Nicholas Pagnucco

This seems potentially useful.
#sociology
#academicsky

Apparently, the single most soothing, thing I can do this afternoon, the thing that centers me and gives me a sense of a healthy connection to the world around me more than anything else, is organizing my Zotero library.

I may need help.

4 post 🧵
#highered
#academicsky
#cdnpse
#sociology

(also.... what are good hashtags for specifically Canadian education, postsecondary education, & sociology?)

PS - my personal political, normative, and social theoretical stances go _MUCH_ further than this, but I don't feel that soap box will be effective pedagogically at an independent Catholic university in Alberta. (4/3)

I tell my students that different political ideologies can offer different solutions, suggest different priority orders, etc. And some of them may be more or less effective or problematic.

However, suggesting this is all woke lies is an intellectual non-starter. (3/3)

To state the obvious: this is overtly wrong. One can empirically demonstrate that society has inequality due social structures regarding on many axes (race, class, gender, ableness, etc).

It cannot be legitimate for a political party to deny this, or organize education around that denial. (2/3)

Florida Has Deemed All Existing Intro to Sociology Textbooks Illegal and Produced Its Own The Board of Governors overseeing the new curricula includes roofing contractors, insurance execs, and no professors.

I am looking forward to this inevitably coming to Alberta.
Wait. No, not looking forward to. The other thing.

truthout.org/articles/flo...

I'll be honest, this looks like some weaponized ambiguity to me, hoping to masquerade as reasonableness to the general public:

UT Policy Asks Faculty to Avoid “Controversial” Topics The system board did not specify what topics are considered controversial or elaborate on how the policy will be enforced. The language echoes similar restrictions at the Texas A&M and Texas Tech syst...

www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

My thoughts.
Now, I can easily imagine someone disagreeing with how they operationalized Christian nationalism in the survey, but there seems to be some things I will have fun dropping on my students.

I am looking forward to reading this and seeing how it applies to the Canadian case.

As is often my way, I wish some polling firm in Canada reproduced this. I would be very curious how Canada is similar and different than the US.

Mapping Christian Nationalism Across the 50 States: Insights from PRRI’s 2025 American Values Atlas One year into the second Trump administration, a new national survey examines support for Christian nationalism across all 50 states and examines connections between support for Christian nationalism ...

A lot of good data here, even if the report is descriptive stats & crosstabs.

prri.org/research/map...

This isn't QUITE a request for sociology course advice, but its close.

I am teaching soc of media next year. I am deciding how much I want to focus on media literacy skills vs. other topics.

There is no soc major at my uni, so my students will be psych, history, education, and a few other majors.

Meta has patented AI that can run a dead person's account, continuing to post and chat on their behalf

It can message and video call by replicating a user's online behavior using their past data

Wake me when Mark Kelly finally decides to stop confirming the far right authoritarian’s judges

bsky.app/profile/mcop...

This is absolutely a core element of my teaching philosophy, even if I don't call it the drunk uncle theory in my teaching portfolio. I'm a dorky, cishet white guy with a professional job, and I will absolutely validate my students experience of power relations in the world without blaming them.

I'm going to have to talk about this very carefully in class.

Also, I wish we had the resources to hire a sociologist of social movements or other people with more relevant specialties than mine.

We still have ours, a fact I am grateful for, though I'm slightly confused that we do.

(nothing against the faculty, staff, or even admin, but.... 'berta is gonna 'berta)

It is unethical for me to share some of the more hilarious interactions I have with students here.

And that saddens me.

Its 2026.
If you aren't overdoing an analogy, you're just not trying ;)

I would like to do more reading on contemporary Christian nationalism in Canada though. The idea that it is purely an American disease is an easy trap to fall into, but I have deep reservations about it (including the variant that says the far right exists exclusively in Alberta).

I don't have much to add, but I finally read this. Mostly agree with your analysis.

That's an accurate paraphrase of parts, & the 2nd half is almost a quote.

Also, this extends to Canada. Trump wants to bully Canada, be thanked for it, and never have it called bullying.

Abuse is absolutely a core idea in how Trump wants to rule. And I'm not using my Alt account to say it.

I'm not sure I can recommend doing this, but listening to Trump's Davos speech using "abuse logic" as an interpretive frame is disturbingly easy to do. We've never asked for anything, but we want this, and you need to give it up, and you deep down realize its good for you too." 1/2

Detained by ICE, two women became first responders during agent’s seizure The women say they guided agents through the emergency, later raising concerns about medical protocols, weapons safety and accountability.

Two women trained as first responders were abducted by three ICE agents. One of the agents starts seizing. The other two don’t know what to do. The women jump into action and save the agent’s life, only to be re-handcuffed and processed.

www.startribune.com/detained-by-...

I wonder if Furman will be asked if his opinion continues unchanged.

Congrats against to the coastal elites who told us this guy was a "credible Treasury Secretary" & a "renaissance man" because he went to the right schools & the right cocktail parties.

Just a Shanda of Shandas to go from Janet Yellen to this shameful authoritarian lackey.

….