Digging into archives this week in preparation for this talk humanitiescenter.byu.edu/events/collo...

On Karen Hao's "Empire of AI" and Richard Powers's "Playground." Also a reflection on what fiction (e.g., Playground) does well. open.substack.com/pub/victoria...

I spent the summer reporting this essay on why it seems harder than ever to sell a book right now—especially if it isn't a debut and comes with the dreaded "sales track." I'm grateful to the writers, agents, editors, publishers & experts who spoke to me for this piece: thewalrus.ca/the-publishi...

How long have teachers been saying this? 10 years? 15? 20? I'm at around 18 years myself. Reading and writing are experiences first so if we want students to genuinely do those things we have to create the conditions under which these things are done.

One reason I do not think Trump is going to create a 1,000 year reich is because he failed to cancel a middling funnyman and immediately pivoted to trying to outlaw not having a headache.

This is great. But also I'm sort of fascinated by his reference to "real-life AI slop" to more generally describe manipulation and illusion

Someone just told me that it's a mistake for me (as an immigrant/naturalized U.S. citizen and as a writer) to consider traveling out of the country (for research trips) given the current political climate. I'm really on the fence about this. Thoughts?

Capitalism camp

Tomorrow 7 p.m. ET! I don't have answers but hoping for a good discussion those in attendance (via Zoom) summitlibrary.libcal.com/event/14506056

Editor: You get those photos of Frankenstein and his monster? Photographer: Sure did boss, real fuckin sexy just like you asked. Editor: what

Great thread from @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social Education is not "the purposeful annihilation of voice."

I keep thinking about this-- for-profit ed tech is so deeply embedded in our public schools.

Back-to-school night: my daughter’s kindergarten teacher said that she’d love to NOT give the kids Chromebooks but it’s out of her control because the district mandates it. There is a deal with some ed tech company and they are therefore required to assess my five y.o. (and other kids) on devices.

Really enjoyed this essay by the editors of @nplusonemag.com www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/the...

I've been thinking about why I feel so betrayed when I read AI-generated or AI-assisted writing. The reasons are many (environmental, ethical, etc.) It's also that LLMs dilute and distort human experience. That's partly what I was getting at here: victorialivingstone.substack.com/p/margaux-bl...

Putting my PhD in Hispanic literature to good use :) Also-- I am kind of fascinated by Margaux Blanchard and plan to expand these reflections at some point. open.substack.com/pub/victoria...

“Latin America had many of the same sociological variables as Spain: a powerful, praetorian Catholic landed class, threatened by militant peasants and modernizing economic nationalists.” New at PB: Greg Grandin & Alexander Aviña on the history of Latin America. www.publicbooks.org/a-second-enl...

I feel so official! Also: new cards to reflect that @mlnjournal.bsky.social will be introducing a new issue (Jewish Languages and Literatures) + we will be officially adding Lusophone literature (we already publish some articles in Portuguese, but we are expanding that).

Expertise is necessarily narrow, thus one’s intellectual humility must be broad.

Sharing this (insightful) essay mostly for @natewolff.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/calebcra...

You can use ChatGPT instead of your own brain to write your paper if I can talk about ChatGPT instead of you in your letter of reference

I'm interested in the push to confer "as scientific a character as may be possible" on the study of the humanities I have long thought about the inclination to use the language and tools of science to describe the humanites-- but I hadn't thought how far back that pressure might extend.

If Mark Twain has taught me anything, it’s this: trying to neutralize a satirist or a polemicist with censorship is like trying to neutralize a snake with its own venom.

I'd love to know how this company (ProRata) "measures the value" of the content (from which it profits) The argument is that it's ethical because publishers get a cut, but this company is still profiting from content they did not produce. www.universalmusic.com/prorata-inve...

Next week! Register (free) to receive the link summitlibrary.libcal.com/event/14506056

My daughter tells me that in her kindergarten they take "brain breaks" where they get up and wiggle around-- a short, joyful little dance routine set to rhymes. She suggested I try it when I'm working. Given the solitary and sedentary nature of my job, it seems like an excellent suggestion.

That clip is amazing. And, I say go for it @annakornbluh.bsky.social

This is amazing

Call for article submissions-- in French or in English @hopkinspress.bsky.social Please share!

In a mess of acronyms, MLN will be at the MLA! Panel with managing editor @victoriajane.bsky.social (MLN), managing editor Hank Scotch from @criticalinquiry.bsky.social, Laurence Roth (Modern Language Studies), and María del Carmen Caña Jiménez (Hispanófila). @modernlanguage.bsky.social

Flight to Toronto booked! I'll be chairing this roundtable on journal publishing with editors from Critical Inquiry, Modern Language Studies, and Hispanófila.

I am really looking forward to continuing my collaboration with @jeppestricker.bsky.social. This webinar builds on an article Jeppe and I co-wrote for @unesco.org Ideas Lab: teachonline.ca/webinar/what...

it’s fascinating. majorities of americans oppose the military occupation of cities. a substantial number of those are fucking furious about it, but rather than lean into this anger and attack trump’s perception of strength, these “strategists” want democrats to avoid the confrontation entirely.

the deep / rosined bow sound of the living Dorianne Laux, “Cello” #smallpoemsunday

Yup-- can confirm. Something needs to change.

if i had the opportunity to ask a question of anyone in the administration, given this "war in chicago" messaging, i would ask them how many americans the president intends to kill in his war

Does creatine give you three hands?

today in faculty work under authoritarianism: not one but two meetings on same day w PhD students about their departure, emigration, exile from the U.S., how to finish dissertations, how to never return, how to renounce citizenship, how to mourn student visas, how to find a life elsewhere

So @theturing.bsky.social has decided they no longer need Humanities (!) - so the The Alan Turing Institute’s Humanities and Data Science Interest Group are having one final event: "Network power: the humanities and data science in collaboration" In person and online, Oxford, 25th Sept. Pls share!

One thing that is so dispiriting about our present moment is how so much is going to just keep getting worse and new students and faculty won’t know what they are missing only the misery of shitty AI and overworked people trying to hold things together with nails and duct tape

Check out the latest issue of MLN, which includes a dossier on "New Spatialities in Catalan Studies": scents, food, photography, ecocriticism, contemporary narrative, and early modern poetry. Avaliable OA: muse.jhu.edu/issue/55531/....

On why I have always despised the terms "content creator" and "influencer" open.substack.com/pub/victoria...

To gauge how it’s “working,” one would have to be clear on what the actual work is, which is not helping to educate children but rather to imbed these systems in a way that they cannot be removed, establish them as a source of truth, and destabilize labor.

Y’all, they are just admitting it.

I am making edits to an essay (coming out in October) about school shootings and lockdown trainings. One of the lines refers to the number of school shootings in the U.S. since Columbine. When I wrote the essay (not all that long ago): 428. Now: 434 school shootings since Columbine.

Catching up on Chris’s analysis of UChicago situation today & trying to wrap my head around this graph.

Just try to make this cohere with the argument made by Chicago admin (& elsewhere) that they can fix the budget crisis with more austerity to arts, humanities, etc. It’s ideological defunding. It always has been.

This morning on Substack, I wrote about content creators (a term I despise) and writing as a product: open.substack.com/pub/victoria...

The Critic and Her Publics: On Translation (a series of podcasts)

This looks pretty typical of 2024-2025, yes