Join us Friday, 7/3, at 12p/PT for a discussion with Dr. Roopika Risam about her new book, "Data Empire: How Information Shaped Human History." This NPR Summer Reading pick reframes history through the lens of information, because data has always been a primary tool of control and power. #books

"The 90s definitely weren't this bleak for women. We had Roe v. Wade and the Delia*s catalog." -my metaphorical 7th grade bestie, settling a debate in my house over my contention that the outlook is worse for young girls today than it was when I was growing up

Today, on this first day as a full professor, someone referred to something being “in your portfolio” for an admin role I’m taking on. And so it begins.

Out this month: "Data Empire" "Dartmouth professor Roopika Risam reveals how data has always been the seed of power: a technology of control that has shaped civilizations and upheld empires." #data #books #control #BookSky share.google/OLWMF2vHyay8...

I have no idea why Supergirl was panned. It was great — a space roadtrip buddy movie, complex characters, fighting Space Epstein, abundant Superdog, and great AC during the heatwave.

A mesmerized by the fact that SSPX sold merch at the consecration. www.ncregister.com/cna/sspx-con...

Apparently some people want to melt because I had no trouble reselling my tix for the Red Sox game today, when the heat index will be 103. We decided to seek refuge at an air conditioned screening of Supergirl instead.

Nautilus, the science magazine, has DATA EMPIRE on its list of books to read in July!

⭐️ Today’s 'modern data state,' she warns, is built on infrastructure that can 'think without conscience' and 'calculate without context.' – Publisher's Weekly Promises to be very special. Out July 14 Data Empire: The Power of Information to Organize, Control, and Dominate @roopikarisam.bsky.social

🥰 my fictive niece reading a galley of DATA EMPIRE!

Don't miss the June issue of Reviews in Digital Humanities, brought to you by World Cup superfans @jenguiliano.bsky.social & me ! ⚽️ #ReviewsInDH reviewsindh.pubpub.org/v7-n6

DATA EMPIRE is on Book-a-Zine’s summer reading list! 🤩

The face of a horse who is absolutely thrilled that his (and my) favorite kid is home after a rough couple of months and riding him.

One of the reasons I refuse to refer to this stuff as "artifical intelligence." It's a marketing buzzword that lumps a bunch of useful tech together with a bunch of dumb tech to make it easier to sell you the dumb tech. It's bad that it's backfiring and turning people against all of it.

I don’t want “AI” as an umbrella term (Trojan Horse) to steal the valor of human-crafted, careful models & tools that allow for experts to do their jobs better (not replace them)

Not to mention the difference between commercial LLMs and open-source lightweight models build specifically for research.

Similar use case from humanitarian tech. There is a rush to implement LLMs (donor funding), but our data is like scrolls: small, fragmented, multilingual, heterogeneous. Not ideal for training. Greater value would flow from implementing pattern recognition algos that humans could then interpret...

An excellent use case for why people really need to be able to define “AI” and recognize it’s an umbrella term, not a synonym for heavyweight commercial LLMs/frontier models.

This describes my actually Republican parents…

If the American State Fair was a legit supersized state fair with deep fried Oreos, a quilt competition, baking contests, barn animals, and tons of carnival rides, it would have been the greatest thing ever.

Always fun to find friends in the NEH-ODH grant data! The most recent is @roopikarisam.bsky.social DH Advancement Grant for "Networking the Regional Comprehensives". #DHmakes

My mother is having the biggest case of FOMO because Aziz Ansari isn’t coming to DC. My parents’ love for standup comedy is completely out of character but truly one of their most charming qualities.

Truly one of my favorite collaborators! And thank you #ACH2026 for a great conference.

Aziz Ansari and his openers were absolutely hysterical tonight 😂

🥂 "With a sharply critical eye through a historical lens, DATA EMPIRE brings to light the power data holds above humanity while also giving us hope to imagine what resistance against it looks like." electricliterature.com/the-most-ant...

Super excited to be presenting with @roopikarisam.bsky.social this morning at #ACH2026 on "Hybrid Minimal Computing"! Slides (for my part, the technical dimension) here: dh.tools/hybrid

I really love that I have friends who will say, “Are you actually excited about [thing you are going to do] because that doesn’t sound like you would be?” and then we can have a discussion that helps me clarify my own thinking 🥰

Just finished my first interview for DATA EMPIRE! 😅

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ critics’ consensus for DATA EMPIRE on Book Browse!

In very Roopsi fashion, I had a long conversation about my next book idea, in which I was trying to figure out how to make the thing I thought I wanted to do work, then in a throwaway comment mentioned something I came across that didn’t make it into DATA EMPIRE and surprise, it’s the next book.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that when an academic’s parent retires, they will be convinced that they must write a memoir and you are supposed to ghostwrite it. And if you have an agent, you will delicately deflect until they forget because you can’t just write things if you feel like it.

Check out the trailer for DATA EMPIRE! 😍 www.youtube.com/shorts/ywdGV...

DATA EMPIRE's pre-orders are currently discounted! Get your copy for 20% off. www.harpercollins.com/products/dat...

We are such big Lilo and Stitch fans (because it came out right when we started dating) that I accidentally broke my beloved by showing him the L&S creators’ tribute to Daveigh Chase, which features Stitch sitting next to Scrump and wiping his eyes as he feeds a sandwich to Pudge the fish. 😢

Run run, brother! Outsiders is even better on Broadway than the (excellent) national tour.

Death of a Salesman might be the best play I’ve ever seen. Laurie Metcalf was phenomenal, Nathan Lane was amazing, and the rest of the cast held their own against those two greats.

Have to buy diapers to wrap Flight’s hoof because he has an abscess. 1) because I am a woman of a certain age, the algorithm wasn’t giving me baby diapers and 2) how does anyone afford to have children?!

What did I just watch?! 💀💀💀 Never seen a standing ovation *during* a Broadway show, but that’s Titanique for you! Marla Mindelle was awesome and Jim Parsons was hysterical.

My sister hunted down a copy of Harper’s Bazaar so I could see DATA EMPIRE in live print!

🇳🇴 getting my World Cup support for this.

It’s amazing to be in Times Square during the World Cup! Periodically throughout the day, fans of teams with matches gather to celebrate. Midtown feels like one big party all day and all night. Here’s Côte D’Ivoire from yesterday!

My childhood bestie of nearly 40 years, who I learned to write *with* for 12 years, finished reading DATA EMPIRE and saw herself in the prose. it’s so moving to think about whose fingerprints are all over our writing and how it connects us. (And, conversely, what gets lost when LLMs do the writing.)

Giant was truly incredible. John Lithgow was amazing. I’m so glad we managed to sneak in a trip to NY to see it before it closed.

Tartan Army spotted in Salem this morning! Roger Conant and the Samantha from Bewitched statues got coned and everyone is honking for them. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

It made me so excited to get a photo from a friend showing Janneke van Hoeve’s DHSI slide explaining triples, using DATA EMPIRE as an example 🥰

I can’t believe they let this person write a report on the state of the humanities: “I do find a certain irony in this. People who rail against objectivity, say that there’s no such thing as objectivity, suddenly want more evidence.” www.chronicle.com/article/insi...

Having Sjögren’s means having to spend extra time editing out every time it’s glaringly clear that your mouth is very dry in an audio recording for a book club because there’s no video to distract from it.

DATA EMPIRE is on Harper's Bazaar UK's bookshelf!

Check this out from the wonderful @aelang.bsky.social

I had to describe what I do as chair for an application for something and literally in what other job are you an accountant, a manager, a strategist, a scheduler, a mother hen, a mentor, AND an HR department?