John Aerni-Flessner
@lesothojohn.bsky.social
Prof African History MSU White Gold: https://tinyurl.com/ymt64kfz Dreams for Lesotho: http://undpress.nd.edu/9780 Publications here: https://tinyurl.com/ynvwp6c5 MSU FS Chair 2026-27 Lesotho, development, borders, running, Michigan Views my own
📢 New Issue! JSAS Volume 52, Issue 1 This issue explores politicised identities, extraction and environmental change, and new histories of liberation movements across southern Africa, with articles spanning Mauritius, Mozambique, Angola, Namibia and Lesotho. www.tandfonline.com/toc/cjss20/c...
Journal of Southern African Studies
Volume 52, Issue 1 of Journal of Southern African Studies
tandfonline.com
The Trump admin is back with version 2.0 of its higher ed compact. The reason is simple: The first one failed. Compact 2.0 lacks egregious elements of its predecessor. That’s a victory & affirms that the answer to authoritarianism is organized resistance—not compliance. www.aaup.org/news/new-com...
New Compact Shows Resistance Works, but Fight for Higher Ed Isn’t Over
The Trump administration is back with a second version of its higher education compact. As with its predecessor, the best path forward is for higher education workers to organize and demand that their...
aaup.org
It is increasingly challenging to run a national organization across red and blue states in 2026. The AAU is held together by prestige and tradition, but will that be enough?
Megan Zahneis@mzahneis.bsky.social · 2d agoThe presidents of WashU, Arizona State, Kansas, and Johns Hopkins, in concert with the Association of American Universities, helped draft a new version of last year's White House compact. “We’d much rather be a partner than play the guessing game as we have been,” Kansas' president told Bloomberg.
Me on the AAU "The AAU claims to be comprised of America’s leading research unis...But if the member presidents choose the guise of institutional neutrality as a way to gain political cover, they may now be leading higher ed toward greater authoritarianism." www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...
How Elite Colleges Aided Censorship During the Red Scares
Powerful organizations during the Red Scares crafted a world where “academic freedom” was conditional on political allegiance.
insidehighered.com
Thread on today's letter from the Secretary of Education to institutions of #HigherEd
SUNY UFS President Bruce Simon@sunyufspresident.bsky.social · 2d agoA few hot takes on the letter, which I will refer to as Compact 2.0: 0) I appreciate the shift from outright extortion to (theoretically) open-ended questions. 1) Nevertheless, both the framing of the questions and wording of several rest on a thin evidence base and unexamined assumptions.
Mellon Foundation comes out with a full-throated defense of the #humanities. #HigherEd We need more of this from our institutions! www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...
With Humanities at Risk, How Mellon Sees Its Role (opinion)
Some may disagree with our emphasis on broadening who shapes the humanities. The real challenge to the field is the decline in overall support.
insidehighered.com
Word to the wise: any president or board that responds to this letter without formally consulting their faculty and staff through established governance bodies and after a public comment period is abdicating their fiduciary responsibility. #MakeSharedGovernanceMatterMore www.ed.gov/media/docume...
ed.gov
I've benefited from 2 Fulbright-Hays grants during my academic career - once as a PhD student (Mali research) and then as a faculty member (South Africa research). The proposed cuts to these programs would be a tragic. Glad the ASA is speaking out about this: africanstudies.org/advocacy/asa...
ASA Opposes ED’s Proposed Rescission of International Education Program Regulations
Public Comment Posted July 30, 2026 African Studies Association Opposes ED’s Proposed Rescission of International Education Program RegulationsThe African Studies Association (ASA) strongly opposes th...
africanstudies.org
For the 13th straight month, Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab has found The Conversation to be the most-read nonprofit news outlet in America 🎉 www.niemanlab.org/2026/07/desp...
Despite concerns about AI Overviews, some nonprofit news outlets see a surge in search traffic
"We found this heartening, in a time when many experts are writing eulogies for clickthrough from search engine results pages."
niemanlab.org
Kamohelo #Mofolo of #Lesotho took 9th place in the #CommonwealthGames2026 10k yesterday. Also, Mojela #Koneshe could not match his National Record in the 100 meter semifinals and failed to qualify for finals. He still ran 10.19. #Athletics #MountainKingdom
The Michigan State University patch deal will pay, for instance, about $40 million over 10 years or $4 mil a year. And this is in the same power conference. The difference between $17 and $4 mil is hard to ignore or call insignificant!
Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen.com · last wk.Ohio State's $17 million per year uniform patch deal with JPMorganChase covers most of the maximum $21.3 million that they can directly pay athletes next year. But only a few universities will get deals of this magnitude, widening revenue gaps.
Ohio State's $17 million per year uniform patch deal with JPMorganChase covers most of the maximum $21.3 million that they can directly pay athletes next year. But only a few universities will get deals of this magnitude, widening revenue gaps.
Ohio State, JPMorganChase reach lucrative jersey patch deal
Ohio State is entering a partnership with JPMorganChase that includes jersey patches for all 36 teams and will yield nearly $17 million per year for the athletic program.
espn.com
FIFA announced earlier today this goal by Lopes Cabral vs. Argentina was voted Goal Of The Tournament For once, they got this exactly right, imo www.fifa.com/en/tournamen...
CJ Fogler@cjzero.bsky.social · last mo.Golazo from Sidny Lopes Cabral, level again
I have a new working paper examining how academic schools within universities allocate resources. Using data from HelioCampus, I find that schools cut staff positions first during difficult times and that there are huge variations in delivery costs across universities.
An Analysis of Academic School Spending in Higher Education
Academic schools, such as colleges and their constituent departments within larger universities, are increasingly being expected to increase revenues and reduce expenditures in a challenging financial...
edworkingpapers.com
#Lesotho has a new national record holder in the men's 100 meter dash! Mojela #Koneshe ran 10.07 today at the #CommonwealthGames2026 to break the record of 10.11 of Mosito Lehata (@KingMoLesotho ) from 2015 and 2017. Ntate Lehata predicted it! Let's hope Koneshe can keep it up!
Ok, so I misunderstood. This is the final rule. Yikes. Next step is to write your reps and Senators opposing the rule and asking that Congress step in.
Scott Imberman@imbernomics.bsky.social · 3w agoMake sure everyone comments on this rule. I do think there may be some compromise here. Putting a time limit on the visa is not crazy, it’s the length that’s the problem. Make PhD 8 years, masters’ 4, and bachelor’s 6 with automatic extensions for OPT, and then it’s a much more reasonable rule.
Did the Sterkfontein Caves again today. Still a very cool site. Good work out too.
For more recent regimes, Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (1992), about the … lack of ideological commitment among the men tasked with carrying out the “Holocaust by bullets”
Ordinary Men
“A remarkable—and singularly chilling—glimpse of human behavior. . .This meticulously researched book...represents a major contribution to the literature of...
harpercollins.com
You know, there was a time when the state of Michigan was pumping out the absolute classiest pop cans you possibly imagine
Some great thoughts here on the #Lesotho/#Sesotho #literary tradition and how #Basotho need to mine it/continually re-invent it to keep it vigorous. www.mamosetse.com/articles/ref...
Reflections on the Lesotho Literary Tradition (and Other Gilded Cages)
I worry that contemporary Lesotho literature will continue to be inaccurately identified as an extension of South African literature rather than a self-contained tradition.
mamosetse.com
A few minutes ago, two ICE flights operated by Journey Aviation landed in Eswatini, likely another third-country removal of immigrants to a maximum security prison there. Nineteen people have already been sent there on previous ICE flights in the last nine months. Only two have been released.
My review of Henry Dee's remarkable biography of Clements Kadalie has been published and is free to read. This book about a trade union leader born 130 years ago in Malawi has clear resonances with the present-day xenophobia in South Africa: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Henry Dee. Militant Migrants. Clements Kadalie, the ICU and the Mass Movement of Black Workers in Southern Africa, 1896–1951. Liverpool University Press, Liverpool 2025. xx, 324 pp. Ill. Maps. £130.00...
Henry Dee. Militant Migrants. Clements Kadalie, the ICU and the Mass Movement of Black Workers in Southern Africa, 1896–1951. Liverpool University Press, Liverpool 2025. xx, 324 pp. Ill. Maps. £130.00...
cambridge.org
New OPEN ACCESS publication co-authored with Dr. Chitja Twala (UNISA): Just Across the River: Rural Commerce, Border Stores, and the Risk of #Border Crossing between #Lesotho and #SouthAfrica, 1902-2022 www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....
Just across the River: Rural Commerce, Border Towns, and the Risk of Border Crossing between Lesotho and South Africa, 1902–2022
Reader environment loaded
tandfonline.com
A historical reading recommendation for your consideration. "White Gold and Thirsty Communities," by Associate Professor John Aerni-Flessner @lesothojohn.bsky.social, published in 2026. You can listen to the author talk here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSvW....
Thierry Henry: "The story is, was, and always will be Cabo Verde. When you believe that you can, that's what can happen."
Don't forget, Cabo Verde women will be in WAFCON at the end of this month. Support this footballing nation.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT | Globally, childhood vaccines have saved an estimated 154 million lives since 1974. In this special briefing, we detail which vaccines are in used in South Africa. www.spotlightnsp.co.za/2026/07/01/i...
In The Spotlight | What is in SA’s vaccination schedule and how does it measure up?
Which vaccines are in use in South Africa and how does our vaccination schedule measure up to international standards? In this #InTheSpotlight special briefing, Catherine Tomlinson unpacks the recent ...
spotlightnsp.co.za
And still, #Lesotho and #Eswatini don't exist on South African weather maps <le sigh>. Weather/climate models don't care about national borders. Why draw maps like this???
@anotherhuman.bsky.social · last mo.Official: #ElNiño in #SouthAfrica is back … Here’s what it signifies www.thesouthafrican.com/news/weather...
