Ben Chappell

Obligatory since 2006

#ASA2026 session complete: union folks from five universities held a collaborative workshop on how to form a collective "we" to change power dynamics on campus

You can only choose one #ASA2006

Next week in Chicago

If I buy this one, what does it say about me?

Appreciation mode

I'm so inspired by the French kids. They are demanding teachers and learning. They are showing a proportionate response to austerity. Their union is aligning with public service workers' organizations.

Amazon developed the "statistically improbable phrase" as a unique identifier for books, and now LLMs are redefining writing as the calculation of statistically probably phrases. Jamaica Kincaid: "There is a world of something in this, but I can't go into it right now..."

Our baby union is deep into the grievance process. The student press has been proactive in covering all of our efforts.

Pro tip- find a companion who will be there when you're having a lovely time, and take a photo. Thanks @msophiej.bsky.social

Read @karmachavez.bsky.social on "The Myth of the Academic Social Contract."

I volunteer as the control group if anybody wants to study whether Meta Muse makes life better

The difference between this and dead internet slop is real, recognizable, and essential.

Good take. One detail I can't quite wrap my head around- Harvard offers every student and faculty member $2500 a month in tokens??

new keyword of the year: intellectual atrophy

The frozen water gang has been wreaking havoc in southwest Kansas, and have finally gotten the attention of the business interests that depend on Latine labor. It's a very soft expression of concern but a massive break with conventional silence.

People literally out here just saying anything

One tenured professor who is a Koch Chair of Free Enterprise, making $300,000. Four lecturers, each making $50,000. The average salary of this group is $100,000. Please keep this hypothetical but plausible situation in mind when hearing things about higher ed.

Lepa Radić, Yugoslav partisan fighter, tortured for three days and put to the gallows by Nazis at age 17. They told her she could save her life by naming names. "My comrades will reveal themselves when they avenge me."

Hasan Piker would not be controversial in a functioning democracy.

September is my nation-envy season. I wish we had songs like this. I wish we had the history to back them up. youtu.be/bhfalJWnVUk

I still have to do the nine clicks to get around the paywall, but this is a very promising title. www.chronicle.com/article/harv...

A corduroy jacket that I wore in grad school has been waiting in the closet for me to fit into it again, but today it went to the vintage clothing store. So there's that.

"La historia es nuestra y la hacen los pueblos." Salvador Allende, 11 Sep 1973.

Pull the plug. The AI race that is reportedly tilting towards killing us all is entirely optional.

Criselda Vasquez, American, The New American Gothic, 2017, oil on canvas, 72 x 48 in, private collection The artist's father, portrayed in the painting, was kidnapped by ICE on 31 March 2026

The Critical University Studies Seminar is off and running at the Hall Center for the Humanities, University of Kansas!

The band names on this bill have a rhythm that tickles my brain.

KC Tenants Union won a rent strike in Kansas City, in case you need good news. They are leading the way.

Grieving for Dolly Parton goes on and now it's Fred Hampton's birthday. We have to hold onto the memory of those who brought people together in unforeseen ways.

30 years since I started grad school, first cracked open a page of Marx, and thought what have I gotten Iinto

Letter To Kids From Dolly Parton Imagination Library Dear Imagination Library Graduate. My, how time flies. It seems it was only yesterday when your family and friends read you your first story. You were iust a baby. Now you're five years old and about to go to school. How exciting

We will always love you #Dolly

"Let them eat ramen" when people already do...

Voting early, Kansas don't forget to say No meant No.

Starting on a long journey home, hope I haven't angered any gods

Could we find a way to put some daylight between the worst person in the world and the richest person in the world? Maybe something with distribution?

With a lot of world cup visitors in the states this summer, the timeless topic of American "portion sizes" came up again. I agree that it's a real contrast

I like it. This post is zuzai.

The American people are concerned

An outrageous anti-intellectual attack, in which a president who holds unearned tenure vetoes the achievement of a scholar on what can only be ideological grounds. This institution was so important in my own formation but now, actions like this negate its legitimacy.

Photo by Marike, Szentendre, Hungary

Centrist panic is because Mamdani is sitting there in office saying we can have nice things while the likes of Brooks and Chait have built lucrative careers and unearned prominence on saying we can't.

Really exciting in form and content

The smiling angel

greatness excellence exceptionalitude amazingation 110-percentanity

Something about being near moving water

holding onto 2-0 must be one of the most difficult feats in team sports.