1/ Surveys on antisemitism: With all the breathless reporting on 'sky rocketing antisemitism in Australia', I often wonder why is that journalists, decision makers, and politicians don't just check the available data to see which racisms are rocketing. And consult a range of experts. One valuable source we have is the Scanlon Mapping Social Cohesion surveys have been running since 2007 and we have very good longitudinal data looking attitudes to immigrants, religious background, race and experiences of racism. So what does that data tell us? 2/ I just came from a supervision meeting with a Phd student and we took a look at the most recent 2024 Social Cohesion report. What can we see?
First, about one in 5 Australians believe our migration program should select purely the basis of race and religion. The latter is usually a proxy for anti Islam sentiment.

1/ Good morning class. Today Australian universities adopted a policy that effectively outlaws criticism of Zionism. In today's class, and I do hope our Vice Chancellor's are listening and reading carefully, you will be introduced to Edward Said's 'Zionism from the Standpoint of its Victims'. 2/ Edward Said sets the scene here on why Zionism, like any ideology, should be available as an object of critique. Though it is an idea and firmly held identity for many modern Jews, it is, in its modern manifestation, a product of European colonialism and the invention of the modern nation state system. Zionism as a political ideology requires the erasure of the firmly held identity, history, and belonging to place of the Palestinian people. He argues that discussion of Zionism needs to take account of the experience and material consequences of that ideology for the Palestinians.

1/ Media representation & the Middle East, a 🧵 ABC Radio National pre-recorded interviews with 3 academics for a piece on Hezbollah this afternoon. Two white men, and a Lebanese-Australian academic woman with significant specialist expertise on the topic. Guess which one didn't make it to air? They actually went to air with two white blokes, an ME specialist, and an IR generalist. Shame on you. Do you want to talk about 'social cohesion'? Start here. 2/ If you are a white bloke academic talking head in the IR space, insist that if they interview you they must also interview (and air) a person from that country, or background. Better still, say, 'thanks, I'd love to, but you should really speak to 'X' first.

1/ ABC ran three stories related to Palestine this evening. One on the vandalisation of the MPs office, one on the Palestine protesters at the Jerry Seinfeld show. And a feature interview on 7:30 report about the Israeli released hostages. 2/ The story on the Seinfeld show muted the audio of what the protestor was saying which would have contextualised the protest. There is footage of his words all over social media. But they kept in the audio for Seinfeld's response.

1/This is one of the messages in the WhatsApp group. I think power is an important dimension to the discussion of what to leak and what not to leak. I see here the group "Lawyers for Israel" - a group of 250+ lawyers with 6 teams - one of which is Campus Watch. 2/ I also saw on that list many of my colleagues names - none of whom is an anti-Semite. The list of names clearly shows a targeting of my Arab colleagues, my Indigenous colleagues, and my non-Zionist Jewish colleagues. I find this deeply disturbing and deeply racist.

1/ We are hearing more and more about censorship of professionals such as doctors, academics and journalists who speak up on Palestine. We don't hear about the 'little people' who are also losing jobs and livelihoods because of Zionist pushback. So here is a thread you can add to 2/ Two examples from this week. Case 1 a mens' hairdresser who cut my son's hair on Friday. The hairdresser told me (noticing my Free Palestine dove avatar) that he has supported Palestine for years. He previously owned a salon in wealthy Double Bay -Sydney's Eastern Suburbs ...

1/ Non political / non-academic friends - you need to know what is happening in the Australian media right now.
You may not be aware that the South African case arguing Israel's actions in Gaza amount to Genocide began in the International Court of Justice on Thursday. 🧵 2/ Thousands of experts and observers around the world tuned into the livestream to listen to the South African case on Thursday setting out piece by piece over 3 hours the claim that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Thread: 1/7 We must defend the centrality of sociology and critical HASS disciplines to healthy, functioning society and democracy. These are the disciplines that hold power to account, that must have the freedom to exercise critique without fear or favour.@SaveSocSciUWA 2/7 A metaphor: Sociology & critical HASS are kind of like the separation of powers, the adversarial justice system, or 'Blue sky' science. While applied research, industry commissioned social research etc is important... it must not be the only kind of sociology we support.

1/8 And where it all starts..... the decline of Commonwealth education funding going to higher education from 41% in 1996 down to record low of 23.5%. #SaveAustralianUniversities 2/8 BACK IN 1996
41.4% of total Commonwealth Govt education spending went to higher education.
Non-government schools received 16.5%
Public schools 10.9%
17.9% of the education budget went directly to students to support the less well off through their education.

I'm starting a thread here on #UsefulSocialSciences to show @MakeMayoMatter @JacquiLambie @Stirling_G why it is wrong to stop kids from poorer backgrounds studying in social science. Here are some of the 'useful' & employable things we research & teach. @TASA @MQ_Sociology Housing affordability: understanding housing markets and how we design better housing policy so young people and the less well off can afford a home. #UsefulSocialSciences

Work & economy: What is happening with modern labour markets - what are the social impacts of insecure work

1/4 This year marks 20 years since that momentous vote for independence in Timor Leste. I have such strong memories of my East Timorese friends at that time and the joy and hope they had leading up to vote, and suffering they endured with Indonesia's scorched earth departure. 2/4 I'll never forget landing in Dili surrounded by troop carriers, UN Planes, experiencing the crazy UN economy, walking the corridors of Timor Leste's brand new parliament, hitching a ride with Brazilian soldiers in their tank. Interviewing so many amazing and brave Timorese.

New article by the Wise & Velayutham team is out now in Ethnic & Racial Studies. @ERSjournal #multiculturalism #conviviality
Humour at work: conviviality through language play in Singapore's multicultural workplaces tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10… If you are in the US, Europe or UK, please take a look as it is important to open your imaginations to ways of 'doing diversity' and 'dealing with race' beyond the Anglosphere. Better still, read some authors writing and publishing from Asia.
See the special issue by

Government has announced an inquiry into how well refugees are 'integrating' into Australian society, " Warning of the development of “parallel communities” and poor English skills ...as drivers of social fragmentation." Sigh... happy to set them right based on 20 yrs research theaustralian.com.au/national-affai…

Excited to have won a UN Day Media Award for 'Pushing Casual Sport to the Margins Threatens Social Cohesion' in @ConversationEDU, brought to life by SBS Una Butorac @TheFeedSBS in 'Foul Play'
Amanda Wise, Kristine Aquino, Keith Parry, Sarah Neal
@SocStudiesShef @MQ_Sociology theconversation.com/pushing-casual…