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Robin L Turner

@robinlturnerphd.bsky.social

1.2K followers 770 following 430 posts

Mostly a reskeeter. tradition, gender, land tenure, and resource politics in Southern Africa. I block would be followers without profiles.

Videos

Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and the physical geography definition based on the physical characteristics of the land. The most restrictive definition considers the region of Southern Africa to consist of Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, and South Africa, while other definitions also include several other countries from the area. .. more

Political science 23%

Economics 19%

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Reposted by Dustin Mulvaney, Shelly Lundberg, Robert C. Richards , and 3 more Dustin Mulvaney, Shelly Lundberg, Robert C. Richards, Nazita Lajevardi, Michael D. McDonald, Southern Africa

News Eye @newseye.bsky.social · 14h

These are mostly indigenous communities in Alaska that have been slammed by the storm.

The local manager of a small airline fleet says he is the only one doing evacuations right now!

Defund FEMA and people are abandoned. Defund public media and no-one knows.

FYI, today is Indigenous Peoples Day.

Flooding seen with water up to the crash barriers of local roads

Sheds and debris lie scattered in the storm

A small blue house has been blown onto its roof

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Reposted by Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Southern Africa

Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 15h

The siren call of electoral strategy and analysis partially crowded out work on things like law, organizational resistance, and protest. I blame myself, too

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Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Daniel Ziblatt, Anna O. Law , and 11 more Joanna Bryson, Daniel Ziblatt, Anna O. Law, Brendan Nyhan, Efrén O. Pérez, Adam Bonica, Sanford F. Schram, Seán Hanley, David Rosnick, Stuart White, Christina Pagel, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Southern Africa

Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 15h

“Win every election” is not a viable strategy for preventing authoritarianism

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Reposted by Michael D. McDonald, Southern Africa, David Darmofal

ProPublica @propublica.org · 1d

Trump promised free plane tickets and $1,000 “exit bonuses” to immigrants who opted to self-deport.

ProPublica spoke to a dozen Venezuelan immigrants who said they followed the president’s instructions, yet never received the promised assistance.

“I Don’t Want to Be Here Anymore”: They Tried to Self-Deport, Then Got Stranded in Trump’s America

Venezuelan immigrants signed up for a Trump-promoted app called CBP Home, which promised a safe and easy way to leave the country, and prepared to leave on their given departure dates. Those dates hav...

www.propublica.org

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Reposted by Southern Africa

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 1d

This shit about “Bari Weiss is a feminist girlboss” is actually the logical conclusion of allowing DEI to be a substitute for actual structural change to end white supremacy and patriarchy

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Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Melanie C. Green, Southern Africa

ProPublica @propublica.org · 2d

WATCH: ProPublica obtained records from the Department of Agriculture that detail the 94 million pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached food banks because of the Trump administration’s cuts to The Emergency Food Assistance Program.

➡️ Read more: https://propub.li/4odsKnn

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Reposted by Brendan Nyhan, Michael A. Clemens, Rosemary A. Joyce , and 12 more Brendan Nyhan, Michael A. Clemens, Rosemary A. Joyce, Philip N. Cohen, Laurent Pech, Robert C. Richards, William Myers, Nora V. Demleitner, Kate Starbird, Josh Pasek, Daxton R. Stewart, Aviel Roshwald, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Southern Africa, David Darmofal

Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 3d

New from me at Cato: I go through the numerous and massive First Amendment and academic-freedom violations of Trump's proffered "compact" with universities and then talk about the mechanism by which it would be enforced, by way of what I describe as a "retroactive push-button guillotine."

Universities Must Defend Their Independence by Rejecting Trump's "Compact"

The Trump administration has proffered a “compact” to universities that would require them to surrender their independence and academic freedom. How many First Amendment violations can we identify in ...

www.cato.org

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Reposted by Anne Applebaum, Anna O. Law, Lisa W. Fazio , and 9 more Anne Applebaum, Anna O. Law, Lisa W. Fazio, John Horgan, Rosemary A. Joyce, Bonnie Honig, Rebecca Tushnet, Scott A. Imberman, Erol Akçay, Kate Starbird, Pablo Piccato, Southern Africa

Josh Moody @byjoshmoody.bsky.social · 3d

MIT rejects "compact" proposed by the Trump administration.
MIT prez wrote: it "would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution" and "is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone."
orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...

Regarding the Compact | MIT Organization Chart

orgchart.mit.edu

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Robin L Turner @robinlturnerphd.bsky.social · 3d

“…many universities have scholars, including historians, sociologists, and lawyers, who have devoted their efforts to studying the consolidation of power by authoritarian governments. What is happening in America is not new. It has occurred, with variations, in many other countries….” [& here B4]👇🏽

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 4d

New from @jeremymberg.bsky.social at Can We Still Govern:
"Silence may protect an institution from becoming an early target, but history shows that it increases the likelihood that that institution (and many others) will be become targets over time."
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/deafening-...

Deafening Quiet from the Scientific Establishment

Leaders are underestimating the risks of not fighting back

donmoynihan.substack.com

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Reposted by Southern Africa

Daily Maverick @dailymaverick.co.za · 3d

When people invoke the law to challenge procedural shortcuts, inadequate consultations or environmentally harmful decisions, they are not obstructing development. They are exercising their constitutional rights and demanding that development be lawful, inclusive and just.

Labelling environmental litigation as anti-development is miusleading

www.dailymaverick.co.za

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Reposted by Lisa W. Fazio, Allison Eden, Southern Africa

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 3d

All I want in life is to persuade everyone, when encountering politics & culture, to ask, "why are we talking about this?" I mean that very literally: anything you encounter on your screens reflects a choice. Someone covered that, talked about that, rather than the many other things out there. Why?

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Reposted by Southern Africa

Citizen.Coping @propcazhpm.bsky.social · 3d

Exactly right.

Both W.E.B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson had their passports revoked for political speech and were prevented from traveling.

As a scholar and a performer, they each had to rely on friends and mutual aid to support their families because retaliation affected their livelihood.

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Reposted by Southern Africa

Jessica Kant @jessdkant.bsky.social · 4d

It’s a material reality that right now the AI tech bubble is holding up the empire. It increasingly powers all commerce, and is central to the most invasive surveillance apparatus the world has ever seen. Predictive analytics trained on our data have allowed billionaires to track us like wildlife.

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Reposted by Anna O. Law, Kate Jackson, Southern Africa

Jessica Kant @jessdkant.bsky.social · 4d

One curious thing on this site about speaking out against the encroachment of LLMs is that inevitably you get accused of being anti-tech. I don’t hate technology. I’ve used machine learning in my own code before. But I also recognize that oligarchs are so hellbent on pushing this tech for a reason.

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Reposted by Southern Africa

vee.soy @vashetc.bsky.social · 4d

Tech + policy friends, my old job is hiring a new ED. I am so sad to see Harlan phasing out, but he truly founded an incredible organization. The team is amazing, the work they do is impactful, and the intention they put behind all of their work is inspiring. Check out the details here:

Upturn Announces Executive Director Transition

After nearly 15 years of leading Upturn, Harlan Yu plans to step down from his role as Executive Director in June 2026.

www.upturn.org

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Reposted by Southern Africa

Eric Michael Garcia @ericmgarcia.bsky.social · 4d

We talk a lot about AIPAC and “the Israel lobby” but when it came to Israel, Biden had a genuine ideological commitment to the “hug Bibi” strategy even as others in his party didn’t like it.

Andrew Exum @exum.bsky.social · 4d

This week has confirmed my suspicion that Biden’s Middle East policies will look worse, and will be even more embarrassing for Democrats, with the passage of time.

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Reposted by Márk E. Hauber, Hugo Mercier, Philip N. Cohen , and 2 more Márk E. Hauber, Hugo Mercier, Philip N. Cohen, Richard M. Carpiano, Southern Africa

Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 4d

I have to fan-girl for a minute here. My friend @rosvall-lab.bsky.social built an app to gather data on bird behavior during the 2024 solar eclipse. 10,000+ citizen scientists contributed (including my kids), and the resulting paper was published in Science today!

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Total solar eclipse triggers dawn behavior in birds: Insights from acoustic recordings and community science

On 8 April 2024, a total solar eclipse disrupted light-dark cycles for North American birds during the lead-up to spring reproduction. Compiling more than 10,000 community observations and artificial ...

www.science.org

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Reposted by Southern Africa

Louis Römer @lromeranth.bsky.social · 4d

The accusation-in-a-mirror/mirror propaganda is a classic tactic used to incite violence. It was used in Rwanda to incite genocide.

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Reposted by Southern Africa

Jamila Michener @povertyscholar.bsky.social · 4d

I am grateful to work alongside colleagues in the health/public health space who are intentional about building our power as academics in service of advancing health equity. We are the Health and Power Organizing Project (HPOP). Read our AJPH paper here: ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/...

Why Building Power Is Key to Protecting Academic Public Health and Advancing Health Equity | AJPH | Vol. 115 Issue 11

American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) from the American Public Health Association (APHA)

ajph.aphapublications.org

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Reposted by Southern Africa

Charlene A. Carruthers @charlenecarruthers.bsky.social · 4d

It would be incredible if folks coming into consciousness around the ICE raids were also able to make the connection the family policing. I highly recommend Dorothy Roberts book “Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families--and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World“

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Reposted by Anne Applebaum, Joanna Bryson, Joe R. Feagin , and 44 more Anne Applebaum, Joanna Bryson, Joe R. Feagin, Brendan Nyhan, Jesse H. Kroll, Patrick A. Jansen, Daniel L. Millimet, David Feldman, Eric Goldman, Fabián Muniesa, Jacob Montgomery, Bruce D. Baker, Juan Cole, Erwin Dekker, Sanford F. Schram, John Foot, Devon Greyson, W. Andy Knight, Nazita Lajevardi, Stacy D. VanDeveer, Scott A. Imberman, Caroline Fohlin, Florian Keller, Michael D. McDonald, Jason Lyall, Kate Starbird, Victor Pickard, Thomas Masterson, Nils Zurawski, Nelson Flores, Henrik Skaug Sætra, Arlene Stein, Federica Genovese, Richard M. Carpiano, Olivier Jourdan, Klaus Oschema, Meredith Farkas, Brandon Whitcher, Daxton R. Stewart, Albin Wagener, Nicole Guenther Discenza, Manisha Sinha, Aviel Roshwald, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Bruce Buchan, Southern Africa

The Daily Show @thedailyshow.com · 4d

The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.

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Reposted by Jonathan H. Adler, Southern Africa

Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 4d

NEW: Federal judge dismisses Drake's defamation case against Kendrick Lamar storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

The issue in this case is whether "Not Like Us" can reasonably be understood to convey as a factual matter that Drake is a pedophile or that he has engaged in sexual relations with minors. In light of the overall context in which the statements in the Recording were made, the Court holds that it cannot.

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Reposted by Southern Africa

Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 4d

Its the modern day version of the white man's burden. Colonialism and empire building at its best, using the same arguments of empires of yore as Karen Hao so eloquently put it in her book, Empire of AI.

This IS the side to fight against, not the side to join in service of some larger goal.

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Reposted by Southern Africa

Citizen.Coping @propcazhpm.bsky.social · 4d

In 1857, Thomas Howland became Providence, RI's first Black elected official.

Later that year, he decided to emigrate to Liberia with his wife & daughter after the Dred Scott case denied Black people protections of U.S. citizenship. He was denied a passport.

Thomas Howland, 1856
John Blanchard

Portrait of a distringuished Black man from the 19th centrure wearing fine clothes, including high collar and tie of the day.
Museum Text:
Thomas Howland, the subject of this unusually expressive portrait, was a dock worker in Providence, Rhode lsland, In 1857 he became the city's first Black elected oficial when he was amed warden of its Third Ward. However, that same year he decided to emigrate to Liberia with his wite and daughter, perhaps in response to the recent Supreme Court decision in the Dred Scott case that denied African Americans the protections of U.S. citizenship. Because of this decision, Howland's application for a passport was denied, despite his status as a free man with the right to vote in his home state (he did eventually make it to Liberia). Howland's confident posture echoes that of the earlier Portrait of a Gentleman shown nearby, the fashionable attire of both sitters serving to reinforce thelir self-possession.

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Reposted by Talia Schaffer, Lisa Diedrich, Southern Africa

Sami Schalk @drsamischalk.bsky.social · 4d

Job Alert! @uwmadisongws.bsky.social is hiring an assistant professor or recently tenured associate professor who works on gender or sexuality and aging. If this sounds like you, please apply! If it’s not you, please share with your networks.

jobs.wisc.edu/jobs/assista...

Assistant/Associate Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies (RISE - THRIVE) - Madison, Wisconsin, United States

Current Employees: If you are currently employed at any of the Universities of Wisconsin, log in to Workday to apply through the internal application process.Job Category:FacultyEmployment Type:Regula...

jobs.wisc.edu

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Reposted by Aaron Sojourner, Southern Africa

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 4d

Deafening Quiet from the Scientific Establishment

Leaders are underestimating the risks of not fighting back

donmoynihan.substack.com

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Reposted by Wendy Pearlman, Southern Africa

Dana El Kurd @danaelkurd.bsky.social · 4d

My article on the 20 point gaza "peace plan" is now out. Let me tell you why peace processes in the Israeli Palestinian conflict seem to keep failing, with a focus on Tony Blair the menace of the middle east

theconversation.com/a-gaza-peace...