Nick Admussen

When a reading of text has proceeded by laborious stages within the test-rig of detailed study, pause to allow the overall effect to integrate back into a coherent human reading, and ponder whether your life may even have been changed, just a little, or your beliefs about large questions; whether your habits of feeling have been flattered or boastfully challenged, or whether your relation to the text builds up a kind of trust. This aspect is what you will take away with you when all the study is finished, and it should last you through a lifetime.

J. H. Prynne, on reading

Seeking panelists for a guaranteed roundtable at next year's MLA convention in Los Angeles:
"Reducing Technology Dependence in Chinese Language and Culture Pedagogy"
1/3

I can't travel in January but this sounds awesome. Maybe @laoluo.bsky.social will come talk about his writing class with the (haptic) notecard system...?

Not your average “I got a new job” post. A measured and powerful act of courage—read the thread!

As If Haunted by the Terror, the Chatbot Says It Has No Description for the Woro Massacre by Ridwan Fasasi - Rattle: Poetry But the bullets in their forehead, lethal, looked as if they had conquered the living.

holy hell rattle.com/as-if-haunte...

Rereading part of the Classic of Mountains and Seas for the Strange class. Here are so good bits:

"There is an animal here which looks like a wild cat, and it has a white tail and a mane. Its name is the bum-bum. If you rear it, you can take it to cure melancholy."

Epstein’s economic power among academics was made possible by a capitalist system that makes higher education dependent on the charity economy rather than a public good supported by taxing the rich

Those must have been the exact same classes. Super weird. We should have a beer sometime! I really imprinted on her as a teacher and even with (gestures to things) what I learned from her feels like it's only getting more useful. Or because of it, I guess.

I did Masterpieces of European Literature 2 with her too! Were we in the same year? I graduated in 2001.

Just got back home--I'm having trouble parsing my notes because she moved from work to work so fluidly. There's a lot of Kierkegaard in here, but I'm not sure we read it together, she might have just been talking about it. Definitely Conrad's "Narcissus" was in there, _maybe_ Yeats.

I found my notebook: here's the page from the first day of class. I knew it was special at the time and I was actually really really paying attention (although I didn't get down #3?), but looking back, wow. I was stupid lucky to have this in my life.

Hey, I took 7 Lamps with Naomi Lebowitz too! Lot of future scholars in there. My clearest memory is of her teaching Karamazov, but I can’t remember which lamp it was. Grace?

I have spent my entire adult life being lectured by Republican politicians and conservative legal movement types about how important it is to preserve the sacred constitutional right to self-defense of *specifically this person* and then secret police murdered him in the street

Action Memo for Senior Bureau Official John Armstrong FROM: SUBJECT: CA/VO - Stuart Wilson, Deputy Assistant Secretary (SBU) Revocation of Fl Visa for Rumeysa OZTURK (SBU) Recommendation 1: That you approve the revocation of the Fl visa, effective immediately, for under section 221(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Due to ongoing ICE operational security, this revocation will be silent; the Department will not notify the subject. (Approve/Disapprove by 03/21/25) Decision: [Approved] (SBU) Recommendation 2: That you authorize the transmission of the attached notification to the Department of Homeland Security noting the, immediate revocation of OZTURK's visa. (Approve/Disapprove by 03/21/25) Decision: [Approved] Background (SBU} On March 21, 2025, the Assistant Director of the National Security Division of DHS/ICE's Homeland Security Investigations referred to CA information regarding Rumeysa OZTURK, a Turkish national, for a possible determination by the Secretary that the alien is deportable under INA section 237(a)(4)(C). As a nonimmigrant visa holder, such a determination is not necessary for OHS/ICE to pursue removal of OZTURK from the United States, as INA section 237(a}(1)(B) provides that an alien is deportable if their nonimmigrant visa has been revoked under INA section 221(i).

(SBU) Under INA section 221(i), the Secretary of State may at any time, in his discretion, revoke a visa.. This authority is delegated to you pursuant to Delegation of Authority 367-4. Department policy reflected in 9 FAM 403.ll~S(B) provides that a visa may be revoked in cases of a suspected ineligibility, when an individual would not meet requirements .for admission, or "in other situations where warranted." (SBU) OZTURK was issued an F-1 visa on December 14, 2020, valid until December 9, 2025. According to information provided by OHS/ICE/HSI OZTURK is a post doctorate degree candidate in Child Studies and Human Development at Tufts University. On March 21, 2025, OHS/ICE/HSI referred information to CA indicating that OZTURK co-authored an op-ed in Tufts' student newspaper. In this article, the authors wrote, "Graduate Students for Pal'estine joins Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine (TSJP), the Tufts Faculty and Staff Coalition for Ceasefire, .and Fletcher Students for Palestine to reject the ,University's response" {to a student government resolution). According to OHS/ICE/HSI, Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine was placed\\ on interim suspension 11 after it used images of weapons to promote a protest rally and urged members of the Tufts community to 'join the student intifada." OHS/ICE/HSI referral concluded that "OZTURK's involvement in these activities and associations with these groups may undermine U.S. foreign. policy by creating a hostile environment for Jewish students and indicating support for a designated terrorist organization." (SBU) While OZTURK has been involved with the actions protesting Turfts' relationship with Israel, QHS/ICE/HSI has not, however, provided any evidence showing that OZTURK has engaged in any antisemitic activity or made any public statements indicating support for a terrorist organization or antisemitism generally. While the report implies a connection between OZTURK and the now-banned Tufts Student for Justice in Pa…

OZTURK was involved in any of the activities which resulted in TJSP being suspended from Tufts. (SBU) Through a search on March 21, 2025, on available USG interagency databases, CA/VO identified no reporting specific to OZTURK, and interagency vetting partners did not provide any response to OZTURK's 2024 visa application indicating the existence of derogatory terrorism-related information. (SBU) OHS did not identify any alternative grounds of removability that would be applicable to OZTURK, including the ground of removability for aliens who have provided material support to a foreign terrorist organization or terrorist activity, and have not indicated whether it plans to consider termination of OZTURK's SEVIS registration. Although information provided by OHS/HSI/ICE does not establish any potential ineligibility for OZTURK, you may, in your discretion and in accordance with Department policy in 9 FAM 403.11-5(8), approve revocation of her F-1 visa effective immediately based on the totality of the circumstances presented indicating that revocation may be warranted.

Here is the newly-unsealed State Department memo confirming -- finally -- that the detention of Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk was based on an op-ed.

No antisemitic activity. No support of terrorism.

An op-ed in a student newspaper.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

love. this.

OMG OMG congratulations! What a wonderful surprise! I wish I had the skills to read it! We should have a Zoom of the entire gang--you, me, Lea Schneider, Joanna Krenz. His work has assembled quite the team!

There is an innate fear most preschoolers have when they leave the house for school -- the world away from your parents feels, and in fact is, pretty dangerous when you are five years old. Almost every little kid who goes to school is being brave. They put this one in a cage. Look at his face.

I keep coming back to this. I asked my son about the Pokemon hat: it's Marill, a water mouse. He described Marill fans as "sweet people who like cute things." This is the kind of hat you buy your kid if it's cold out and you want dressing up for school to feel happy and fun.

Preschooler and three other students detained by ICE, school district leader says The detentions of Columbia Heights students come after weeks of heightened concern and enforcement presence near and on Twin Cities school property.

A 5-year-old preschool student was taken with his father by federal immigration agents shortly after arriving home from school, Columbia Heights school leaders said Jan. 21.

全糖半糖微糖無糖我都可以，反正就是一定要去冰 | solidarity with protesters against the ICE terrorists, solidarity with americans against the fascist US state (in taiwan when we order drinks we say 去冰 to ask for no ice)

People are calling this post a godtier opener for 2026 because it captures the undeniable tension in the patriarchal institution of marriage in China. The post has got over 1.3M likes within a day, and has been censored and uncensored for over 5 times. As of now OP’s account has also been banned.

You might not think you want to read anything from the Journal of Critical Accounting, but this essay about how the fascist state seized control of Italy's University of Ferrara feels highly relevant: impoverish a school, destabilize it with regulation, then buy it out. doi.org/10.1016/j.cp...

Oh, no. I'm so sorry.

Just got back to the department and this was the center of the conversation-in-progress in the Asian Studies office; strongly considering de-Canvasifying my spring course (as well as other things I won't post about). Highly recommended, thanks Matt and @ehayot.bsky.social

A handmade playing card that reads BRICK ENERGY

Tidying up the Pokémon clone I made with the kid last spring and all of a sudden realized what I want to bring to the new year

We were totally sending the kid, now he’s stuck going to the grocery all morning with me 😭😭😭

UNC cuts all six area studies research centers, effective 2026 As part of the University's plan to make $70 million in budget cuts across the institution, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Operations Nate Knuffman projected that cutting 14 centers and institutes in...

What a time to decide to learn less about the world.

dailytarheel.com/article/univ...

[𝐍𝐄𝐖 @asiancha.bsky.social 𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐀𝐘] In an exclusive essay, Nick Admussen reads the game 𝟏𝟎𝟎𝟎𝐱𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐒𝐓 through immunity and memory, situating trauma, gender, and forgetting within the history of Hong Kong protest and the Chinese diaspora. @nadmussen.bsky.social

⧉ 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝: chajournal.com/2025/12/17/1...
。。

Thank you Cha, you are a treasure, this was so much fun to write! cc: @sunsetvisitor.studio

[𝐍𝐄𝐖 @asiancha.bsky.social 𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐀𝐘] In an exclusive essay, Nick Admussen reads the game 𝟏𝟎𝟎𝟎𝐱𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐒𝐓 through immunity and memory, situating trauma, gender, and forgetting within the history of Hong Kong protest and the Chinese diaspora. @nadmussen.bsky.social

⧉ 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝: chajournal.com/2025/12/17/1...
。。