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| Silicon Valleys Testosterone Party Could Get Bigger (the Information) |
| Posted on Sunday, December 14 @ 00:00:52 PST (10 reads) | |
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The fda said at a panel this week that it is open to making changes on the black-box warnings for testosterone products. That’s good news for men with low testosterone, which can cause fatigue, low libido and depression and leads to higher risks for type 2 diabetes and heart attacks. But one issue that didn’t get much attention during the two-hour discussion is how testosterone is an increasingly popular part of anti-aging regimens, including one reportedly used by the guy who ultimately controls the fda: that would be robert f. Kennedy jr, the secretary of health and human services. Silicon valley denizens have embraced all kinds of supplements and off-label prescription drugs aimed at increasing longevity—including testosterone. Kennedy, who has been photographed working out shirtless and wearing a pair of jeans, shared with lex fridman’s podcast listeners in 2023 that he uses testosterone replacement therapy as part of an anti-aging regimen approved by his doctor. Joe rogan has spoken several times on his own podcast about how taking testosterone and making lifestyle changes dramatically improved his health. Larry lipshultz, one of the speakers on the fda panel and a professor of urology at baylor college of medicine, summed it up for me afterward: “the older the person is, if he looks fantastic, the more likely it is he’s probably taking t,” shorthand for testosterone.
the fda said at a panel this week that it is open to making changes on the black-box warnings for testosterone products. That’s good news for men with low testosterone, which can cause fatigue, low libido and depression and leads to higher risks for type 2 diabetes and heart attacks.
but one issue that didn’t get much attention during the two-hour discussion is how testosterone is an increasingly popular part of anti-aging regimens, including one reportedly used by the guy who ultimately controls the fda: that would be robert f. Kennedy jr, the secretary of health and human services. Silicon valley denizens have embraced all kinds of supplements and off-label prescription drugs aimed at increasing longevity—including testosterone.
kennedy, who has been photographed working out shirtless and wearing a pair of jeans, shared with lex fridman’s podcast listeners in 2023 that he uses testosterone replacement therapy as part of an anti-aging regimen approved by his doctor. Joe rogan has spoken several times on his own podcast about how taking testosterone and making lifestyle changes dramatically improved his health. Larry lipshultz, one of the speakers on the fda panel and a professor of urology at baylor college of medicine, summed it up for me afterward: “the older the person is, if he looks fantastic, the more likely it is he’s probably taking t,” shorthand for testosterone.
full story: silicon valley’s testosterone party could get bigger
whatever gets people in the gym and start eating healthier is a good idea.
i don’t believe for a second that butter is healthy though, and if they believe that, hopefully they have an answer to rct’s that show how saturated fats dysregulates lipids and cause inflammation, e.G when comparing ghee with canola of all oils.
calorie reduction cures type 2 diabetes, normalizes lipids and testosterone levels. |
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| Oregon: Schooled by Mississippi |
| Posted on Sunday, December 14 @ 00:00:52 PST (8 reads) | |
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Mississippi’s reading turnaround, built on the ‘the science of reading,’ holds lessons for oregon
earlier this year, the national assessment of educational progress released its annual report card, including reading scores for fourth graders across the country.
reading scores at fourth grade are considered a vital bellwether for a student’s educational progress.
adjusted for demographics, oregon landed 50th — at the very bottom of state scores (only the district of columbia was lower). Mississippi, a state some oregonians like to deride as backward, scored at the very top.
mississippi is a state burdened by deep poverty, tightfisted public spending, and a punishing legacy of segregation. It spends $13,461 per student a year, $6,000 less than oregon. And yet, test scores show, students across the board in mississippi are learning to read in ways that oregon could only hope for.
the details are dismal: 48% of oregon fourth graders are below basic proficiency in reading — a deficit that experts associate with failure to graduate, poverty and increased likelihood of going to prison.
oregon is in an education crisis, one that parents and students may not recognize because they have positive feelings about their local teachers and classmates. The crisis is also one that leaders in oregon seem incapable of addressing, despite raising taxes in 2019 that added more than $1 billion a year to the state’s education budget.
this matters because oregon is failing far too many of the 545,000 k–12 students whose success in life will depend heavily on getting a sound education. K–12 education is the single largest line item in the state’s general fund budget, and it also receives $5.6 billion in local property taxes. But achievement scores demonstrate taxpayer dollars are not being well spent.
the failure threatens oregon’s shaky economy as well. Schools train tomorrow’s workforce and serve as a decision point for people and employers considering relocating or staying here.
“every child’s success matters more than ever — it isn’t optional,” says john tapogna, senior policy adviser at econorthwest. “We owe them the skills and support to build a fulfilling life because their potential is worth it, and our future depends on it.”
lisa lyon, co-founder and interim president of the nonprofit decoding dyslexia oregon, calls for urgency: “oregonians need to care about this crisis today because improving reading proficiency scores and other outputs requires systemic changes that need to happen now if we are to see improvement in a decade.” Meanwhile, she adds, “there needs to be more accountability tied to the distribution of funds.”
there are many reasons oregon schools are failing, and the oregon journalism project will examine them in the coming months. But first, it’s useful to take a good look at mississippi’s reading turnaround — built on what’s now called “the science of reading,” strong leadership, and a consistent approach across all districts — to see if it holds lessons for oregon.
a billionaire with a plan
mississippi’s reading recovery had its genesis in the early 1950s, when jim barksdale, the son of a jackson banker, was falling behind in second grade.
“i couldn’t read,” he would later explain. So his parents hired a reading tutor who taught him how to sound out words, mastering the rules of phonics. Soon enough, barksdale got back on track and thrived in school, and earned a business degree from the university of mississippi in 1965.
barksdale went on to co-found the pioneering internet browser company netscape, and in 1999 cashed out his netscape stock for $700 million. He and his wife decided to give away most of their fortune. They allocated $100 million to improving the way mississippi children learned to read — and to change their home state’s chronically abysmal test results.
“you know what it’s like to be dead last in every race for something like 40 years?” Barksdale would tell reporters. He was sick of hearing arkansas, ranked 49th, say, “well, thank god for mississippi.”
so barksdale set up a nonprofit in 2000, the barksdale reading institute, and hired some of the best educators and experts to come up with a plan.
by then, there had been a sea change in thinking about reading instruction after advances in brain imaging and neuroscience showed how the brain functioned as children learned to read. The seminal national reading panel concluded in 2020 after synthesizing 40 years of research that “teaching phonemic awareness to children significantly improves their reading more than instruction that lacks any attention to” phonemic awareness. The research supported explicit, direct instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics, advancing to vocabulary building, fluency and comprehension. This and other research-backed methods are commonly called the science of reading.
kelly butler, a former connecticut high school teacher with a degree in special ed, joined the barksdale reading institute in 2003 and rose to be its ceo.
in college, she hadn’t been trained how to use phonics to teach early readers. At the time, colleges taught a reading philosophy known as whole language or “balanced literacy” — methods now thoroughly discredited but still used in some oregon schools today.
the barksdale team adopted science-validated reading methods, butler said, creating instructional materials and hiring reading tutors and coaches who could train other teachers in phonics-based instruction. They tested and perfected their methods at 15 of the worst-performing grade schools in mississippi.
the state’s reading turnaround was later dubbed “the mississippi miracle,” but butler and others downplay the hype, saying it wasn’t a miracle at all because they knew the science of reading worked — it just had to be applied, tracked and sustained by trained teachers and coaches who used an approved curriculum.
“which is why i call it the mississippi marathon,” she tells ojp. “Between 2000 and 2013, the reading institute was really at work in the trenches trying to design a structured literacy model.”
in 2013, mississippi lawmakers passed sweeping legislation, the literacy-based promotion act, that funded the barksdale model statewide, from early screening to training thousands of teachers and literacy coaches who fanned out across the state’s 1,040 public schools.
the controversial part of the 2013 law was the requirement that students be held back if they did not meet reading standards by the end of third grade.
“our emphasis in implementing this reading law was to retrain teachers rather than focus on retaining kids,” butler says. “Because this is really an adult problem, it’s not a kid problem.”
some critics have questioned the validity of mississippi’s fourth grade reading gains by noting that when that cohort reaches eighth grade, their scores have regressed, or that holding back struggling third grade readers boosts the fourth grade naep scores.
andrew ho, a testing expert at harvard university and previously a member of the board that oversees naep, said he reflexively questions big test score gains. But in mississippi’s case, he told chalkbeat, “i don’t see any smoking guns or red flags that make me say that they’re gaming naep.”
still, the changes weren’t always welcomed, certainly by teachers used to years of local control and taught that phonics instruction was “drill and kill” that took the joy out of reading.
“we had one school picket us one day and said, ‘go home, barksdale,’” butler remembers.
flawed training, tight local control
for many years, oregon parents and k–12 advocates focused their energy on increasing school funding, not accountability. They’d descend on salem in swarms, pleading with lawmakers to increase the budget.
many states fund schools primarily with local property taxes. Oregon did, too, but voters changed that in 1990 with measure 5, and in 1997 with measure 50, which capped the growth of property taxes. Today, two-thirds of oregon k–12 funding comes from the legislature.
in 2019, lawmakers brought oregon’s public education spending above the national average with the student success act, which added $1 billion a year through a corporate activities tax. But more money didn’t lift reading scores. In fact, the scores continued to decline.
some experts raised concerns about the flaws in oregon’s teaching methods. University of oregon education professor emeritus doug carnine, who helped build the science of reading movement, and others had done research in the 1990s that established that the best way to teach children to read was through phonics and by measuring progress.
but to carnine’s frustration, many of his colleagues at uo and other oregon teaching programs refused to follow the science, citing academic freedom as an explanation.
“do you think a doctor could do lobotomies for mental health under the name of academic freedom? No. Academic freedom does not trump your code of ethics for your professional behavior,” carnine says. “It’s ridiculous, just absolutely preposterous.”
local control, flawed curriculum
could the mississippi model—firm department leadership; state-selected, science-based curriculum; performance tracking and quality control—work in oregon?
it crashes up against a basic tenet of public education, especially in oregon: local control. Oregon has 197 school districts governed by boards made up essentially of volunteers elected by their communities but often with little knowledge of the best curriculum for their schools or the latest research.
sarah pope, executive director of the education nonprofit stand for children oregon, hopes the state can benefit from mississippi’s example. But pope also knows that the oregon department of education dictating changes to local school districts would require a fundamental change in the state’s political landscape.
for instance, while ode recommends that districts use early reading materials from an approved list based on the science of reading, local districts are not mandated to do so, and they can use any materials their school board approves.
pope, lyon and others maintain that some districts still use subpar materials. Ode itself is not certain whether instruction based on the science of reading is taking place in all districts’ classrooms.
pope, for example, says that her children’s school district, beaverton, “up until last year was using a reading curriculum that was proven not to work.”
as chief of staff for the oregon department of education from 2012 to 2015, pope said she learned ode had authority that it did not use.
“ode could have said [to my district], ‘you can’t adopt something that is proven not to work.’ But instead they say, ‘ok, you don’t want to adopt what we recommended, but as long as you go through a local process, you can adopt whatever you want.’”
ojp sent questions to gov. Tina kotek through her office to ask what she felt about the state’s bottom ranking in reading. Unlike in most states, oregon’s governor is the state’s top education official. As of publication, kotek did not reply to questions.
ashland.News is a partner publication with the oregon journalism project, a new, nonprofit investigative journalism newsroom for the state of oregon. Email james neff [[email protected]](/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#cfa5a1aaa9a98fa0bdaaa8a0a1a5a0babda1aea3a6bca2bfbda0a5aaacbbe1a0bda8).
why are oregon’s schools failing? Who is responsible for the failures? And, most importantly, how do we dig ourselves out of this? If you are a student, parent, taxpayer, teacher or former teacher, school administrator or policymaker with ideas on how to answer these questions, ojp wants to hear from you. Please share your thoughts and how to reach you by clicking on this link. |
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| Hidden circumbinary giant planet emerges from decade old Gemini data |
| Posted on Sunday, December 14 @ 00:00:52 PST (8 reads) | |
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The newly confirmed world, designated hd 143811 ab b, is about six times the mass of jupiter and lies roughly 446 light years from earth. Its age is estimated at about 13 million years, meaning it formed around 50 million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs and still retains heat from its formation, which makes it detectable in direct imaging.
in this system, the two host stars orbit each other every 18 earth days, while the planet requires about 300 years to complete a single orbit around the pair. That orbital period is slightly longer than plutos path around the sun, yet among directly imaged planets in binary systems this planet orbits its stars at the smallest known separation, about six times closer than comparable systems.
northwestern universitys jason wang, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy and a member of the center for interdisciplinary exploration and research in astrophysics (ciera), specializes in imaging exoplanets and co-led the study. Graduate researcher nathalie jones, the ciera board of visitors graduate fellow at northwesterns weinberg college of arts and sciences, led the analysis that uncovered the planet in archival datasets.
wang originally helped commission gpi as a ph.D. Student, using its adaptive optics and coronagraph to block starlight and search for faint companions around more than 500 stars, work that yielded only one new planet at the time and underscored the rarity of directly imaged exoplanets. With gpi now being upgraded and prepared for installation on the gemini north telescope on mauna kea in hawaii, wang asked jones to perform a deeper reanalysis of the earlier observations to close out the survey.
jones examined gpi data from 2016 to 2019 and combined it with observations from the w. M. Keck observatory obtained through northwesterns institutional access, looking for faint sources that consistently moved with their parent star across the sky. She identified a dim object that tracked the host stars motion and showed a light signature more consistent with a planet than a star, indicating it was gravitationally bound to the binary rather than a background interloper.
follow-up comparison with a european teams independent reanalysis, led by university of exeter astronomers and reported in astronomy and astrophysics, confirmed that both groups had detected the same planet in the archival data. The systems configuration, with a tight inner binary and a massive, slowly orbiting outer planet, provides an observational testbed for models of planet formation and orbital dynamics in multiple-star environments.
although the exact formation pathway for hd 143811 ab b is still uncertain, researchers propose that the two stars formed first and the planet subsequently condensed out of the surrounding material in a circumbinary disk. Only a few dozen planets are known in such arrangements, and very few have been directly imaged alongside both stars and planet, limiting astronomers ability to fully constrain theories for these systems.
the team plans to seek additional telescope time to monitor the motion of both the binary stars and the planet, refining their orbits and probing interactions between the stellar pair and the circumbinary companion. Continued analysis of archival images may reveal more faint candidates, illustrating how existing datasets can still yield major discoveries when revisited with refined techniques.
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| C@L Care: Conducting Student Wellbeing During Christmas at Luther - Luther Colle |
| Posted on Sunday, December 14 @ 00:00:52 PST (12 reads) | |
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Christmas at luther (nicknamed c@l) is an annual concert featuring performances from all of the choral ensembles, symphony orchestra, and a brass ensemble. C@l is a well-known luther event, winning awards like the 2009 upper midwest regional emmy for best coverage of a special event. While thrilling, the timing of c@l places a heavy load onto music students, as they have to juggle schoolwork, extracurriculars and final exams on top of rehearsals.
jacob aji (‘28), a member of nordic choir, lamented that the timing of rehearsals interfered with daily schedules and sleep.
“in general, it’s exciting to anticipate a big, fun show, but it’s frustrating due to when it falls in the semester,” said aji. “It’s a lot.”
martine redshaw (‘28), a member of symphony orchestra, elaborated on the conflict between schoolwork and preparing for c@l. “As a whole, c@l is something i look forward to and feel lucky to be a part of,” redshaw said. “It is the most stressful when professors aren’t aware of the extra time that it takes up in the week. In general, luther is very conscious of it, but when [professors] aren’t, it can be very difficult.”
samantha brown (‘28), a member of cathedral choir, delves more into the pressure of performing for prospective students. “Not even including the prep for c@l, the actual performances take up so much energy because each night could be someone’s first impression of music at luther,” brown said. However, she also has a fondness for the c@l experience. “Not only do i form stronger connections with my choir and others, [but] i [also] know each night i can look back and say i put my all towards each performance.”
maria hendrickson (‘26), ashlynn thorsen (‘26) and julia myers (‘26), three senior social work students, noticed the toll c@l preparation was taking on performing students. When they were assigned a change project for social work 401: practice iii class, they chose to expand on the c@l care, a mental health initiative proposed by myers during the 2025 spring semester.
“julia worked on another group project last spring that laid the foundation for c@l care,” said thorsen. “The goal of this project is to change something at luther. We are all involved in c@l through choir and wanted to support students’ well-being during the c@l rehearsals and performances.”
hendrickson, who has been a part of collegiate chorale for three years, has been aware of the unique challenge posed by c@l for music students for a long time.
“when i was in elementary/middle school and knew some students in c@l, i heard about the double shows they used to do and [i] got really concerned for the health of the students,” said hendrickson. “We don’t do double shows anymore, but students still struggle with the pacing of performance week. Balancing music memorization and finishing out the semester well is a really tough challenge.”
thorsen, who is also a member of collegiate chorale, explained what makes c@l especially stressful for participants.
“c@l can be stressful because it is so close to the end of the semester and finals,” said thorsen. “Rehearsals and performances take up a lot of time. On top of this, [students] are still expected to do everything we normally do.”
“[there are] many hours in preparation both in and out of designated rehearsals in the weeks leading up to c@l and during performance week,” hendrickson added. “I essentially surrender myself to c@l when we get to the final week.”
for their social work class and the well-being of c@l participants, hendrickson, thorsen and myers developed a plan to provide ongoing support throughout the duration of c@l.
“we wanted to help others out with offerings for things that aren’t adding to their plates, but are options if people need a little boost throughout the week,” said hendrickson. “We’ve had some choirs who needed to prioritize rehearsal over us sharing information in person, so we sent our info via email. Funding was an interesting thing to navigate, but we partnered with luther wellness, and that was a perfect partnership; they were extremely helpful and willing to contribute materials.”
this email, which covered the services and events provided by “c@l care,” was sent out to choir officers and student leaders on tuesday, november 18. This was just one way hendrickson, thorsen and myers reached out to students involved in c@l.
with this program, c@l participants have a plethora of resources provided for them, including movement sessions, coloring pages, time management sheets, ‘take what you need’ baskets and an emotion board. According to thorsen, “wellness bought items for our ‘take what you need’ baskets. These items include tea, emergenc, protein bars, band-aids, hair ties and more.”
services like these can alleviate stress brought on by an already stressful time of year. No matter the scope, any and all resources can play a large hand in aiding students and alleviating at least some of the pressure. Even small snacks and short wellness sessions can help students feel like they are supported throughout the hustle and bustle of c@l.
there are ways students can care for their mental and physical health beyond c@l care. Luther wellness, music directors and professors are also available as resources for students who need extra time or care in managing stress during c@l.
“[directors] do everything they can to prepare us well ahead of time and provide resources to help alleviate the memorization stress,” said hendrickson. “Dr. Tam will check in with collegiate throughout rehearsals about how we’re feeling, and she sends out practice tracks and recordings we can listen to.”
on an individual level, students can practice time management in their classes and extracurricular activities. C@l participants can also lessen stress by practicing mindfulness techniques and block out time for self-care.
“i try to get anything done that i can ahead of the week of c@l to reduce stress,” said thorsen. “It is helpful to talk with friends, practice deep breathing, move and appreciate the beautiful things around me.”
despite the busyness of c@l, the concert is a staple of luther college and its celebration of the holiday season. Beyond that, c@l is an excellent opportunity for music students to bond with others and feel accomplished from their performances.
“my favorite part of c@l is the strong sense of community between all those involved in c@l when we perform,” said thorsen. “The energy in the room is electric, and you can tell that everyone is putting their all into the performances.” Thorsen added, “my love for c@l and performing with everyone helps me work through the stress. I am grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of a performance of this scale.”
“my favorite part [of c@l] is definitely the candle lighter,” said hendrickson. “That moment, every show, feels like maybe magic does exist. It’s euphoric. The opener is fun because you get to see the change in the audience’s demeanor as they realize what they’re about to experience, and the closer is always so intense because everyone is giving it their all.”
hendrickson and thorsen hope that c@l care will continue to provide a lifeline for students in future years, helping students stay afloat when a proliferation of events threatens to drown them in stress. |
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| The best analysis on China US competition |
| Posted on Sunday, December 14 @ 00:00:52 PST (8 reads) | |
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Know yourself and know your enemy
by hua bin
https://huabinoliver.Substack.Com (december 11 2025)
sun tsu’s art of war, written in the 5th century bce during china’s warring states period, has been a foundational strategy tome for the country for 2,500 years.
one central teaching from sun tsu is the importance of knowledge – both of yourself and of your enemy – in winning wars.
sun tsu’s observation – “those whose know both themselves and their enemies will not lose a battle in a hundred (zhi ji zhi bi zhe, bai zhan bu dai)” – is considered a universal rule in warfare. Also in commerce and daily life.
a central weakness in western mainstream discourse about china’s politics, economy, and its national strategy has been a patent lack of knowledge about the country by western political pundits and media.
this is the fundamental reason why the west has been consistently wrong about china and why there is little hope it can outcompete china.
seemingly intelligent western scholars such as harvard’s graham allison and chicago’s john mearsheimer insist on using western framework to analyze china and design strategies against beijing.
however, they barely realize their frames of reference such as the thucydides trap or aggressive realism have very limited utility when it comes to understand china’s motivations and plans.
such social science theories simply have no universal application, unlike natural science. They are developed in particular western cultural and historical context which china doesn’t share.
neither allison nor mearsheimer speak or read chinese and have little first-hand knowledge about the country. Yet they are confident in peddling their “universal” theories to an equally ill-informed audience.
universalist theories, unbacked by knowledge of the target analyzed, are as dangerous as “universal values” promoted by the neoliberals in the height of post cold war hubris.
i wrote a critique of john mearsheimer a while back. Https://huabinoliver.Substack.Com/p/john-mearsheimer-is-a-crackpot-realist?Utm_source=publication-search
the result is vast knowledge asymmetry, misjudgement, and a silly public exercise of “fooling oneself” – something humorously termed “a self-licking ice cream cone”.
consider this – 300,000 chinese students go to the us to pursue degrees every year, another similar number go to other western countries. Between 800 to 1,200 americans study in chinese universities today, down from a peak of 15,000 in 2011.
all chinese students study english starting from primary schools.
simply put, the chinese knowledge of the us and the west is vastly superior to the west’s knowledge about china.
even kevin rudd, the former australian prime minister famous for his unique distinction of knowing chinese, has lost much of his earlier astuteness after cashing in with the liberal think tank racket asia society in new york for a decade.
despite my generally low opinion of mainstream western political and media discourse on china, there are a few individuals in the academia and diplomatic field (formerly) that are truly knowledgeable and impartial.
those are the people whose opinions and views reflect reality and should be taken seriously.
a few stand out – professor jeffrey sachs of columbia university, economist and advisor to the united nations and a frequent visitor to china since the 1980s; martin jacques, british journalist and academic who has studied china’s governance and economic system since 1993.
among the institutes of higher learnings, harvard’s fairbank center and brown’s watson school are the preeminent centers of chinese studies with excellent faculties.
i planned to pursue phd study at brown after covid when edward steinfeld, a prominent sinologist, was the director of the watson school. However, the plan was aborted when ed stepped down and china-us relationship further deteriorated.
the video attached features a recent speech and q&a by ambassador chaz freeman at the watson school, moderated by professor lyle goldstein.
both chaz and lyle are fluent chinese speakers and close followers of the country’s development over the last few decades.
chaz freeman was the principal american interpreter for president nixon during his 1972 visit to china.
he was the director of chinese affairs at the state department, and served as assistant secretary of state and assistant secretary of defense as well as ambassador to saudi arabia during the gulf war. He graduated from yale and harvard.
lyle goldstein was educated at princeton and harvard. He is a professor at watson and the director of china initiative there (not to be confused with the fbi china initiative). Ed steinfeld started the china initiative to further china research at brown when he was also on the board of directors at the national committee for us china relations.
goldstein specializes in security policies, particularly concerning china and russia. He spoke both languages.
he served on the faculty of the us navy war college for over 20 years. He has been a close observer of chinese and russian military, especially the navies. There are a few interviews he did on the subject on youtube for those interested in military affairs.
in my view, ambassador freeman’s speech is the most insightful analysis of the current state of china us competition and should be watched by those interested in the topic. |
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| Tim Stellers column: New political correctness pushes onto U of A campus |
| Posted on Sunday, December 14 @ 00:00:52 PST (8 reads) | |
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This year, u of a faculty member frank gonzalez has experienced something unprecedented in his young academic career — fear for his job.
gonzalez researches race, ethnicity and political psychology in his role as an associate professor in the school of government and public policy. That kind of work is disfavored by the trump administration as it tries to change american universities, including by offering the university of arizona a compact that would control some of its academic content.
frank gonzalez, associate professor in the university of arizonas school of government and public policy.
tim steller that was the first time that my wife and i talked about, like, ok, whats plan b if i lose my job?, Gonzalez said. And i know a lot of other professors had that same conversation.
for decades the most recognized political pressure in american universities like the u of a has been from the left. Cultural political correctness increasingly dictated the acceptable views on many campuses, especially on racial and gender issues.
now, though, a new political correctness is taking hold. It stems from orders by the trump administration to ban diversity, equity and inclusion programs , to limit discussions of gender to the male-female sex binary , and to favor patriotic teaching .
i interviewed eight members of the u of a faculty for this column — four of them on the record, four on background — and some believe that both forms of political correctness are coexisting uneasily now on campuses. The difference is that the new, right-wing pressure comes from the government, rather than through the culturally enforced campus norms.
together, they have the potential to narrow the lane of acceptable expression on campus, between the cultural norms of the left, handed down from previous years, and todays governmental dictates from the right, sometimes enforced by supporters in the public.
fear of right-wing ideological pressure has always been the main concern, said gonzalez, who joined the u of a faculty in 2017. Were very conscious of the fact that were perceived and often labeled as lefty indoctrinators.
professor watchlist the fear of that sort of targeting is not abstract. A graduate student instructing a class on gender at the university of oklahoma was placed on leave nov. 30 after giving no points to a student who argued for traditional gender roles in a paper citing her christian beliefs.
please note that i am not deducting points because you have certain beliefs, but instead i am deducting points for you posting a reaction paper that does not answer the questions for this assignment, contradicts itself, heavily uses personal ideology over empirical evidence in a scientific class, and is at times offensive, instructor mel curth wrote .
the student, junior samantha fulnecky, contacted the campus chapter of turning point usa and protested her treatment as religious discrimination. Turning point called for the instructor to be fired , and the university put her on administrative leave.
some university of oklahoma students protested the instructors suspension, arguing that the student simply hadnt followed the assignment.
its not turning point usas first effort at targeting individual professors or instructors. For years, the group has maintained a professor watchlist that aims to expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.
among the alleged infractions that landed 18 u of a professors on the list:
• joking in an interview, not in class, that donald trump should kill himself over his climate policies
• signing a joint letter protesting israels treatment of palestinians in the gaza war
• being a transgender professor who researches transgender health.
in other words, its not a list of professors who have discriminated against students. Its a list of faculty whose views turning point disagrees with.
left wing dominates this right-wing backlash didnt come from nowhere, though.
as several faculty members described the situation to me, left-wing political positions came gradually to dominate many courses of study, especially in the social sciences. While professors instigated some of this politicization, it also came from students, especially graduate students, whose touchstone was the treatment of marginalized populations.
as one politically progressive faculty member explained it, these graduate students are extremely dogmatic about leftist discourse and ideology. You have to say things in the exact right way and in the most radical of ways.
in some areas of study, the effort to advance knowledge and pursue truth has been gradually supplanted by a political project of redressing social wrongs.
saura masconale is the associate director of the university of arizonas center for the philosophy of freedom.
tim steller saura mascalone, associate directo r of the u of as center for the philosophy of freedom , likened the expansion of politics into the nooks and crannies of universities to the emergence of environment, social and governance, or esg, practices in the corporate world.
at some point, the boundary between these different domains was removed, said mascalone, who is also a professor in the department of political economy and moral science.
at the peak of dei, there was pressure, she said. It was this remedial view. You would have certain boxes to check. Checking those boxes was seen to be a remedy against injustices perpetrated in the past.
pres. Trump has issued executive orders banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs in universities, likening them to affirmative action in hiring. His administration has also used keyword searches to end federal grants on topics that include words such as gender, diversity, and even women.
good dei, bad dei leila hudson, the chair of the faculty senate, told me she has seen both good dei and bad dei in her long career at the ua. The good dei was characterized, in part, by the centers at the university supporting different racial or cultural groups in an effort to help those students succeed at the university.
leila hudson, chair of the faculty senate, speaks during a university of arizona faculty senate meeting in old main in tucson, ariz. On may 5, 2025.
mamta popat / arizona daily star most of them were closed in may due to trumps executive orders.
i still see the residue of what i call bad dei, she said. The bad dei is not the part where you attempt to make every student feel comfortable, welcome and supported on campus. The bad dei is where by invoking certain pieties and orthodoxies in a self-serving manner, one can advance ones career.
the elimination of the good programs represents an ideological imposition by the government on the universities. Like other trump efforts on campuses, these amount to a right-wing political correctness that comes closer to the original meaning of that term, hudson argued.
the term politically correct emerged in the soviet union to describe people who followed the communist partys line. By the time it entered academia in the 1970s and 1980s, it carried a sardonic meaning, mocking people who parroted the progressive line. Then, critics held up political correctness, and later woke, as whats wrong with universities.
the trump edicts seek to impose a new right-wing political correctness on academia that more closely mimics the original soviet meaning than anything that the university has imposed, hudson argues. A palestinian-american, hudson would not even discuss issues stemming from the gaza war, out of caution. The trump administration has alleged campus protests of israels actions in gaza are evidence of antisemitism, and used that as leverage to force change in universities.
i dont think it (the university) ever fell fully into the caricature that the right made it out to be, she said. But suddenly, when there are threats of having your funding cut off, or, you know, your business model permanently destroyed by using certain forbidden words, thats where you really do see the dynamics behind political correctness.
listening to each other more the good news is that the university rejected the terms offered by the trump administration to sign onto their compact, and they did so in part on the basis of preserving free speech and academic freedom.
“the university maintains its commitment to academic freedom which undergirds the right of faculty to teach free from unreasonable or arbitrary restrictions, to conduct research, and to address matters of institutional policy and governance,” pres. Suresh garimella wrote to the trump administration in response to the proposed compact. “The university shall not restrict academic freedom in scholarship and teaching or individual speech by students and employees acting in their personal capacities.”
ted mcloof
in the universitys response, garimella cited the work of the freedom center as well as the discourse series , forums on different themes held each academic year. Ted mcloof, a senior lecturer and teaching professor in the english department, started that series in 2018.
discourse did not seem like it had a very promising future, mcloof said. We mainly just tried to make sure we were listening to each other more, but also trying to dismantle the sort of binary left-right thinking of every single issue in the country.
he noted that academic freedom is not necessarily hampered by left and right political forces but also by the commercial pressure of the university treating students as consumers. That means there may be pressure not to make students feel uncomfortable.
i think we get a little bit more pressure to to just kind of cave, instead of to do what i think students are supposed to be doing, which is being challenged, he said.
a difficult balance for u of a faculty, protecting themselves from government or campus crackdowns is a tough balance to strike while still challenging students. Thats especially true in the era of ever-present cameras.
you have to assume that youre being recorded at all times, and that you never say anything that you wouldnt be comfortable seeing on the front page of the newspaper, hudson said. That poses a challenge sometimes, but its a useful challenge so that you dont you dont teach in an unthoughtful way.
gonzalez, the professor of government and public policy, said knowing the material on dicey topics like race and gender in politics helps him. He feels comfortable, he said, pressing hot buttons and bringing up controversial topics. Still, people who arent as familiar with those subjects can feel like theyre walking on eggshells.
nevertheless, he said, he worries about being put on a watch list and he knows he wont get a federal grant anytime soon considering his area of research.
ive given up on the possibility of getting a grant while this stuff is the policy of the government, he said.
during this trump term, keeping your job while teaching about and researching sensitive social issues is challenge enough.
columnist tim steller is married to a university of arizona faculty member, who was not consulted for this column. Contact steller at tsteller@tucson.Com or ?520-807-7789. On bluesky: @timsteller.Bsky.Social |
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| Alabama Higher Ed Budget: Rising Healthcare Costs Impact Funding |
| Posted on Sunday, December 14 @ 00:00:52 PST (8 reads) | |
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Alabama’s college crisis: is your professor’s healthcare bill eating your tuition?
montgomery, al – forget textbook costs; a silent budget killer is creeping onto alabama college campuses: skyrocketing healthcare premiums. A recent surge in public education employees’ health insurance plan (peehip) costs is forcing universities to make tough choices, diverting funds from classrooms, research, and, yes, even student services. It’s a problem that’s not just about numbers on a spreadsheet – it’s about the future of higher education in the state, and frankly, it’s a mess.
the situation is critical. Peehip is requesting an additional $148 million from the governor’s office, on top of the $380 million already requested to avoid premium hikes. Universities like jacksonville state, alabama a&m, and athens state are already factoring these increases into their budget requests, seeking increases of 7-9% just to maintain current operations. That’s money that could be going towards hiring new faculty, upgrading labs, or, you know, keeping tuition from climbing even higher.
“it’s a zero-sum game,” explains dr. Leona mercer, health editor at memesita.Com and a certified public health specialist. “Every dollar spent on healthcare is a dollar not spent on educating the next generation. We’re essentially robbing peter to pay paul, and peter in this case is the student.”
why is this happening now?
it’s a confluence of factors, really. Nationally, healthcare inflation clocked in at 5.2% in 2023 (kaiser family foundation), and alabama appears to be exceeding that rate. But it’s not just inflation. An aging workforce, increasing chronic disease prevalence, and the ever-rising cost of prescription drugs are all contributing to the pressure.
and let’s be real, the current system isn’t exactly designed for efficiency. Peehip, while providing vital coverage to educators and staff, operates within a complex web of regulations and contracts.
the high-deductible dilemma & the telehealth tease
universities are exploring options, and some are… less appealing than others. The shift towards high-deductible health plans (hdhps) is gaining traction. While these plans offer lower premiums, they come with a hefty catch: significantly higher out-of-pocket costs.
“hdhps are a gamble,” mercer cautions. “They might look good on paper, but they can create financial hardship for employees, especially those with chronic conditions. And a stressed-out, financially insecure professor isn’t going to be at their best in the classroom.”
telehealth is being touted as a potential solution, and the numbers are promising – the cdc reports a 38% jump in telemedicine visits in 2022. But realizing those cost savings requires renegotiating contracts with providers and investing in the necessary technology. It’s not a magic bullet.
beyond band-aids: what needs to happen?
the current approach feels like applying band-aids to a gaping wound. Experts suggest a more proactive, long-term strategy.
- the “healthcare reserve” fund: establishing a dedicated reserve fund within the education trust fund, as suggested in the original report, is a smart move. It would provide a buffer against unexpected premium spikes.
- actuarial deep dive: a comprehensive actuarial review of peehip is crucial to accurately forecast future expenses. We need to know what we’re up against.
- wellness works: investing in public-private partnerships for employee wellness programs isn’t just good for employee health; it’s good for the bottom line. Preventing illness is cheaper than treating it.
- regional collaboration: exploring joint purchasing agreements with other southern states could leverage bulk-buying power and drive down costs.
- premium caps: legislating a cap on annual premium increases tied to the consumer price index (cpi) could provide some much-needed stability.
what can you do?
this isn’t just a problem for university administrators and policymakers. As an alabama resident, you have a voice. Attend the governor’s budget hearings, contact your legislators, and demand transparency and accountability. Support legislation that prioritizes cost-containing healthcare reforms.
“look, this isn’t about politics,” mercer emphasizes. “This is about investing in our future. A well-funded, high-quality education system is essential for economic growth and social progress. We can’t afford to let rising healthcare costs undermine that.”
resources:
- kaiser family foundation:
https://www.Kff.Org - cdc telehealth information:
https://www.Cdc.Gov - american hospital association telehealth data:
https://www.Aha.Org - newsy-today alabama education budget analysis:
https://www.Newsy-today.Com/alabama-education-budget-analysis |
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| After The War | Virtual reality and the Nanking massacre: where does historical |
| Posted on Sunday, December 14 @ 00:00:52 PST (8 reads) | |
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In october, as simon li finished speaking at an international conference about embracing technological innovation in education, several chinese history educators approached him with a potent, pressing question: could a virtual reality (vr) project about the 1937 nanking massacre become the next pedagogical frontier?
li, executive director of the hong kong holocaust and tolerance centre, recalled it as an electrifying moment. “They were genuinely energised, saying that such a programme could help students feel history without being flooded by it,” he said of the educators.
he added that the concept of an “ethical empathy vr” had been circulating within academic circles for some time as a possible “evolution of atrocity education” in east asia.
lately, the idea has gained traction, as china held a national commemorative ceremony on saturday to mark the 88th anniversary of the nanking massacre, which started on december 13, 1937, when japanese troops occupied the then capital.
historians’ estimates of the number of fatalities vary widely, ranging from the tens of thousands to as high as 300,000.
only 24 registered survivors are still alive, according to state news agency xinhua. This year, beijing also marked the 80th anniversary of the end of world war ii and the global victory against fascism.
as victims’ stories fade with the passage of time, educators are proposing using hi-tech resources like vr to immerse a new generation in the historical atrocity for future commemorations.
while proponents see it as a powerful tool for peace education, some experts like li are sounding alarms about the psychological and ethical pitfalls involved.
li, who is also a fellow at the university of southern california’s shoah foundation, argued that without extreme caution, vr could traumatise rather than educate.
“peace education fails if remembrance becomes re-traumatisation,” he said. “We’re gardeners of moral memory, not curators of collective despair.”
the drive to use vr for historical remembrance is part of a growing global trend. The logic is compelling: immersive technology can foster empathy and make distant history feel immediate.
china has heavily promoted museum digitalisation in response to president xi jinping’s call to “let the cultural relics in the museums, the heritage on the vast land and the words written in the ancient books come alive”.
projects like “the last goodbye”, a flagship educational tool used by li, allow users to share a room with a 3d hologram of a holocaust survivor, aiming for an intimate non-graphic encounter with their testimony.
the hong kong centre he led has teamed up with usc’s shoah foundation on “dimensions in testimony”, a project documenting grim history with interactive survivor testimonies from the holocaust and nanking massacre.
in japan, the public broadcaster nhk has produced vr experiences recreating moments in hiroshima to simulate the aftermath of the atomic bomb dropped on the city in 1945. These are intended for use as a peace education tool.
the programme “mitsuo kodama’s story”, about a 12-year-old survivor’s experience in hiroshima, has captured chinese educators’ attention, as evidenced in the question put to li at the recent conference.
the japanese programme is built around first-person recollections, and while developers say they avoid outright gore, the vr recreates the moment the bomb flash sears skin, the sudden darkness and the streets strewn with charred figures stumbling for water.
users hear crackling fire, see silhouettes peel off walls and watch mitsuo’s own arms blister in real time in imagery so intense that students were seen shaking and tearing up even after taking off the goggles, according to japanese media coverage.
proponents of a nanking massacre vr project have argued that such an experience could help ensure the world never forgets that brutal chapter of history.
while li saw the virtues of using cutting-edge technology to educate young people, he voiced concern that, without ethical care, immersive history could become “a digital haunted house disguised as history”, especially for events like the nanking massacre.
his observation was reinforced by his teaching experience this year, as a visiting assistant professor at andrews university’s hong kong campus.
in li’s undergraduate seminar on world-views, cultures and gods, students grappled with how societies remember trauma and hope, from ancient myth to digital memory. The class covered four continents, bringing perspectives from global youth, with vr used to replicate a lived experience.
according to the students, vr’s graphic immediacy hit first and hard, and the shock lingered longer than the exposure.
for josue camarena, a 21-year-old exchange student who was born in panama and moved to the united states, the “emotional shock” of vr visuals dominated the experience and raised unsettling questions.
“because it was vr, i did not have much of a need to imagine … i was able to just feel, as if it was real, except it was not,” camarena said. The simulation left him questioning his emotional response.
he believed vr could help “bridge the empathy gap when one is learning about [the] tragedies of somebody else’s history or culture”. But he cautioned that the technology “could also shape someone else’s world view on how to see life, whether for better or worse, and in a worst-case scenario, even traumatise that person”.
gem peduche, 22, born in the philippines and raised in zambia, agreed that sensory overload was a risk of the experience.
“if it is something like the nanking massacre, it will feel like an overwhelming simulation of the pain that is witnessed because what is seen is cruel and may traumatise you,” peduche said. “The effects of vr are on two core senses, sight and sound, and when these senses are overstimulated, then there is no space to think.”
the students said they wanted traditional educational sources like texts and testimonies to be used before putting on any headset. They also wanted the chance to opt out of the vr experience entirely. Both saw it as a useful but non-essential empathy amplifier that must be blended with, yet never replace, conventional learning and guided reflection.
kavira s. Kazimoto, 20, from the democratic republic of the congo, said that relying on vr alone would enable a screen-saturated generation to skip the hard work of reading and imagining.
“however, having a good blend of both allows everyone to have a choice, use their imagination to visualise what they’re reading and also be able to be independent enough to research deeper on a given history topic,” kazimoto said.
li called for a narrative and ethical refocus. He suggested that historical vr, especially for a young global audience, should move beyond shocking depictions of perpetrators and victims.
“the majority of people are bystanders,” he said. “What about the good samaritans? What if we design empathy around those who helped?”
“most vr projects aim to drop you into the nightmare,” li added. “I’d rather drop you into the decision that the nightmare demanded.”
imagine a vr experience built around “empathetic agency”, he said, an experience where a user would not witness violence passively but simulate taking moral risk: standing alongside figures like american missionary minnie vautrin in nanjing at the gates of jinling women’s college, with hundreds of civilians pleading for shelter as soldiers approached.
“your hands tremble on the lock,” li described. “The ‘win condition’ isn’t survival or spectacle. It’s moral imagination. You experience fear, hesitation, defiance – and must choose mercy under pressure.”
“vr can simulate violence easily,” he added. “What we need is vr that trains conscience muscle.”
li also said teachers often lacked adequate support for such intense tech experiences, and he outlined non-negotiable components for an institution venturing into this space.
he believed teachers should preview every scene, map the psychological and historical danger points, run structured reflection circles right after the headset comes off and pair vr with survivor testimonies, philosophical texts or even faith-based ethics discussions.
without such safeguards, li said, “it’s just art with anxiety”.
“every peace educator lives on that tightrope: you want students shaken, not shattered,” he said. “The goal is what i call ‘afterlight learning’. They leave heavier with knowledge but lighter in spirit, carrying responsibility, not residue.”
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| Paper Landscape Collages by He Jian |
| Posted on Sunday, December 14 @ 00:00:52 PST (8 reads) | |
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he jian ??—The traveling artist “der reichtum des reisenden jian he ist seine kunst”
“the wealth of the traveler jian he is his art”
dorothee von windheim, cologne, january 2012
portrait of the artist in his beijing studio, 2020, © de telegraaf i met he jian while working at faurschou foundation in connection to a collaboration with the painter liu xiaodong. At the time, he jian was an assistant at liu xiaodong’s studio. I had no idea that he was an artist in his own right until he gave me a catalog documenting his early work up until 2012, right after the young artist had graduated from the kunsthochschule kassel in germany. In addition, i realized that i had actually spent a few days in kassel during the documenta while he jian was still living and studying in germany—not knowing that, someday, our paths would cross in beijing many years later. It is these strange and wonderful coincidences that make encounters with artists all the more memorable.
with the beginning of the year of the tiger in 2022, two years into the pandemic, the world has changed a great deal. It has evolved into a place where, in some cases, there is more time for reflection—a world that involves less travel for most of us, creating a time in which we look back at our encounters with far-off places and people. It makes us wonder what effect these travels and relationships have had on our lives, now that these experiences are much less accessible. He jian’s art is a direct result of this bygone age of effortless outward movement, and at the same time it is deeply concerned with the inner worlds of the human mind, conveyed through visions of semi-abstract paper landscape collages.
he jian was born in 1980 in beijing and studied art education at the college of fine arts of capital normal university, beijing. He graduated with a degree in fine art from kunsthochschule kassel in 2011. During his time in germany, he jian not only learned the language but also familiarized himself with german culture and customs, which emerge in varying degrees in his work.
what makes he jian’s perspective especially unique is his experience as a traveler both to a foreign country, germany, and then back to his native country, china—a characteristic which he jian’s former professor dorothee von windheim describes as an accumulation of wealth, not in monetary terms but in terms of experiencing transition and change. “Upon his return,” writes von windheim, “he amassed a certain amount of wealth, completely independent from his wallet—the traveler he jian’s wealth is his art.”
early work he jian’s early work consists of whimsical cartoon-like sketches that seem harmless, almost child-like at first glance. Upon closer inspection, however, they can have a dark and disturbing effect. Phantom images, ranging from skulls, and butterflies, and headless cartoon-like figures dominate the artist’s creations. The images appear ghost-like on thin paper resembling skin, cloth, and other organic materials.
o.T. / Without title, 2008-2011. Drawing, © the artist o.T. / Without title, 2008-2011. Drawing, © the artist o.T. / Without title , 2008. (Butterfly) photogramm, © the artist he jian consistently uses paper as an important medium in his work, often applying the material to his surfaces in a similar way to how an artist applies paint to a canvas. His works are mostly created in different shades of black and white with the exception of a few sepia tones. Some of he jian’s recent works carry many layers, creating depth onto a two-dimensional surface in the form of dense paper landscape collages.
landscape 12 , 2020. Mixed media, paper on canvas,
130 x 180 cm, © the artist landscape 1 4, 2021. Mixed media, paper on canvas,
215 x 150 cm, © the artist he jian’s use of black and white when i asked he jian about his use of black and white, he explained that he made a conscious decision to reduce his color palette in order to emphasize the essence of things, as well as underline the element of space. In fact, his current work, the artist emphasized, is all about space. “The use of color draws the viewers’ attention towards the surface of things, whereas the use of black and white filters the image to a point where the viewer is able to see ‘behind the façade.’ This allows you to focus much more on the composition and spatial elements of the picture,” the artist clarifies. He compares this effect to black and white film. The lack of color enables a form of observation that is very different, and it is this form of observation that he jian prefers after exposing himself to german culture while studying in kassel.
landscape 6, 2016. Mixed media, paper on canvas,
180 x 130 cm, © the artist landscape 9, 2019. Mixed media, paper on canvas,
150 x 100 cm, © the artist in a print of a drawing titled schief/ wonky, the viewer is confronted with the image of a huge ship, veering sideways at a dangerous angle in the ocean. The ship is drawn in white contours against a dark background, resembling lines of chalk on a blackboard. He jian’s intention is to raise questions and stimulate associations among the viewers—is the ship about to capsize? What is its fate? The spectral image of a blindfolded figure within this drawing expresses our lack of knowledge and perhaps our helplessness towards whatever “fate” awaits us. He jian does not believe in absolutes, however. There is always a sense of uncertainty he wishes to express, a gray zone that has not been determined. This is why the artist is interested in creating works that are neither fully abstract or figurative, neither drawing or painting, neither black or white, neither finished or unfinished. The image of the tilted ship creates tension. Its white contours make the image appear unfinished. At the same time, the black background fills the canvas with a night sky and opaque body of water, giving the impression of completion. The lopsided ship also represents a kind of battle between man and nature, contrasting the human and non-human.
detail image of schief / wonky, 2010, © the artist detail image of schief / wonky, 2010, © the artist schief / wonky, 2010. Color printing on din a4, canvas, pencil, © the artist fate vs. Free will he jian delves much more deeply into the subject of fate in the work landscape 1 which shows a carousel of headless animals moving in circles, seemingly without free will or purpose. “Like the animals in this scene, we may feel as though we are completely controlled by fate,” explains he jian. He then points out a subtle detail within the work—a floating door in the middle of the canvas, opening to a staircase. This surreal element reminds the viewer that there is, in fact, a way out—a chance to escape the destiny embodied by the revolving carousel. Those who are too traditional will not see it, however, and miss out on the opportunity to take a different path.
landscape 1 , 2015. Mixed media, paper on canvas, 180 x 130 cm, © the artist he jian’s use of paper similar to the image of the ship, he jian expresses this tension between fate and free will through fine white contours on a pitch-black surface, but in addition, he also adds scraps of torn paper on top of the drawing, which is in line with the rest of his paper landscape collages. The imperfect uneven shapes of the paper scraps create a contrast to the perfectly circular carousel, creating an element of chance and chaos within a planned construct.
detail image of landscape 1 , 2015, © the artist it is this interplay of contrasts and the creation of gray zones that express he jian’s unique perspective as a traveler and intermediary between two worlds. An artist who has stepped out of his comfort zone, transitioned while abroad, then returned to his former comfort zone as a kind of translator of this experience. Because of the complexity of traveling to and from two different cultures, the artist creates visuals that seem to constantly teeter on an unstable edge—defying all ideas of absolutes and predetermined pathways. The artist embraces a world of chaos, in which, on the one hand, nothing is certain, yet on the other hand, there is always an opportunity for change.
elements of surrealism in he jian’s paper landscape collages in he jian’s ongoing series of paper landscape collages, some elements of surrealism, similar to those found among the image of the animal carousel, can still be found. For instance, the gray lines forming a door in landscape 4 . Reminiscent of a rené magritte painting, the artist creates the illusion of a cloudscape by layering wide strands of razor-thin paper on top of each other behind the faint outline of the door.
landscape 4, 2016. Mixed media, paper on canvas, 150 x 100 cm, © the artist other works within the paper landscape collage series are much more abstract, however, leaving it entirely up to the viewer to imagine mountains, clouds, bodies of water and cave-like spaces created by the different shades and layers of black and white paper.
landscape 5, 2016. Mixed media, paper on canvas, 150 x 100 cm, © the artist “feihei” ( ?? ) / “Flying black” in paper landscape collages in the paper landscape collage series, the use of black and white once again plays a crucial role: here, the application of white creates a solid object, something that does not allow you to pass through, whereas black represents the transparent, a passage through the structure embodied by the layers of light colored paper. He jian points out that this is exactly the opposite of what in traditional chinese ink painting is called “feibai ( ???? ),” Which is literally translated as “flying white,” and is sometimes also referred to as “half-dry stroke.”
feibai is a very particular ink technique, which is attributed to the famous calligrapher cai yong (??, 132 – 192) of the late han dynasty (29 b.C. – 219 c.E.). It is created via a method of applying pressure to a half-dry ink brush, which causes the hair to separate, leaving streaks of white spaces when the ink is applied to the surface. The effect of these white spaces creates a sense of speed, vigor and spontaneity. In he jian’s work, however, it is not the element of white that creates this effect—it is, in fact, the black element that creates a means for the eye to escape and for the imagination to wander. Like a mirror-image of the traditional chinese calligraphy technique, one could refer to this as a form of “feihei” ( ???? ) —”Flying black”.
landscape 11 , 2020. Mixed media, paper on canvas, 180 x 130 cm, © the artist eastern and western crossovers as a traveler between eastern and western culture, he jian alludes to chinese traditional ink painting by reducing his palette to shades of black and white, much like the classical black and white aesthetics of calligraphy and landscape paintings created by scholars in the song and yuan dynasties. To find out more about the significance of traditional chinese ink, check out the previous china artlover article modern chinese calligraphy.
at the same time, he jian alludes to western aesthetics by applying both surreal and abstract elements in his work. His rendering of furniture within vague, open landscapes blurs the lines between the indoors and outdoors, much like the visuals used in surrealist painters salvador dalí and rené magritte. It is precisely this inner world, the “space within one’s mind,” that he jian wishes to depict. In order to do so, he deconstructs the strict rules of the indoors we are so familiar with, such as walls, windows and doors by placing them in unknown semi-abstract environments.
detail image of landscape 4 detail image of landscape 10 detail image of landscape 7 landscape 10 , 2019. Mixed media, paper on canvas, 155 x 97 cm, © the artist landscape 7, 2017. Mixed media, paper on canvas, 155 x 97 cm, © the artist landscape 8 , 2017. Mixed media, paper on canvas, 215 x 150 cm, © the artist another crossover with western traditional painting can be seen in the artist’s frequent use of black, which dominates many classical european artworks, in particular baroque paintings, where darkness becomes a dominating feature of the image. This technique is referred to as tenebrism or chiaroscuro, most commonly used by european masters such as carravagio to create a sense of mystery.
landscape 13 , 2021. Mixed media, paper on canvas, 200 x 150 cm, © the artist detail images of he jian’s paper landscape series highlighting the use of black he jian’s use of mixed media, however, stands out as a contemporary technique, which, nowadays, would neither be categorized as eastern or western, as it is present in all forms of international contemporary art.
detail image of landscape 12 landscape 12 , 2020. Mixed media, paper on canvas, 130 x 180 cm, © the artist the artist’s unique perspective as a translator between east and west is both a strength and a challenge. Conveying such complexity can be perceived very differently depending on the type of audience—whether they are, for instance, eastern or western, and whether they have been exposed to a large amount of different art forms or not. Much like the technique of feibai, or, in this case, “feihei,” he jian’s paper landscape collages can transport the viewer’s imagination to what lies beyond the obvious, triggering an emotional response from a curious mind. This does not mean that the viewer will necessarily comprehend the symbolic meaning as the artist might intend. Instead, the work can present an immediate experience or sense of what it tries to convey—and this is what is essential in creating impactful works of art.
recent exhibitions of paper landscape collages in 2018, thomas eller—the founder of beijing gallery weekend—invited he jian to take part in a group exhibition he curated on abstract art titled abstract art 11—abstraction as painterly rhetoric. A case study between germany and china at pifo gallery ??????? In beijing’s 798 district.
installation image of he jian’s paper landscape collages at pifo gallery, 2018, courtesy pifo gallery two years later his work was exhibited at sun sun gallery ???? In tianjin’s art district, known as the tianjin third cotton mill (?3???? Mian san chuangyi jiequ ), also referred to as “tianjin’s 798.” During the exhibition early style art project ????, He jian presented his most recent paper landscape collages, alongside other artists’ work, including thomas eller’s humorous addition of mounted photograph figurines depicting himself in the show.
the group exhibition, which was supported and sponsored by the german embassy in china, aimed to provide a platform for young artists, and give value to their early explorations. To read he jian’s thoughts on the meaning of “early style” in relation to an artist’s career, read sun sun gallery’s article here.
installation image of he jian’s paper landscape collages at sun sun gallery, 2020, courtesy sun sun gallery installation images of he jian’s paper landscape collages alongside thomas eller’s figurines at san san gallery, 2020, courtesy san san gallery be sure to keep an eye out on the artist’s future projects by following his stories on his wechat account: renkerenjian0729
or by emailing him for more information at: renkerenjian@qq.Com |
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| 72 College Memes For Students Running On Hope And Energy Drinks |
| Posted on Sunday, December 14 @ 00:00:52 PST (8 reads) | |
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For many people, growing up meant constantly stressing about college, getting into the right one, the right program. Once you arrive, prepared to face more daunting challenges, you realize that world-class professors sometimes show up late, write emails that look like your dad’s text messages and your biggest enemy is the unending piles of laundry.
we’ve gathered some of the best posts from this internet page dedicated to college memes. So get comfortable as you scroll through, get those instant noodles cooking, upvote the most relatable examples and be sure to share your own ideas in the comments section down below.
#1
image source: talliedar
#2
image source: justpeachywinks
#3
image source: insidecharity4824
there’s a peculiar phenomenon happening across social media where people who graduated from college years or even decades ago still find themselves laughing at freshman orientation memes, nodding knowingly at procrastination jokes, and sharing posts about ramen noodles at 2am. The grip that college content has on adults who’ve long since traded dorm rooms for mortgages is both amusing and surprisingly well documented by psychology research. It turns out there’s much more happening here than just people who can’t let go of their glory days.
the term meme was actually coined by british evolutionary biologist richard dawkins in his 1976 book the selfish gene to describe how cultural ideas spread, and college memes have become a particularly sticky form of cultural transmission that resonates across generations.
#4
image source: michaela666_
#5
image source: relevant-job-4385
#6
image source: no-itsrk02
reflecting on memories like college days helps reinforce our core identity, reminding us of where we’ve come from and providing a sense of continuity during periods of change. When someone who graduated fifteen years ago sees a meme about skipping class to binge netflix, they’re not just remembering their own experience but reconnecting with a version of themselves that still feels fundamentally relevant to who they are today.
#7
image source: owlsinexile10
#8
image source: owlsinexile10
#9
image source: quantumxg
the science of nostalgia explains a lot about why college content maintains its appeal long after graduation. Consuming nostalgic media gives us a way of thinking about who we are and helps us make sense of our purpose in life, according to researchers who’ve been studying this phenomenon for decades. College represents a unique period in most people’s lives when they are figuring out their identity, forming lasting friendships, and experiencing a level of freedom they might not have had before or since. Those memories aren’t just filed away in some dusty corner of the brain but actively contribute to how we understand ourselves in the present.
#10
image source: jack_029
#11
image source: sargesadlord
#12
image source: hookupvalley
studies have revealed that nostalgic experiences can decrease feelings of loneliness and depression, and can also increase self-esteem and sense of social connectedness in young people. For adults scrolling through their feeds after a tough day at work, a college meme offers a brief escape to a time when their biggest concern was whether the dining hall was serving good pizza or the cardboard variety. It’s not that adulthood is necessarily worse than college, but college represents a time of possibility and community that many people find comforting to revisit mentally.
#13
image source: myrrin_star
#14
image source: isaacoakdenla
#15
image source: netflixandnips
nostalgic memories remind us of our relationships with other people, and nostalgic recollections can encourage us to seek out social and emotional support because they frequently feature important people from our past. This helps explain why college memes get shared so enthusiastically. When someone shares a post about pulling all-nighters or surviving finals week on nothing but coffee and denial, they’re not just posting for themselves but reaching out to the people who were there with them, creating a moment of shared recognition and connection.
#16
image source: pawandpups
#17
image source: mdwaseem27
#18
image source: idea33universe
much of nostalgia recalls periods from childhood, and a big reason for this is that in childhood, we were loved simply for who we were. College occupies a similar psychological space for many people. It was a time when you could mess up spectacularly and it was called learning, when friendships formed over shared struggles felt deeper than anything else, and when the future seemed both terrifying and full of potential. The stakes felt lower even when they seemed impossibly high at the time.
#19
image source: lilacshore_
#20
image source: mscandyfairy
#21
image source: hustleandhoops
when we look back nostalgically, the reconstructive process of memory skews positive, and we tend to think about very general periods as opposed to particular details, naturally painting our memories with a very broad brush which glosses over the small negative details. This is why college memes work so well even for people who had genuinely difficult experiences during those years. The memes capture the universal struggles and triumphs while allowing each person to fill in their own rose-tinted specifics. You might not remember the actual stress of that organic chemistry exam, but you remember the camaraderie of suffering through it with your study group.
#22
image source: scenehill-78-yokk
#23
image source: evg2666
#24
image source: endy_lencyro
the relatability factor is huge too. Research shows a considerable proportion of college participants (79 percent!) And adults experience nostalgia on a weekly basis, which means there’s a massive audience primed to engage with college content. Even people who are decades removed from their graduation can instantly understand the feeling behind a meme about checking your bank account after a weekend out or the existential dread of registering for classes.
#25
image source: wolfcubware
#26
image source: hot_appearance2613
#27
image source: hustleandhoops
there’s also something inherently funny about looking back at how seriously we took things that seem trivial now. Adults can laugh at college stress memes because they have the perspective to know that yes, that paper felt like the end of the world, but it obviously wasn’t. The humor comes from the combination of genuine empathy for past struggles and the relief of being on the other side of them. It’s why posts about dramatic roommate conflicts or dining hall food get thousands of shares from people in their thirties and forties.
#28
image source: reddit.Com
#29
image source: storm_taco
#30
image source: the-accent-guy
finally, college culture has a timeless quality because the fundamental experiences remain similar across generations. The technology changes, the slang evolves, but the core experiences of academic pressure, social navigation, identity formation, and questionable life choices remain remarkably consistent. A meme about procrastination hits just as hard for someone who graduated in 1995 as it does for someone graduating next year. That universality keeps the content fresh and relatable no matter how long it’s been since you last set foot in a lecture hall.
#31
image source: interesting_mix_4183
#32
image source: no-itsrk02
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image source: jones4lifee
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image source: chargebig9594
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image source: humble_999
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image source: thecollegee
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image source: mafia_gurl
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image source: attemptremote192
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image source: andrey_golova
#40
image source: reddit.Com
#41
image source: no-itsrk02
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image source: longjumping_tone_469
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image source: intensely_neutral
#44
image source: hustleandhoops
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image source: emupuzzleheaded4800
#46
image source: reddit.Com
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image source: leadingcautiouss
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image source: paymentmewblue
#49
image source: no_dress2259
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image source: a20juxt
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image source: unusual-tap3431
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image source: unsungherro
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image source: jack_029
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image source: chargebig9594
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image source: megaslothmilf
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image source: extension_girls
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image source: no-itsrk02
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image source: vegapunk420
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image source: sises14
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image source: radiantdarkness_art
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image source: kelfish4
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image source: rickatronn
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image source: statisticianheavy560
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image source: reddit.Com
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image source: mantaray374
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image source: twoguntoni
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image source: loser-geek-whatever
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image source: oddchamp
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image source: heath4225
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image source: modi_jii
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image source: klaygstappr
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image source: unknownm1
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