allisong.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

indefensible

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

This is the reality of Burkina, just when a massive campaign on anglophone social media invents non-existent, crazy achievements by IB Traoré and makes him the liberator of Africa, thanks to AI generated posts. Also, yesterday was another day of debacle for the army, with 11 attacks by JNIM

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

After noteworthy gains in the previous decade under democratically elected governments, Niger’s military coup in July 2023 has resulted in a deterioration in security, economic wellbeing, and agency for Nigerien citizens. africacenter.org/spo... 1/2

submitted 12 days ago • 1 comment

My colleagues @andrewleber.bsky.social & @stano.bsky.social: "If American university presidents do not forcefully denounce these unconstitutional and un-American actions, our universities will soon be shells of their former selves, like (...) other nations that have lapsed into authoritarian rule."

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

This is horribly unethical. Violating the subreddit’s rules, no meaningful consent, and has the downstream consequence of reducing people’s trust in other posters in a space that seems like it was actually a decent place for dialogue & people being open to changing their minds about important issues

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

About 70% of the migration flows across West & Central Africa involve temporary, seasonal, and permanent migration of workers, with economic hubs such as Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria the key destinations. See our Spotlight for more: africacenter.org/spo...

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

"The same person [...] coordinating all foreign assistance across the department is also [...] the chief humanitarian for the U.S. government, responsible for getting billions of dollars of assistance to the most difficult operating environments with likely 95 percent less staff than before" 1/2

submitted 24 days ago • 1 comment

Well this was a fucking ride archive.is/0SrwO

submitted 25 days ago • 11 comments

Mobutu couldn’t hold a candle to these guys. “Taken together, the various projects are approaching $1 billion in paper gains even after accounting for the latest round of trade war-induced market gyrations, according to Bloomberg.” www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

submitted 35 days ago • 0 comments

In other news regarding the West African/Sahelian move away from France...

submitted 37 days ago • 0 comments

This is very noticeable among students as well. Especially international students are increasingly reluctant to speak, even inside the classroom, because they are - understandably! rightfully! - frightened they might get punished by the regime. It is heartbreaking and it makes me so fucking angry.

submitted 38 days ago • 21 comments

We hang together or we hang separately. Could not be clearer what is happening and how universities must respond.

submitted 40 days ago • 45 comments

I wrote this in November 2024. It was a difficult thing to write then, and it is a depressing thing to read now. And yet I share it because I think we still need to ask ourselves how far we will go.

submitted 40 days ago • 2 comments

I'm sorry, but any major news media outlet not covering hands off protests, tesla protests, or the acts of popular resistance are making a deliberate choice -- to serve power.

submitted 41 days ago • 51 comments

ICMYI: reported protests in the US in 2025 are almost certainly outpacing protests during Trump 1.0. In March 2025, we recorded significant growth in the number of cumulative events, and also an uptick in the rate of events (# of protests/week).

submitted 44 days ago • 11 comments

it was so cute! bubbles and confetti -- carnival culture does protest

submitted 43 days ago • 0 comments

In 2015, University of Cincinnati police killed Samuel DuBose—not a university affiliate—miles away from campus after a routine traffic stop. This doesn’t just make Columbia students and faculty less safe; it makes all New Yorkers less safe.

submitted 43 days ago • 0 comments

1/ The number of protests planned for tomorrow is enormous. Given what Trump has done to the economy, and everyone's collective ability to pay for household expenses/retirement I'd expect them to be huge. Find out more at handsoff2025.com

submitted 44 days ago • 53 comments

I think this probably has more to do with the dispute with ECOWAS but either way not a sign of an improving geopolitical environment

submitted 48 days ago • 3 comments

Nothing.

submitted 49 days ago • 4 comments

Fuck yeah, Louisiana. Y'all turned out. Landry wanted 12% turnout to get his extremist constitutional amendments passed. Hot mic with shill Mike Johnson said he worried there'd be 18% turnout. We got ~20% turnout on a weird-ass off cycle weekend election and defeated ALL FOUR by huge margins.

submitted 50 days ago • 1 comment

shameful and stupid

submitted 51 days ago • 0 comments

NYT story on the importance of VOA for Chinese people seeking information, in which some decline to go on the record because of fear of retribution from Beijing—or Washington

submitted 51 days ago • 1 comment

A think I have been screaming about: universities have an obligation to use their endowments to fight against the suppression of freedom of expression: www.nytimes.com/2025/03/25/o...

submitted 51 days ago • 0 comments

“One source of expertise lies in the people & institutions in marginalized communities throughout this country & around the globe who have had decades of experience in navigating a world where simply looking out for one’s own best interests is insufficient for individual or collective survival”

submitted 51 days ago • 0 comments

Stop letting people in this administration say they want to make changes to FEMA because it will save money/minimize disaster spending. This is not true. One thing we are very sure about in disaster research is that investing in mitigation & preparedness saves us major money in response & recovery.

submitted 52 days ago • 21 comments

NEW: The bill comes after ProPublica’s reporting on the deaths of three Texas women. It specifies that doctors don’t need to wait until an emergency is “imminent” to terminate pregnancies but leaves in steep penalties for those who violate the law. Kavitha Surana & @cassandrajaramillo.bsky.social

submitted 52 days ago • 38 comments

And please appreciate that "small" work is useful. Do what is in your capacity -- and surprise yourself with how that can grow and how your democracy-defending actions will be contagious.

submitted 53 days ago • 0 comments

Full letter here: sites.google.com/umass.edu/we... Please, consider signing, specially if you are tenured and a citizen.

submitted 53 days ago • 0 comments

One of the best things we can do as political scientists right now is not mine words about what's happening when speaking to the press. Shout out to this woman.

submitted 56 days ago • 2 comments

"If it continues like this, the United States will not score as a democracy when we release [next year's] data," said Staffan Lindberg, head of the Varieties of Democracy project, run out of Sweden's University of Gothenburg. www.cbc.ca/news/world/t...

submitted 61 days ago • 50 comments

The library and the post office are the only two systems we have that circulate things widely and to everyone, no matter who they are or what they believe. The library is the only one that, for now, is not forced to pay for itself at point of sale. Attacks on IMLS are attacks on every one of us.

submitted 64 days ago • 16 comments

On Wednesday, March 19 @12 ET @pdri-devlab.bsky.social will host a webinar Panel titled "The Impacts of U.S. Foreign Aid Suspension: Perspectives from Abroad." For more details and registration, see upenn.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

submitted 65 days ago • 1 comment

As a Jewish faculty member at one of these universities, this is complete horseshit designed to scare universities into compliance with authoritarian overreach.

submitted 69 days ago • 0 comments

Cuts to the Minerva research initiative threaten a major hub of expertise on the Sahel — and America's only such resource based in a university.

submitted 72 days ago • 0 comments

This article proves how incredibly consequential the choice to resist instead of rolling over can be. These brave people are helping everyone, far beyond their own agency’s reach. Let’s all learn this lesson (Article also does a good job contextualizing Trump/Musk lies every time they’re relevant)

submitted 71 days ago • 16 comments

Good job everybody.

submitted 73 days ago • 1 comment

Please join us on March 13 15:00 GMT / 11:00 EDT for the next @africanpoliticscg.bsky.social Online Colloquium wiht Hamza Delbar. Sign up here to get the paper and Zoom link: forms.gle/KUNDBdfdL6cN...

submitted 73 days ago • 0 comments

In discussions of the impact of USAID's destruction, something I haven't seen mentioned is the chilling effect on civil society working on politically sensitive topics in aid-receiving countries. In the past, USAID's partners enjoyed an umbrella of protection. That's now done... (1/n)

submitted 74 days ago • 1 comment

Per year

submitted 76 days ago • 1 comment

NEW: The axing of some 10,000 programs has consigned untold numbers of children and refugees to death, officials say. Documents and interviews reveal that the State Department appears to have made the cuts without the careful review it described in court. By Brett Murphy and @annamaria.bsky.social

submitted 78 days ago • 122 comments