“I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.” Eugene V. Debs

Hollup, I think I can explain…

This is basically my explanation for everything that is wrong with everything today

Hollup, I think I can explain…

Great news, everybody. Apparently Georgia is a blue state.

The path forward on AI will require not just “grabbing the steering wheel” but the freedom (to push a metaphor) to change lanes, meaning that if institutional rules and norms are being rewritten all around us we can’t expect what follows to just be normal science.

I appreciate this from the always thoughtful Ted Underwood. Especially important I think is the point about the turn away from a big tech monopoly on AI. I do wish there was more acknowledgment of the actual landscape of higher ed in 2025: it’s not just “beautiful campuses,” it’s DOJ hall monitors.+

The night of Shab-i-barāt. Mughal c.1735-40. ‘Woman Holding Fireworks’.

Fascinating! "Discounting tables [of the early 1600s] were thus not tools of instrumental rationality evincing a new capitalist mentality, but tools of social accommodation and products of the era’s “economy of obligation.”"

One of my unsupported hot takes is that the loneliness crisis is caused in part by people not being bored enough. In most of my classes the students all stare at their phones until class begins. We’ve lost the precious boredom of eventually actually being bored enough to engage with others.

One of my unsupported hot takes is that the loneliness crisis is caused in part by people not being bored enough. In most of my classes the students all stare at their phones until class begins. We’ve lost the precious boredom of eventually actually being bored enough to engage with others.

Where is my Mira Nair cam?!

I think Middlemarch is having a cultural moment.

Impossible to overstate how exciting field conferences are for academics. We spend 11.95 months a year with people only understanding 5-15% of our jokes and references, but then for three glorious days 😍😍😍

I know this the race all of you are most concerned about, but I have submitted a course proposal for a single author upper level course on George Eliot where we will read MIDDLEMARCH, and I have begun campaigning to the English majors who will get to vote on it. Will keep you all updated 🤞🤞🤞

this is like the rapture for Bsky

I know this the race all of you are most concerned about, but I have submitted a course proposal for a single author upper level course on George Eliot where we will read MIDDLEMARCH, and I have begun campaigning to the English majors who will get to vote on it. Will keep you all updated 🤞🤞🤞

Impossible to overstate how exciting field conferences are for academics. We spend 11.95 months a year with people only understanding 5-15% of our jokes and references, but then for three glorious days 😍😍😍

Knowledge is knowing that Frankenstein is the doctor. Wisdom is understanding that the doctor IS the monster. But true enlightenment is only achieved when you do the mash

Perverse, Grotesque, Sensuous, Inimitable: A Selection of Works by Aubrey Beardsley publicdomainreview.org/collection/a...

Whenever a public figure passes who was extremely polarizing, I am always reminded of this

The old world is dying and the new world (whisper whisper) oh, so it’s just the dying then?

Very proud to have worked on this statement of the Modern Language Association with @annamillsoer.bsky.social and other colleagues on the MLA’s task force on AI in Research and Teaching. It is a direct call for faculty input into Ed Tech decision-making, especially AI: www.mla.org/Resources/Ad... 🧵

In Oklahoma, oil companies inject tens of billions of gallons of toxic wastewater into the ground each year — enough to fill the Empire State Building 300+ times — frequently at pressures above the legal limit. Regulators have failed to stop them. With @readfrontier.bsky.social

Through a little-known loophole, whoever wins the race to become Mayor of New York City has to choose from a table of cursed artifacts that includes the holy grail. The last several mayors chose…unwisely…

New Job Posts Like: Candidate should have expertise in anglophone literature and be able to teach classes ranging from the medieval period to postmodernism. Some fields of especial interest are econometrics, quantum physics, anesthesiology, kinesthesiology, the early works of John Ruskin, and

New Job Posts Like: Candidate should have expertise in anglophone literature and be able to teach classes ranging from the medieval period to postmodernism. Some fields of especial interest are econometrics, quantum physics, anesthesiology, kinesthesiology, the early works of John Ruskin, and

Job alert: the University of Illinois Library is hiring a Humanities Librarian to serve as liaison to African-American Studies and English Literatures. I’m sure someone here would be a great fit for this job—& we’ve got a pretty phenomenal community here Please share!

The old world is dying and the new world (whisper whisper) oh, so it’s just the dying then?

You may think you hate Daylight Savings Time, but you don’t hate it the way my cat getting breakfast delayed by one hour hates it.

Jerry has woken up and chosen violence for so many consecutive mornings that he no longer knows any other way to exist

THIS FEAST OF BLOOD BROUGHT TO YOU BY DRAFTKINGS! PREYING ON THE WEAK AND INNOCENT NO LONGER QUENCHING YOUR HELLISH THIRST??? YOUR FIRST $300 BET IS FREE!

Get ready, academics. We’re about to go from the mid semester doldrums to end-of-semester EVERYTHING IS DUE AND EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE!!!

"What has happened is that aesthetic production today has become integrated into commodity production generally." Fredric Jameson 1990

Get ready, academics. We’re about to go from the mid semester doldrums to end-of-semester EVERYTHING IS DUE AND EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE!!!

I feel like the universal one is Alec Guinness, one of the most talented actors of his generation, being known for his late in life role as a space wizard.

I feel like the universal one is Alec Guinness, one of the most talented actors of his generation, being known for his late in life role as a space wizard.

CAMPUS VISIT WITH THE VAMPIRE TEACHING DEMO WITH THE VAMPIRE SIT-DOWN WITH THE DEAN WITH THE VAMPIRE APOLOGETIC EMAIL THAT THE SEARCH WAS CANCELED WITH THE VAMPIRE

I sincerely believe that you cannot square representative governance with current techno-authoritarian infrastructure. If a politician isn’t sufficiently afraid of *that*, then they are the enemy. Simple litmus test. Build people power around state campaign finance reform & regulate tech ASAP.

Again, perfect world, but I would issue a “new age for cultural institutions.” Don’t just bring them back to pre-Trump funding. Earmark grants around political education. Reinvigorate them with clear purpose + resources to build institutional infrastructure

Where my Robinson Crusoe Stans????

CAMPUS VISIT WITH THE VAMPIRE TEACHING DEMO WITH THE VAMPIRE SIT-DOWN WITH THE DEAN WITH THE VAMPIRE APOLOGETIC EMAIL THAT THE SEARCH WAS CANCELED WITH THE VAMPIRE

It doesn’t matter what I think. Also, none of this would ever happen. But if I had a zillion dollars: 1. Run a “we do hard things” campaign across southern and rust belt states. Invest heavily in local, state and regional social infrastructure. Sponser later hours at a library, build a skate park…

Reading through William Paley's Natural Theology and this is even wilder than I remember. He's now on an extended aside about finding a watch that is so designed that it creates more watches.

No memento mori more effective than needing to scroll ever longer to select your birth year.

It’s exciting getting caught up in the excitement of sports, but nothing will ever equal the thrill and pulse-pounding terror of playing cribbage against my grandparents’ generation.

The best sweet during Halloween season is, obviously, candy corn. The worst sweet during Thanksgiving and Christmas season is, obviously, egg nog.

No memento mori more effective than needing to scroll ever longer to select your birth year.

One way to interpret the various atrocities carried out by regimes across the globe is the world-choking death throes of governmental form built on fossil fuel dominance.