Nina M. Flores, PhD

Greetings! New to Bluesky and wanted to say hello and introduce myself. Trained in urban planning, teach in equity & education, write about pedagogy, study sex ed and justice, and research the targeted harassment of faculty (currently leading campus workshops on this issue, feel free to reach out).

The Center is now accepting applications for the 2025-2026 class of Fellows. For more information on the fellowship program and past fellows projects: https://buff.ly/4jEY119

The insanity of being a fire ecologist in the epicenter of a major fire event, bags packed and ready to evacuate, watching active fire from my window, while taking media requests and explaining to the public, for the 100,000th time how climate change is largely responsible for this

Beyond unbelievable. The world is literally burning in three fires around us, we're in a state of emergency, major events are being canceled left and right, and the email is just an outright denial of danger while flames are visible and everyone breathes ash. I moved my class online.

“Will pay any amount.” Feels like one of those futile pleas we’re going to hear from wealthy people more and more in the era of climate change.

Starting again at or around 1:30pm PT today (1/8), I will begin a NEW livestream to discuss the ongoing catastrophic wildfire events in Southern California. The link is different from AM session! #PalisadesFire #EatonFire #CAfire #CAwx youtube.com/live/uRn...

Washington Post cartoonist Ann Telnaes resigned after an editor rejected her sketch satirizing tech chiefs, including the Post's owner and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

As someone struggling with what I want to share with students when the term starts, reading this was immensely helpful. Also, what lovely treat to be listening to Workers Playtime while reading Billy Bragg's 2025 words almost 30 years after the album's release.

As someone born in the Oregon Trail Generation where Gen X and Millennials meet I can't remember ever being taught about the idea of consent in either high school or college.

If you work with young people, do your part to emphasize the importance of signatures! www.latimes.com/politics/sto...

An OC Register article lists 2024 restaurant closures around the county, but misses a big one: Old Vine Kitchen & Bar (aka Old Vine Cafe 2007-2019). I was behind the scenes at Old Vine for 13 years and if you were part of our community, then you know what a loss this was for Costa Mesa. ❤️

The stack of unread books on my desk can confirm that they are releasing booxytocin, just like their friends, the books about to be delivered and lovingly added to said pile.

Writing is an act of rebellion. Writing is an act of creation. Writing is an act of salvation. Writing is an act of exploration. Writing is an act of emotion. Writing is an act of confession. Writing is an act of speculation. Writing is an act of reflection. Keep writing.

sesame street isn't supposed to make money. the post office isn't supposed to make money. not everything is supposed to MAKE MONEY

This box haunts my 2nd grade memories. Bleak, but using SRA was the first time I remember feeling competition, individualism, and ranking as important in the classroom. We learned to tie our worth in education to quick card completion and next leveling. I kind of get the chills thinking about it.

#Edusky friends: I’m a child of the 80s with vivid 2nd grade (?) memories of a box of what I can only describe as large reading cards with colors denoting different levels. Each kid was on a different level depending on how quickly they completed the cards. Do you remember this? What was it called?

#Edsky friends: I’m a child of the 80s with vivid 2nd grade (?) memories of a box of what I can only describe as large reading cards with colors denoting different levels. Each kid was on a different level depending on how quickly you completed the cards. Do you remember this? What was it called?

🚨NEW PUBLICATION🚨Excited to see this piece out which looks at the work journalists undertake to manage audience hostility--through rank-and-file journalists as well as audience editors in 🇺🇸and 🇨🇦. www.tandfonline.com/eprint/2UH6R...

This. Exactly why I stopped playing Two Dots. Watching anxious and terrified animated characters on ads between rounds, and then realizing their suffering is the story line of other games was just a hard pass. Since I refuse to pay to bypass ads of their distress, I stopped playing.

Them: "As a writer, you should never--" Me:

ICYMI, this was one of the best things I read all week. Reminded me of being a teen reading 1990s Sassy Magazine and wanting to be IRL friends with Angela, Rayanne, and Rickie so bad.

I'm on sabbatical this fall, which means this is the first semester since 2013 that I'm not drowning in papers while living out my Joy Division grading playlist: Isolation, A Means to an End, She's Lost Control, Twenty Four Hours, Disorder, Something Must Break... #EduSky #AcademicSky #HigherEd

Exactly right. I’ve been told I shouldn’t offer extensions because students “need to learn about consequences.” No. They understand punitive driven education. I want them to learn how to ask for an extension when they need it, and to learn grace — how to accept it and how to extend it to others.

YES. Giving my brain permission to sink into deep slow thinking sometimes feels like a daily task!

At that stage of writing where I have to remind myself that thinking is writing. Thinking is writing. Thinking is writing.

I don't know who needs to know this, but Pro Publica has an online thing that will format a letter to your US health insurance company to demand the records behind a claim denial. (which the insurance is then legally required to provide in most cases) projects.propublica.org/claimfile/

No surprises here — an excellent doc!

Cheers to my local public library for saving me a trip driving to campus!

“We speak truth to power, regardless of which party is in power.” Thank you LA Times guild and my fellow writers in the trenches for delivering on this promise no matter the pressure. Persist. latguild.com/news/2024/12...

The way male journalists write about the targeted harassment and abuse of women online is so deeply fucked. Every single time I'm targeted some man writes an article that boils down to "wow she must be loving this attention!". No actually, bc being the target of a harassment & smear campaign sucks

Sotomayor basically gets Tennessee to admit its reasoning would also ban treatments for trans adults. He says much would be left to the democratic process. Sotomayor responds: "When you're one percent of the population or less, very hard to see how the 'democratic process' is going to protect you."

There is a stance I will call "Kavanaugh neutrality" that says the Constitution is "neutral" between vulnerable people and the power of the state and so we will watch and shrug while the vulnerable are beaten up in our presence. #Skrmetti

Seriously!

Oxford English Dictionary's word of the year is brain rot, which refers to the "overconsumption of material or content to the point that it deteriorates one’s mental state."

Glad to see my piece on legal threats against researchers is making the rounds here on @bsky.app, where I've finally set up camp. Thanks to @heymike.bsky.social & @compiler.news for all the support. Please read and share --- more relevant than ever.