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jdmeyers.bsky.social
Theologian, nonviolence theorist, adjunct professor at DePaul University. Nonviolent resistance, Christianity, Christian Nationalism, labor, teaching, academic libraries, and U.S. higher education.
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The @nytimes.com really has a headline problem. Based on the accompanying photo, this one should read: "Trump ejects 35 states from the union, adds two original colonies." Either that or "As leaders openly lie, so does AI. We've decided to join them."

submitted 18 hours ago • 0 comments

People of faith suing the Trump administration for violating their religious freedom. Including UCC, PCUSA, TEC, UMC conferences...the list is long... Read the complaint. Lawyers are heroes. www.law.georgetown.edu/icap/wp-cont...

submitted 12 days ago • 14 comments

1/9 Christians Nationalists are absolutely Christians (well, most of them; some are just white supremacists who see it as a cultural marker). Most are trying to live faithful lives. They've just fallen for one of the largest grifts of all time.

submitted 12 days ago • 1 comment

I can't tell you how many times I've been in a room full of people wishing grant money was going to urgent needs, or at least something useful, instead of wasting staff time on some harebrained project the funder wants. Can't speak as much to politics, but it's a staple of academic & church work.

submitted 30 days ago • 0 comments

This is an excellent longer read that shows the power of university boards and the way a few key people can change the direction of an entire institution and their local area www.teenvogue.com/story/north-...

submitted 35 days ago • 30 comments

Everyone—whether in higher education or not—should read this clear-eyed assessment of the state of higher education in the US. As the author notes, to protect democracy, universities must be run democratically.

submitted 43 days ago • 4 comments

The ways in which American academia encourages seemingly most foreign scholars to stop publishing in their mother languages should be more extensively and intensely criticized

submitted 50 days ago • 0 comments

I've read the ruling striking down the minimum salary increase. The judge refused to acknowledge that it would lead to pay raises, not just shifting workers to non-exempt status. Now workers are losing their raises. But not teachers, since the min salary for us is $0. www.npr.org/2024/12/16/n...

submitted 67 days ago • 0 comments

I will never stop being aghast that the United States built a higher education system that was literally the envy of the entire world—our bitterest political enemies nonetheless sent their children to us to be educated, it was so good—& then just decided to systematically, ruthlessly dismantle it

submitted 68 days ago • 114 comments

Universities are not supposed to make money. Hospitals are not supposed to make money. Public transportation is not supposed to make money . . .

submitted 68 days ago • 0 comments

I live in the 2nd-largest city in my state. UPS, FedEx, Amazon all regularly refuse to deliver to my address. They use USPS instead. There is no way a privatized USPS will deliver to every address, let alone 6 days/week. It's a money-losing business model. But it's also essential infrastructure.

submitted 68 days ago • 0 comments

Learning is, at root, a social activity. For it to be most meaningful, learning has to be done in community. Content delivery is not learning. Plug-and-chug autograded virtual worksheets are not learning.

submitted 71 days ago • 3 comments

This is what's so baffling about so many suggestions for AI in the humanities classroom: they mistake the product for the point. Writing outlines and essays is important not because you need to make outlines and essays but because that's how you learn to think with/through complex ideas.

submitted 73 days ago • 155 comments

Join Scholars for a New Deal for Higher Education **this Thursday** at 7pm ET for a vital online forum on the ways we can continue the fight to remake our colleges and universities for the common good. It's an all-star lineup -- register here: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

submitted 80 days ago • 0 comments

Hoover deported hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens to Mexico in the 1920s–30s. Reparations might include granting citizenship to every Mexican in the U.S. unless the feds can prove they are not descended from illegally deported citizens. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024...

submitted 81 days ago • 1 comment

The push to include Christian content in public schools is discriminatory & incredibly damaging to Christianity. Used for generations in segregation academies & homeschooling, the curriculums are typically poorly done, inaccurate, racist, antisemitic & reflective of only a tiny sliver of the church

submitted 95 days ago • 1 comment

This is a must-watch lecture for higher ed admins, profs, politicians, foundations, donors, and really anyone who cares about America. Newfield's discussion of public need for humanities research, his data on the near-absence of funding for it, and his vision of a way forward are all essential.

submitted 96 days ago • 2 comments