Amdist this Obama celebration, I was honored to offer a bit of sobering balance in The Guardian’s coverage of the presidential center in Woodlawn. Alongside presidential legacy, this center continues a longtime UChicago land grab inflicted on local residents. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Obama Center opening stirs pride and unease for Chicago’s South Side amid displacement fears

South Siders voice concerns about gentrification, housing and affordability as they celebrate opening of the Obama Presidential Center

theguardian.com

Thanks to everyone who came to “Beyond the Quad” to kick off the year with a discussion of how to build solidarity on a wider basis in the face of gentrification, Medicaid cuts, and more. And thanks especially to panelists @davarianbaldwin.bsky.social , Dixon Romeo, JP Murray, and Cathy Cohen

www.pbs.org/show/making-... caught part of an episode of this today from 2022 and low and behold @davarianbaldwin.bsky.social popped up on my TV. A welcome surprise! Now need to watch the whole series.

Making Black America

This four-hour series introduces a vibrant world at the heart of the Black experience.

pbs.org

Los Alamos and U of Michigan want to build a data center in the small town of Ypsilanti. The city's people don't want to help make weapons of mass destruction. The fight is only just starting

A Small Town Is Fighting a $1.2 Billion AI Datacenter for America's Nuclear Weapon Scientists

Ypsilanti, Michigan has officially decided to fight against the construction of a 'high-performance computing facility' that would service a nuclear weapons laboratory 1,500 miles away.

404media.co

Was happy to sit with comrades and community members in Durham ✊🏿. #WhatDoesDukeOweDurham

Institute for Southern Studies@southernstudies.bsky.social · 10mo ago

NEW VIDEO: What does Duke owe Durham? Historian and urbanist @davarianbaldwin.bsky.social breaks down the role of universities like Duke and why they should invest more to support workers and communities. www.facingsouth.org/2025/10/watc...

Excited to speak at Undercommoning the Urban Campus on Nov 3 in Lexington, KY! Joining brilliant minds like Rachel Gross, Faheem Majeed & Leen Katrib to rethink how campuses shape our cities. 📍 David Biagi Forum | 2–5pm #Undercommoning #SmartCities #UrbanCampus

ICE getting tailed like it’s a heist movie. Chicago is turning the tables.

What the fuck is going on?!?! We need to stand up for all our colleagues and comrades now!

It was great to build with @uchicagoaaup.bsky.social...wondeful to watch the momentum for people power pick up and grow 💪🏿

UChicago AAUP@uchicagoaaup.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Thanks to everyone who came to “Beyond the Quad” to kick off the year with a discussion of how to build solidarity on a wider basis in the face of gentrification, Medicaid cuts, and more. And thanks especially to panelists @davarianbaldwin.bsky.social , Dixon Romeo, JP Murray, and Cathy Cohen

🌟 TODAY 🌟 What Does Duke Owe Durham? Forum with author @davarianbaldwin.bsky.social about why universities should support workers and communities. 2pm, Asbury United Methodist, Durham. Sponsored by @southernstudies.bsky.social + @durhamrising.bsky.social www.southernstudies.org/davarianbald...

Today the mighty #DurhamRising marches for better relations between Duke + Durham. 🗣️✊🏿 Tomorrow I’ll place these struggles in a broader national context. This work isn’t just critique—it’s about community building + imagining new futures. www.newsobserver.com/news/local/c...

‘What does Duke owe Durham?’ Rally and talk to critique university’s impact

“I feel like Duke has been exploiting us for years,” said one Duke employee.

newsobserver.com

#GoodNews smartcitiesresearchlab.com

Davarian Baldwin@davarianbaldwin.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Big news: the Smart Cities Research Lab website is live! smartcitiesresearchlab.com Since 2021, we’ve been working on equitable community development—everywhere from New Haven + Durham to Rotterdam. Next stop: Bangkok. Blessed to keep building. 🙌🏿 #SmarterCities #DevelopmentWithoutDisplacement

What Does Duke Owe Durham? Free talk with @davarianbaldwin.bsky.social on Friday, Sept. 26, 2-3pm at Asbury United Methodist in Durham. Sponsored by @southernstudies.bsky.social and @durhamrising.bsky.social. More information and RSVP: www.southernstudies.org/davarianbald...

Big news: the Smart Cities Research Lab website is live! smartcitiesresearchlab.com Since 2021, we’ve been working on equitable community development—everywhere from New Haven + Durham to Rotterdam. Next stop: Bangkok. Blessed to keep building. 🙌🏿 #SmarterCities #DevelopmentWithoutDisplacement

Big news: the Smart Cities Research Lab website is live! Since 2021, we’ve been working on equitable community development—everywhere from New Haven + Durham to Rotterdam. Next stop: Bangkok. Blessed to keep building. 🙌🏿 #SmarterCities #DevelopmentWithoutDisplacement

Wow—what a time at the first annual Reparations Summit in St. Louis! 💡 Conversations on higher ed’s harms + strategies for repair ✊🏿 Scholars, organizers, descendant communities nationwide 🙏🏿Thanks to @RobinProudie + #DSLUE for hosting this powerful gathering #FromAcknowledgmentToAction

So thrilled to be back in Durham to help strategize and build people power, so that our wealthiest local institutions truly lean into community responsibility beyond symbolic gestures...let's go ✊🏿!!!

Institute for Southern Studies@southernstudies.bsky.social · 11mo ago

What Does Duke Owe Durham? Join us Friday 9/26 at 2pm for a forum featuring @davarianbaldwin.bsky.social about how Duke University can support workers and the community. Visit here for more info and to RSVP: www.southernstudies.org/davarianbald... @durhamrising.bsky.social

Happy to return to my other home and chop it up at the UChicago Center for Contemporary Theory and also build with @uchicagoaaup.bsky.social All my Chicagoland peoples, please come thru on September 30...this Higher Ed crisis is deeper than "corporatization." ccct.uchicago.edu/events/beyon...

It's publication day for UNIVERSITY KEYWORDS. Across 27 sharp essays, the book offers a critical account of the political economy of US higher education, how it came to be structured this way, and how together we might build a better university together.

Hall of Fame weekend in Springfield...everybody outside. THE #MayaMoore!!

Highly recommend "In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities" by Davarian L. Baldwin. If you live in a city with a big college, you will notice what author Hattie Whitehead describes in her book & musical about Linnentown— universities taking more and more land.

Why I’m Talking Up ‘In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower’

The conversation about a book that I want to have with colleagues at urban universities.

insidehighered.com

Citizen.Coping@propcazhpm.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Now at The Classic Center Theater in Athens, GA: “Linnentown - The Musical” is based on author Hattie Whitehead’s book "Giving Voice to Linnentown,” about the vibrant Black community of 50 families she grew up in that destroyed to build student housing at the University of Georgia. #BlackSky

🎶 Linnentown—The Musical is back in Athens! The community was demolished for UGA dorms. Now it lives on. Honored to also lecture at UGA + see the new street named Linnentown. ✊🏿 #RenewalProject #UrbanJustice #CommunityPower

Labor activists in coalition of local unions and labor-adjacent orgs. This was new, including the whole workforce of higher ed: faculty, clerical, health care, custodians, librarians, counselors, IT, buildings maintenance, landscapers, dining services, etc. @higheredlabor.bsky.social

Raising HELU, Wall to Wall and Coast to Coast

When Higher Education Labor United was proposed in 2021, the major issues facing higher education were rising tuition, student debt, widespread reliance on contingent faculty, attacks on tenure, threa...

dollarsandsense.org

#DurhamRising is calling on Duke to act responsibly toward Durham. I spoke with Facing South on how this fits into a national wave of community action. Proud my #SmartCitiesResearchLab can support. 👇🏿 www.facingsouth.org/2025/08/what...

What do universities owe communities? An interview with Davarian Baldwin

At a critical moment for higher education, a leading urban scholar argues universities need to be doing more — not less — to support and invest in the communities where they are based.

facingsouth.org

Thank you, Davarian! So glad you’re part of it. Can’t wait to see what possibilities this book creates

Beautiful work from beautiful minds. Thanks @andyhines.bsky.social for corralling us and assembling #UniversityKeywords. Get yours NOW!!

On today's @21st.show, we talked about a new analysis of racial disparities in Illinois campus traffic stops. Our guests: reporter Nicole Jeanine Johnson, Khadine Bennett of ACLU Illinois, criminal justice professor Miltonette Craig and American studies professor @davarianbaldwin.bsky.social.

Why are police on Illinois college campuses stopping Black drivers at high rates?

YouTube video by Illinois Public Media

youtube.com

✍️ Mission Moment – Founding story or moment of impact. Last year’s conference was a lasting moment in our history, and we can’t wait to convene again in 2026! Until then, we’re listening back to Dr. Davarian Baldwin’s keynote presentation @davarianbaldwin.bsky.social

Hey!! If you are near Hartford, CT, THIS WEDNESDAY, come to the iconic Artists Collective space for great Caribbean food and a Screening of the 4th episode of @pbs.org series Great Migrations. A panel will follow discussing the Hartford connections! 1200 Albany Ave @ 6pm...Come thru

We are the power that we've been waiting for. We need to be building out the university and spaces of commoning and collective collaboration that we seek. . . . The vision is not to defend higher education. The vision is to advance it. – @davarianbaldwin.bsky.social

@scholarsforsj.bsky.social · last yr.

🚨 "WE ARE THE POWER WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR" @actioninhighered.bsky.social mobilized nationwide. Faculty, students & workers united to end repression & fight for education that serves the people. 📢 More than a protest—a movement. Join us. scholarsforsocialjustice.org