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Glitter

This is the Farbschnitt of a Killer, Bella

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The Librarian of Congress

Trump fires Librarian of Congress Hayden, the first woman and first African-American to hold the post

"And when you have a free public library in particular," she said, it was an "opportunity center for people all walks of life, and you are giving them the opportunity to make choices on which information, entertainment and inspiration means the most to them".

Choosing what to read in a library that offers the full range of human experience, writing and expression opens up the world to everyone and opens the way to empathy and to each other. Of course, that's not what the current administration in the United States wants.

The group, American Accountability Foundation, accused Hayden and other library leaders of promoting children’s books with "radical" content and literary material authored by Trump opponents.

We know what the political systems are called that ban democratic opponents and what they have to say.

Associated Press. (2025, Mai 9). Trump abruptly fires librarian of Congress in latest purge of government. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/09/trump-congress-librarian-fired

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A Call for Constructive Engagement

As leaders of America’s colleges, universities, and scholarly societies, we speak with one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education. We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight. However, we must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses. We will always seek effective and fair financial practices, but we must reject the coercive use of public research funding. [...]

Signed by so many leaders of colleges and universities, even by some high profile ones such as Yale, Princeton and Brown.

https://www.aacu.org/newsroom/a-call-for-constructive-engagement

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The Message that goes unheard

Science and scientists are not the enemy. We're on the same team.

We scientists are servants to society. We are here to serve you. We're supposed to find, share and defend the truth. We're supposed to listen to your concerns and investigate them rigorously. It's our job to serve you. We are your servants, not your enemies.

Policymakers and government officials are supposed to consult us, scientists and experts so that when they're making decisions they do so in ways that benefit society that protect you. That doesn't always happen and it wouldn't be the first time in history that we scientists have had to take governments to task for their failure to protect you, for their failure to take decisions that benefit society.

The scientific community, independent academic scientists are completely distinct from pharmaceutical companies who hire scientists, they need people with scientific training, but they are distinct. The independent academic scientific community is its own thing. We, scientists. Regulators.

We are here to protect you from those companies. Think about Francis Kelsey in the 1960s who refused to approve thalidomide because there was a lack of evidence to support its safety. Think about the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 when the Soviet state tried to hide the scale and danger of the incident, not just from its own citizens but from the world. It was we scientists, independent scientists, both in and outside of the USSR, who exposed the truth. We gathered data, generated evidence and shared it so that the global community could respond to the crisis and contain the destruction to the best of our ability.

We academic scientists spend most of our early career earning less than a minimum wage. And we do not benefit financially from producing one outcome over another. Private companies do. Politicians and policy makers do.

Science, like all human institutions, is not perfect and it is not entirely immune from corruption. However, the scientific method and the academic system is built such that it's pretty well insulated from corruption. Much better than private business, politics, which are environments in which corruption not only happens freely, but is specifically rewarded. The system is stacked such that those behaviours are rewarded.

Scientists are your servants. We stand with you. And this is precisely because we are among the most powerful weapons you have in your armoury to push back against corruption and exploitation.

It's precisely for that reason that you are being led to believe that you cannot trust scientists and experts. That was deliberate.

Dr. Rachel Barr

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdYxJSW8/

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Online-Veranstaltung zu Banned Books am Welttag des Buches

Gemeinsam mit der Kommission für Queere Hochschulpolitik der bukof (Bundeskonferenz der Frauen- und Gleichstellungsbeauftragten an Hochschulen) organisieren die Queerbrarians (eine Netzwerk queerer Librarians) ein queeres Online-Event zum World Book Day.

Nach einem einführenden Vortrag auf Deutsch von mir sprechen Eve & Lucie auf Englisch. Sie kämpfen gegen die Book Bans in ihrem County in Tennessee.

Das Event ist kostenfrei und braucht keine Anmeldung. Alle Interessierten sind herzlich willkommen.

Titel: Celebrating the Freedom to Read

Datum: 23. April 2025

Uhrzeit: 16:30 bis 18:00 Uhr

Flyer & Infos

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Funding Terminations

Research funders like the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health have been cutting grants across the United States. Some amazing people have created trackers to collect and visualize the decimation of science funding and what kind of research is being cut. I think we can all guess what kind of research it is. It will look similar to what will happen or already is happening in other countries, in the Netherlands, for example.

NSF Grant Terminations 2025. https://airtable.com/appGKlSVeXniQZkFC/shrFxbl1YTqb3AyOO

NIH Grant Terminations in 2025. https://airtable.com/appjhyo9NTvJLocRy/shrNto1NNp9eJlgpA

Matthews, D. (2024). Far-right governments seek to cut billions of euros from research in Europe. Nature, 635(8037), 15–16. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-03506-y

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Researching the Code of Laws in Civ7 feels so ironic at the moment.

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Sources: Gut, My. Something is Terribly Wrong, vol 136, 2025.

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I cannot begin to explain to you the disappointment I felt on finding out that “match my freak” was a sexual thing and not a level of how insane you are with your friends

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visit your local library!

they need your support <3

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International Students

How many international students are there at the moment who want to enroll in a US university? The threat to block Harvard from enrolling international students is so hollow. As if this administration cares about international students. There won't be any anyway.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/us/politics/trump-harvard-international-students.html

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Online-Veranstaltung zu Banned Books am Welttag des Buches

Gemeinsam mit der Kommission für Queere Hochschulpolitik der bukof (Bundeskonferenz der Frauen- und Gleichstellungsbeauftragten an Hochschulen) organisieren die Queerbrarians (eine Netzwerk queerer Librarians) ein queeres Online-Event zum World Book Day.

Nach einem einführenden Vortrag auf Deutsch von mir sprechen Eve & Lucie auf Englisch. Sie kämpfen gegen die Book Bans in ihrem County in Tennessee.

Das Event ist kostenfrei und braucht keine Anmeldung. Alle Interessierten sind herzlich willkommen.

Titel: Celebrating the Freedom to Read

Datum: 23. April 2025

Uhrzeit: 16:30 bis 18:00 Uhr

Flyer & Infos

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Fascism thrives on ignorance and anti-intellectualism. Here are some ways you can combat it:

There is an ongoing literacy crisis. Teach kids how to read phonetically (other methods produce poor literacy) and introduce them to fun books, both fiction and educational non-fiction.

Teach kids about critical thinking and the scientific method.

You can also introduce kids to edutainment like Sesame Street, Reading Rainbow, The Magic Schoolbus, Bill Nye The Science Guy, Beakman's World, etc.

Help kids develop media literacy skills by asking them literary analysis questions about the media they engage with. Even very young children can begin learning literary analysis if the questions are phrased in words they can understand.

Learn and help other people learn information literacy, ie, how to locate and evaluate information.

Learn the red flags of pseudoscience, and educate other people about them.

Educate people and share media on real science and real history, because fascist narratives are full of pseudoscience and pseudohistory. (Miniminuteman, Gutsick Gibbon and Bart D. Ehrman's YouTube channel are great, by the way!)

Make learning a joyful experience, and show people the beauty and wonder of what's real. Being a discouraging killjoy will spoil your efforts.

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So Harvard has decided not to give in without a fight

"No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue," said Alan Garber, Harvard’s president, in a statement to the university on Monday.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/us/harvard-trump-reject-demands.html

This is a powerful and much-needed statement. Academia feels a glimmer of hope that not every university and not everyone in academia will give in without a fight. At the same time, the reasons are more strategic than simply protecting science, students, faculty and academic freedom.

Why Harvard Decided to Fight Trump

[...] any path the university chose seemed just as likely to lead to ongoing turmoil, and [...] officials at Harvard, [...] feared the White House would renege on any agreement.

[...] a strategy of "negotiation and conciliation seems to have no acceptable ending point."

[...] Harvard might have tried to negotiate just as Columbia did, "if it had assurance that the administration was negotiating in good faith."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/15/us/why-harvard-resisted-trumps-demands.html

There is no faith, no trust in the permanence of anything at this point. No decision, no agreement, no law is immutable, even for the shortest time, if the administration decides to change its mind. The ultimate goal is to dismantle academia anyway. So why even try to negotiate.

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Grieving, grieving, constantly grieving. I mourn what could have been, what should have been, what will not be, what I cannot save.

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Universities these days

Faculty members hold more power than many realize. Without their labour, research and expertise, universities cannot function.

Unfortunately, universities that no longer function are part of the goal, aren't they?

The US administration might hope that academics will remain siloed, too consumed with their own work — or too afraid — to resist. However, if faculty members unite across institutions, they can become a force that the federal government cannot ignore.

Hopefully, STEM will not abandon the humanities.

But words won’t be enough. Faculty senates must formally call on universities to refuse compliance. Such resolutions aren’t just symbolic — they create a record that can be cited in lawsuits, the media and advocacy.

If thinking about all of those who already lost, is not motivation enough, think about those who will see what you do now or in the distant future.

If faculty members are to take a stand, universities must back them up — protecting academic freedom, defending academics against retaliation and refusing to cave in to intimidation. [...] For some, organizing against this directive would not be just an act of resistance, it would be an act of professional and personal risk.

Hoping that universities, states and local communities will support their researchers and institutions.

Global institutions must also take a stand.

Don't forget that

[...] it’s not just in the United States. Rollbacks are also taking place in parts of Europe, for example.

And after all and most importantly:

This anti-DEI directive is not just an attack — it’s a test, a probe to see how much resistance universities will muster. Staying silent will not prevent more attacks. The only way to win is to act — together, decisively and now.

This is not a drill. It is a defining moment.

Calisi Rodríguez, R. (2025). ‘Silence is complicity’—Universities must fight the anti-DEI crackdown. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-00667-2

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Librarians

As a librarian working to preserve and disseminate knowledge and books, I hope that in the future people will enjoy finding everything we've saved and learning about all the people who didn't obey in advance and how.

Very grateful for the librarians.