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michaeltheaney.bsky.social
Lecturer in Politics and Research Methods, University of Glasgow. Interests include social movements, protest, social networks, political parties, interest groups, the United States, Scotland, and Ireland.
33 posts 231 followers 533 following
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I was very happy to be quoted today in The Atlantic in this excellent article by @galbeckerman.bsky.social: "Why It’s So Hard to Protest Trump 2.0." #50501Protest #protest www.theatlantic.com/culture/arch...

submitted 29 days ago • 0 comments

Reminder! CFP and workshop registration for the Political Networks and Computational Social Science Conference. We have a great lineup of network analysis workshop instructors: @michaeltheaney.bsky.social, @ognyanova.bsky.social, Shahryar Minhas, & Cassie McMillan. sites.google.com/view/confpol...

submitted 44 days ago • 0 comments

🎶 I had a dream my life would be So different from this hell I'm living So different now from what it seemed Now life has killed the dream I dreamed 🎶

submitted 48 days ago • 0 comments

A Project 2025 tracker by agency shows 100/300 objectives achieved & 46 more in progress: www.project2025.observer

submitted 48 days ago • 1 comment

Please have a look at this paper if you are interested in proportional representation. manhattan.institute/article/refo...

submitted 51 days ago • 3 comments

I am very happy that the journal American Behavioral Scientist has accepted my article for publication, which is titled "Nuclear Weapons, Protest, and American Political Parties,1944-2020." Key takeaways in comments. #nuclearweapons #protest #parties michaeltheaney.com/wp-content/u...

submitted 53 days ago • 1 comment

Sarah Lockwood & @evlieb.bsky.social consider whether financial incentives increase participation in surveys. They find that, if anything, material incentives depress response rates, but there is some heterogeneity in estimated effects by political party. Read more here: doi.org/10.1177/2053...

submitted 54 days ago • 0 comments

Science Magazine reported on the results of my surveys at Friday's Stand up for Science rally in Washington, DC. #StandUpForScience #StandUpforScience2025 #marchforscience www.science.org/content/arti...

submitted 55 days ago • 0 comments

Demand the Immediate Release of Palestinian Student Activist Mahmoud Khalil from DHS detention actionnetwork.org/letters/dema...

submitted 55 days ago • 0 comments

Our work is far from done—science is still under attack. We’ve got ideas, but we want to hear from you. What’s worrying you most? What should we do next? How can we grow this movement together? Fill out this quick form to share your thoughts & stay connected: forms.gle/7EEQMZUveXN9...

submitted 55 days ago • 8 comments

In Alwan’s case, investigators said the unsigned op-ed in the Columbia Spectator, which also urged the school to curtail academic ties to Israel, may have subjected other students to “unwelcome conduct” based on their religion, national origin or military service. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

submitted 56 days ago • 1 comment

Deeply disturbing www.dropsitenews.com/p/dhs-detain...

submitted 56 days ago • 1 comment

I now have emotional comparisons for anger, anxiety, & enthusiasm between #StandUpForScience2025 & the #MarchforScience (2017), based on surveys of participants at Washington, DC events. Anger and anxiety have increased, while enthusiasm has declined. #StandUpForScience

submitted 57 days ago • 0 comments

"Thousands gather across U.S. and world in Stand Up for Science events" #StandUpForScience #StandUpForScience2025 www.science.org/content/arti...

submitted 57 days ago • 0 comments

Surveys by my research teams at yesterday's #StandUpForScience rally and the 2017 #MarchforScience (both in Washington, DC) show that rally participants in 2025 reported significantly higher anxiety about politics and significantly lower enthusiasm about politics than they did in 2017.

submitted 57 days ago • 0 comments

These photos are from today's Stand Up for Science rally today at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. Photos are courtesy of Amy Kasper, who took them while she was conducting surveys for my research. #StandUpforScience2025 #StandUpForScience

submitted 58 days ago • 1 comment

With Stand Up for Science taking place across the USA today, it is a great day to re-read the article that my collaborators and I wrote on "The science of contemporary street protest: New efforts in the United States." www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #StandUpForScience #StandUpForScience2025

submitted 58 days ago • 0 comments

Recently retired NIH Director Francis Collins played the guitar and a led a sing along at today's Stand Up for Science rally at the Lincoln Memorial. Photo extracted from PBS live stream. #StandUpforScience2025 #StandUpForScience #FrancisCollins #nationalinstitutesofhealth #PBS

submitted 58 days ago • 0 comments

A sizeable crowd is presently gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to Stand Up for Science. #StandUpforScience2025 #StandUpForScience

submitted 58 days ago • 0 comments

LIVE STREAM UP! m.twitch.tv/standupforsc...

submitted 58 days ago • 11 comments

These photos are from yesterday's Refuse Fascism rally in Upper Senate Park in Washington, DC. They were taken by Amy Kasper as she was leading a team of surveyors helping with my research. Thanks, Amy!

submitted 60 days ago • 0 comments

Join us for the 2025 Political Networks & Computational Social Science Conference (sites.google.com/view/confpol...), Aug 11-14 at Harvard & Northeastern, with Duncan Watts delivering the keynote. Workshops: Aug 11-12; panels: Aug 13-14. Submit by March 28:

submitted 61 days ago • 1 comment

"Academics can no longer resort to only publishing papers... there is a need to consider how to make best use of academic knowledge & creativity to support diverse activism: in board rooms, with corporate leaders, with politicians, youth organisations, universities, & in the streets"

submitted 61 days ago • 2 comments

These excellent photos were taken yesterday by Amy Kasper at the Trans Unity Rally in Washington, DC where she was conducting surveys for my research. Thank you, Amy!

submitted 63 days ago • 0 comments

This thread now a piece for @goodauth.bsky.social on why Trump was not going to back Ukraine, why leaders’ beliefs are so hard to change, and how leaders really can change the course of international politics. goodauthority.org/news/trump-a...

submitted 64 days ago • 1 comment

I wrote about the role of the media in the burgeoning protest movement against the Trump/Musk.

submitted 65 days ago • 2 comments

The DOGE Purge Isn’t About Efficiency—It’s an authoritarian tactic. I wrote a more in depth piece on the empirical evidence showing how liberal-leaning agencies are being disproportionately targeted and how this mirrors authoritarian strategies seen in Hungary and Turkey.

submitted 65 days ago • 30 comments

"Recent antidemocratic trends in Serbia have been met with waves of protest, beginning in 2017, when Vučić was first elected president in a contest the opposition and protesters decried as fraudulent." www.journalofdemocra...

submitted 65 days ago • 0 comments

"[It is] likely enough that we are going to our doom . . . But if we stayed at home and did nothing, doom would find us anyway, sooner or later. . . . Aye, we may help the other peoples before we pass away." J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (1954), Page 486 (HarperCollinsPublishers 2011).

submitted 67 days ago • 0 comments

An estimated 500,000 people attended the 2017 Women’s March in Washington, but only thousands showed up in 2025. What changed? In this brief, @michaeltheaney.bsky.social analyzes his survey on how emotions shaped activists’ responses to Trump’s victories. scholars.org/contribution...

submitted 67 days ago • 0 comments

Philip Klinkner argues that while Donald Trump cannot be elected PRESIDENT again, he could possibly be elected VICE President in 2028. This possibility could involve the Supreme Court ruling on the 19th Amendment in a way that subverts the 22nd Amendment. theconversation.com/how-trump-co...

submitted 69 days ago • 1 comment

Last week I published a short article at the Scholars Strategy Network (@scholars.org) on my protest surveys in Washington, DC last month. It is titled "Emotions Made the Difference for Women’s Marches against Two Inaugurations." Read it here: scholars.org/contribution...

submitted 70 days ago • 0 comments