I’m sorry was anyone else utterly and unexpectedly destroyed by the letter of recommendation dog stroller essay? Like, I think I might be sublimating some feelings about current events but still, holy shit

Over the next year, about 100,000 spouses and minor children of legal permanent residents and even US citizens will be banned from immigrating legally to the United States. An utterly heinous policy, never envisioned by Congress.

happy first day of school to semester colleagues please enjoy this jameson syllabus from January 1996

Every year, the new year becomes a little more "whew, we made it!" than "woohoo, the future!" and I can't tell if it's age or, you know, end times

Happy to see this, written with the excellent @mattseybold.bsky.social , out in the world. Solidarity to everyone fighting for education and civil society! www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

Carnegie Mellon’s literature PhD is being liquidated in favor of “computation,” casualized labor, and AI. That has profound ramifications for, students, faculty, and program alums like myself. I wrote it about it (w/ Catherine Evans, a current PhD student). www.chronicle.com/article/a-co...

Maybe its helpful to remember how many very smart people had educations that basically consisted of haphazard reading from a large and varied supply of weighty books

Honestly I've been waiting for someone to confront me about my pencil usage

I think that sometimes when people say they want to turn their brain off or whatever what they actually crave is something to deeply, luxuriously absorb it

We asked our first-year students to take a survey about the ethics of using LLMs at various points in the writing process (research, brainstorming, drafting, spell-checking) and the results were sort of heartening. Especially in their comments, it was clear that they're really thinking about it.

I mean, shouldn’t we *want* to ruin the workplace?

New chalkbeat piece that highlights some of the less well-known realities of our current moment for higher ed. I got to chat at length with Matt about the actual trend in tuition (flat or decreasing at publics) versus the perception in the media. www.chalkbeat.org/2025/11/11/i...

Someone asked me recently if I thought it was worth it for middle and high school English teachers to ban the use of AI in their courses despite the headaches and active opposition in some quarters, and, um, yes. Yes I do. And this is one of the many reasons why.

ah, another bold move from the guy who wouldn’t say who he voted for in a historic race between a ranting sexual harasser endorsed by his nominal opponent and one of the most inspiring young politicians in decades

Objectively disgusting but a gift to Victorianists everywhere

I can’t believe it’s 2025 and we’re still calling wanting things like workplace and job flexibility feminine instead of, you know, humane

I wrote about why I can't sleep at night: the devaluation of so many things (critical thinking, creativity) I thought were paramount. lithub.com/when-we-deva...

My Canadian husband currently in Canada when I told him about the flight cancelations: " oh. .... no?"

I wish local politicians had more niche things they platformed, the way candidates do in high school gov elections. Like, instead of "nachos every Friday," "every movie theater must screen a Kelly Reichardt release no fewer than three weeks at good times" ... or something.

Ah, schadenfreude. Hello old friend.

I‘m *so* excited for NYC and all my friends and family there. And I’m excited that I’m excited about an election! Aaaaaah!!! Joy??!

Gatsby is of course an arriviste who literally fills his library with fake books and has no actual friends. I mention this for absolutely no reason at all

Wandered into a new bookstore recently (Composition Shop, in Longmont, CO) that featured quotes from book reviews alongside bookseller blurbs in those little shelf notes, and briefly it felt like I’d entered some parallel timeline where criticism and fan readership were symbiotic rather than opposed

Been thinking a lot lately about the strange affect of billionaires; how unworldly they seem, how lacking in self awareness or interest in others, how their gaze always seems to be looking very far away.

When you see Mamdani looking all normal doing normal person things—petting bodega cats, riding public transport—you realize just how bizarre and estranged our average candidate for public office is. Rich martians in flesh suits

Somehow del Toro’s Frankenstein managed to be both the most and least faithful adaptation ever. Anyway. Anyone want oh 2k words on this?

I think I feel about seasonal baking squash the way other people feel about tomatoes

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

Ran past one of these very serious boutique gyms in the dark this morning, and illuminated inside were a dozen muscled people lifting in fancy workout gear and one dude in a big foam shark costume

Just standing in line in a middle America airport, wondering whomst among us is okay with ~everything~

NEW: ICE is planning to build a shadow deportation network in Texas. A proposal outlines a 24/7 transport operation run by armed contractors—turning Texas into the logistical backbone of an industrialized deportation machine. My latest @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/ice-is...

really great piece about public libraries as public infrastructure shout out to @casualpasta.bsky.social and the amazing work they do with the Library Newsroom Project 🌟

I think this site is the way it is because real life can’t sustain the appropriate level of shock and outrage and also allow one to get the basic tasks of living done, and at least here you don’t have to deal with the cognitive dissonance of normalcy!

When was the last time you saw a lead story on k-12 ed in the NYTimes that was about something other than test scores or Covid lockdown effects?

Here it is: the Trump Administration "draft proposal" to the University of California. Published bc faculty sued for its disclosure. Its terms go beyond what Trump demands in similar compacts to other universities. EVERYONE should read: faculty, students, admins, alumni. ucop.edu/communicatio...

“The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers” Me, every time I’m here

In which Johanna Winant (@johannawinant.bsky.social) and I make the case for teaching whole books. And argue for a model of close reading that would bridge high school, college, and professional practice slate.com/life/2025/10...

This story was a jewel box tragedy masquerading as breezy reportage. In the full on air version, when asked if he wanted his hypothetical gf to wear one of these devices, he said no, he wanted her to be someone who “wore sweaters“ and ”read books.”

I want any mention of AI in the classroom—positive or negative—to link to a running tally of the finite natural resources its exhausted. Like the climate clock over Union Square, except more intrusive

"Reading comprehension" is such a concern k-12 ed and I would love to think more about when/how the concept transforms from "what it means" to "how it works" (i.e. close reading). I mean, often in ELA curriculum, it doesn't, which is part of the problem...

How alt academics feel when they visit a research library

Em-dash hoarders—unite!

I'm just a simple country doctor, but maybe it was a bad idea to outsource so much of higher ed's infrastructure to private companies' proprietary technologies with single points of failure.

We were all writing explainers about authoritarian aesthetics and he just bulldozed it out

In Mexico, blackouts caused by data centers destroyed people's refrigerators and oxygen equipment in hospitals, and water shortages meant toilets couldn't flush in schools. AI is another version of colonial extraction.

Maybe some of you have been wondering what I’ve been up to since I decided to take a break from teaching. Well…

The problem with 90s fashion is that my eye can’t even register it as style—it is merely ”adolescence” to me, and thus something I only want to transcend even if the kids look hip af

It is so much more complicated to get to a mass protest in a sprawling city-burb without decent mass transit…which, I guess, is one of the reasons Trump is defunding it…