Thread by @shengokai

Remember this thread below? Well, this text from the recent executive order makes my fears for STS a reality: (1/n)

I say a reality because many STS initiatives that address bias and inequality as perpetuated by or naturalized in technology rely upon federal grant funding to do their work. Similarly, work in inequality in medicine and education also receives federal grant funding. (2/n)

Moreover, scholars in STS and adjacent fields are often evaluated for tenure and promotion, for jobs, on the basis of the grant monies that they bring in. This order would effectively eliminate that possibility and imperil research centers that are focused on this work. (3/n)

Now, theoretically, a giant like Google, Facebook, or Microsoft could fund this research, but there are strings that would imperil the researchers. Public higher-ed institutions could not fund this research, given the ongoing attacks on higher-ed funding. (4/n)

All this is to say that this isn't just about the blanket definition of "Critical Race Theory" bandied about, this isn't just about "woke scholarship" run rampant in the academy: this is about eliminating the capacity to engage in critique and systemic change. (5/n)

This is about doing to researchers and federally supported programs what universities have done to Black Studies, Latino Studies, WGSS, and other area studies: starving them to death through resource deprivation and making it impossible to do the necessary work. (6/n)

And we will all be the worse for it. (fin)