colleen wood

@colleenwood

I teach political science at a big community college in Minnesota. I study digital politics and authoritarianism in Central Asia. Opinions expressed here are mine; views do not reflect the state of Minnesota or U.S. government.

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colleen wood@colleenwood· 2d

Book cover for Kathy Cramer's The Politics of Resentment. Pastel yellow background. Two images nested in an outline of Wisconsin; top half is a red farm and cornfield, bottom half is a blue pinstripe suit with a red VOTE button

colleen wood@colleenwood· Jul 14

yum town!!!! i think i might go for more frosting (or a thicker frosting? probably need to go to a special grocery store to get Smetana Smetana instead of sour cream) and am tempted to play with spices but pleased with the first effort

8 thin layers of golden brown cake in between white layers of frosting on a marbled blue/white plate in front of a shelf with tea cups and cocktail-making vessels

colleen wood@colleenwood· Jul 13

it was 93 degrees today, we don't have AC, but for some reason i was inspired to practice one of my state fair bakes: medovik. absolutely melted for hours, but hoping it's tasty (it has to sit in the fridge over night so the filling can soak into the eight [8] layers!)

close up of a small pot filled with a golden goo and a whisk

marbled blue and white plate with a cake on top - cake covered in white frosting, chunks of golden brown cookie dust on the edges and top. potions of the caribbean cookbook in the background

top-down view of a kitchen counter: half a metal bowl filled with whipped sour cream, half a teal kitchenaid, a blue and white marbled plate with a circular dark golden layer of cake and a spatula with a gob of the whipped sour cream

colleen wood@colleenwood· May 30

love the plug for local fish markets and Soviet history

screenshot of google search result for "how many days of the week have a fish in them" with the answer saying Tuesday and Thursday *literally* contain the letters f-i-s-h. And a random plug on the right for Thursday being fish day in the USSR

colleen wood@colleenwood· May 30

alright time to draft syllabus language instructing students not to use google for coursework

screenshot of a google search "how many days of the week have a fish in them" with the AI overview saying two days have the word 'fish' in them: Tuesday and Thursday

colleen wood@colleenwood· May 17

It's not a new term, Levitsky and Way's 2010 book is named after an article they wrote in 2002. Competitive like "authoritarians hold elections and face opposition," just the rules of the game are stacked in the regime's favor

Book cover for Levitsky and Way's Competitive Authoritarianism with the title in white font over red bands + an image of a police officer with a baton standing over a protester on the ground and a man with a mustache holding back a younger man trying to intervene

colleen wood@colleenwood· May 10

Real footage of me trying to explain this exact thing to a bar trivia host - the question was something about "what foreign food word means 'to spin'" and they didn't give points for döner. That man did not want an etymology lesson but boy did he get one (and I got $20)

meme of young woman with her arm around a young man's shoulder, her mouth open and gesturing outwards. man's face gives expression "i don't care"

colleen wood@colleenwood· May 8

Zongker's Chicken Chicken Chicken leveled up

It looks like an academic article written by Doug Zongker but *EVERY* word is chicken. There's a graphic with arrows and boxes and every figure in the graphic is labeled Chicken

colleen wood@colleenwood· Jan 27

double digit above-0 temps after days of double digit below-0 temps there was no sun, a real monday of a monday, the horrors are heavy, but dang: warm

freshly divorced nicole kidman greets the day with arms wide open

colleen wood@colleenwood· Jan 3

There's a guy named STEVE G who does hints for Spelling Bee every day, I'm obsessed with him (well, moreso the rest of the Spelling Bee community commenters' obsession with him - Jan 1 was just people wishing Steve G a happy 2026). Steve G who are you??? Magazine profile of Steve G when???

Screenshot of posts from January 1 spelling bee "Community" page -- first comment is by STEVE G from Fairport, NY. He breaks down the words in the puzzle by first two letters of the word + number of letters in the word. He uses a diamond emoji to signify that the hint is "tough." The ones on the screenshot range from AN, AT, CA, and CL

Two people commented on Spelling Bee community page to wish @STEVE G a happy 2026. The first comment by Trudy from Idaho says her husband passed away 13 days prior + that Steve brought laughter back to her life today.

colleen wood@colleenwood· Nov 10

a friend from college works on AI for education at google and every time i see stuff like this, i'm so bummed, because she had such a thoughtful, passionate approach to her education and has sold out for fancy clothes to hollow out young peoples' minds

ad on google with a picture of a triangle with a 56 degree angle and unknown x; text of ad says "get help with your toughest homework problems and more." a blue button says try it; a white button says not interested

colleen wood@colleenwood· Sep 12

how the semester's going, end of week 3

colleen wood@colleenwood· Aug 12

Timeline cleanse: my dearest dearest friend got married this weekend and I helped make her bouquet from flowers her housemate grew in their garden

An arm extended over a green lawn holds a bouquet with a sunflower in the middle, pink amaranth bending, and sprigs of dill flowers, tomato greens, and onion flowers extend above the sunflower

colleen wood@colleenwood· Aug 12

The words NUR-SULTAN are in white as an installation in a park in Kazakhstan's capital. Two statues of women in traditional dresses flank either side

colleen wood@colleenwood· Apr 23

All I can think when I see MAHA is Amanda Bynes

Boy with brown hair on the left, girl dressed as old woman with braces, blue hat, and pastel sweater with pompoms with her mouth wide open

colleen wood@colleenwood· Apr 7

It's giving

Melania Trump in a beige trench coat stands at a podium in front of a large white sign that reads BE BEST in red and blue letters

colleen wood@colleenwood· Mar 30

Me reading this essay about feeling haunted by paranoia that student writing is AI + giving shape to the spidey sense of knowing when I'm reading genAI text