Julia Shatz
@juliashatz.bsky.social
Historian of the Middle East, social welfare, and empire. Associate professor at Fresno State.
Reposted by Julia Shatz
Ahmed al Ahmed, a Lebanese Muslim who owns a Sydney fruit shop, risked his life to disarm one of the Bondi Beach shooters.
His courage gives me hope amidst the horror and darkness. Muslims and Jews are not enemies. Our futures, in the Middle East and beyond, are intrinsically bound.
A true hero.
His courage gives me hope amidst the horror and darkness. Muslims and Jews are not enemies. Our futures, in the Middle East and beyond, are intrinsically bound.
A true hero.
December 14, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Ahmed al Ahmed, a Lebanese Muslim who owns a Sydney fruit shop, risked his life to disarm one of the Bondi Beach shooters.
His courage gives me hope amidst the horror and darkness. Muslims and Jews are not enemies. Our futures, in the Middle East and beyond, are intrinsically bound.
A true hero.
His courage gives me hope amidst the horror and darkness. Muslims and Jews are not enemies. Our futures, in the Middle East and beyond, are intrinsically bound.
A true hero.
“The irony couldn’t be starker: the very programs best equipped to study the social and ethical implications of AI were being defunded, even as the university promoted the use of OpenAI’s products across campus. This isn’t innovation—it’s institutional auto-cannibalism.”
AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself
Students use AI to write papers, professors use AI to grade them, degrees become meaningless, and tech companies make fortunes. Welcome to the death of higher education.
www.currentaffairs.org
December 7, 2025 at 4:06 PM
“The irony couldn’t be starker: the very programs best equipped to study the social and ethical implications of AI were being defunded, even as the university promoted the use of OpenAI’s products across campus. This isn’t innovation—it’s institutional auto-cannibalism.”
Reposted by Julia Shatz
Reposted by Julia Shatz
We are running a search for an Associate Professorship (or Professorship) in Modern Middle Eastern History 1830-1970, with expertise in across key regions, including Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Turkey, Egypt, and the Maghreb.
www.trinity.ox.ac.uk/vacancies
www.trinity.ox.ac.uk/vacancies
November 20, 2025 at 2:57 PM
We are running a search for an Associate Professorship (or Professorship) in Modern Middle Eastern History 1830-1970, with expertise in across key regions, including Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Turkey, Egypt, and the Maghreb.
www.trinity.ox.ac.uk/vacancies
www.trinity.ox.ac.uk/vacancies
The “turn off the machine” point should have been when Chat GPT helped a teenager die by suicide. That my uni system spent $17m that we do not have to give this to students, over the objections of faculty, and with zero guard rails for safety is abhorrent.
Call me controversial, but technology that leads vulnerable people into crisis and even holds their hand as they die by suicide should not be endorsed by schools and universities, we should not be giving discounted subscriptions to this monstrous tech to young people AT ALL
The boyfriend of a friend of my son's has spent several weeks in a psych ward due to Chat GPT induced psychosis. He isn't suicidal but AI encouraged him down a toxic and paranoid wormhole until he became completely delusional. Evil stuff.
November 7, 2025 at 3:07 PM
The “turn off the machine” point should have been when Chat GPT helped a teenager die by suicide. That my uni system spent $17m that we do not have to give this to students, over the objections of faculty, and with zero guard rails for safety is abhorrent.
Reposted by Julia Shatz
🚨🚨 My dear friend and fellow academic, the Palestinian American sociologist @emanabdelhadi.bsky.social has been taken by the Cook County Sheriff near Chicago. They have not mirandized her. Please signal boost. All eyes on Broadview for Eman and the community she was defending 🚨🚨
October 3, 2025 at 3:00 PM
🚨🚨 My dear friend and fellow academic, the Palestinian American sociologist @emanabdelhadi.bsky.social has been taken by the Cook County Sheriff near Chicago. They have not mirandized her. Please signal boost. All eyes on Broadview for Eman and the community she was defending 🚨🚨
Reposted by Julia Shatz
We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.
October 1, 2025 at 2:38 PM
We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.
Reposted by Julia Shatz
The idea that an instructor can and *should* be fired for daring to teach something not explicitly mentioned in course catalog is the pinnacle of the "students as customers" idiocy that's been steadily destroying American universities for decades now.
You're taking a class, not buying a product.
You're taking a class, not buying a product.
A top 50 US university yesterday fired an instructor, a department chair, and a dean because a course made some reference to transgender people without the brief official course description in the catalog saying “trigger warning: gender.”
In conclusion, those intolerant lefty kids, cancel culture.
In conclusion, those intolerant lefty kids, cancel culture.
September 10, 2025 at 3:55 PM
The idea that an instructor can and *should* be fired for daring to teach something not explicitly mentioned in course catalog is the pinnacle of the "students as customers" idiocy that's been steadily destroying American universities for decades now.
You're taking a class, not buying a product.
You're taking a class, not buying a product.
Californians! A revised version of AB 715 was released last night, a mere 24 hours before a scheduled Senate Education Committee hearing. While the new version removes some of the worst problems of the previous one, there are still major concerns. 🧵
Californians, AB 715 is a threat to public education. Call your state reps, unions, etc. If, like me, you are a Jewish Californian who does not want to be used as a mascot for an assault on free speech, does not want to be pitted against our Palestinian friends and neighbors, tell them that too.
Opinion | California Democrats Are Fighting Trump’s Battle for Him
www.nytimes.com
September 10, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Californians! A revised version of AB 715 was released last night, a mere 24 hours before a scheduled Senate Education Committee hearing. While the new version removes some of the worst problems of the previous one, there are still major concerns. 🧵
Awesome that we’re burning down our kids’ futures for this.
August 25, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Awesome that we’re burning down our kids’ futures for this.
Californians, AB 715 is a threat to public education. Call your state reps, unions, etc. If, like me, you are a Jewish Californian who does not want to be used as a mascot for an assault on free speech, does not want to be pitted against our Palestinian friends and neighbors, tell them that too.
Opinion | California Democrats Are Fighting Trump’s Battle for Him
www.nytimes.com
August 15, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Californians, AB 715 is a threat to public education. Call your state reps, unions, etc. If, like me, you are a Jewish Californian who does not want to be used as a mascot for an assault on free speech, does not want to be pitted against our Palestinian friends and neighbors, tell them that too.
Reposted by Julia Shatz
Matt Walsh's imaginary professor: "good morning student-comrades. today we learn how to bayonet a white Christian capitalist while taking trans hormones"
actual average professor: "folks, I am begging you, please do the reading for tomorrow this time. it is five pages"
actual average professor: "folks, I am begging you, please do the reading for tomorrow this time. it is five pages"
one of the things that gets me about so many of the pundits who pontificate about "higher education" when they really mean a handful of elite private institutions is that most of them live within driving distance of either a community college or a non-selective public institution
July 16, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Matt Walsh's imaginary professor: "good morning student-comrades. today we learn how to bayonet a white Christian capitalist while taking trans hormones"
actual average professor: "folks, I am begging you, please do the reading for tomorrow this time. it is five pages"
actual average professor: "folks, I am begging you, please do the reading for tomorrow this time. it is five pages"
Reposted by Julia Shatz
Decades of mechanistic talk about university degrees as if they were bundles of 'skills' and 'prep' are about to be proved completely wrong (obviously). Want to get a real boost? Do History or English.
July 13, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Decades of mechanistic talk about university degrees as if they were bundles of 'skills' and 'prep' are about to be proved completely wrong (obviously). Want to get a real boost? Do History or English.
Reposted by Julia Shatz
Ms. Rachel is braver than the troops.
May 22, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Ms. Rachel is braver than the troops.
Reposted by Julia Shatz
Thanks for absolutely nothing, Columbia and Harvard. Two of the wealthiest universities with the most cultural clout in the world, but rather than fighting, they laid down like doormats and let the government walk over them to destroy the rest of the sector.
Ivy League universities are destroying their Middle East studies departments one by one, in capitulation to Trump. www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
Harvard Dismisses Leaders of Center for Middle Eastern Studies | News | The Harvard Crimson
Interim Harvard Dean of Social Science David M. Cutler ’87 dismissed the director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, professor of Turkish Studies Cemal Kafadar, and its associate director, Hist...
www.thecrimson.com
March 29, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Thanks for absolutely nothing, Columbia and Harvard. Two of the wealthiest universities with the most cultural clout in the world, but rather than fighting, they laid down like doormats and let the government walk over them to destroy the rest of the sector.
Reposted by Julia Shatz
The Trump administration is using claims of antisemitism to cripple universities--along w/ independent media--because they are centers of resistance to authoritarian rule. And the ADL is applauding this assault on liberal democracy. What a shameful moment in American Jewish history.
March 9, 2025 at 10:56 PM
The Trump administration is using claims of antisemitism to cripple universities--along w/ independent media--because they are centers of resistance to authoritarian rule. And the ADL is applauding this assault on liberal democracy. What a shameful moment in American Jewish history.
Reposted by Julia Shatz
The United States government just disappeared a lawful US resident because it didn't like his speech. You should care about this because it shouldn't happen to anyone, but you should also care because it could happen to you. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/09/n...
ICE Arrests Pro-Palestinian Activist at Columbia
Mahmoud Khalil, who recently completed a graduate program at Columbia, has legal permanent residency, his lawyer said.
www.nytimes.com
March 9, 2025 at 11:09 PM
The United States government just disappeared a lawful US resident because it didn't like his speech. You should care about this because it shouldn't happen to anyone, but you should also care because it could happen to you. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/09/n...
Reposted by Julia Shatz
The Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem has been raided by Israeli security forces. Mahmoud and Ahmad Mina have been taken to custody. Anyone who’s visited Palestine knows how serious this is for freedom of speech and cultural organising in Palestine and Israel.
February 9, 2025 at 9:34 PM
The Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem has been raided by Israeli security forces. Mahmoud and Ahmad Mina have been taken to custody. Anyone who’s visited Palestine knows how serious this is for freedom of speech and cultural organising in Palestine and Israel.
During the takeover of the federal government by an unelected billionaire, the impending elimination of the DOEd, and a devastating 8% budget cut to the country’s largest public university system, the CSU is paying $17million to OpenAI to give all my students ChatGPT.
edsource.org/2025/cal-sta...
edsource.org/2025/cal-sta...
Cal State unveils artificial intelligence tools for students
The dawn of AI has brought visions of higher education innovation – and worries that the technology could create new problems for students and faculty.
edsource.org
February 5, 2025 at 8:49 PM
During the takeover of the federal government by an unelected billionaire, the impending elimination of the DOEd, and a devastating 8% budget cut to the country’s largest public university system, the CSU is paying $17million to OpenAI to give all my students ChatGPT.
edsource.org/2025/cal-sta...
edsource.org/2025/cal-sta...
Come see my colleague’s amazing and amazingly relevant work!
January 23, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Come see my colleague’s amazing and amazingly relevant work!
Reposted by Julia Shatz
Sonoma State announced faculty layoffs and program closures today. Targeted programs are mostly humanities and social sciences
Like all CSU, SSU is an institution that serves first generation and minoritized students. California has chronically underfunded the CSU and has billions in reserve.
Like all CSU, SSU is an institution that serves first generation and minoritized students. California has chronically underfunded the CSU and has billions in reserve.
January 23, 2025 at 1:10 AM
Sonoma State announced faculty layoffs and program closures today. Targeted programs are mostly humanities and social sciences
Like all CSU, SSU is an institution that serves first generation and minoritized students. California has chronically underfunded the CSU and has billions in reserve.
Like all CSU, SSU is an institution that serves first generation and minoritized students. California has chronically underfunded the CSU and has billions in reserve.
Reposted by Julia Shatz
I know academics who use AI regularly, for work and play, and I'd really like them, and universities, to tell me how they contend with AI's bottomless appetites for power and water.
Is asking ChatGPT to interpret a Xmas song or making it write your syllabus worth this to you?
Is asking ChatGPT to interpret a Xmas song or making it write your syllabus worth this to you?
December 23, 2024 at 2:45 PM
I know academics who use AI regularly, for work and play, and I'd really like them, and universities, to tell me how they contend with AI's bottomless appetites for power and water.
Is asking ChatGPT to interpret a Xmas song or making it write your syllabus worth this to you?
Is asking ChatGPT to interpret a Xmas song or making it write your syllabus worth this to you?
Reposted by Julia Shatz
We're pleased to call for nominations for the Grace Abbott prize, honoring the best book in English on the history of children, childhood, or youth (broadly construed) published in 2024: www.shcy.org/news-announc...
SHCY Seeks Nominations for the 2024 Grace Abbott Prize - Society for the History of Children and Youth
www.shcy.org
December 30, 2024 at 8:57 PM
We're pleased to call for nominations for the Grace Abbott prize, honoring the best book in English on the history of children, childhood, or youth (broadly construed) published in 2024: www.shcy.org/news-announc...
Reposted by Julia Shatz
BREAKING: The AAUP condemns today’s faculty arrests at NYU.
“This crackdown on NYU faculty is part of a distressing pattern of repression of pro-Palestinian speech on college campuses nationwide.” — AAUP President Todd Wolfson.
⬇️
www.aaup.org/news/aaup-co...
“This crackdown on NYU faculty is part of a distressing pattern of repression of pro-Palestinian speech on college campuses nationwide.” — AAUP President Todd Wolfson.
⬇️
www.aaup.org/news/aaup-co...
AAUP Condemns Faculty Arrests Amidst Protest Crackdown at NYU
The AAUP condemns the reported arrests of two faculty members and three designations of faculty as "personae non grata" at New York University. As the AAUP has maintained since 1940, faculty should be...
www.aaup.org
December 12, 2024 at 10:04 PM
BREAKING: The AAUP condemns today’s faculty arrests at NYU.
“This crackdown on NYU faculty is part of a distressing pattern of repression of pro-Palestinian speech on college campuses nationwide.” — AAUP President Todd Wolfson.
⬇️
www.aaup.org/news/aaup-co...
“This crackdown on NYU faculty is part of a distressing pattern of repression of pro-Palestinian speech on college campuses nationwide.” — AAUP President Todd Wolfson.
⬇️
www.aaup.org/news/aaup-co...