the closures of the libraries at MIT is happening at the same time that the President of MIT writes about why scientists are "losing heart" but never mentions the closures of their own libraries... 👀 www.statnews.com/2026/05/27/s...

“I write with dismay, grief and sorrow for the permanent closure of MIT Libraries Barker, Dewey and Rotch, and termination of library staff in those libraries. For MIT to be closing three of its four major libraries..." fnl.mit.edu/may-june-202...

for your next thanksgiving

Muriel Spark once said to an editor, "If I write it, it's grammatical." This is the kind of energy I want students to adopt—and NOT, "what does ChatGPT think?"

that moment when both the instructor and the student can't seem to find the 'end' button on zoom... 😅 ...😅 ...😶

I don't know if I can use this platform anymore. I went from an empty feed to a feed FILLED with memes. I mute accounts...and that's all I seem to do now. I didn't follow these folks and more keep coming. I wanted a small network of actually thoughtful humans. Too much to ask, I guess. @bsky.app

just wrapped up the last event for National Poetry Month at Highline College. We awarded 10 cash prizes for our poetry contest (in all, about $1k). This year we were so lucky to have Ebo Barton and Saddiq Dzukogi join us on campus. My last year as committee chair. But the poetry will continue!

I watched the Manosphere doc on Netflix (Louis Theroux). The formula for these guys (and the WH): surround yourself with uneducated people that can't ask you basic questions that would, despite their simplicity, throw off your entire worldview. I couldn't finish the doc; my brain hurt.

this platform is a LOT of accounts that I do not follow, have no interest in, and can't seem to expunge from my feed fast enough. Why can't I come here and just follow like the 100 ppl I want to hear from, whose only memes are out of date and make sense to about 100 ppl?

Bluesky is Severance: It's my job to come here and mute accounts, and if I mute them all really well, one day something will happen.

i have this feeling that there are some professors out there who are receiving completely AI generated work, but because they don't see any spelling or grammar mistakes, they're response is "oh, this is great!" 😩

today in class, during a difficult convo about AI, I told my students that sometimes I see my typos in emails and just leave so that they can see that I am a human writer.

getting married in spite of all the bs around us. That's what we've been telling people. So I'm not saying this is a "spite wedding". But I'm not saying this is not not a "spite wedding".

went to a department meeting on AI today and I left feeling so...defeated. 😩 Weirdly, in response, I keep coming back to an essay idea about writing, AI, and...ceramics.

yesterday, a big sigh of relief as our maniac in the wh decided not to go full genocidal. but let's not forget the other genocidal maniac still going strong. fuck these guys. they're destroying peoples' lives—and for what??

Sickeningly evil. Donald Trump must be impeached.  When will it be enough for my Republican colleagues to grow spines and remove him from office?

Okay! Now, is there anyone else who seems to, idk, flirt with nazis, post fascistic rants, threatens entire civilizations...ahem. If we're talking about people who are not "conducive to the public good," I mean, seems like a certain someone should also be banned.

This is disgusting. I imagine other nations already recognize that we are no longer a safe place, an ally, or even a trustworthy economic partner. But everyday that becomes much clearer.

Make it legal, you cowards.

Enjoying the latest from @rcolesworthy.bsky.social! putting this in my stack for a new version of Engl102 next year: "Research, Readers, Writers, Publishers" (not 100% on the name yet 😅)

screenshotting all the posts today on Trump's insane posts and the "sane washing" headlines vs. accurate headlines for next year's media class. Keep'em coming y'all!

re-watched it again for the millionth time on friday night. unfortunately, because i'm an old i fell asleep right after they introduce Deep Throat 😭

thinking about which Shakespeare play is the play of our times. thinking Titus Andronicus. other contenders?

It’s not just Ms. Rachel. The biggest names in children’s educational programming are coming out in force to call for kids to be freed from ICE detention. Here’s “Reading Rainbow” host @mychal3ts.bsky.social outside the Dilley Immigration Processing Center.

i just heard that our school is going to *require* AI somewhere in the outcomes for all courses going forward...idk if that's true exactly or what the specifics are but...gross.

I know we receive what seem like rude emails from students all the time. We just have to take a deep breath, be cool, and reply with a little instruction. It's a different medium and genre than they're used to. They have to learn it first. It's our job as instructors to usher them into this world.

that sad part about being fired by Trump is not solely that you have lost your job: you have lost the only job where it was actually an asset to completely destroy your own integrity. Now that both are gone, what do you have?

idk what my hair is doing today, but my god, i look like gary oldman's dracula on Zoom—and not the young handsome version! 😂

I have books strategically placed around the house. I like to keep one (okay, like dozens) on my desk—but I have one in particular for reading while things load or buffer or whatever while I work. rn, it's Basil Willey's "The Eighteenth-Century Background" (1940). Breezy prose. Great quotes!

A couple weeks ago, a few of you were responding to the onslaught of AI in our classrooms by cheering for a "Humanism" comeback. This has been percolating in my mind since. Strongly considering an overhaul of my English 101 class. Maybe the theme will be Humanism and AI?

we offer few lit classes at my community college. Back in the day, multiple sections were offered every term. We're trying to fix this. Never thought I'd teach a Romanticism class. It's not on the books. But "pop lit" is. So I plan to offer Romanticism and Adaptation this fall. Friday will tell! 🤞

whatever classroom I end up in there is always a container on the desk with pens, paperclips, and dirty tissues...🤢

one of my classes was cancelled this term, which means I'll probably only teach a total of 12 classes this year! 🫠

Take that, Thales!

still irritated at Fran Lebowitz who told a young person in the audience (Olympia, WA) that she should save her $ and skip the writing MFA because you can't teach writing. For her, you either have talent or you don't. I think any artist will tell you that no one is born with it. Great hair, maybe.

This term, at least two students (both on the nursing track) have mentioned the Pitt episode on AI. One student is citing it to great effect in an essay on AI and healthcare! Nice to have a TV drama that offers strong social critique *through the action* (without silly platitudes)

all the drinks have red bull in them

I'd tell my Heraclitus joke but it's different every time.

One of the reasons I really push students to *critique* digital tech. At first, so many want to sing the praises of [take your pick]. My response is that the tech companies don't need our help selling it. They've got lots of help.

We're choking out an entire people. Not having fuel doesn't just mean people can't drive their cars. It means they cannot cook. Hospitals don't have electricity. If this blockade continues, we will be the genocidal maniacs. This administration has got to go. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

In just the first week of its military assault on Iran, the US spent $11.3bn for American taxpayer-funded bombs that caused hundreds of deaths. The figure does not capture the full cost of the conflict, such as deployment of forces, and will now be far higher given the ongoing nature of the war.

if you read the NYT's piece about the Harvard prof who almost lost his lab—that was kind of informative. But we need a story about all the Black women working in the fed government who lost their jobs, who may not have the backup resources of a Harvard prof. Here's their story:

used Ferguson's earlier book on big data policing in class. legible and insightful! looking forward to this most recent iteration!

saw Fran Lebowitz last night. She said many things. Some I liked, some not. But the most eye-opening moment was her response to a question about AIDS. She said we all think about the artists that were lost; she wanted to stress that we also lost a gen of a particular (discerning) kind of audience...

Each time I have to talk to or write an email to a student apologizing for this country's insanity, or sympathizing with them as they watch their home country assaulted by the US...

in case you missed the most important story of the human career...

as i hunker down to grade papers for the four classes i'm teaching this winter quarter, thinking a lot about that ONE class i had to teach each term as a grad student. if only i had known (i probably wouldn't have done anything differently)!!!

Minnesotans deserve restitution from ICE's terror campaign. The ICE surge cost Minneapolis $200 million in just one month. That’s before overtime, charter flights, and detention contracts. Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to subsidize their own trauma.

doing our lesson on present-day right-wing (and some left-) media and my search algorithm is going to be f'd for months :(

just looked at a university directory where the only information included was name, department, and phone number. Somewhere out there is a school trapped in 1997, and I'm like kinda jealous.