to say the quiet part out loud: most PhD programs fund grad students with a mix of fellowships and teaching, but mostly through teaching. if TAs are replaced by AI, most PhD programs will cease to exist

Super excited to have so many people interested in Roman royal portraiture from my last thread. While I have you, let’s keep talking about Nero’s portraits and modern people who want them to be Polaroids. /1

I have two thoughts when I see "regret" posts about dystopian shit like this. 1) The fact they always start by declaring allegiance and framing it as a methodology problem, not a wrong goal to start 2) Never do they go back and re-examine their stance through the light of the people who warned.

Interesting framing from two members of Harvard faculty conflating their intramural angst about the challenge of ranking and sorting the spectacularly excellent with the entirety of education. Hubris much?

When Minneapolis felt under heavy siege, people from everywhere helped and reached out and it was really heartening and made a difference. Memphis deserves that too, all the more so because there appears to be a concerted effort to keep their occupation out of the news

It's not 1536, but Anne Boleyn has taken over the news. Recently a team of computer scientists, electrical engineers and a historical novelist think they have discovered the “true face” of Anne (& her mother) by applying AI-based computational facial recognition to Holbein sketches. The catch? /1

www.nytimes.com/2026/05/15/o... So sick of the case for A.I. being "it's inevitable!" A great read from @tressiemcphd.bsky.social

At BEST you’re playing Russian Roulette with information when you’re asking an AI to tell you something, but many people—including smart people, including people you respect and love—already view it as something with more authority than an *expert*. It’s like conservatism on steroids

absolute heater from @jamellebouie.net one of those pieces where I find myself saying MMHMM repeatedly while reading www.nytimes.com/2026/05/06/o...

This makes me sad. It’s hubris, not strategy.The desire to play in the space where they perceive the heavy hitters are rather than building a party base in mayorships, state legislatures & governorships that would actually make them heavy hitters. Everybody wants to be famous, but fame is not power.

That would not have solved the problem of SCOTUS gutting the VRA repeatedly. What we have here is the Union once again failing at carrying through on Reconstruction because people are racist all over the country.

Oh look another great reason to avoid the billionaire’s playthings that are destroying the world and most of us. Honestly thinking for yourself is SO good. And uses precisely 0 carbon.

This breaks my heart. Texas Tech was my academic home for 8 years, the place where I learned to research, teach, and become part of a scholarly community. It was a place of opportunity and new experiences and perspectives, and now they're gutting it in an ideological purge.

Thread. I'm begging people to realize how much we've already given in just the past 25 years. I'm old enough to remember when surveillance wasn't ubiquitous and before ICE or the TSA existed. There was even a time when the average cop wasn't kitted out for full on urban warfare.

In honor of Mr. Rogers’ birthday, here’s your regularly scheduled reminder that the quote of his you keep sharing, that in times of crisis we should look for the helpers, was for his audience of children. We’re adults now. We’re supposed to *be* the helpers.

We need better Democrats. Not a single dollar more for Trump’s illegal war.

The smartphone monitoring software "Tangles" joins a growing law enforcement surveillance arsenal in Texas, including a fleet of drones, and its use has little oversight. Our latest from @francescadnunz.bsky.social is presented with support from @pulitzercenter.org.

Education is, has been, and must remain about a lot more than any current or future demands of industry. If anything, education is as much about *challenging* the interests of industry as it is about meeting them.

Randall Munroe once noted that more Californians than Texans voted for Trump and more Texans than New Yorkers voted for Harris.

For Prison Banned Books Week, I want to say: it is worse than maybe it ever has been regarding censorship in prisons. It is worse than five years ago. It is worse than 50 years ago.

It's official! #PhDone

Wrote this piece for Harpers Bazaar about the life, legacy, and hate-induced murder of Jonathan Joss through the eyes of being a Two-Spirit Native person this Pride. I hope you take a read. For Him. For all of us. 🪶

many such cases

We did it!!! SB 2880, an extreme anti-abortion bill that would have had nationwide impact, and SB 16, Texas’ version of the SAVE Act, are dead. We ran the clock out. They won’t even get a vote in the House. That’s a HUGE fucking win! #txlege

www.texastribune.org/2025/05/14/o... via @lomikriel.bsky.social and @micarosenberg.bsky.social

Classics Bake: Baccalaureate Edition

Delighted to announce that this fall I will be joining the Department of Classical Studies at the University of Richmond as a Visiting Assistant Professor. Pictured here: Nebula, blissfully unaware of the looming move

9 months later, Princeton still refuses to drop charges against 13 students who held a peaceful sit-in protest in support of Palestine. Please sign in support of the students, especially @aditilrao.bsky.social who's bearing the brunt of the university's ire piad.nationbuilder.com?recruiter_id...

9 months later, Princeton still refuses to drop charges against 13 students who held a peaceful sit-in protest in support of Palestine. Please sign in support of the students, especially @aditilrao.bsky.social who's bearing the brunt of the university's ire piad.nationbuilder.com?recruiter_id...

Damnatio mmmmoriae

This is a vehicle for Ken Paxton to challenge shield laws protecting abortion access in blue states. It's not enough to end abortion in their states, they must end it nationally. We can expect the Trump DOJ to side with Texas. www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/release...

Not on my 2024 bingo card: a plumbing crisis in my apartment complex forcing me to move mid-semester. 😣

Periodic reminder that the Bari Weiss's pretend University of Austin is so deeply committed to free speech that it teaches an edgy set of Forbidden Courses in a state where real universities are facing genuine censorship from the government led by the Governor attending the U of Austin graduation.

Israel destroyed 83% of plant life in Gaza by June this year. It destroyed 70% of its agricultural land. It damaged or destroyed 65% of water tanks and 47% of groundwater wells. Israel has deliberately tried to make Gaza uninhabitable. This is genocide.

Hello, new followers! Astrid and Nebula send their greetings

In less than two months, more than twice as many women and children have been reported killed in Gaza than in Ukraine after two years of war.

Off to #AARSBL2023 to talk about the Sibylline Oracles!

Happy Halloween from these put-upon creatures 🧡🖤

I feel like Italy needs to spend more time thinking about the Roman Empire

There's always next season... 🥲💙

What does seeing a parakeet on campus 10 minutes before your first discussion section of the semester portend?

Could we not?

Overheard as I was walking into the library today: "I think they're grad students." "Yeah, they look pretty old." Week 1 and already choosing violence...

As the day draws to a close, please enjoy this picture of Astrid, fully asleep while sitting up and lightly snoring

I think it’s easy for ppl on the outside to criticize what any given professor did or didn’t do when faced w. limited knowledge, no university guidance, & a panic-inducing situation which all of us know could happen to us but no one is ever prepared for. It’s harder to extend grace. But we can try.

I'm actually enjoying working on my teaching statement. I can't tell if that's a sign that things are going well or if I'm doing this all disastrously wrong.

The Kids Online Safety Act would wreck the internet as we know it and cause mass censorship of LGBTQIA+ ppl. Here's a great rundown. This bill could pass in the *next few weeks* so call your senators! https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/08/the-kids-online-safety-act-isnt-all-right-critics-say/