Carnegie Mellon’s literature PhD is being liquidated in favor of “computation,” casualized labor, and AI. That has profound ramifications for, students, faculty, and program alums like myself. I wrote it about it (w/ Catherine Evans, a current PhD student). www.chronicle.com/article/a-co...

Turns out sans serif is woke. At least they didn't switch to White House gilded script. At State Dept., a Typeface Falls Victim in the War Against Woke www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/u...

By accident, I discovered that if you google the names of some standard typefaces, the search results will appear in this very font. See below Time New Roman and (of course) Comic Sans.

Thrilled to announce my new book (electronic version out now, print next month) — it proposes a new value theory grounded in the longue durée of literary institutions, 1800–present.

Germans: be apprised. You can get yours, too.

Close Reading for the winter term in Germany @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social

New at PB: As part of a series exploring higher ed under Trump, curated by Dennis M. Hogan (@dennismhogan.bsky.social), Christopher Newfield tells us how waiting out Trump will inevitably fail. Instead, we must build a new cultural order.

The language of the AI policy for my fall courses is really taking shape.

🎓✨ Apply Now: PhD Scholarships in Literature ✨🎓 Fully funded 3-year PhD scholarships at our Graduate School Practices of Literature @uni-muenster.de in Germany, with the possibility of a 4th-year extension. Apply by December 31, 2025! #PhD #Scholarship #LiteraryStudies More info: uni.ms/gssp

Life's little victories: writing n+1 headlines 4 months in advance.

Hello. I wrote a nice long essay about AI and this very strange moment where we're constantly told we're living in the dawn of a strange new future but the only thing that's actually clear is that everyone feels pretty unmoored and uncertain. I hope you'll read it

After Robert Gooding-Williams’ stint at the @ktbberlin.bsky.social summer school, @schlawinerkreis.bsky.social, Andreas-Johann Sorger and I are hosting a discussion at the Kennedy Institute on his new book @columbiaup.bsky.social www.jfki.fu-berlin.de/faculty/cult...

The best ( @sarahbrouillette.bsky.social ) is here to clear up a very confused discourse

Die FAZ berichtete in dieser Woche über Die Jahrestagung der #DGfA Gruss and die local organizer der diesjährigen Tagung! zeitung.faz.net/faz/geistesw...

#dgfa2025 if I didn't shove a flyer into your hand the last few days, let me make up for that digitally: the volume co-edited with @improbable.bsky.social has finally seen the light of day and you can see it, too, at 30% off if you add EVENT30 at checkout www.manchesterhive.com/display/9781...

Absolute highlight of my academic year ⬇️⬇️

Day 3 of #DGfA2025: Alexander Starre @astarre.bsky.social introduces the conference's 3rd keynote - Kinohi Nishikawa on Toni Morrison's Beloved.

That's a wrap on our panel on literary institutions & periodicals. Great turnout, innovative contributions. C19 studies going strong! #dgfa2025

Archival brilliance by @katrinhorn.bsky.social at #dgfa2025

I have a chapter in here on Du Bois and his first, unpublished novel. Not open access, but I'm happy to share.

Only now seeing this advertised on Bluesky. Get your open access essays from this wonderful volume ⬇️⬇️

Great recs from @mattseybold.bsky.social on resisting technofeudal education: prioritize print, practice ungrading, "Luddify" the classroom; de-mobilize computer infrastructure (root technology in social place!); faculty governance over SaaS subscriptions; instructor choice re: ed-tech

More than 30 years worth of data on UK literary prizes (and their winners) goes live today @post45data.bsky.social! Bravo to researchers Katherine Binhammer, Kanika Batra, Theo Gray, and Maryse Jayasuriya for compiling and publishing this incredible resource! data.post45.org/posts/britis...

I went clubbing - book clubbing that is - with @corinnanorue.bsky.social and you can read about it in the new issue of @cl-journal.bsky.social. open access! cl.uwpress.org/content/65/3... More in Corinna's🧵

Don’t miss new work by @corinnanorue.bsky.social and @astarre.bsky.social on “Genre, Diversity, and Metanarrative” in Reese Witherspoon’s book club. Now available completely open access.

If you make me president of your university, I will find millions in cost savings by force-quitting shady EdTech contracts, & I will spend it all by giving faculty an annual budget to buy course books for their students.

I went clubbing - book clubbing that is - with @corinnanorue.bsky.social and you can read about it in the new issue of @cl-journal.bsky.social. open access! cl.uwpress.org/content/65/3... More in Corinna's🧵

Mit @jenniferhenke.bsky.social, @juliafaisst.bsky.social et al. aus Anglistik/Amerikanistik habe ich darüber nachgedacht, was das rasante Schleifen der Unis in den USA für Deutschland bedeuten kannd. Das Ergebnis kann man jetzt in der ZEIT nachlesen. www.zeit.de/2025/23/deut...

I think it can be hard to understand why someone in this category would vote for this unless you follow sports. All they're hearing is that their Team won, so they're happy. Their self-esteem is tied to feeling like Trump got what he wanted, they'll blame someone else for their hardship later

say it again: 4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities ROI for NIH and NSF for local economies is conservatively 4x, often close to 10x demolishing higher education is economic sabotage

Large Language Muddle

I check the little screen, I check the big screen, I check the watch screen, I check the tablet screen. I check the screen that reminds me of the good times, I check the screen that reminds me of the better times.

Friendly reminder: we have 11 doctoral positions in the topic "Literature & Public Sphere" (Apply: May 1st). Not only interesting for literary scholars, but also for the disciplines Communication Studies, Book Studies, Sociology or Digital Humanities. www.literaturundoeffentlichkeit.phil.fau.de

NEW TODAY: 200 college and university presidents band together to condemn “unprecedented government overreach” in higher education and reaffirm the “essential freedom to determine, on academic grounds, whom to admit and what is taught, how, and by whom.” www.aacu.org/newsroom/a-c...

one thing i keep thinking about is how there is simply no way to design a constitutional system that can resist authoritarian incursion if participants in that system do not actually care that much

Together with Birte Wege, I’m organizing (and will, eventually - hopefully- be chairing) a panel for the next annual meeting of the #dgfa25 #dgfa2025 (which takes place in Siegen, from June 12 to June 14, 2025). For further details see here: dgfa.de/annual-meeti...

2nding Alex’ ad: Apply if you’re in long 19c studies - I’ll be there, too!

Asteroid sagt schnelleres Aussterben der Dinosaurier voraus

Ein Thread für die Pflege des Gedanken: Dinge, gegen die ich keinen Groll hege. Dinge, gegen die ich keinen Groll hege: 1. Stadtteile 2. Hüte

⬇️⬇️⬇️ stay tuned for book club goodness

DelaWhere?

CfP: Together with several colleagues, I'm putting together a panel for the annual meeting of the DGfA (June 12-14, 2025, Siegen). Conference theme is "Archiving American / American Archives". We're inviting presentations on C19 periodicals and literary institutions: dgfa.de/annual-meeti...

Back at FU Berlin next week exploring "prizeworthiness" with stellar colleagues: www.temporal-communities.de/events/2024/...

Sunset Squirrel

Took a wrong turn somewhere

Sharing this again because I have 10 times more followers now than 3 weeks ago...

My colleagues Stefanie Müller and Simone Knewitz let me think a bit about the critical concept of "affordances" for this new open-access essay collection: www.degruyter.com/document/doi...

I'm at the Carnegie library. I'm at the Apple store. I'm at the combination Carnegie library Apple store.

go.bsky.app/CtyRqgj Please share widely & reply below if you'd like to be added📚!

Now that just tickles my funny bone