Bradford Vivian
@bradvivian.bsky.social
Prof/Author/Speaker (academic freedom, free speech, democracy) *Author _Campus Misinformation: The Real Threat to Free Speech in American Higher Education_ (Oxford UP) *Op-eds: TIME, Washington Post, The Chronicle, Inside Higher Ed, Philadelphia Inquirer
As @victorerikray.bsky.social says, "University leaders should make it clear that it’s their right to address historical inequities & help students from historically marginalized racial groups, & that they will fight this authoritarian escalation with everything they can." www.ms.now/opinion/trum...
Opinion | Trump’s next high education target: schools that help Black students
Victor Ray: American universities must stand up to Trump's plan to re-segregate higher ed
ms.now
"Coercion is coercion, even if it’s not explicit. Unwary universities could wind up ensnaring themselves while helping to legitimize the administration’s assault on academic freedom — and the Constitution." www.nytimes.com/2026/09/03/o...
Opinion | Linda McMahon’s Letter to Colleges Is a Trap (Gift Article)
University presidents, don’t be fooled.
nytimes.com
"Each capitulation—first Columbia, then Brown, then several others including Penn, Cornell, and Northwestern—allowed the [Trump] administration to portray the remaining opposition as marginal and weak rather than united by principle." www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
The Dartmouth Exception | Jacob Weisberg
Among its peers in the Ivy League, Dartmouth was perfectly positioned to resist Trump’s attack on higher education. It chose not to.
nybooks.com
I'm pleased to join the second cohort of Fellows with the @aaup.org Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom. I look forward to contributing to their vital work as part of an amazing group of fellows. You can read more about all of them, and the AAUP + CDAF, here: www.aaup.org/about/progra...
Fellows
Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom FellowsSecond Cohort: July 2026-July 2028Learn more about their projects here.
aaup.org
There’s no reason Harvard can’t have tens of thousands of undergraduates. And before you say this would dilute the brand or the experience, I’d like to point out that Canada’s three best and most elite institutions (U of Toronto, McGill, and U of British Columbia) already do this.
I'm pleased to join the second cohort of Fellows with the @aaup.org Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom. I look forward to contributing to their vital work as part of an amazing group of fellows. You can read more about all of them, and the AAUP + CDAF, here: www.aaup.org/about/progra...
Fellows
Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom FellowsSecond Cohort: July 2026-July 2028Learn more about their projects here.
aaup.org
My take: “Students approach college “with energetic curiosity. They always do. Why? Because they are [about] to discover who they are as readers, as conversation partners, as people. They are figuring out what kind of work they find fulfilling, what they love to do.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/04/o...
Opinion | This Is the Real Point of College (Gift Article)
It’s all about the practice of freedom.
nytimes.com
"The administrators deciding on these closures and cuts often say that they rely upon 'data points' and metrics, although they choose which metrics… Such supposedly data-driven decisionmaking often leaves aside the fact that Humanities departments tend to be revenue positive."
Religion, Humanities, and the Public Good
The right wing's assault on Religion and Humanities programs is an assault on our ability to understand the world, from Hindutva abroad to Christian Nationalism at home.
liberalcurrents.com
Trump is once again trying to make life worse for nonwhite students. slate.trib.al/jCxuv7X
Trump’s Latest Attack on American Education Is Particularly Nefarious
Its real target: students of color.
slate.trib.al
The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents cut more than 200 courses from the core curriculum across 11 universities on Thursday, in response to a state law requiring all general education classes to be “foundational and fundamental.” bit.ly/4iQNt0K
Gloria Steinem died with fewer rights than she had during her lifetime. That fact needs to be front and centre of every media report, every dedication, every discussion of her death.
The attack and defunding of WGS at Harvard betrays the long tradition of wgs at Harvard’ with profound implications for the future of feminist scholarship @jennifercnash.bsky.social www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...
“Women have a special opportunity to live the revolution. By refusing to play their traditional role, they upset and displace the social structure around them…” — Gloria Steinem 1934-2026
“You can’t be lecturing us about democracy and refuse to even take meetings with faculty." – Yale AAUP President Daniel HoSang @aaupyale.org www.courant.com/2026/09/02/w...
Why some Yale students, faculty and alumni are condemning its Board of Trustees, others
A large crowd of blue-shirted students, faculty and alumni gathered at Yale University’s Cross Campus to protest.
courant.com
"...in the future, people will know a myriad of things that this regime did, to try to destroy the American experiment. And they just may do it. There’s more at stake here than one court settlement.” #DefendHigherEd @aaup.org @aaupyale.org
Yalies Protest Potential Trump Deal - New Haven Independent
Around 250 Yale professors, students, alumni and faculty gathered on Cross Campus Tuesday afternoon for a teach-in and rally demanding administrators “democratize Yale,” as university President Maurie...
newhavenindependent.org
So we had a teach-in at Yale yesterday with over 300 students, faculty, and alums. The Chronicle of Higher Education covered it here. www.chronicle.com/article/yale... 1/
What’s Behind the Rule-Defying Campus Resistance Against a Yale Trump Deal
Students, faculty members, and alumni joined in an unauthorized demonstration.
chronicle.com
Tech companies don’t understand scholarship. ‘Quickness’ and ‘efficiency‘ are not always the right values. Sometimes you don’t want to “answer your research queries faster” and when you do, existing search technology is more than adequate to help you do scholar.googleblog.com/2026/08/quic...
There are certain pieces you work on as an editor that jolt you out of your everyday routine. This essay by @vermontgmg.bsky.social, on the fading memory of 9/11 and the importance of remembering the day as it happened in real time, was one of them.
The 17 Minutes That Changed America
The earliest moments of the September 11 attacks did not unfold the way we often remember. Here’s how those surreal 17 minutes changed America forever.
nationalgeographic.com
"In Woke 7, we come to understand that waiting for someone to do something bad before forgiving them is the mistake of Wokes 1 through 6, frankly. In Woke 7, we forgive everyone in advance, on a rolling basis, at scale." buff.ly/IeAyQ88
Future Iterations of Woke
“In Woke 7, we come to understand that waiting for someone to do something bad before forgiving them is the mistake of Wokes 1 through 6, frankly. In Woke 7,...
mcsweeneys.net
It's not about T.A. Harper. It's about a whole industry, now, that enshrines people with limited understanding of higher ed as all-purpose "experts" to script continual misinformation in ways that appeal to reactionary, centrist, liberal grievances about universities. Haidt ran so Harper could fly.
It's not about T.A. Harper. It's about a whole industry, now, that enshrines people with limited understanding of higher ed as all-purpose "experts" to script continual misinformation in ways that appeal to reactionary, centrist, liberal grievances about universities. Haidt ran so Harper could fly.
I have a new paperback version of Invisible Rulers out as of two weeks ago — if you have the original on Kindle, you can update. There’s a new chapter specifically on how this Administration works with influencers to sell stories to the public. Invisiblerulers.com
Red State Universities: we believe in indoctrination and job training Students: we hate that is there another option? Blue State Universities: we promise to have no values except job training. It ain’t enough. My latest. Gift link.
Perry: Republicans fought ‘indoctrination.’ Now they’re telling students what to study.
The conservative attack on higher education in states like Iowa is hard to watch. But it also provides an opportunity for blue states like Minnesota.
startribune.com
We come to it at last—the final #ScholarSunday thread before my Fall 2026 semester begins. So here it is, my 291st thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ +
#ScholarSunday Thread 291 (8/30/26) – Black and White and Read All Over
We come to it at last—the final #ScholarSunday thread before my Fall 2026 semester begins. So here it is, my 291st thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming ...
blackwhiteandread.com
Have been waiting for someone to develop this argument…Indeed, the “ban phones for children” crowd are extremely online themselves and clearly have difficulty thinking outside the confines of the Twitterverse.
Nicholas Grossman@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · last wk.“The problem is not truly that the media environment is full of conflict, lies, and racist conspiracy theories. The problem is that our epistemic and financial elite spend all day exposing themselves to [social media], an environment that cooks brains.” Yes, @adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com.
Stories behind UT’s now-closed ethnic and gender studies departments www.statesman.com/news/educati...
Four UT departments are gone. Their histories span decades
Their names are gone from UT’s doors, but faculty and alumni say the academic communities they built will endure.
statesman.com
Trump official intervenes in suspension of Arday critic Nathan Cofnas Bill White, a Republican donor appointed ambassador to Belgium last year, asks Ghent University to ensure continued employment of ‘race realist’ academic. www.thetimes.com/us/american-...
Trump official intervenes in suspension of Arday critic Nathan Cofnas
Bill White, a Republican donor appointed ambassador to Belgium last year, asks Ghent University to ensure continued employment of ‘race realist’ academic
thetimes.com
Meta Just Paid Nearly $17 Billion To Make Sure It Gets To Write The Kid Safety Rules For Every Other Social Media Platform By now... https://www.techdirt.com/2026/08/26/meta-just-paid-nearly-17-billion-to-make-sure-it-gets-to-write-the-kid-safety-rules-for-every-other-social-media-platform/
Meta Just Paid Nearly $17 Billion To Make Sure It Gets To Write The Kid Safety Rules For Every Other Social Media Platform
By now you've almost certainly heard the news that Meta has settled with 52 state and local Attorneys General who had sued the company in some form or another over child safety on Meta's platforms. The headlines are all covering the basics: the years-long case these states filed against Meta ends, and Meta pays somewhere...
techdirt.com