W. Carson Byrd
@wcbyrdphd.bsky.social
Sociologist of higher ed inequalities & racism @ Michigan
Probably staring at data instead of writing, but at least there’s a stack of books & articles beside me.
More info: https://wcarsonbyrd.com
Probably staring at data instead of writing, but at least there’s a stack of books & articles beside me.
More info: https://wcarsonbyrd.com
Reposted by W. Carson Byrd
Making connections at #GSA2025? The @umisr.bsky.social Institute for Social Research is an extraordinary hub for studying aging. Follow us all with starter pack tabs from @um-psc.bsky.social @um-src.bsky.social and @rcgd-isr.bsky.social, and comment to be added! go.bsky.app/JcQbemD
November 11, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Making connections at #GSA2025? The @umisr.bsky.social Institute for Social Research is an extraordinary hub for studying aging. Follow us all with starter pack tabs from @um-psc.bsky.social @um-src.bsky.social and @rcgd-isr.bsky.social, and comment to be added! go.bsky.app/JcQbemD
Presidential approval needed for lessons on race & gender, & ‘The policy does not say how the university would decide what constitutes “race ideology” or “gender ideology,” or what would happen if a faculty member is accused of violating the rule.’ Yikes.
This is absurd - the university president would have to pre approve any lesson plan involving race or gender? I would have such malicious compliance. www.texastribune.org/2025/11/10/t...
Texas A&M to vote on banning “race and gender ideology”
The proposal appears to mark the first time a Texas university system offers definitions of what kind of instruction related to race and gender should not be permitted.
www.texastribune.org
November 10, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Presidential approval needed for lessons on race & gender, & ‘The policy does not say how the university would decide what constitutes “race ideology” or “gender ideology,” or what would happen if a faculty member is accused of violating the rule.’ Yikes.
Reposted by W. Carson Byrd
📣 New NBER Working Paper out today 📣
"The Consequences of Faculty Sexual Misconduct"
Sarah Cohodes & Katherine Leu
"The Consequences of Faculty Sexual Misconduct"
Sarah Cohodes & Katherine Leu
November 10, 2025 at 1:49 PM
📣 New NBER Working Paper out today 📣
"The Consequences of Faculty Sexual Misconduct"
Sarah Cohodes & Katherine Leu
"The Consequences of Faculty Sexual Misconduct"
Sarah Cohodes & Katherine Leu
Reposted by W. Carson Byrd
Hi writers! I’m looking to assign a couple of features for Slate before the end of the year. If you have anything in mind that you think would be a fit please send me a pitch! Jenée.Desmond- harris@slate.com or dm me.
RTs are appreciated so this can reach more people. Thanks!
RTs are appreciated so this can reach more people. Thanks!
November 10, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Hi writers! I’m looking to assign a couple of features for Slate before the end of the year. If you have anything in mind that you think would be a fit please send me a pitch! Jenée.Desmond- harris@slate.com or dm me.
RTs are appreciated so this can reach more people. Thanks!
RTs are appreciated so this can reach more people. Thanks!
Reposted by W. Carson Byrd
🚨Calling all education+social science researchers! 🚨
For the second time ever, Common App is hosting an open Call for Research Proposals to solicit innovative and rigorous research projects using our expansive (& still mostly untapped) data warehouse!
www.commonapp.org/files/DAR/Co...
For the second time ever, Common App is hosting an open Call for Research Proposals to solicit innovative and rigorous research projects using our expansive (& still mostly untapped) data warehouse!
www.commonapp.org/files/DAR/Co...
November 10, 2025 at 8:01 PM
🚨Calling all education+social science researchers! 🚨
For the second time ever, Common App is hosting an open Call for Research Proposals to solicit innovative and rigorous research projects using our expansive (& still mostly untapped) data warehouse!
www.commonapp.org/files/DAR/Co...
For the second time ever, Common App is hosting an open Call for Research Proposals to solicit innovative and rigorous research projects using our expansive (& still mostly untapped) data warehouse!
www.commonapp.org/files/DAR/Co...
Reposted by W. Carson Byrd
New evidence on how ICE is affecting student learning
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1erU5Oe0vJYdVjuqQi4sfhUGxS0BGjWl8/view?usp=drivesdk
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1erU5Oe0vJYdVjuqQi4sfhUGxS0BGjWl8/view?usp=drivesdk
November 10, 2025 at 10:40 AM
New evidence on how ICE is affecting student learning
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1erU5Oe0vJYdVjuqQi4sfhUGxS0BGjWl8/view?usp=drivesdk
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1erU5Oe0vJYdVjuqQi4sfhUGxS0BGjWl8/view?usp=drivesdk
‘Peculiar thing about this document: it was never notarized.’
November 9, 2025 at 10:41 PM
‘Peculiar thing about this document: it was never notarized.’
Something needed today: the peace that the soft blue glow of snow at last light in the evenings seems to bring.
November 9, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Something needed today: the peace that the soft blue glow of snow at last light in the evenings seems to bring.
Reposted by W. Carson Byrd
paper here
Rethinking Tiebout: The Contribution of Political Fragmentation and Racial/Economic Segregation to the Flint Water Crisis | Environmental Justice
Abstract The water crisis that has embroiled Flint, Michigan, since 2014 is often explained via the proximate causes of government oversight and punitive emergency management. While these were critica...
doi.org
November 9, 2025 at 10:09 PM
paper here
Reposted by W. Carson Byrd
Republicans are for “state’s rights” when that means promoting segregation and tormenting LGBTQ folks.
When state’s rights means feeding your state’s residents, they are all in for the federal government ensuring starvation.
When state’s rights means feeding your state’s residents, they are all in for the federal government ensuring starvation.
The US Department of Agriculture has ordered that "states must immediately undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits for November 2025".
November 9, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Republicans are for “state’s rights” when that means promoting segregation and tormenting LGBTQ folks.
When state’s rights means feeding your state’s residents, they are all in for the federal government ensuring starvation.
When state’s rights means feeding your state’s residents, they are all in for the federal government ensuring starvation.
The lines at campus food pantries & farmers markets have gotten longer over the last decade, & more so in recent weeks, as ~1.1 million college students nationwide are on SNAP with many more also facing food insecurity as a daily reality.
College students, stressed about federal food aid uncertainty, look to campuses for support
U.S. college students who receive federal food aid are looking to their campuses for support because the program known as SNAP is in limbo during the government shutdown.
apnews.com
November 9, 2025 at 7:22 PM
The lines at campus food pantries & farmers markets have gotten longer over the last decade, & more so in recent weeks, as ~1.1 million college students nationwide are on SNAP with many more also facing food insecurity as a daily reality.
‘The presence of two words — “equity” and “inclusion” — on page 50 of a 5-year-old grant application just killed a program at UC Berkeley that for half a century helped thousands of East Bay teens recognize that they could go to college and even pay for it.’
Two words in UC Berkeley grant application have led to defunding of 50-year-old program
The Trump administration canceled UC Berkeley’s Educational Talent Search — a 50-year-old program that helped thousands of East Bay teens get to college — over two words in its grant...
www.sfchronicle.com
November 9, 2025 at 6:16 PM
‘The presence of two words — “equity” and “inclusion” — on page 50 of a 5-year-old grant application just killed a program at UC Berkeley that for half a century helped thousands of East Bay teens recognize that they could go to college and even pay for it.’
Reposted by W. Carson Byrd
I’ve had two conferences—one in the US and one international—change titles of panels or the entire gathering to avoid being targeted or make people’s lives more difficult.
It’s the exact kind of thing the US used to label totalitarian when foreign countries did this to their scholars.
It’s the exact kind of thing the US used to label totalitarian when foreign countries did this to their scholars.
Going to a research conference next week. One of my panels featured researchers coming from Asia, who decided to withdraw given the uncertainty about domestic travel with flight cancelations. Just one more reference point for how the US under Trump has become seen as a basket case country.
November 9, 2025 at 3:29 PM
I’ve had two conferences—one in the US and one international—change titles of panels or the entire gathering to avoid being targeted or make people’s lives more difficult.
It’s the exact kind of thing the US used to label totalitarian when foreign countries did this to their scholars.
It’s the exact kind of thing the US used to label totalitarian when foreign countries did this to their scholars.
Reposted by W. Carson Byrd
If you have the means, today is an excellent day to donate to your local food bank.
Even if the Trump administration was competent (it isn't), and even if Republicans cared about preventing hunger and the costly downstream consequences of food insecurity (they don't), the need is there NOW.
Even if the Trump administration was competent (it isn't), and even if Republicans cared about preventing hunger and the costly downstream consequences of food insecurity (they don't), the need is there NOW.
This is an absolutely insane administrative process. Within the space of a week, states were told by judges/White House
*no SNAP benefits
*half benefits
*full benefits
*pause provision of benefits.
Result is chaos, uncertainty, and uneven access to benefits depending on where people live.
*no SNAP benefits
*half benefits
*full benefits
*pause provision of benefits.
Result is chaos, uncertainty, and uneven access to benefits depending on where people live.
NEW: The Trump admin told states it must immediately "undo" the work to provide full food stamp benefits, or face penalties. The feds sent this in a late-night memo, only adding to the chaos and confusion around SNAP. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/09/b...
November 9, 2025 at 2:43 PM
If you have the means, today is an excellent day to donate to your local food bank.
Even if the Trump administration was competent (it isn't), and even if Republicans cared about preventing hunger and the costly downstream consequences of food insecurity (they don't), the need is there NOW.
Even if the Trump administration was competent (it isn't), and even if Republicans cared about preventing hunger and the costly downstream consequences of food insecurity (they don't), the need is there NOW.
Reposted by W. Carson Byrd
Lots of hard, shitty lessons being learned from this presidency. And one of the many I hope you're learning is, white supremacy is incompatible with reality, and cannot exist without historical revisionism.
1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️
November 9, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Lots of hard, shitty lessons being learned from this presidency. And one of the many I hope you're learning is, white supremacy is incompatible with reality, and cannot exist without historical revisionism.
Reposted by W. Carson Byrd
Imagination is resistance, @ruha9.bsky.social reminds us that, " we need to reject the gospel that says technology is inevitable, that the train has left the station... In an error of automated bullshit, it’s time to become bullshit detectors,"
#MozFest
#MozFest
November 8, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Imagination is resistance, @ruha9.bsky.social reminds us that, " we need to reject the gospel that says technology is inevitable, that the train has left the station... In an error of automated bullshit, it’s time to become bullshit detectors,"
#MozFest
#MozFest
Reposted by W. Carson Byrd
What an amazing essay from the former chair of Africana Studies at Bowdoin. I'll share a few sections in the reply but seriously, read the whole thing. It's all insightful and beautifully written.
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
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 8, 2025 at 7:11 PM
What an amazing essay from the former chair of Africana Studies at Bowdoin. I'll share a few sections in the reply but seriously, read the whole thing. It's all insightful and beautifully written.
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
Reposted by W. Carson Byrd
"Basic scientists consistently enhance scientific output quality, yet research and newly joining researchers have shifted toward applied orientations."
Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2509.01530
#PhilSci #MetaSci #AcademicSky 🧪
Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2509.01530
#PhilSci #MetaSci #AcademicSky 🧪
November 8, 2025 at 11:37 AM
"Basic scientists consistently enhance scientific output quality, yet research and newly joining researchers have shifted toward applied orientations."
Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2509.01530
#PhilSci #MetaSci #AcademicSky 🧪
Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2509.01530
#PhilSci #MetaSci #AcademicSky 🧪
Reposted by W. Carson Byrd
We're hiring in history of science at UW Madison! TT Assistant Professorship with a focus on water. Joint appointment between the History and Integrated Liberal Studies depts, and part of a university-wide hiring cluster on earth/sustainability science. jobs.wisc.edu/jobs/profess... #STS #HSMT
Professor of History - Madison, Wisconsin, United States
Current Employees: If you are currently employed at any of the Universities of Wisconsin, log in to Workday to apply through the internal application process.Job Category:FacultyEmployment Type:Regula...
jobs.wisc.edu
November 8, 2025 at 6:03 AM
Reposted by W. Carson Byrd
I hinted at some possible answers near the end of the story, but I think the jury is very much still out.
Anyways, if you're curious, here's the story:
Anyways, if you're curious, here's the story:
Physicists Take the Imaginary Numbers Out of Quantum Mechanics | Quanta Magazine
Quantum mechanics has at last been formulated exclusively with real numbers, bringing a mathematical puzzle at the heart of the theory into a new era of inquiry.
www.quantamagazine.org
November 8, 2025 at 12:04 PM
I hinted at some possible answers near the end of the story, but I think the jury is very much still out.
Anyways, if you're curious, here's the story:
Anyways, if you're curious, here's the story:
Reposted by W. Carson Byrd
The neat thing about writing about foundations of quantum mechanics is that it makes everyone mad, often for completely different reasons.
November 8, 2025 at 12:04 PM
The neat thing about writing about foundations of quantum mechanics is that it makes everyone mad, often for completely different reasons.
Reposted by W. Carson Byrd
Judge rules Education Department messages blaming Democrats for the shutdown unconstitutional www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...
Education Department's out-of-office messages blaming Democrats for the shutdown are unconstitutional, judge rules
The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed after the Trump administration altered employees’ email messages to add partisan language about the government shutdown without their consent.
www.nbcnews.com
November 8, 2025 at 1:43 AM
Judge rules Education Department messages blaming Democrats for the shutdown unconstitutional www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...
Reposted by W. Carson Byrd
also this would clearly be a field where the expertise of faculty from historically excluded groups would be a huge benefit, given the bias that has been consistently demonstrated in AI because of its source materials, killing two birds with one stone
But YOU KNOW that will not happen 🙄
But YOU KNOW that will not happen 🙄
This is fascinating because this is such a new field and somehow they are going to hire 100 tenure-track faculty in the next 5 years who specialize in it. And yet when asked to fill spots with faculty of color/women/marginalized groups, administrators often cry about how the pipelines don't exist.
100!!!
November 7, 2025 at 9:52 PM
also this would clearly be a field where the expertise of faculty from historically excluded groups would be a huge benefit, given the bias that has been consistently demonstrated in AI because of its source materials, killing two birds with one stone
But YOU KNOW that will not happen 🙄
But YOU KNOW that will not happen 🙄
Reposted by W. Carson Byrd
We're hiring 2 Assistant Professors of Sociology: Gender and Sexuality and Environmental Sociology. At @tcdsociology.bsky.social, we aspire to be a method-agnostic group of solution-oriented sociologists. Join our welcoming community at @tcdschoolssp.bsky.social. Deadline 1 Dec. Link in the comment.
November 7, 2025 at 8:04 PM
We're hiring 2 Assistant Professors of Sociology: Gender and Sexuality and Environmental Sociology. At @tcdsociology.bsky.social, we aspire to be a method-agnostic group of solution-oriented sociologists. Join our welcoming community at @tcdschoolssp.bsky.social. Deadline 1 Dec. Link in the comment.
Reposted by W. Carson Byrd
Two years in the making and we’re finally here!
Official trailer for our forthcoming documentary film “Things We Imagined,” premiering next week at #ASHE25
youtu.be/GxYvJGMlhO0?...
Official trailer for our forthcoming documentary film “Things We Imagined,” premiering next week at #ASHE25
youtu.be/GxYvJGMlhO0?...
Things We Imagined [Official Trailer]
YouTube video by Imagined Futures
youtu.be
November 7, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Two years in the making and we’re finally here!
Official trailer for our forthcoming documentary film “Things We Imagined,” premiering next week at #ASHE25
youtu.be/GxYvJGMlhO0?...
Official trailer for our forthcoming documentary film “Things We Imagined,” premiering next week at #ASHE25
youtu.be/GxYvJGMlhO0?...