Rob Taber
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robtaber.bsky.social
Rob Taber
@robtaber.bsky.social
5.9K followers 1.5K following 1.6K posts
Historian of Haiti 🇭🇹 and democracy in the Americas at Fayetteville State.

Working for a welcoming + transformative UNC System & NC. Views my own.

Formerly US ED Partnerships.

Occasional live-poster of obscure panels and events.
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robtaber.bsky.social
Happy "Fayetteville turns into Stars Hollow" Day to all who celebrate!
An A-board stands on a brick sidewalk, advertising "roving street musicians" for Fayetteville's A Dickens Holiday.
November 28, 2025 at 8:02 PM
robtaber.bsky.social
Coming out a week before I taught my first class at Fayetteville State, this line in particular has been my cri de coeur.
Screenshot of the above-linked piece with the following line highlighted: What could be more elitist than deciding that first-generation or working-class students going to community colleges and state colleges don’t need or deserve the same opportunities for intellectual growth and exploration available to privileged students at elite private universities?
November 23, 2025 at 3:59 PM
robtaber.bsky.social
Thanks to our proximity to Fort Bragg and Camp LeJeune, every county in the district has a veteran population higher than the national average. In Cumberland, it's three times higher and in Brunswick it's almost twice as high.
Screenshot of ARC GIS visualization of American Community Survey data of percentage of adults in each county who are military veterans.
November 11, 2025 at 9:48 PM
robtaber.bsky.social
Unlike the other two districts in eastern NC, NC-07 has actually moved toward the Dems in federal elections during the Trump era, in part because of the growth of Inner Banks communities in greater Wilmington, in part because of shifting votes in Fayetteville.
Screenshot from Dave's Redistricting, showing updated NC Congressional districts by trend from 2016 US Senate to 2022 US Senate.
November 11, 2025 at 9:48 PM
robtaber.bsky.social
It stretches from Fayetteville down to Wilmington, through counties that are part of the historic Black Belt. It's one of the four most-winnable Congressional districts in NC.
Screenshot from Dave's Redistricting with an analysis of the updated NC Congressional map.
November 11, 2025 at 9:48 PM
robtaber.bsky.social
Solving the "male loneliness epidemic" one DnD game/roommate reunion at a time.*

*Commemorative t-shirts optional.
A selfie of six middle-aged (gasp!) guys wearing matching t-shirts that has a drawing of a creature coming out of a portal.
October 26, 2025 at 1:59 PM
robtaber.bsky.social
So apparently Trump's political team IS scared of @kimberlyhardync.bsky.social and knows David Rouzer needs backup. Help Kimberly win: secure.actblue.com/donate/nc07s...
Screenshot of Donald Trump truth social endorsement of David Rouzer in NC 7th District.
October 25, 2025 at 7:57 PM
robtaber.bsky.social
Ok, I need this frog to come to class and stand behind me when I lecture.
Picture of Rob Taber speaking with a frog standing behind him.
October 18, 2025 at 8:21 PM
robtaber.bsky.social
#NoKings #FayettevilleNC
Photo of Rob Taber speaking into a microphone with a person in an inflatable flag costume, a French flag, and a US flag behind him.
October 18, 2025 at 5:53 PM
robtaber.bsky.social
So a group of us from seven states started meeting to compare notes. That soon turned into FREA: Faculty for Responsible Education and Accreditation. While we have a range of opinions on CPHE, we all believe in good-faith conversation.
Screenshot from Chronicle piece, reads as follows: But faculty who have interacted with the commission have a more ambivalent take. One positive sign, Maki said, is that a group of UNC faculty were engaged in discussion at the early stages of the commission’s development, and faculty from the other states have formed an ad hoc group, called Faculty for Responsible Education and Accreditation, to monitor the organization’s efforts. Both groups provided written comments on the draft standards.
October 15, 2025 at 12:20 AM
robtaber.bsky.social
Tonight is Fayetteville Tech's annual Lafayette Lecture, which this year is a performance / interpretation by Dr. Sonny Kelly of James Armistead Lafayette, who helped win Yorktown by spying for the Marquis, who then advocated for his freedom.
Picture of a slide with the title "A Tale of Two Lafayettes" and paintings of the Marquis de Lafayette and James Armistead Lafayette
September 5, 2025 at 10:19 PM
robtaber.bsky.social
Never change, Fayetteville.
Billboard that reads "Have a bad tattoo? Call Carlos. Cover-ups so good, it's like it never happened."
August 31, 2025 at 11:51 AM
robtaber.bsky.social
Today in "Things I Read First in @rawsignal.ca"
Screenshot of Axios story on AI in the workforce, reads as follows: Why it matters: Few workers have figured out how to use these tools to work smarter and faster — yet that's the expectation. The disconnect is hurting employee well-being, and it's rattling investors who are pinning their hopes on AI.
August 28, 2025 at 9:25 PM
robtaber.bsky.social
Jeff Jackson, fired up to elect @kimberlyhardync.bsky.social to Congress!
Snapshot of Jeff Jackson in front of a Kimberly Hardy for Congress banner.
August 23, 2025 at 10:13 PM
robtaber.bsky.social
Raleigh / Triangle friends! I've got a do-nothing MAGA Congressman and you can help!

Come eat snacks, hear from @jeffjacksonnc.bsky.social and @kimberlyhardync.bsky.social, and help us flip this R+5! This Saturday in downtown Raleigh.
Flyer for a fundraiser for Kimberly Hardy for Congress with special guest Jeff Jackson and hosts NC Representatives Renée Price and Abe Jones. August 23rd in downtown Raleigh from 5 to 6:30 PM. Tickets start at $70, but tickets for school teachers, social workers, and nonprofit or public employees start at $50.
August 18, 2025 at 6:46 PM
robtaber.bsky.social
"Why are you focusing so much on helping NC farmers pivot to vegetable production?"
Screenshot from Axios about the sudden spike in fresh and dry vegetable prices.
August 17, 2025 at 2:08 PM
robtaber.bsky.social
The kitten prepares to pounce (2025)
Picture of a small grey kitten sitting upright, making eye contact with a very patient, very large, older Maine coon who has put up with a lot of wrestling with said kitten.
August 11, 2025 at 10:31 PM
robtaber.bsky.social
That moment in the all-hands when the Chancellor calls you up for a conversation about shared governance. #BroncoPride
Picture of three people seated on a stage in front of large blue letters that spell FSU. From left to right, the people are Roni Stearns, president of the FSU staff senate, Rob Taber, delegate to the UNC Faculty Assembly, and FSU Chancellor Darrell T. Allison.
August 11, 2025 at 4:53 PM
robtaber.bsky.social
I love how so much of the AI hype is about doing "PhD-level work" when it can't even do upper-level undergraduate work, especially if the source texts weren't scraped by the LLM.

Evaluating AI-generated "argumentative essays" like
Angry goose meme, with the goose say in the first panel: "You say there are social and political ramifications" and then asking in the second panel "What are the social and political ramifications?"
August 10, 2025 at 10:03 PM
robtaber.bsky.social
I am, of course, biased.
Logo for Kimberly Hardy for Congress, with eight stars representing the eight counties in NC 07
August 4, 2025 at 11:17 PM
robtaber.bsky.social
But but but he drives a beat-up car! (Among other vehicles, I imagine. 🙄)

And yup, from Kimberly's palm card:
Image from Kimberly Hardy palm card including her pledge not to take donations from corporate PACs and not to trade individual stocks.
July 31, 2025 at 12:41 PM
robtaber.bsky.social
This is the most AI-skeptical I've seen Axios be.
Screenshot: The big picture: Both Silicon Valley and the U.S. government now agree that we must invest untold billions to build supporting infrastructure for an error-prone, energy-hungry technology with an unproven business model and an unpredictable impact on the economy and jobs.
July 27, 2025 at 1:14 PM
robtaber.bsky.social
No way would wealthy students use pre-existing networks of friends to juice their rankings!
Screenshot: This fall, an expanding number of top schools — including Columbia, M.I.T., Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt and the University of Chicago — will begin accepting “dialogues” portfolios from Schoolhouse.world, a platform co-founded by Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, to help students with math skills and SAT prep. High-schoolers will log into a Zoom call with other students and a peer tutor, debate topics like immigration or Israel-Palestine, and rate one another on traits like empathy, curiosity or kindness. The Schoolhouse.world site offers a scorecard: The more sessions you attend, and the more that your fellow participants recognize your virtues, the better you do.
July 17, 2025 at 3:59 PM
robtaber.bsky.social
As a historian of family wealth creation, I appreciate this energy. (From Tim Gunn's Wikipedia page)
Screenshot: Gunn was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the youngest of six children. He is the brother of filmmaker James Gunn, actor and political writer Matt Gunn, screenwriter Brian Gunn, producer and former vice president of Artisan Entertainment Patrick, and a sister, Beth, who works as an employment attorney.
July 16, 2025 at 2:17 AM
robtaber.bsky.social
Right before a wrestle:
A small grey kitten prepares to ambush an extraordinarily patient Maine Coon, who is dutifully looking away so as to give the kitten a chance to practice his skills.
July 9, 2025 at 3:54 AM