I am working on the edits of my second book and on the one hand every part of drafting and editing a book is painful and exhausting but on the other hand it’s one of the most satisfying and thrilling things I’ve ever done with my brain and I cannot IMAGINE outsourcing any part of it to a machine.

Maybe this is obvious, but if I was (which I wouldn't be) a faculty member who voted to cap A grades, the only reason I'd tell on myself so hard would be because I'd want institutional policy to substantiate my desire to be a hard-ass: kneecapping the students for my own self-aggrandizement.

I don’t see why student “success” (if that’s what A’s represent to some people) is such a problem.

I’m thinking of including a note on the first slide of a conference presentation that says GenAI played no part in it. Is this something we need to do, now?

Interesting framing from two members of Harvard faculty conflating their intramural angst about the challenge of ranking and sorting the spectacularly excellent with the entirety of education. Hubris much?

My latest Substack post, in response to the attempt by Harvard to limit the number of A grades #HigherEd #Assessment #Grades open.substack.com/pub/susandbl...

Grading systems are a not-inevitable hierarchy institutions enthusiastically opt into to serve those at the top.

As a reviewer, I check for off-references before I start reading. If anything is amiss I send it back to the publisher. Because no.

Academic citations fabricated by AI are now a widely recognized problem. But the scale of their production and circulation is still pretty shocking. This is quite a neat, accessible site presenting the results of the 2.5m papers study published in The Lancet this weekend www.maxtopaz.com/citadel

Prediction: most university emails regarding the canvas situation will be written in passive voice, because surely it isn't their fault for forcing faculty to operate their courses through LMSs despite widespread resistance to that idea and concern for faculty and student security....

It will be a grand day in academia when we collectively change the tenure and promotion calendar so we're not asking folks to review dossiers without compensation while they're off contract.

Reading end-of-semester student self-evaluations continues to be one of the most fulfilling aspects of teaching, econd only to those thrilling in-class moments when I observe-facilitate-experience-participate in student learning in real time.

Apparently, journals, universities and publishers cannot do it but the Oscars can

I'm reading student essays, and I'm reluctant to point out problems with syntax and grammar. It's usually something I'd gently suggest. I think it's because I'm just so glad to be reading *their* voices instead of whatever anesthetized homogenized crap comes from AI. Anyone else?

Re: *that Chronicle article: It is not necessary to shit on another profession or group of experts to also grow your own expertise in their area. Experts in method with knowledge of disciplines and experts in disciplines with knowledge of methods can, quite simply, coexist. Why is this hard.

every academia is dark academia for those with eyes to see

In these dark, sad, enraging times, we must turn to poetry, to music, to arts in all its manifestations. We must write and cook and dance all while imagining what is possible in radical hope. We must love as we fight, strategize, and organize. The world necessitates beauty and struggle. #resist

Colson Whithead on how important it is to do "the freaking work." If you leave it to the gooch, you're cooked. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/o...

Any other 80s kids have a bit of (extra) anxiety today? Just me? Such a relief to see what appears to have been a flawless landing. 🙏 #ArtemisII #Integrity

why am I sobbing watching that little Nespresso pod zoot through the atmosphere with its huge ass parachutes

Friends, do not aspire to be an administrator in higher ed if you are not interested in or if you do not have the ability to work with details. Please.

Last week an admin whose toxic fumes swirl around him like Pigpen in the Peanuts cartoons came to my office. As the conversation was ending he said, “It’s really nobody’s fault, but I probably should have…” and I almost told him. Real leaders own up. #dobetter #academia #highered

Teaching a course like this allowed me to actually feel, through my whole being, the distinction between attention and investment in a classroom setting.

What if we just went back to reading a bunch of books and thinking about them together, and that was the class? With syllabi no longer than three pages.

Code red, ballet folks! 😳

Secret tricks to get much better results out of the very dreadful 'Google search' these days, plus other search engines for specific things. Statospherically useful for researchers. open.substack.com/pub/cardcata...

"the problems are literally the entire thing." Preach!

Be like Kate Winslet. www.instagram.com/p/DVZgzrlEi2j/

Can you imagine how many actually honorable people we could have been honoring this whole time if this was the standard operating procedure with such allegations?

Opera and ballet both represented in the first hour? Check. #oscars

Happy students-running-into-your-office-crying-because-they-just-found-out-they-got-into-grad-school season to all who celebrate! 🎉

I couldn’t help myself. As ballet emerges from its scandal-du-jour—because we DO care, thank you very much—what’s next? 📷: Maria Moroz on Unsplash www.jessicazeller.net/blog/no-one-cares-on-ballets-deaths-by-irrelevance

There’s rage in communities whose work was originally funded by monarchs and who now regularly fight to prove their importance to exist under capitalism. Don’t tell us our art is dying—it’s died several times and yet here we are.

The thing about Timothee Chalamet choosing to shit on ballet and opera is that his mom “majored in dance at LaGuardia High School and attended Yale University on a ballet scholarship. As a child, she danced with the New York City Ballet and later went on to perform in several Broadway musicals.”

One more time. #AcademicSky #AcademicWriting

For the morning set. #academicwriting #voice

I haven’t written publicly in a while, so I wrote a little something about writing. It’s for those working to write academic content with a less academic voice. I also dish in it about the shittiness of unreadable scholarship. I hope you enjoy. www.jessicazeller.net/blog/doing-t...

cc: dance

Just got an email that opened with: "Hope you are well and enjoying the throes of teaching too many hours and rehearsing and writing and running programs beyond what is possible, etc. etc." Academia is so broken.

It’s also not our job because “teaching students ethical use” is a largely vacuous slogan built on inevitability narratives, “just a (neutral) tool”discourse, & other misleading hype. In my humanities courses, I begin with the *ethics of non-use* when I explain the many reasons we won’t be using it.

ALYSA MF'N LIU GOLD MF'N MEDALIST

This energy from a self-possessed young woman at the top of her field is so damn refreshing.

I don’t know who needs to hear Jesse Jackson leading the kids on Sesame Street in this beautiful call-and-response reminding them that every child is somebody, but here it is

8 double-spaced pages = 20 minutes at a reasonable speaking pace

Might say this every day for the next two weeks.

A huge shoutout to the sports psychologists who support these olympians. Whew. Heroes.

Q&A would be lit

Let’s ride.

This is a melancholic piece by Rachel Toor that's unfortunately so relatable and, in that way, somewhat heartbreaking. A lot of my colleagues (and me, too!) feel ill-equipped to meet this moment. www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...