
States is built upon 'systemic and structural racism." Related to our work as a school of art and design, within the last 24 hours, another Executive Order aimed at the Smithsonian was issued, directly attacking the American Art Museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the American Women's History Museum for their focus on DEI. It is critical in these moments to affirm these histories and cultures that have been and are central to the nation's history and contemporary formation. Here, it is important to emphasize two critical points that have not been articulated by university leadership. Firstly, our DEl efforts and our academic program more broadly, are compliant with local, state, federal, and constitutional laws. Since the state of Michigan voted to ban affirmative action through Proposal 2 in 2006, the university has worked to ensure its programs and activities are compliant. As written specifically on the university website that addresses Proposal 2 FAQs, it states the following answer to the question of "Does Proposal 2 prohibit public institutions from seeking diversity?" No. Proposal 2 precludes discrimination and preferential treatment on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, or national origin in public education, public employment, or public contracting. It does not in any way mean that diversity is no longer a permissible, indeed compelling, interest. The University of Michigan is firmly committed to the goal of creating a diverse educational environment. We continue to work to build a community that is comprised of faculty, staff, and students who come to U-M with a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. This diversity contributes to the excellence and dynamism of the University's learning environment I assure you, the Stamps School's academic program and initiatives to support faculty, students, and staff are fully legal and ethical. Secondly, the central claim in the "Dear Colleague" letter is erroneous, which attempts to argue that the United States wasn't founded upon structural racism. Despite efforts to rewrite history, the fact remains that the United States was founded upon systemic and structural racism. Chattel slavery, African Americans designated as 3/5ths a person, broken treaties and forced relocation, and Jim Crow laws are just a few examples of racism that is structural and systemic. A further example that systemic and structural discrimination existed in the country's formation is the fact that women did not have the right to vote until 1920, as suffrage has existed for only 105 years. The forces behind the "Dear Colleague" letter want to ignore these difficult truths that our country was formed on very unequal and discriminatory terms. Wealth that was generated through the formation of the United States came from land-taking and the greatest form of dehumanization, enslavement. These are difficult truths that our own University of Michigan's Inclusive History Project articulates through the most profound scholarly rigor and peer review. We must reckon with these difficult truths and figure out how to co-build the future together. This mandate of reckoning with history is the imperative that the civil rights movement and generation gave us, and we must now steward onward. Rather than reaffirming that we are operating academic programs that are legally compliant and affirming the value and prestige of the peer-reviewed knowledge production produced by the University of Michigan's 100 academic programs that are ranked in the national top 10 within their respective fields, yesterday, the university chose to eliminate the Office of Diversity, Equity, and
March 30, 2025 at 8:32 PM
srferrar.bsky.social
directly contradicts these institutional values. While I, as Dean, and Stamps, as a school, did not directly create the University of Michigan's Culture Journey or signify these six values, we have collectively worked to honor them. Integrity, Respect, Inclusion, Equity, Diversity, and Innovation are aspirations that establish a benchmark by which to measure our actions, actions that work to build and sustain our community. Throughout the 2024 national election, DEI, immigrants, and trans communities have been targeted as political flashpoints. On January 27, 2025, two DEI-related Executive Orders that potentially impact the university were issued, including the Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity order, which expands the application of the Supreme Court ruling that struck down affirmative action in college admission to areas beyond its scope. The order also includes identifying "up to nine potential civil compliance investigations" of organizations including institutions of higher education with endowments over one billion dollars. The Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing order requires federal agencies to terminate "equity-related" grants or contracts and all DEl or DEIA performance requirements for employees, contractors, or grantees. On February 21, 2025, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on the orders. Then, on March 14, a decision from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals allows the Executive Orders to be enforced while a legal challenge proceeds. In that ruling, Judge Alberto Diaz stated: "And despite the vitriol now being heaped on DEl, people of good faith who work to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion deserve praise, not opprobrium. For when this country embraces true diversity, it acknowledges and respects the social identity of its people. When it fosters true equity, it opens opportunities and ensures a level playing field for all. And when its policies are truly inclusive, it creates an environment and culture where everyone is respected and valued. What could be more American than that?" As stated by the American Bar Association, Executive Orders are presidential directives "that manage operations of the federal government." These Executive Orders outline presidential commitment to enforce federal law, but the American Bar Association notes that they "are not legislation." To date and as noted in this email, our school operates in compliance with the law and in sustaining our DEl commitments, we continue to operate in compliance with the law. Looking past the political talking points and disinformation tropes on DEI that circulate online, through cable news, and across social media, the logic behind the national movement to eliminate DEl is most clearly articulated in the Department of Education's "Dear Colleague" Letter, dated February 14, 2024. The "Dear Colleague" letter was issued to all educational institutions in the United States and demanded that all illegal DEl initiatives be immediately eliminated or educational institutions would face legal and fiscal consequences from the Federal Government. To be clear, the federal budget cuts from the National Institutes of Health and other organizations are not about DEl but rather about divesting from the public. The "Dear Colleague" letter makes two major claims that I'd like to highlight here: The first is that DEl is "illegal" because it discriminates on the basis of race. The second is that DEI is an extension of educational indoctrination "with the false premise that the United
March 30, 2025 at 8:31 PM
srferrar.bsky.social
Okay, now with screenshots, since the link is not working:
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion will continue at the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design Dear Colleagues, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEl) will continue at the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design because our academic program and DEl initiatives are legally compliant, in alignment with our university values, and an extension of the mission of our school. On Thursday, March 27, 2025 at 3:30 p.m., President Ono, Provost McCauley, CFO Chatas, and VP for Medical Affairs Runge wrote to the University of Michigan community announcing the elimination of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEl), the discontinuation of the university DEI 2.0 Strategic Plan, university-wide elimination of diversity statements, and legal review of existing programs to ensure they comply with federal law and guidance. Two hours prior to this announcement, I was walking through Pierpont Commons and took a picture of this University of Michigan sign, which explicitly states, “Our Core Values: Integrity, Respect, Inclusion, Equity, Diversity, Innovation.” The move to eliminate the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
March 30, 2025 at 8:29 PM
srferrar.bsky.social
Dear Nominating Official, I hope you have been having a productive semester. I am writing to tell you that the NEH will not be running a competition for the Summer Stipends program this fall. In preparation for the celebration of the nation's semi-quincentennial, we are making some programming adjustments. We understand that this may be a disappointment to you and your faculty, but please encourage them to apply for the Fellowships program, which will have its next deadline on April 9. More details on that program are here. https://www.neh.gov/grants/research/fellowships. We thank you for your long-running support of the Summer Stipends program. Please let us know if you have questions and thank you for your understanding. Sincerely yours, Christopher P. Thornton, Ph.D. Director, Division of Research Programs National Endowment for the Humanities
March 28, 2025 at 6:12 PM
srferrar.bsky.social
Tonight, we visited the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge and got a free car wash.
Two American bison on a dirt road licking an SUV American bison resting its head on the hood of a car—photo taken from inside the car American bison licking the drivers-side window of a car—photo taken from inside the car
February 1, 2025 at 10:56 PM
srferrar.bsky.social
We had to say goodbye to the best boy on Sunday. Rexford Tugwell was the sweetest and most companionable of cats, possessed of a titanic purr and a boundless love for Zoom meetings (every one of which was improved by his presence). We loved our special boy, and we miss him so much.
A green-eyed orange cat pulling on a gray hoodie drawstring Little orange cat feet
January 14, 2025 at 4:44 PM
srferrar.bsky.social
First attempt at making galette des rois
Galette des rois on a piece of parchment paper—it’s a circular puff pastry tart with radial scoring on top. (Frangipane inside!)
January 6, 2025 at 5:13 AM
srferrar.bsky.social
So...did this guy think the orcs were the heroes?
January 2, 2025 at 8:39 PM
srferrar.bsky.social
Appallingly, I realized that this was the first tarte Tatin I made in 2024. My New Year’s resolution for 2025 is to prioritize pastry appropriately.
December 31, 2024 at 5:44 PM
srferrar.bsky.social
I impulse-bought four pounds of quince at the H-Mart after Thanksgiving and made two of these quince tarts (from the Huckleberry cookbook). They’ve been waiting in the freezer for me to need a showoffy appetizer, and today one of them got to self-actualize.
December 26, 2024 at 1:42 AM