Merriam-Webster’s human editors have chosen ‘slop’ as the 2025 Word of the Year.

I saw a squirrel fall out of a tree today. It landed with a thud, looked embarrassed, then scampered back up.

Roundtable includes: Stephanie Brown, Brianna J. Cox, Misty D. Fuller, Nicholaus Gutierrez, Amanda Konkle, Derritt Mason, Chelsea Wessels, and is moderated by Jennifer Blaylock and Lisa Jacobson.

More Fairuza Balk appreciation: there's something about how she moves her mouth that reminds me of Cole Escola. Now I really want to see them together in a stage production of The Craft—and maybe also Return to Oz! #spookyseason #Halloween #witchy

Just rewatched The Craft. Can we get Fairuza Balk on Yellowjackets ASAP? @emilystjams.bsky.social?

"Color Protocols," edited by Carolyn L. Kane and @lidazeitlinwu.bsky.social, explores how color intersects with problematic histories of racial encoding in linguistic, visual, and algorithmic media: mitpress.mit.edu/978026255350...

Pop Quiz: Is this a photo from The Guardian or a still from One Battle After Another? #PTA #OneBattleAfterAnother

In lighter news, is this The Guardian or The Onion?

👀

When they said small government, I didn't think they meant autocracy.

They are literally canceling culture

condemnations of political violence are well taken but it does feel as if some prominent political commentators are of the view that violence isn’t a part of the history of American politics and that is very much not true.

My favorite thing about Georgia Tech students might be how they give each other feedback. There's a consistently high level of honesty, sincerity, and mutual respect. It gives me a much-needed spark of hope for the future. #teaching #peerreview #GATech

Margarita Vaysman & I have been working on this for the past 5 (!) years, but it's finally done- the online version is up and the hardcover should be out later this month! Welcome to the Oxford Handbook of Global Realisms, feat. 41 chapters and beautiful cover art: academic.oup.com/edited-volum... 🎉

My body is like, "Phew, it's been a long semester! When's Thanksgiving break again?" It's Day 2. #academia #teaching

Wow. The University of Chicago, a world-class institution whose humanities faculty in the past has included Homi Bhabha & Lauren Berlant & Ralph Ellison & Hannah freaking Arendt, is getting rid of basically every graduate department involving the acknowledgment that other cultures & languages exist.

The first time Charlie Chaplin used his voice in a film, he wielded it to forcefully condemn the rising forces of fascism around the globe. Will we listen to his words today?

If you had "deploying military forces against civilians in your own country" on your authoritarianism bingo card, well, go get your dauber. What's that, LA? You already marked that square in June? #WashingtonDC

Reading about Columbia's capitulation to the current regime....

Now he's actually tilting at windmills. The absurdity would be funny, if it weren't coupled with egomaniacal cruelty.

An AI slop factory apparently tried to rewrite our article about AI not replacing workers en masse, but hit the paywall... so just summarised the paywall. If this is the robot that takes my job I'll be v embarrassed

Serena is the undisputed GOAT, but never underestimate Venus, who continues to do things in her own time, on her own terms. I have been awed by her for 30 years and counting. #tennis #Venus #WilliamsSisters

For my fall course prep, I've been rereading our teaching dossier on ungrading. Let me shout out Part I again, edited primarily by @jennblaylock.bsky.social and secondarily by me. We really wanted to make something thoughtful, honest, and above all USEFUL—so please read and share with abandon!

Spending this 4th of July traveling between Germany and the Netherlands, two countries I once called home and gladly would again.

Still thinking about #NECS2025 in Lisbon last week. It was an honor to present on the panel "Socialism Goes Global: Cold War Geopolitics Beyond Europe" with @cheryldueck.bsky.social, Deniz Göktürk, and Balázs Varga. More in Montpellier? [Photo credit: @nwbaer.bsky.social]

After exploring the beautiful city of Lisbon with Maggie @hennefem.bsky.social, I'm ready for #NECS2025 to begin!

Watching #nokings from afar (East Germany) and sending all the love and solidarity 💗

This is a longshot, but: @inkookang.bsky.social, I'm a TV scholar writing about The Americans, and I'm trying to locate a terrific article you wrote in 2016 about the 4th season for the now defunct MTV News. Any chance you (or someone else) could send it to me?

This is outrageous, and we should be appropriately outraged. How can I tell my students it's not OK to copy-paste hallucinated AI slop when it appears to be MAHA's MO? #teaching #AI #plagiarism #ethics

I can feel the adrenaline pumping like it's 11 am on a Saturday in 1993

"It’s tragic and appalling that PBS and WNET are willing to become collaborators with the sinister forces trying to muzzle free speech"—Art Spiegelman Sure, let's deport advocates for peace for their "anti-Semitism" while censoring the guy who wrote THE graphic novels about the Holocaust.

Vielen Dank, Österreich! #Eurovision

Whether you get your forecast from an app on your phone, a website or a meteorologist on TV, most of the underlying information comes from the federal government. By @rhersher.bsky.social

It's grading season, and maybe you have realized you want to rethink how you do assessment. Well...part two of the double-issue on ungrading in North American film and media higher ed classrooms that @lisawj.bsky.social and I co-edited, is now up: quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jcms/teach... Check it out!

Watching #Sinners today, my brain went: "Yeah, but Smoke is the real Michael B. Jordan, right?" Just like Sarah was the real Tatiana Maslany.

Part II of our JCMS teaching dossier on ungrading is here! Check out my intro, "Risky Business." Thanks, as ever, to my wonderful co-editor @jennblaylock.bsky.social! I'll shout out some of our terrific contributors in the comments below. quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jcms/teach... #ungrading #teaching

The full 2 part issue of Teaching Media on Ungrading is out! Shepherded by @jennblaylock.bsky.social and @lisawj.bsky.social. Check it out if you need an anti-dote to the New Yorker article discourse! (though, my entry in the issue *is* a little cranky). quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jcms/teach...

The second issue of the ungrading two-parter has been published (edited by @jennblaylock.bsky.social and @lisawj.bsky.social ). It includes my piece on using ungrading to incentivize risk-taking and experimentation among first-time game makers 🎮 in a WGST class. quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jcms/teach...

"Each project taught me to design communication rather than just produce it." More gems from my first-year multimodal composition students. #teaching #teachingwriting #ungrading

From a student's reflective essay: "I began to see revision as a creative process rather than a punishment." 🥹 #teaching #teachingwriting #ungrading

Please highlight this story. ICE stormed into the wrong house, trashed the place, and made women/girls stand outside in the rain in their underwear. ICE also stole phones, laptops, and cash savings from the family, who moved to OKC two weeks ago. kfor.com/news/local/w...

No one will ever read my research as meticulously as my institution reads my expense reports. #AcademicSky #AcademiaSky

My Disney princess "I want" song is about a job with a less than 4/4 teaching load, some conference funding, and possibilities for advancement or at least renewal, in a location with decent public schools that's less than 2 hours from a major airport. A girl can dream.... #AcademicSky #AcademiaSky

PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081

For anyone who needs a boost

It's official: students on my campus have had their visas revoked. I've heard reports of plainclothes agents. Even at this "apolitical," STEM-focused institution, my students and colleagues are not safe. Ideas about what I can do? My job is contingent but I've got plenty of privilege.

Ready for #SCMS2025!

C'mon, BlueSky, let's collectively learn how to spell Cory (no e) Booker!

This week, my Somerville constituent Rümeysa Öztürk was abducted in broad daylight by DHS officials and sent to Louisiana to be locked in a detention center. She has not been charged with any crime.

The wonderful @jennblaylock.bsky.social and I co-edited a 2-part Teaching Media Dossier for @jcmsjournal.bsky.social on #ungrading. "Part I: Critical Reflections on Ungrading" is now live, and we couldn't be prouder. Huge thanks to our contributors and editors! Look out for Part II soon! #teaching