For America's 250th, I read Frederick Douglass’ speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” on the House floor—for the first time in history. His speech endures as a mirror & mandate for us all—to confront our inequities while fighting for an America as good as its promise.

In which I chat with Matthew Johnson of Wake Forest Magazine about a first-year seminar I've been teaching since I came to @wakeforest.bsky.social: American Democracy in Five Novels

On Moby-Dick and other great novels (none of which is Middlemarch…)

"Centrists don’t fear bad government...They fear a left-wing that governs well. That’s the terrifying threat Mamdani poses to the status quo—and the massive opportunity his administration presents for all of those who want to transform it." Read the whole forum: hammerandhope.org/forums/mamda...

Oh, woe on woe! Oh, Death, why canst thou not sometimes be timely?

a vacated thing, a formless somnambulistic being, a ray of living light, to be sure, but without an object to colour, and therefore a blankness in itself

Once again, inevitable question: if this is what they’re doing to Senator Kim in front of cameras, what are they doing to the detained people inside that facility bsky.app/profile/davi...

It’s very queer.

"The epistemic war on mass literacy, which aims to make casualties of our current & future students, will not be over if OpenAI folds."

"After OpenAI": two weeks ago, @mattseybold.bsky.social delivered this bracing, riveting keynote at the Wake Forest Humanities Institute's 15th Annual Symposium. Queue it up! @wfuhumanities.bsky.social @wakeforest.bsky.social

we undressed and went to bed, at peace with our own consciences and all the world

What I wish for everybody to remember when Canvas comes back online: The reason OUR data can be held for ransom is because Instructure, their owners (KKR private equity & Dragoneer venture capital), & our own employers (see ASU Atomic) monetize it. It's Canvas that hacked education & stole our IP.

I’ve got some thoughts in today’s Chronicle. www.chronicle.com/article/dont... (Sans paywall:) archive.ph/Blzzk

This article is like saying "Will Madden make football obsolete? We talked to Andy Wilson and five gamers who all beat Saquon Barkley in Ultimate Team mode."

Meet “ASU Atomic,” a subscription platform that claims to offer customized learning modules for fee-paying users. None of the ASU faculty whose course materials were harvested for the module I generated were aware that their image, lectures, lessons, or other teaching materials are being used.

“After OpenAI”

The Wake Forest Humanities Institute is thrilled to be hosting Matt Seybold, next Wednesday, April 29th! WFU, Triad, and greater NC folks are welcome to join!

I found myself unwittingly squeezing my co-laborers’ hands in it, mistaking their hands for the gentle globules.

All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought

FYI today's a great day to start reading this novel. It begins on April 1st — and it's widely considered Melville's most accessible and fun work after Clarel!

The Humanities Institute is joining the annual WFU day of giving! deacsgive.wfu.edu/campaigns/wa...

100 girls are dead because of generative AI

At LARB, they weren’t even allowed to discuss Gaza in editorial meetings. nobaddaysinla.substack.com/p/how-the-la...

I don’t really know what I expect in posting this, but maybe some people see it and can learn from it. I’ll call it “lessons from an unwilling immigration attorney.” 1/

Wise words from WEB DuBois to gird us today: "It would be shame and cowardice to surrender this glorious land and its opportunities for civilization and humanity to the thugs and lynchers, the mobs and profiteers, the monopolists & gamblers who today choke its soul and steal its resources."

Read the poem in it's entirety: poets.org/poem/renee-n...

The first great American 250th anniversary date of the year arrives this Friday: the publication of Thomas Paine's COMMON SENSE, which occurred on January 9, 1776. Many sources have the date as January 10, 1776. This is incorrect. But what accounts for the confusion???? Friends, follow me.

Jacob Frey: "To ICE -- get the fuck out of Minneapolis"

He now has to drop and secure his oar, turn round on his centre half way, seize his harpoon from the crotch, and with what little strength may remain, he essays to pitch it somehow into the whale.

the constituents of a chaos, nothing less is here

There isn't a single problem "solved" by edtech that couldn't be fixed with smaller classes led by well-paid teachers given real academic freedom

it’s a wicked world in all meridians; I’ll die a pagan.

Leviathan 26.3 is now online @projectmuse.bsky.social! "Melville's queer afterlives" special issue collects case studies that highlight the range of queer Melvilleana and in the process contribute to an understanding of the aesthetic shape assumed by queer creative impulses. muse.jhu.edu/issue/56015

Are you an environmental humanist? Do you like hanging out with other smart environmental humanists? Would you like to do so for a week this summer in Maine? Then I highly recommend Colby's Summer Institute in the Environmental Humanities! (app due 2/6/26) cah.colby.edu/initiatives/...

The special issue I co-edited on "Melville's Queer Afterlives" is here and it's queer. This issue has EVERYTHING: gay pirates, dirty pictures, racist internet fanfic, Gilbert Gottfried, original poetry, and just so many French people. Available at your library, but LMK if you're paywalled...

The AI bubble may be about to bust. Peter Thiel has sold all of his Nvidia stock. We all need to say this very clearly: NO BAILOUTS FOR THEFT-TECH! Expropriate their asses instead. They stole from all of us and fully plan to burn the planet. They owe us - not the other way around. 1/3

Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House. Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity. They are not the same.

A report on universities slashing funds for the humanities suggests that there is no good fiscal reason to cut the humanities What are your views on it? If you are interested, the University of Tulsa released a statement responding to it. “Humanities are Alive & Well in University of Tulsa”

Check out the article,"How to Protect Your Right to Culture”! This is co-written by Anna Kornbluh and Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado. Dr. Sánchez Prado gave the keynote lecture at the WFU Humanities Institute Annual Spring Symposium in the Spring of 2024. hyperallergic.com/1049388/how-...

Hi everyone, what’s up! Our social media team is back up and running, so we will be posting humanities-related news every Tuesday and Thursday starting next week! Our Instagram and Facebook are back up too, so check us out on insta and fb!! Best, HI

Good morning! My comrade @annakornbluh.bsky.social and I published today in Hyperallrgic ean op-ed about the gutting of our right to culture and the ways to defend and fight back. Link below!

Lots of options but let's go classic on this one and say that time we shitposted so hard they put it in a peer reviewed journal and then that issue won a prize 🐳

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA 10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

NEW ISSUE OUT NOW Leviathan Vol. 27, No. 2, June 2025 tinyurl.com/yb7hkeja Contributions from: Brian Yothers Johnathan A. Cook Caroline Hildebrandt Samuel John Gleason Bruce Fishbein Richard Littauer Yukiko Oshima Mark Niemeyer Mary K. Bercaw Edwards Pilar Martínez Benedí Dana Seitler

“Forwarding names is a practice from the McCarthy era. This represents a breathtaking breach of trust, ethics, and justice.” www.chronicle.com/article/when...

I’m a proud UC Berkeley graduate and I am appalled and angered by this McCarthyism. Judith Butler—just to cite one example— is not an antisemite but a principled philosopher devoted to justice for all, not just particular populations.

From “The Times” forum on higher ed now in the current issue of The Dial, @jennifergreiman.bsky.social ‘s statement on the criminalization of student activism: muse.jhu.edu/pub/562/arti...

Issue 2.1 is out! Essays by @alicedegalzain.bsky.social & Peter Balaam; don’t miss our forum on higher ed now featuring Stephanie Foote, @jennifergreiman.bsky.social, @cnewf.bsky.social, & @samcohen.bsky.social Read/circulate/submit: thedialjournal.org

I woke up a year ago 100% certain that I had to make a documentary about the Winston Salem chapter of the Black Panther Party. So I did. We aim to release it early next year. This weekend I’m at Blackstar, looking for inspiration. If you’re in town, DM to meetup.

‘One possibility is that sperm whales are using the clicks as a form of language. But it’s also possible the noises are more like music, which can “have a strong influence on emotions without it actually conveying information”…’