Americans have never been angrier with one another. But polarization is not the disease—it is the response to a revanchist movement seeking to roll back sixty years of social progress. 🆕 by @lilymasonphd.bsky.social muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/a...
Sara Emily Burke
@saraburke.bsky.social
Associate Professor at Syracuse University (psychological science of intergroup bias)
I am recruiting a PhD student to start Fall 2027 (application deadline is December 1). sburke08.expressions.syr.edu/get-involved/
8647: I hereby call upon Congress to "86" Donald Trump by impeaching him and removing him from office. (If Comey had said "kick him out," perhaps Trump would have claimed it was a threat to strike him with a foot. Trump and his administration do not care whether anything they say makes sense.)
Why are we aiming for the homogenisation of creativity? Especially in universities. Using an LLM for any aspect of my research takes the creativity out of it (yes it's possible to be creative and objective at the same time) and would be hugely disrespectful to my participants. And unethical.
A recent piece by my colleague, Len Newman: fascists should just call themselves fascists. newmanl.substack.com/p/an-open-le...
An Open Letter to The Republicans of 2026
Back in the 1980s, when I lived in a Manhattan co-op, I found myself at what turned out to be a very contentious building meeting.
newmanl.substack.com
I love Wikipedia, and I'm proud to be a monthly donor and to have been an (occasional, sporadic) editor for nearly 20 years. This is a good video. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zi0... Here are some choice lines:
Wikipedia and the Destruction of Trust
YouTube video by Hank Green
youtube.com
Any university that takes a bribe in exchange for swearing loyalty to any aspect of Trump's ideology is abandoning its legitimacy as an institution of higher education. www.pbs.org/newshour/pol...
Trump asks 9 colleges to commit to his political agenda for better access to federal money
A document sent to the universities encourages them to adopt the White House’s vision for America’s campuses, with commitments to accept the government’s priorities on admissions, women’s sports, free...
pbs.org
The chancellor of Texas Tech has apparently ordered faculty to ignore the scientific research literature when teaching about the psychology of gender (at least in the classroom). This undermines the credibility of a psychology degree from Texas Tech. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/u...
Texas Tech Moves to Limit Academic Discussion to 2 Genders
nytimes.com
Academic freedom should protect honest criticism of Charlie Kirk, even if the criticism is delivered with an irreverent tone. My new opinion piece on Syracuse.com: www.syracuse.com/opinion/2025...
Syracuse University must protect faculty who criticize Charlie Kirk (Your Letters)
To maintain the ethos of thorough inquiry at universities, "we must protect professors from institutional interference in the things they say and write," says the letter writer.
syracuse.com
Forms of Psychological Bias Against Transgender Women and Men and People with Nonbinary Gender Identities -- now online at Personality and Social Psychology Review. Main article: doi.org/10.1177/1088... Preprint: doi.org/10.31234/osf... #SocialPsychology #IntergroupBias #Transgender #Nonbinary
Forms of Psychological Bias Against Transgender Women and Men and People With Nonbinary Gender Identities - Sara Emily Burke, Alexandria Jaurique, Benjamin M. Valen, Natalie M. Wittlin, Mackenzie L. M...
Academic The present review examines bias against transgender women and men and bias against people with nonbinary gender identities. A central contention is th...
doi.org
Political violence is bad. Killing people for their opinions is bad. If you agree, you should speak out against Charlie Kirk. Unlike most of his current detractors, Charlie Kirk supported political violence.
Every chance you get, say “fuck you” to authoritarian demands. One of the regime’s tools is making people believe resistance is futile—that acquiescence is the only option. But especially for those with power and privilege, the most basic, necessary act is to say: FUCK YOU.
Another day wasted when university presidents & chancellors could have been in front of microphones. The total lack of loud public collective action condemning this & explaining to Americans why this is a complete disaster is utterly maddening. bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Neil Lewis, Jr.@neillewisjr.bsky.social · 2y agoThousands of people gathered peacefully in Syracuse this afternoon to protest against Trump's and Musk's senseless destruction. (Pictured: my hastily-lettered sign reading "Hands off our beloved transgender Americans, immigrants, and students" on the front and "Hands off democracy" on the back.)
"The free movement of our international community members is therefore essential to the functioning of the University and serving our mission." More public declarations of this sort are urgently needed. Let Tufts serve as a role model for other universities.
Amy Spitalnick@amyspitalnick.bsky.social · 2y agoProud of my alma mater. This Jewish Tufts alum - and former Hillel student president - knows that the Trump administration is exploiting our community’s legitimate concerns about antisemitism to undermine students’ rights and our democracy. www.tufts.edu/president/sp...
We are excited to announce our official partnership with @indivisible.org for the National Day of Action on April 5th! Stand Up for Science says: HANDS OFF OUR SCIENCE! #standupforscience #handsoffourscience Find and register for an event near you: handsoff2025.com?utm_source=s...
When Cory Booker is finally finished with this speech, we should remember an important lesson from it. Even when we are not sure precisely what to do, we must keep talking to remind ourselves that the unfolding catastrophe is not normal, acceptable, or inevitable.
No government ever has the right to arrest someone for criticizing the government or its allies. Any government that regularly does so abandons its claim to legitimate authority. www.wgbh.org/news/local/2... www.reuters.com/world/us/tuf... www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2024...
Tufts international graduate student taken into ICE custody
The student was reportedly detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and remains in federal custody, according to an email sent by the university Tuesday evening.
wgbh.org
New blog post! In which I explain the issue with mediation analysis and sketch out one way to deal with the underlying causal inference problem -- in just a bit over 1,000 words! If you have never found the time to read up on this, now is your chance. www.the100.ci/2025/03/20/r...
Reviewer notes: That’s a very nice mediation analysis you have there. It would be a shame if something happened to it.
Mediation analysis has gotten a lot of flak, including classic titles such as “Yes, but what’s the mechanism? (Don’t expect an easy answer)” (Bullock et al., 2010), “What mediation analysis can (not) ...
the100.ci
CALL TO ACTION FOR ALL WHO SUPPORT HIGHER ED: Please join us in signing this public commitment to the value and values of higher ed as a crucial part of healthy democracies, and calling on our leaders to actively defend us against attack! bit.ly/DemocracyAnd...
Speaking Out for Democracy and US Higher Education
Speaking Out for Democracy and US Higher Education To add your name to this statement, go to https://bit.ly/DemocracyAndHigherEdSign We publicly affirm our commitment to the enterprise of higher educ...
bit.ly
Attacks on DEIA programs cause harm by interfering with the programs themselves, but also by raising questions about who really belongs on campus. This open letter is a good opportunity (one among many) for faculty to tell students that we value diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.
Katie Wilkinson@drkwilkinson.bsky.social · 2y agoThis administration is canceling grants & vilifying DEIA. Faculty should be pushing back to explain how DEIA efforts are critical in our mission to support all students and benefit society by increasing student success. Please sign & share. #AcademicSky medium.com/@dearstudent...
The concept of "conflict of interest" is vital to understanding why strict freedom of speech protections are among the most important limits placed on government.
Had fun at the Stand Up for Science event! Here's my sign (and me holding it backwards to be pro-pet food). Scientific advances dramatically alleviate the burden of disease/illness and has made many areas of life better and more equitable. We should keep that up. @standupforscience.bsky.social
Today I attended the "Stand Up for Science" rally in Hartford. Pictured: cardboard sign with sections reading "Embrace a truth-seeking mindset | Strive for informed disagreement | DearNiece2024.com" and "Preserve public data | Fund research and education | Stand up for science | DearNephew2020.com"
Here is Alec from Technology Connections describing mass-market large language models as "the purest form of lazy anti-intellectualism." The analogy he draws between algorithmic curation and algorithmic text is imperfect but thought-provoking.
Technology Connections@techconnectify.bsky.social · 2y agoSurely this new video won't make me seem like a crank. www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEJp...
What I want for my birthday is to end Trumpist ideological interference in science, healthcare, and the basic nonpartisan functions of government (including, for example, the important work done at the FBI, the CDC, and the CFPB).
6/8. In science, and in institutions of learning like colleges and universities, there is a shared understanding that edicts should not go unquestioned—that we all have a duty to systematically investigate the world around us and to interrogate claims about it. We do not simply obey.
