Seems like it's worth posting this one again.

Going to a white elephant party tonite. Only locally sourced or thrifted gifts. Send kind thoughts.

Now I know why!

a big part of the issue surrounding the use of chatgpt/LLMs in academic research comes down to process vs. product. a lot of us know that the process of doing research matters because that's where intellectual work is done; but some "academics" and lots of techies only care about a fast product

You can’t “trust” a scholar who actually does all of their own thinking and writing without the hallucinating bullshit machine? What?

More details to come but… 🎉🎉 I just learned that my book has won the first ever Biennial Book Prize from MELUS, the Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States! I’m over the moon! 🎉🎉 cup.columbia.edu/book/writing...

Anything Goes!

When will see a ‘Christmas Comes to Longbourne’ movie? Asking for a friend.

Learned yesterday that cameras are being installed on my building over break.

The White House claims the vote to rename the Kennedy Center was “unanimous.” That is false. I was muted on the call and denied the opportunity to speak or register my opposition. That is not consensus. That is censorship.

Call me old fashioned, but can't folks just stop citing papers they have not personally read?

Excellent. National Heritage agencies bring suit to protect national heritage.

JMU Dukes are getting ready for Saturday’s big 🏈 game against OSU. S/o to whomever is blasting Led Zeppelin from the stadium for motivation today. 💀

Conservative judges in 2025: "the founders did not understand the First Amendment to extend to aliens." James Madison, the author of the First Amendment, in 1800: "wtf are you talking about."

Huge news. Long overdue recognition of the movement she sparked here.

This part. I used to tell our new students and their families that this is why GenEd programs came into being and still remain a distinctive part of US #highered. We have to defend and uphold the liberal arts tradition. “Knowledge will forever govern ignorance.” James Madison

It is such a small thing. We had a cookie exchange for our faculty affairs/curriculum units today. Some brought family recipes, some bought theirs. Many don’t celebrate Christmas. And it was all great. Fellowship matters, wherever you find it.

The horrific tragedy at Brown University is the 389th mass shooting this year and the 230th gun incident on school grounds so far this year. This is not normal and we don't have to live this way. bradyunited.org @bradyunited.org

“The one thing that gave me comfort was, like, statistically, it’s practically impossible for this to ever happen to me again,” said Weissman. “And clearly, we’re getting to a point where no one can say that any more.” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Friends are coming for dinner and I have jazzy swinging Christmas tunes playing. And martinis.

Stealworkers

Ten years ago.

Working up a new book proposal now please stop me help

Oral trad. says there were 4 longtime, ‘dyads’ among the women fac at Madison College ca1950-1980. I have confirmed that & found a 5th in the 1930s. They all appeared as such in local & campus news, so people knew these pairs existed. Question is, How to bring their stories to light today?

This thread 🙌

Reasons academics should contest universities’ AI campaigns: a manifesto - chatbots are being trained to replace your teaching - you are wasting time grading chatbot papers - you are wasting time peer reviewing chatbot papers - you are wasting time submitting papers reviewed by chatbots

Just an infuriating read. Now I know why car washes are springing up all over my little college town: 100% depreciation and consumer vibes. 🙄

Loved my time at Hagley. Great place to do research.

This kind of bottle-shaming is a not-so-subtle way to push women out of the workforce.

In the era of slavery, free black people had to carry their "free papers" with them so they could prove to the authorities that they were free, or else they would be thrown in jail and sold.

Mary Berry’s Christmas trifle from last night’s St Nicholas Day dinner for friends. There was a perfect swirl, I swear, but the jam squished out. Tasty anyway. The calories were definitely worth it!

Got a letter from Fartmouth just today telling me there was a breach at the press and my author data was taken. SS# etc. But hey they bought me a year of free credit checks. Btw my book published by said press was stolen along with two others. I filed my claim in the Anthropic suit last week. 😖

😂😂😂

This was just sent to me by an LAUSD parent. A 4th grader was assigned to design a book cover for Pippi Longstocking using Adobe for Education. Here is what the AI tool generated:

I learned a new word tonight 🤯

Krampus came by tonight and thankfully, we passed . . . Happy St Nicholas Eve to all!

That is quite a bright moon out there tonight.

Doesn’t this rhetoric sound familiar? In 1947, the U.S. Army released "Don't Be a Sucker" to show how a nation can be divided, reminding Americans that prejudice isn't natural and is created by those who gain from it. Via @builders on IG #Pinks

I hope the firm didn’t say “extraordinality impressive.” But even if they did, surely UVa will always draw such a pool? Some excellent candidates no doubt passed up the opportunity given the context.

Notable non-signatories: Darden and Law. (Also Commerce and Medicine, but those two have the excuse of being interim appointees.)

This is a lovely, lovely thread and invitation and yet no one has replied yet and you’re Scrooges people

Another thoughtful reaction to the students adrift thing.

I keep returning to this thoughtful thread. My conversations & experiences suggest that more students are ‘adrift’ than before, true, but most are still just fine. It’s not an epidemic, right? Maybe we faculty are so overextended ourselves that even a few more needy students are a crisis?

The deadline to submit session proposals for next year's conference is at the end of this week. Share your knowledge with the field at the first-ever joint conference with the National Council on Public History. Learn more and submit a proposal at tinyurl.com/AASLH2026.

I will have to watch Love Actually or something tonight just to recover.

A disturbing piece about Virginia. I knew some of this but not the extent.

Things you can learn about using this list: orthonymity, florilegia, theriac, sissie houses, El Tajín, GRECE, the taṣvīr-i hümāyūn, Hospitallers, disability in Ptolemaic Egypt and Medieval Europe, and anti-Klan activists in interwar Missouri.

A colleague shared today that 10 students in her GenEd literature class of about 30 turned in identical essays. They had all used ChatGpt. I don’t know how we combat this.

What she said.

Today is the 70th anniversary of Rosa Parks' arrest. Six myths: 1) She wasn't old or tired. 42 years old that day, she had a "life history of being rebellious" & had spent two decades helping to turn the Montgomery NAACP into a more activist branch alongside ED Nixon and Johnnie Carr.