Allison McKim
@allisonmckim.bsky.social
Sociologist of gender, punishment & society, welfare state, law, drugs. Professor at Bard College. Author of Addicted to Rehab: Race, Gender, and Drugs in the Era of Mass Incarceration.
Reposted by Allison McKim
11 years ago today, 12 year old Tamir Rice was gunned down by police officers on Cleveland’s west side.
The officer shot him within seconds of arriving at the park he was playing in.
Tamir’s life mattered. It still does. My thoughts are with his family today.
The officer shot him within seconds of arriving at the park he was playing in.
Tamir’s life mattered. It still does. My thoughts are with his family today.
November 22, 2025 at 11:32 PM
11 years ago today, 12 year old Tamir Rice was gunned down by police officers on Cleveland’s west side.
The officer shot him within seconds of arriving at the park he was playing in.
Tamir’s life mattered. It still does. My thoughts are with his family today.
The officer shot him within seconds of arriving at the park he was playing in.
Tamir’s life mattered. It still does. My thoughts are with his family today.
Reposted by Allison McKim
If you have tenure at Texas A&M and aren't maliciously emailing the president a dozen times every day to ask if you can say this or you can say that, then what's the point in having tenure?
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Texas A&M adopts policy requiring professors to get OK from school president to discuss certain race and gender issues.
November 13, 2025 at 11:18 PM
If you have tenure at Texas A&M and aren't maliciously emailing the president a dozen times every day to ask if you can say this or you can say that, then what's the point in having tenure?
Reposted by Allison McKim
"If you forget your login, call our wonderful school secretary, Marjorie. No, you can’t just call the office to tell Marjorie your kid is sick; you’ll need to call the office to retrieve your PITA login information, then log in to PITA to tell PITA your kid is sick."
Our School District Can Now Keep Track of Your Child with Just Three Terrible Apps
Other than lawsuits, losing track of a child is every school district’s worst nightmare. We haven’t lost anyone yet, but an EdTech company has pain...
buff.ly
November 11, 2025 at 2:40 AM
"If you forget your login, call our wonderful school secretary, Marjorie. No, you can’t just call the office to tell Marjorie your kid is sick; you’ll need to call the office to retrieve your PITA login information, then log in to PITA to tell PITA your kid is sick."
Reposted by Allison McKim
🔻Job finding expectations has plunged in recent months -- mean perceived probability of finding a job if one’s current job was lost.
❗️Now at lowest since pandemic and 2014 before that.
❗️Now at lowest since pandemic and 2014 before that.
November 7, 2025 at 9:49 PM
🔻Job finding expectations has plunged in recent months -- mean perceived probability of finding a job if one’s current job was lost.
❗️Now at lowest since pandemic and 2014 before that.
❗️Now at lowest since pandemic and 2014 before that.
Reposted by Allison McKim
just in: Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner is on track to win easily.
With roughly a quarter of the vote reporting, he leads Pat Dugan 81% to 19%.
Krasner already beat Dugan in the Dem primary... and Dugan kept running as the GOP nominee. (My write-up: boltsmag.org/2025-prosecu...)
With roughly a quarter of the vote reporting, he leads Pat Dugan 81% to 19%.
Krasner already beat Dugan in the Dem primary... and Dugan kept running as the GOP nominee. (My write-up: boltsmag.org/2025-prosecu...)
November 5, 2025 at 1:37 AM
just in: Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner is on track to win easily.
With roughly a quarter of the vote reporting, he leads Pat Dugan 81% to 19%.
Krasner already beat Dugan in the Dem primary... and Dugan kept running as the GOP nominee. (My write-up: boltsmag.org/2025-prosecu...)
With roughly a quarter of the vote reporting, he leads Pat Dugan 81% to 19%.
Krasner already beat Dugan in the Dem primary... and Dugan kept running as the GOP nominee. (My write-up: boltsmag.org/2025-prosecu...)
Reposted by Allison McKim
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
November 3, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
Reposted by Allison McKim
The Jays played a better series but… that’s not always enough ⚾️
November 2, 2025 at 4:19 AM
The Jays played a better series but… that’s not always enough ⚾️
Reposted by Allison McKim
An Air Canada flight right now
November 2, 2025 at 1:38 AM
An Air Canada flight right now
"22.6 percent agree that the 19th Amendment should be repealed (28 percent of men and 18 percent of women)"
We've seen religious elites and social media warriors call for the end of women’s suffrage. But we don’t have a sense of how everyday Americans feel about women’s political rights.
Until now.
We preview new survey results about repeal of the 19th Amendment and adoption of a household vote.
Until now.
We preview new survey results about repeal of the 19th Amendment and adoption of a household vote.
The Coming Battle Over Women’s Suffrage
By Paul A. Djupe and Brooklyn Walker [Image credit. National Women’s History Museum.] Every election cycle, millions of women cast votes. For many of them, their right to vote seems uncontroversial…
religioninpublic.blog
October 23, 2025 at 1:31 AM
"22.6 percent agree that the 19th Amendment should be repealed (28 percent of men and 18 percent of women)"
Well, this just replaced the Willie Horton ad as an example of racist tropes in tough-on-crime politics in my class tomorrow.
Andrew Cuomo’s campaign just posted — and quickly deleted — this AI-generated ad depicting “criminals for Zohran Mamdani.”
Features a Black man in a keffiyeh shoplifting, an abuser, a trespasser, a trafficker, a drug dealer, and a drunk driver all declaring support for Mamdani.
Features a Black man in a keffiyeh shoplifting, an abuser, a trespasser, a trafficker, a drug dealer, and a drunk driver all declaring support for Mamdani.
October 23, 2025 at 1:01 AM
Well, this just replaced the Willie Horton ad as an example of racist tropes in tough-on-crime politics in my class tomorrow.
Reposted by Allison McKim
Wow. Harvard nuking its PhD programs
- Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75%
- Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60%
- Social Sciences by 50–70%
- History by 60%
- Biology by 75%
- The German department will lose all PhD seats
- Sociology from six PhD students to zero
- Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75%
- Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60%
- Social Sciences by 50–70%
- History by 60%
- Biology by 75%
- The German department will lose all PhD seats
- Sociology from six PhD students to zero
Harvard FAS Cuts Ph.D. Seats By More Than Half Across Next Two Admissions Cycles | News | The Harvard Crimson
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences slashed the number of Ph.D. student admissions slots for the Science division by more than 75 percent and for the Arts & Humanities division by about 60 percent for th...
www.thecrimson.com
October 21, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Wow. Harvard nuking its PhD programs
- Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75%
- Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60%
- Social Sciences by 50–70%
- History by 60%
- Biology by 75%
- The German department will lose all PhD seats
- Sociology from six PhD students to zero
- Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75%
- Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60%
- Social Sciences by 50–70%
- History by 60%
- Biology by 75%
- The German department will lose all PhD seats
- Sociology from six PhD students to zero
Depressing times for academia
Harvard is the 'best case scenario' for US research pedagogy (at least, financially). They have a $57bn endowment. I think the takeaway here is that the days of most PhD programs in the US are numbered
October 22, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Depressing times for academia
Reposted by Allison McKim
I have to say I’m really fucked up by the events of today. I have been interviewing recent arrivals from west Africa and stories include political persecution, people fleeing to protect daughters from FGM, people escaping enslavement in Mauritania.
To think they’re just rounded up? It’s too much.
To think they’re just rounded up? It’s too much.
October 22, 2025 at 12:06 AM
I have to say I’m really fucked up by the events of today. I have been interviewing recent arrivals from west Africa and stories include political persecution, people fleeing to protect daughters from FGM, people escaping enslavement in Mauritania.
To think they’re just rounded up? It’s too much.
To think they’re just rounded up? It’s too much.
Reposted by Allison McKim
Indiana University has fired the staff director of the student newspaper, after disputes in which university leadership tried to pressure him to prevent students from publishing news.
October 14, 2025 at 11:56 PM
Indiana University has fired the staff director of the student newspaper, after disputes in which university leadership tried to pressure him to prevent students from publishing news.
Reposted by Allison McKim
University general counsel, university trustee, university president
October 7, 2025 at 12:32 AM
University general counsel, university trustee, university president
Reposted by Allison McKim
News coverage of the Trump administration's proposed "compact" with universities has been, so far, shockingly bad.
I hate to pick on NPR reporter Elissa Nadworny, who's usually a solid reporter, but almost every important thing I heard her say this morning about the proposed "compact" was false.
I hate to pick on NPR reporter Elissa Nadworny, who's usually a solid reporter, but almost every important thing I heard her say this morning about the proposed "compact" was false.
October 3, 2025 at 8:20 PM
News coverage of the Trump administration's proposed "compact" with universities has been, so far, shockingly bad.
I hate to pick on NPR reporter Elissa Nadworny, who's usually a solid reporter, but almost every important thing I heard her say this morning about the proposed "compact" was false.
I hate to pick on NPR reporter Elissa Nadworny, who's usually a solid reporter, but almost every important thing I heard her say this morning about the proposed "compact" was false.
Reposted by Allison McKim
"Treatment providers are asked to exercise . . . coercive control over their court-mandated clients, warping the therapeutic relationship." Mary Ellen Stitt w/
@uchicagopress.bsky.social on how treatment ends up feeling a lot like punishment when courts get involved:
@uchicagopress.bsky.social on how treatment ends up feeling a lot like punishment when courts get involved:
Punishment in All but Name - Mary Ellen Stitt - Inquest
Drug diversion programs are hyped by reformists as alternatives to prison—but they function just like punishment and people often end up incarcerated anyway.
inquest.org
October 3, 2025 at 12:00 PM
"Treatment providers are asked to exercise . . . coercive control over their court-mandated clients, warping the therapeutic relationship." Mary Ellen Stitt w/
@uchicagopress.bsky.social on how treatment ends up feeling a lot like punishment when courts get involved:
@uchicagopress.bsky.social on how treatment ends up feeling a lot like punishment when courts get involved:
Reposted by Allison McKim
🚨NEW REPORT: The U.S. incarcerates women at a higher rate than almost any other country in the world
So much for the “land of the free” 🧵
So much for the “land of the free” 🧵
September 23, 2025 at 1:15 PM
🚨NEW REPORT: The U.S. incarcerates women at a higher rate than almost any other country in the world
So much for the “land of the free” 🧵
So much for the “land of the free” 🧵
Reposted by Allison McKim
THIS. Campus Reform, The College Fix & Turning Point's Professor Watchlist created a harassment campaign of mostly Black & Brown women & queer folks who were also junior professors. Our universities & admins opted for silence when we needed defense. Here's the story they wrote about me in 2017 1/
September 9, 2025 at 1:34 PM
THIS. Campus Reform, The College Fix & Turning Point's Professor Watchlist created a harassment campaign of mostly Black & Brown women & queer folks who were also junior professors. Our universities & admins opted for silence when we needed defense. Here's the story they wrote about me in 2017 1/
Reposted by Allison McKim
Since ppl love campus anecdotes so much, here's one: I have colleagues who give students they know to be MAGA an A (in one case I'm aware of overlooking clear AI use), because the colleague is on a Green Card or H1B, and they know: one complaint like at Texas A&M, and they're on a flight home. (1/3)
September 9, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Since ppl love campus anecdotes so much, here's one: I have colleagues who give students they know to be MAGA an A (in one case I'm aware of overlooking clear AI use), because the colleague is on a Green Card or H1B, and they know: one complaint like at Texas A&M, and they're on a flight home. (1/3)
Reposted by Allison McKim
There’s a faction within the contemporary right that subscribes to a flatly fascistic politics of bodily purity and is openly hostile to booze as a result. That cohort has been very successful forwarding its ideas into the broader MAGA ecosystem: www.fingers.email/p/the-unbear...
August 27, 2025 at 6:53 PM
There’s a faction within the contemporary right that subscribes to a flatly fascistic politics of bodily purity and is openly hostile to booze as a result. That cohort has been very successful forwarding its ideas into the broader MAGA ecosystem: www.fingers.email/p/the-unbear...
Reposted by Allison McKim
People working in universities know a lot of the work that makes the organization function is outsourced to for-profit companies (catering, landscaping) or runs on platforms requiring payments to such companies: Workday, Canvas, Microsoft, Zoom.
This thread will be for less obvious examples. 1/
This thread will be for less obvious examples. 1/
August 19, 2025 at 1:35 AM
People working in universities know a lot of the work that makes the organization function is outsourced to for-profit companies (catering, landscaping) or runs on platforms requiring payments to such companies: Workday, Canvas, Microsoft, Zoom.
This thread will be for less obvious examples. 1/
This thread will be for less obvious examples. 1/
Reposted by Allison McKim
Ok - so I'm going to do a real context+write up but for now, here's what some of these things look like.
To start my data reference is DCinbox which is ~208,000 official e-newsletters over the past 15 years.
To start my data reference is DCinbox which is ~208,000 official e-newsletters over the past 15 years.
August 22, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Ok - so I'm going to do a real context+write up but for now, here's what some of these things look like.
To start my data reference is DCinbox which is ~208,000 official e-newsletters over the past 15 years.
To start my data reference is DCinbox which is ~208,000 official e-newsletters over the past 15 years.