Job alert! @ischoolui.bsky.social is hiring in 4 areas this year Early literacies: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree... Information behavior/HCI/UX: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree... Information, Culture & Society: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree... Open IS: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

#DHmakes <3s sharing first tries at crafts, making, & art—and documenting your process so others can enjoy, understand, & maybe get inspired to try it too. @loreandordure.com on bookbinding:

For real, if you can knit, whip up a Portland Frog hat or similar. I wore this it out this morning and the looks of joy on the way, especially from one of the construction workers. It's a small thing to say someone's paying attention to what's going on. #DHmakes swatch.ravelry.com/patterns/lib...

The gold lettering on the walls gives strong "AirBnB with 2.9 stars" energy

Our School of Information Sciences is running four searches, and we can hire more than four candidates. Here’s the first link, for a job that might appeal to people working in history of information, history of science, or digital humanities. +

The truly maddening thing is that, unlike when I was a young man in science and the materials and engineering just weren’t there yet, the future is *right there.* The problem is *solved*. What’s holding us back is not just greed, but this bizarre nostalgia, an obsession with petro- masculinity.

I offer inscribed/signed and giftwrapped copies of my book Six Centuries of Type & Printing if you have a discriminating and hard-to-shop-for typophile or designer in your life! sixcent.info

Job alert! @ischoolui.bsky.social is hiring in 4 areas this year Early literacies: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree... Information behavior/HCI/UX: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree... Information, Culture & Society: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree... Open IS: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Just learned that a local friend & occasional musical collaborator passed away suddenly earlier this week. She was a few years younger than me. She has little kids. We both loved sad Christmas songs & I was looking forward to singing some together next month—hard to imagine that won’t happen again

Increasingly the Venn diagram of my intellectual interests & commitments—digital humanities, book history/bibliography, book arts, critical making—perhaps meet in the region "Luddite Humanities" Not technological rejection—but slower, deliberate, critical, historicized engagement with technology

Maybe it’s the Luddite Society that’s been printing @skeuomorphpress.org all this semester—or maybe it’s the lesson on Luddism I’m planning for my undergrads tomorrow—or maybe it’s the #dhmakes discussion we’ll be having in my grad "Intro to DH" class, also tomorrow BUT +

My boyyyyyyyy (fun fact: @josefbeery.bsky.social @ryancordell.org and a true Murderer's Row of rising Book History talent were in the same @rarebookschool.bsky.social Teaching The History of the Book course one billion years ago)

*whispers* you can continue to read me, the pundit who insisted the other pundits were wrong about these conclusions

Multi-cam sitcom, live audience, office set Boss: would you *please* just check these copies? Close zoom on the young man’s face—cheeky smirk, catchphrase: “I would *PRE-fer* NOT to!” Boss shakes his fist: “Ah, Bar-tle-BEEEE!!!” <raucous laughter> “Bartleby!” Coming soon to Peacock

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!

There’s something extra embarrassing about having a lot of tattoos & then nearly passing out when having blood drawn

Dick Cheney frustrated because he can’t figure out how to shoot Biblically-accurate angels in the face

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!

apropos of absolutely nothing: Blindside Blockchain would be a stellar band name

the list of what Mike Johnson doesn’t know & hasn’t seen just grows by the day. Y’all act like he’s in an important government role in which we might expect him to keep abreast of current events or something bsky.app/profile/acyn...

Computationally, whitespace gets little attention—it’s usually standardized or stripped. But in poetry, whitespace matters! Yet actually *preserving* that poetic whitespace is v tough. Its slipperiness points to bigger issues w/ text processing & LLMs. New paper ⬜️ aclanthology.org/2025.emnlp-m...

There’s nothing that makes me more irrationally angry than Christmas music in the stores on November 1

Eminently reasonable proposed principles for professors’ use of AI, from a student refusinggenai.wordpress.com/2025/08/29/a...

I haven’t posted about my Enchroma glasses much lately, but I have to say that autumn is a *different season* with colorblind correction. All those leaves are deep red & bright orange, not slightly different shades of brown. I get it now. It’s very nice.

Really excited about this event. The first we’ll get to host using our Yiddish type!

Margo Price's "Don't Let the Bastards Get You Down" is an anthem we need in 2025 It also includes one of the greatest couplets in country music history: "All the cocaine in existence / Couldn’t keep your nose out of my business"

This will be vague & I feel guilty posting in the current higher ed hellscape—but I just got incredible news showing the new leadership of our school sees, values, & supports—in tangible ways!—the work we’re doing @skeuomorphpress.org I’m in happy shock—what a turnaround the past months have been

Do some of you remember how I said a few months ago that the fascists aren't having fun? They still aren't, lol. Their parties [when they have them] SUCK. They make bad art. They aren't funny. They CRAVE Leftist popular culture & resent the fact that they do. They aren't actually having fun

The interactive version of the Star Wars social network I’ve used to intro network viz for years seems to no longer work Anyone have a favorite demo network viz? The students come from many disciplines/backgrounds so ideally it would use well-known/pop culture nodes I can expect them to know

As DH grows, it’s increasingly important to publish conference papers, but there hasn’t been a clear venue for that. So I’m thrilled to share this new home for DH proceedings, which will include CHR papers & more. Thanks to @taylor-arnold.bsky.social for leading this effort! bit.ly/ach-anthology

Listen I don’t care that it’s almost Halloween, that is an ominous fucking thing to find when you open the bathroom door by your office

TIL that Slack has colorblind-friendly themes & that is pretty nifty

One way that, after 15+ years in academia, I am *so* jaded compared with my students—I simply no longer believe that we can create a sign 1. clear enough 2. big enough or 3. well-positioned enough that most people will notice, read, or get the important information from it

Imagine how freeing it must be to exist with the attention & memory of Mike Johnson That man hasn’t seen anything, he hasn’t heard anything, he’s not aware of that controversial post, he doesn’t remember that damning conversation pure goldfish mentality

No neede for expensyve consultinge firmes. Heere ys a planne for excellent higher education: 1) Hire manye facultye 2) Small class syzes 3) Emphasyze engagemente & delighte 4) Sustayne & cultivate a varietye of fieldes and disciplines, even currentlye unfashionable ones -- thys ys ed, not retail

The new Illinois Luddite Society have become regulars at @skeuomorphpress.org community hours. Their prints from last night are pretty sweet

Hey, the Anxious Bench was on local radio WEFT last night! Our intro starts at 42:55 or so in the stream www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/d9i27...

There it is.

This term I have several students with deep distrust of faculty—they don’t trust that I actually want what assignments, etc. ask for—or that I will actually evaluate them as the syllabus says—they’re looking for the trick It just makes me sad, thinking about what educational experiences led to this

Have y’all tried having a day when you only have one scheduled zoom meeting late in the afternoon & otherwise you just get to hang out in a hoodie in an empty house listening to music & catching up on shit? Because this is fantastic. Who knew??!

In a few weeks CU will host the Midwest Yiddish Fest ’25. The kickoff "Block Party" includes a lecture by Rachelle Grossman on Yiddish Printing in America & live printing @skeuomorphpress.org using our case of Yiddish type—the event does require registration but there’s a single-event $5 option

I’m one of the more dadly things I’ve ever done, I installed a smart bulb in the pantry & set up an automation so that when my kids forget to turn it off 25 times a day it will shut itself off after 60 seconds

So…machine made, then?

CU holds its Pride Fair & parade in fall so that students can participate. Today is the day & Margo is feeling pride & enjoying many pets!

Hey, I just turned down taking on an extra micro-job in the spring semester! #PleaseClap

@ryancordell.org says I need to celebrate my wins more So here are two things I published this year.

Basically since graduating, @eviedc.bsky.social & I have had a standing agreement that we can always apply to jobs at UVA, just in case. It’s a place & community we love very much. I still love both the school and the community, but as of today I could not in good conscience seek to work there

When you bought a new blender not to make delicious smoothies but to grind (also delicious?) paper pulp

Seeing this Space Shuttle in person is genuinely one of the most breathtaking things I’ve witnessed—even knowing the scale of it, I was unprepared—& as an 80s kid I still romanticize NASA—what a loss this would be

There’s a non-zero chance that when Trump says "ball room" he means a giant ball pit