I went to the sound bath meditation for depressed people who look at their phones a lot and everyone knew you. Some of them knew me as well

"This is what it looks like when workers hold the line – it sends a message to every media company in the country that AI cannot be used to circumvent union contracts or undermine journalistic integrity." Academics please take note!

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Fascinating essay by Paul North in the newest issue of differences on the displacing structure of address in Capital—a book that is read by but not for the one reading it

nice little run in the index for Sarah Brouillette's Content Machines

serious question: what makes university admin think they are immune to AI-related layoffs and deskilling?

I am moved beyond words by this beautiful, generous, thoughtful review my my book by the amazing @sarahbrouillette.bsky.social.

one trick to getting students to close reading is to break them of the habit talking as if the text came to them simultaneously rather than as one word after the other, in order. The urge to *summarize* what's just been read rather than to account for its gradual arrival is deadly to good reading

I think I hit the freelancer jackpot with the current slate of titles I'm indexing Scott Selisker, Character Networks in Contemporary US Fiction Sarah Brouillette, Content Machines Genevieve Yue, Trains David Bering-Porter, Undead Labor Brian Glavey, Relatability

first bunch of the season, glück for scale

shout out to the house centipede that just crawled out from behind a Matisse to the dismay of many tourists

There are stories from all over about universities' dismantling of the humanities. I have a small but dismaying data point from my university to contribute to the discourse. Harvard University now has NO assistant professors of English. That's how long it has been since we were allowed to hire.

one million percent

somehow didn’t consider that there would be foot freaks on Bluesky

dog for sale

one of the clearest, most teachable primers on our current juncture

once again my ideas for Met Gala themes from 2022 have been passed over

honestly if some venture capitalist /tech mogul can remake an entire university in a matter of a year or two in exchange for around 2 days of Bezos’s salary(USC founded 1880), it means that any rich person can do anything to any of our institutions at any time unless we take them back systematically

My review of Greg Grandin's America, América, an essential book for understanding the Trump administration's hemispheric ambitions in historical context, is now online along with the rest of this excellent issue. www.nplusonemag.com/issue-53/rev...

the future of higher ed organizing right here

everybody calm down, college will still exist as a website or app

will be thinking about this anacoluthon for the next decade

remember mo rocca

The more academic work in humanities is construed as Teaching+Research, and the more these are each construed as the inculcation or application of general "skills" to the production or consumption of formulaic "content," the less convincing arguments against either casualization or automation can be

Happy May Day! I have just learned that my career in first-year writing instruction at UChicago is drawing to a close (more to say on that later). Teaching students here has been a joy, and helping to organize writing faculty here—a 3 year campaign—will remain one of my proudest accomplishments.

earlier today my dog stole a toy from a dog named cupertino

in season 1 of ER there’s a b plot involving a woman who won’t stop farting because she ate too much kielbasa

Ben Lerner Stuns as Greatest Living Songwriter

Really enjoyed doing this interview about the book with @publicseminar.bsky.social! publicseminar.org/2026/04/inte...

starting salary at the AI instead of teacher school

with Hampshire's closing, 250 workers—staff and faculty—now face unemployment as of June 15 with no severance or continued health benefits. please support if you can and spread the word www.helphampshireworkers.com?fbclid=IwY2x...

CHICAGO! Haymarket Presents: Free Gifts Join @alybatt.bsky.social and @gabrielwinant.bsky.social for a conversation on Capitalism & Nature. Co-sponsored by @pilsencommbooks.bsky.social. Wed, May 6 at 5:30 PM Live at Haymarket House, streaming online RSVP:

one of those days where it feels like the world historical wheels are really starting to fall off

my brilliant friend Pooja Rangan has created, along with filmmaker and activist Brett Story, a wonderful three-part podcast called Unmaking the Prison Image. essential listening for media scholars and abolitionists.

chicago! tonight!

this one stinks sorry to deborah

someone in chicago is selling a stained glass panel of michael holding blanket over the balcony

I know it's complicated but part of me will never forgive the generations of academics above me who chose personal gain over shared governance

imagine being half as beautiful

These same boards are the same ones pushing “AI literacy” into every corner of our institutions, so the convergence-effect Ted describes in this thread—increasingly powerful boards filled w/ rich ppl whose anti-intellectual, airport-book obsessions drive research & teaching—is also the story of “AI”

I loved this, and Sianne's choice of O'Hara especially. A student of mine recently found a letter in the archives here where O'Hara admits to honing the Americanness of his voice via translation www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

More higher ed discourse like this please

the lilac is blooming, the windows are open, a big interview is behind me, there is stove top popcorn and on supermarket sweep, a mother-daughter team wears the same blue eyeshadow

FYI @erinspampinato.bsky.social’s gorgeous conclusion for the Barbara Johnson book evokes the gutting, seething sense of abusive waste that is the emotional weather of austerity academia. Solidarity to all enduring this & please god, if do you have job security, find out how you can put it to use

I know it's complicated but part of me will never forgive the generations of academics above me who chose personal gain over shared governance

There is something perverse & darkly significant in the fact that a widely published scholar whose *forthcoming book* traces a prehistory of the ideologies now disfiguring academia will likely have to leave the profession b/c there are no stable jobs for him. Infinitely sad, at so many levels.

muttering “bertha heiges girl you’ve done it again” to no one

otaheita oranges, painted by bertha heiges, 1905

wait till he hears THIS

crazy light in my kitchen this morning