Kiernan Mathews
@faculty.bsky.social
I study faculty, direct a university consortium, and reveal the known universe of #highered scholarship to people who never thought to ask. Trying to change a 19th century academy for a 21st century professoriate. Failing daily.
Reposted by Kiernan Mathews
This analysis of how ideas spread in the early scientific revolution, from person to person and place to place, lines up so nicely with @alliemorgan.bsky.social's 2018 paper on the diffusion of scientific ideas via modern faculty hiring networks epjdatascience.springeropen.com/articles/10....
August 21, 2025 at 2:17 PM
This analysis of how ideas spread in the early scientific revolution, from person to person and place to place, lines up so nicely with @alliemorgan.bsky.social's 2018 paper on the diffusion of scientific ideas via modern faculty hiring networks epjdatascience.springeropen.com/articles/10....
Reposted by Kiernan Mathews
“There is just one way to save yourself, and that’s to get together and work and fight for everybody.” – Woody
[Text: Woody quoted in “Woody Guthrie: A Life,” Joe Klein, 1980, Alfred A. Knopf.]
[Text: Woody quoted in “Woody Guthrie: A Life,” Joe Klein, 1980, Alfred A. Knopf.]
August 19, 2025 at 3:55 PM
“There is just one way to save yourself, and that’s to get together and work and fight for everybody.” – Woody
[Text: Woody quoted in “Woody Guthrie: A Life,” Joe Klein, 1980, Alfred A. Knopf.]
[Text: Woody quoted in “Woody Guthrie: A Life,” Joe Klein, 1980, Alfred A. Knopf.]
Reposted by Kiernan Mathews
"All of you workers everywhere, you will see, you will know, who’s on your side, who’s working and fighting for you." – Woody
[Text: Quoted in “Woody Guthrie: A Life,” Joe Klein, 1980, Alfred A. Knopf.]
[Text: Quoted in “Woody Guthrie: A Life,” Joe Klein, 1980, Alfred A. Knopf.]
August 15, 2025 at 3:18 PM
"All of you workers everywhere, you will see, you will know, who’s on your side, who’s working and fighting for you." – Woody
[Text: Quoted in “Woody Guthrie: A Life,” Joe Klein, 1980, Alfred A. Knopf.]
[Text: Quoted in “Woody Guthrie: A Life,” Joe Klein, 1980, Alfred A. Knopf.]
Building a playlist for music to meet the moment, I’ve only just discovered this sweet 2m40s from early in The Mountain Goats’ discography:
themountaingoats.bandcamp.com/track/color-...
“They came in by the dozens, walking or crawling /
Some were bright-eyed, some were dead on their feet…”
themountaingoats.bandcamp.com/track/color-...
“They came in by the dozens, walking or crawling /
Some were bright-eyed, some were dead on their feet…”
Color in Your Cheeks, by the Mountain Goats
from the album All Hail West Texas (Remastered)
themountaingoats.bandcamp.com
July 12, 2025 at 11:41 AM
Building a playlist for music to meet the moment, I’ve only just discovered this sweet 2m40s from early in The Mountain Goats’ discography:
themountaingoats.bandcamp.com/track/color-...
“They came in by the dozens, walking or crawling /
Some were bright-eyed, some were dead on their feet…”
themountaingoats.bandcamp.com/track/color-...
“They came in by the dozens, walking or crawling /
Some were bright-eyed, some were dead on their feet…”
This is a high-quality take on trustees in @insidehighered.com, incl. Toor's comparison of boards + profs:
"As with faculty development, those who are eager to get better at their jobs attend learning sessions and those who most need training rarely show up."
www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...
"As with faculty development, those who are eager to get better at their jobs attend learning sessions and those who most need training rarely show up."
www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...
A Few Words About Trustees (opinion)
Most faculty and staff know very little about the president-trustee relationship, Rachel Toor writes.
www.insidehighered.com
June 13, 2025 at 3:00 PM
This is a high-quality take on trustees in @insidehighered.com, incl. Toor's comparison of boards + profs:
"As with faculty development, those who are eager to get better at their jobs attend learning sessions and those who most need training rarely show up."
www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...
"As with faculty development, those who are eager to get better at their jobs attend learning sessions and those who most need training rarely show up."
www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...
“Yet [Mordecai] firmly said that he would sooner shut down his university than allow anyone to dictate what its STUDENTS COULD OR COULD NOT LEARN.”
Is there a more crisp defense of academic freedom? This framing by @jelaniya.bsky.social seems unassailable.
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Is there a more crisp defense of academic freedom? This framing by @jelaniya.bsky.social seems unassailable.
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
A Tumultuous Spring Semester Finally Comes to a Close
The biggest mistake that some universities have made is to presume that the White House is operating in good faith. It is not.
www.newyorker.com
May 29, 2025 at 1:43 PM
“Yet [Mordecai] firmly said that he would sooner shut down his university than allow anyone to dictate what its STUDENTS COULD OR COULD NOT LEARN.”
Is there a more crisp defense of academic freedom? This framing by @jelaniya.bsky.social seems unassailable.
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Is there a more crisp defense of academic freedom? This framing by @jelaniya.bsky.social seems unassailable.
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Reposted by Kiernan Mathews
It has been loads of fun and is super popular (full auditoriums). It also happens to be very little work to organize. If you'd like to offer Guess Lectures at your institution, I wrote up a set of instructions to make it easier for you. Reach out with questions! docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Guess Lectures Instructions
Guess Lectures Notes and instructions Julia Strand, Carleton College The Premise: In Guess Lectures, faculty give 7-minute talks using someone else’s slides from an unrelated discipline, sight unseen...
docs.google.com
May 15, 2025 at 7:38 PM
It has been loads of fun and is super popular (full auditoriums). It also happens to be very little work to organize. If you'd like to offer Guess Lectures at your institution, I wrote up a set of instructions to make it easier for you. Reach out with questions! docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Recently recommended because the transcripts of confidential search committee meetings "will occupy real estate in your brain forever":
When Two Bodies Are (Not) a Problem: Gender & Relationship Status Discrimination in Academic Hiring, by @larivera.bsky.social
advance.charlotte.edu/wp-content/u...
When Two Bodies Are (Not) a Problem: Gender & Relationship Status Discrimination in Academic Hiring, by @larivera.bsky.social
advance.charlotte.edu/wp-content/u...
![Lydia [to Mary]: Have you checked the New York Times weddings section?
Mary: Yes, that's how I found out about Elizabeth's wedding.
Lydia [looking up from her computer, surprised]: Does Elizabeth have an announcement?
Mary [nodding yes]: Have you checked Weddingchannel[.com]? [She brings up a listing and later finds Elizabeth's wedding
registry.]
Lydia visits site, too. She then shows her computer to Ronald, who begins looking at the registry and commenting on the gifts.
Ronald: Do people really need this stuff?](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:dikheh6r7gms2hd6hpkiyrom/bafkreicaforr26dhtlbuazhgr6qig4o3j35wgxpmerhmnjxksrhmpiqhgm@jpeg)
May 14, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Recently recommended because the transcripts of confidential search committee meetings "will occupy real estate in your brain forever":
When Two Bodies Are (Not) a Problem: Gender & Relationship Status Discrimination in Academic Hiring, by @larivera.bsky.social
advance.charlotte.edu/wp-content/u...
When Two Bodies Are (Not) a Problem: Gender & Relationship Status Discrimination in Academic Hiring, by @larivera.bsky.social
advance.charlotte.edu/wp-content/u...
“Brown Professor Avoids Defunding by Adding ‘For Bombs’ to Research Abstract” by Ray Theon
“At press time, Norman was encouraging a colleague in the Africana Studies Department to add ‘for white people too’ to the title of her upcoming talk.”
thenoser.com/article/Brow...
“At press time, Norman was encouraging a colleague in the Africana Studies Department to add ‘for white people too’ to the title of her upcoming talk.”
thenoser.com/article/Brow...
May 14, 2025 at 11:42 AM
“Brown Professor Avoids Defunding by Adding ‘For Bombs’ to Research Abstract” by Ray Theon
“At press time, Norman was encouraging a colleague in the Africana Studies Department to add ‘for white people too’ to the title of her upcoming talk.”
thenoser.com/article/Brow...
“At press time, Norman was encouraging a colleague in the Africana Studies Department to add ‘for white people too’ to the title of her upcoming talk.”
thenoser.com/article/Brow...
A statement from @bigtenacademic.bsky.social: That "mutual defense compact"? It's still not going to happen.
btaa.org/big-ten-acad...
btaa.org/big-ten-acad...
May 13, 2025 at 4:46 PM
A statement from @bigtenacademic.bsky.social: That "mutual defense compact"? It's still not going to happen.
btaa.org/big-ten-acad...
btaa.org/big-ten-acad...
Perhaps there are proportionally fewer white men on Harvard's faculty because the 👏old 👏ways👏were👏 discriminatory--white men were OVERrepresented. Now (thanks to DEI?) processes are 👏less 👏discriminatory. (❤️ @emmajanepettit.bsky.social for White-Lewis insight, too.)
www.chronicle.com/article/facu...
www.chronicle.com/article/facu...
Faculty Hiring Is Under Federal Scrutiny at Harvard
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has pointed to the university’s data showing a declining proportion of white, male professors.
www.chronicle.com
May 13, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Perhaps there are proportionally fewer white men on Harvard's faculty because the 👏old 👏ways👏were👏 discriminatory--white men were OVERrepresented. Now (thanks to DEI?) processes are 👏less 👏discriminatory. (❤️ @emmajanepettit.bsky.social for White-Lewis insight, too.)
www.chronicle.com/article/facu...
www.chronicle.com/article/facu...
Reposted by Kiernan Mathews
A truly wonderful experience for me, thanks to @dartmouthartsci.bsky.social & the inimitable @faculty.bsky.social & his team (I miss Dustin already!)
I'm inspired by these faculty who, many times over the course of a difficult year, found time away from the constant pressures of their work/lives to rethink + reinvent the "Ivy Plus" norms (+ other powers/privileges) they've inherited.
#selfpromotion
facultyadvancement.duke.edu/news/strengt...
#selfpromotion
facultyadvancement.duke.edu/news/strengt...
Strengthening Academic Leadership in an Uncertain Time | Office for Faculty Advancement
This year’s cohort of Duke Ivy+ Provost Leadership Fellows included Lisa Huettel, Jacquelyn McMillian-Bohler, Jian Pei, Jen’nan Read, Charlotte Sussman and Jennifer Clare
facultyadvancement.duke.edu
May 1, 2025 at 11:04 PM
A truly wonderful experience for me, thanks to @dartmouthartsci.bsky.social & the inimitable @faculty.bsky.social & his team (I miss Dustin already!)
I'm inspired by these faculty who, many times over the course of a difficult year, found time away from the constant pressures of their work/lives to rethink + reinvent the "Ivy Plus" norms (+ other powers/privileges) they've inherited.
#selfpromotion
facultyadvancement.duke.edu/news/strengt...
#selfpromotion
facultyadvancement.duke.edu/news/strengt...
Strengthening Academic Leadership in an Uncertain Time | Office for Faculty Advancement
This year’s cohort of Duke Ivy+ Provost Leadership Fellows included Lisa Huettel, Jacquelyn McMillian-Bohler, Jian Pei, Jen’nan Read, Charlotte Sussman and Jennifer Clare
facultyadvancement.duke.edu
May 1, 2025 at 4:02 PM
I'm inspired by these faculty who, many times over the course of a difficult year, found time away from the constant pressures of their work/lives to rethink + reinvent the "Ivy Plus" norms (+ other powers/privileges) they've inherited.
#selfpromotion
facultyadvancement.duke.edu/news/strengt...
#selfpromotion
facultyadvancement.duke.edu/news/strengt...
This by @guttergeek.bsky.social is required reading for anyone who thought a "NATO-like" defense compact at @bigtenacademic.bsky.social was viable. (TL;DR: It's not.)
campus-novel.ghost.io/the-big10-mu...
campus-novel.ghost.io/the-big10-mu...
The Big10 Mutual Defense Compact Resolution
Minority Report
In taking on my current role as secretary of the university senate, I gave up my vote as a senator. While it has taken some time, given my constitutional fondness for debate and co...
campus-novel.ghost.io
April 29, 2025 at 4:39 PM
This by @guttergeek.bsky.social is required reading for anyone who thought a "NATO-like" defense compact at @bigtenacademic.bsky.social was viable. (TL;DR: It's not.)
campus-novel.ghost.io/the-big10-mu...
campus-novel.ghost.io/the-big10-mu...
Also by @garceslm.bsky.social + @jackiepedota.bsky.social:
Universities must collectively invest in faculty capacity to navigate legal pressures + disrupt suppression. Include a history lesson on academic freedom because minoritized scholars are less protected.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Universities must collectively invest in faculty capacity to navigate legal pressures + disrupt suppression. Include a history lesson on academic freedom because minoritized scholars are less protected.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
A Call to Build Coalitions to Disrupt a Climate of Suppression
Published in Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning (Vol. 57, No. 2, 2025)
www.tandfonline.com
April 28, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Also by @garceslm.bsky.social + @jackiepedota.bsky.social:
Universities must collectively invest in faculty capacity to navigate legal pressures + disrupt suppression. Include a history lesson on academic freedom because minoritized scholars are less protected.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Universities must collectively invest in faculty capacity to navigate legal pressures + disrupt suppression. Include a history lesson on academic freedom because minoritized scholars are less protected.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
In "We're on Our Own Out Here," @jackiepedota.bsky.social + @garceslm.bsky.social show how silence from university leaders—not bills per se—pushed faculty to self-censor race teaching + research. But not if president, provost, dean, chair, sr. faculty speak out.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
“We’re on Our Own Out Here”: Faculty Member Responses to Legislative Threats to Academic Freedom and Scholarship on Race
Colleges and universities nationwide are contending with a well-coordinated, well-funded legislative campaign that seeks to reverse decades of racial progress. Using sociolegal frameworks and conce...
www.tandfonline.com
April 27, 2025 at 5:15 PM
In "We're on Our Own Out Here," @jackiepedota.bsky.social + @garceslm.bsky.social show how silence from university leaders—not bills per se—pushed faculty to self-censor race teaching + research. But not if president, provost, dean, chair, sr. faculty speak out.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Another banger by @aaronclauset.bsky.social + @jenniebrand.bsky.social: When early-career researchers work in diverse teams, they're more likely to build their own diverse teams in the future — helping to break the usual pattern where people mostly work with others who are similar to themselves.
📢Out now! Weihua Li, @jenniebrand.bsky.social, @aaronclauset.bsky.social, and colleagues show that researchers’ early training in diverse environments is strongly correlated with nurturing diverse groups in the established period. www.nature.com/articles/s43... #cssky #NetSci
Gender and racial diversity socialization in science - Nature Computational Science
A computational null model is proposed to study the gender and racial diversity-association effects in academia. Researchers’ early training in diverse environments is strongly correlated with nurturi...
www.nature.com
April 27, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Another banger by @aaronclauset.bsky.social + @jenniebrand.bsky.social: When early-career researchers work in diverse teams, they're more likely to build their own diverse teams in the future — helping to break the usual pattern where people mostly work with others who are similar to themselves.
Reposted by Kiernan Mathews
🧪 Reports from inside NSF - staff were informed another huge set of grants were terminated today, that NSF will have at least a 50% total RIF, & no Acting Director has been appointed.
So, who is leading NSF?
#SciSky @science.org @scinews.bsky.social @aaas.org @aeraedresearch.bsky.social
So, who is leading NSF?
#SciSky @science.org @scinews.bsky.social @aaas.org @aeraedresearch.bsky.social
April 25, 2025 at 9:43 PM
🧪 Reports from inside NSF - staff were informed another huge set of grants were terminated today, that NSF will have at least a 50% total RIF, & no Acting Director has been appointed.
So, who is leading NSF?
#SciSky @science.org @scinews.bsky.social @aaas.org @aeraedresearch.bsky.social
So, who is leading NSF?
#SciSky @science.org @scinews.bsky.social @aaas.org @aeraedresearch.bsky.social
“How randomisation has changed the British Academy’s approach to research funding” 🧪
If you're a funder (including a learned society) keen to enhance the equity of your organisation's awarding process, this blog from @britishacademy.bsky.social 's Ken Emond is a good starting point:
blogs.lse.ac.uk
April 22, 2025 at 10:37 AM
“How randomisation has changed the British Academy’s approach to research funding” 🧪
April 22, 2025 at 10:33 AM
I was an altar boy in a parish convulsed by the "agony of the sex-abuse crisis". The Church's many failures of contrition pushed me out; Francis called me back.
But to Douthat, compassionate, pastoral leadership is weak. It wasn't JP2 or Benedict, but Francis who ended "infallibility's mystique".
But to Douthat, compassionate, pastoral leadership is weak. It wasn't JP2 or Benedict, but Francis who ended "infallibility's mystique".
Opinion | Pope Francis and the End of the Imperial Papacy (Gift Article)
Papal weakness has also opened up other possibilities for Christian and Catholic witness.
www.nytimes.com
April 21, 2025 at 8:52 PM
I was an altar boy in a parish convulsed by the "agony of the sex-abuse crisis". The Church's many failures of contrition pushed me out; Francis called me back.
But to Douthat, compassionate, pastoral leadership is weak. It wasn't JP2 or Benedict, but Francis who ended "infallibility's mystique".
But to Douthat, compassionate, pastoral leadership is weak. It wasn't JP2 or Benedict, but Francis who ended "infallibility's mystique".
Strange Fondue
The Fondue Connection
The Breakfast Fondue
April 19, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Strange Fondue
Early this morning I witnessed* how unremarkable men decided ¿Why not us? and left their corpses on the green as testimony to how truly effed up the situation had become.
*a reenactment of
*a reenactment of
April 19, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Early this morning I witnessed* how unremarkable men decided ¿Why not us? and left their corpses on the green as testimony to how truly effed up the situation had become.
*a reenactment of
*a reenactment of
Jim Nantz inadvertently predicting the @uhoustonclass.bsky.social loss here.
We sure will 'Remember the Alamodome,' Jim. We sure will.
We sure will 'Remember the Alamodome,' Jim. We sure will.
“For the rest of our lives — the University of Houston — we’ll be looking back on one weekend in San Antonio, and we’re gonna say, after we get done tomorrow night, ‘Remember the Alamodome.’” -Jim Nantz
April 17, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Jim Nantz inadvertently predicting the @uhoustonclass.bsky.social loss here.
We sure will 'Remember the Alamodome,' Jim. We sure will.
We sure will 'Remember the Alamodome,' Jim. We sure will.