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Vanessa Svihla

@vsvihla.bsky.social

Professor, learning sciences/engineering education | #Disabled #POTS #LongCOVID | Artist | She/they

9 Posts272 Follower 283 Folgt

Vanessa Svihla @vsvihla.bsky.social · last yr.

Have you have a grant unlawfully terminated? Do you feel like rage quilting? Join us in making Kintsugi Courthouse Steps squares to share with those impacted: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Courthouse steps variation

Art as Resistance Kintsugi Courthouse steps brooch--Crafting against the unlawful NSF grant terminations We invite you to join us in crafting the revolution! This started as a small group of enginee...

docs.google.com

Vanessa Svihla @vsvihla.bsky.social · last yr.

#HigherEd #EngineeringEducation #DEI #AcademicFreedom #NSF #EquityInSTEM #RadicalHope #WeWillNotBeSilenced #ProtectDEI #DefendAcademicFreedom

We updated the title of our ASEE paper to: "Community of Transformation to Support Inclusive and Equitable Change in Engineering: An Unlawfully-Terminated NSF IUSE Project." Our amazing leadership team includes Nadia Kellam, Vanessa Svihla, Susannah Davis, Katharine Getz, Kristen Ferris, and Earl E. Lee.

Our project, along with hundreds of others, was unlawfully terminated under political pressure targeting DEI-focused research. Now, the NSF is not just minimizing the harm—it is actively reframing these terminations as efforts to "safeguard our nation’s security" in their recent Updates on NSF Priorities. In reality, these actions undermine the very goals they claim to support.

Suppressing equity-centered research weakens scientific progress, exacerbates inequities, and threatens our collective future. Ending research that builds inclusive and just systems is not safeguarding national security—it is abandoning it.

We refuse to be erased.

We are renaming our work, reclaiming our narrative, and resisting the political suppression of academic freedom and equity in STEM.

If your NSF grant was terminated, we encourage you to revise your paper titles too. Visibility is resistance.

They may have terminated our grants, but they will not terminate our impact.

Vanessa Svihla @vsvihla.bsky.social · last yr.

Highlights from my recent series: Face off!

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Vanessa Svihla @vsvihla.bsky.social · 2y ago

Recent daily work #analog #collage

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Vanessa Svihla @vsvihla.bsky.social · 2y ago

Recent works. Analog #collage

McCarthy and cronies stare. In the foreground, coyotes frolic. In the background, a nuclear explosion (above) and someone creepy staring (below).

Text reads: Unwind in style. Your home is more than just a space—it's TOO MUCH NEWS. Not every opportunity to display courage is worth taking. You'll go MAD. Image is of a comfortable chair with a sideboard behind. A wonky mirror hangs on the wall, with a ceiling lamp partially obscuring the edge. The apparent reflection shows a puffed up puffer fish.

Text reads: They will all be gone and a good thing too!" That remark brought it home to me more forcibly than ever before. He recognized the approaching end. They fade into the limbo of forgotten things. It is not easy but, like bird watching, it has a fascination of its own. I will leave you to pick your observation point.
Image is of a comfortable chair with a sideboard behind. A wonky mirror hangs on the wall, with a ceiling lamp partially obscuring the edge. The apparent reflection shows an underwater scene. A diver stares back at us.

A comfortable living room with a large window. Outside, the sky is blue with a shark opening its mouth. Text reads: Blue skies ahead.

Vanessa Svihla @vsvihla.bsky.social · 2y ago

Recent daily works. #collage #analog

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Vanessa Svihla @vsvihla.bsky.social · 2y ago

A few recent collages

Collage: white slivers representing white fragility. Reads: The work continues

Collage/blackout poetry: negative space shows seated child. Poem reads:
Disappear
After a little while a bit shows
Then more and more appears
Until it is like a ball of fire
You happen to be in the path
Disappear
Disappear
We have seen
A storm is coming
It is us

Collage: train tracks run into the distance. The sky is a woman screaming. Small words in the corner read “express feelings “

Collage: background is illustration of intestines. In foreground a father and son sit on a bench, gazing pensively. Text reads:
“There are people that can negatively influence us

to give a sh*t”

Vanessa Svihla @vsvihla.bsky.social · 2y ago

Some things, once taken apart, cannot be "mended." Even so, they can still hold value. This is a post about disability. This might also be a post about democracy.

A white backdrop with many components of different shapes and sizes arrayed, somewhat organized. The objects are black, silver or yellow and include springs, small screws, washers, and uncommon things, all from a disassembled object.