As someone who has spent 20 years funding incremental advances in digital tools for humanities research, the leaps we've seen in just the last year are incredible. (One example from Alex below, but many others in really hard areas like handwriting recognition.)

Slopaganda

The DOJ’s Epstein document interface isn’t neutral. It lets you examine fragments in exquisite detail while making the totality unseeable—Jameson's classic problem of cognitive mapping, rendered as UX. Folks often forget that distant reading is how you see the forest when power insists on trees.

Are people finding ways to get around the Akamai challenges on the DOJ Epstein files site?

[Job 📣] Are you curious about #AI applications in the #humanities? My Print and Probability research group (@print-and-prob.bsky.social) is hiring a postdoc! Come help us develop computational methods for identifying clandestine early modern printers! cmu.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/CMU/job/Pitt...

Hypothetically, if you were to want a tool that helped you turn any name or short phrase into a solo-cup-in-chain-link-fence message, told you exactly how many cups you'd need, etc., you could find that here molab.marimo.io/notebooks/nb...

Hypothetically, if you were to want a tool that helped you turn any name or short phrase into a solo-cup-in-chain-link-fence message, told you exactly how many cups you'd need, etc., you could find that here molab.marimo.io/notebooks/nb...

So, hypothetically, if you were to make a solo-cup-in-chain-link-fence message over an overpass, you’d be putting in the letters backwards. And, again hypothetically, you might want a template for that. Hypothetically.

[Job 📣] Are you curious about #AI applications in the #humanities? My Print and Probability research group (@print-and-prob.bsky.social) is hiring a postdoc! Come help us develop computational methods for identifying clandestine early modern printers! cmu.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/CMU/job/Pitt...

Someone repaired this broken letterpress wood type using doublesided carpet tape. Ink from subsequent prints soaked into the tape over time (likely from multiple printers?), and now the break line & inside the letter (the tape is no longer working) are even more beautiful.

On Thursday, January 15, Professor Andreea Ritivoi interviewed internationally-renowned Norwegian novelist Karl Ove Knausgaard during his Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures appearance.

“I thrive when there are creative bounds for myself. It's really interesting to see what you can do." People magazine recently interviewed screenwriter and novelist Yulin Kuang, a 2012 graduate. people.com/yulin-kuang-...

Part Milton criticism, part John Carey obit, & part reflection on his own cancer treatment, Willy Maley's moving essay is an astonishing testament to lives in criticism and reason 1A I'm so proud that @cmuenglish.bsky.social launched the @pghreviewofbooks.bsky.social pghrev.com/living-preca...

Syllabus time. Computational Humanities from Debates in DH series is OA! Co-eds with @dmimno.bsky.social Jessica Marie Johnson. Articles from @dbamman.bsky.social @kmcdono.bsky.social @roopikarisam.bsky.social @bschmidt.bsky.social @barbaramcgilli.bsky.social @quinnanya.me @tharsen.bsky.social 👇🏼

Debunking the AI food delivery hoax that fooled Reddit 'you should always be at your most suspicious online when someone is baiting you into outrage. But all of that takes time, effort, and cognitive hygiene'

JUST ANNOUNCED: Schmidt Sciences has awarded $11M to 23 teams globally for our Humanities and AI Virtual Institute (HAVI). These projects bring AI to history, archaeology, literature, and film, unlocking new understandings of human culture. Learn more: buff.ly/tvTUYwY

Making a big bet on “computational humanities,” CMU will introduce new academic programs and resources for students and researchers to blend traditional humanistic inquiry — literary interpretation, historical research and cultural critique — with computational methods. www.cmu.edu/news/stories...

Co-sign

"Paula Krebs, executive director of the Modern Language Association, said she expects graduates of the program will be in great demand" www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-in...

I’m excited to share that @print-and-prob.bsky.social has been selected for a 2025 Humanities and AI award from @schmidtsciences.bsky.social, joining 22 other teams using AI to open new windows into human history, culture, language, and creativity www.schmidtsciences.org/havi-2025-an...

Reminder that there exists an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet filmed with untrained stray cats in Rome, dubbed over by British Shakespearean actors. It's called 'Romeo.Juliet' and has never been given a VHS/ DVD or Bluray release. BUT THERE IS A COPY ON THE INTERNET ARCHIVE.

Come be my boss! Carnegie Mellon is hiring a new Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences. www.dsgco.com/search/22599...

My darling. I write from the battlefield. It's so cold today; there is ill news throughout the mid-Atlantic—is what they say about Montclair true?—yet here are good tidings: the pararhyme disarmed them and we plan to turn the tide with metonymy. Their armies are vast but we are not without hope.

Next frontier in AI safety is.....adversarial poetry? arxiv.org/abs/2511.153...

My entire academic career in a skeet

There's still time to apply for one of several full-time positions in computational humanities at Carnegie Mellon University * Assistant Teaching Track Prof in Computational Humanitiesapply.interfolio.com/173622 * Assistant Tenure Track Prof in Computational Humanities apply.interfolio.com/173626

Did you know that the JCB has committed to digitizing all of its collections? See the progress we've made so far at americana.jcblibrary.org! Details: Branch of a blackwood or Jamaican walnut with oblong fruit being eaten by a land crab. americana.jcblibrary.org/search/objec...

Since we all have Macs at work, I'm trying to find another solution that doesn't involve shelling out money for $$ enterprise subscriptions. So I'm back to contemplating Excel, but I really want to be able to apply multiple labels to entries...

I’ve been thinking — what if ending the draft in 1973 is a hidden cause of rising US college tuition? Cheap college once allowed young men to avoid war. When the draft ended, so did the political incentive to keep higher ed affordable.

Many thanks to @kathrynpalmer.bsky.social for this fantastic piece on our new PhD program in Computational Cultural Studies

ICYMI

Trying to keep my professional chill but I’m SO excited Carnegie Mellon is launching a cluster hire in computational humanities—MULTIPLE JOBS! 1. Asst Teaching Track Prof in Computational Humanities - apply.interfolio.com/173622 2. Asst Tenure Track Prof in CH - apply.interfolio.com/173626

Carnegie Mellon English proudly supports Ed Simon's launch of the Pittsburgh Review of Books. I like to say that @cmuenglish.bsky.social is where readers find refuge and leaders find language. It's tremendous to see Ed and ProB offering that same spirit to our city and to our world. pghrev.com

Did you miss our summer talks or wish you could share them with someone else? You’re in luck! Recordings of our 2025 Summer Lecture Series are now online! Video recordings are under the “Summer Lectures” playlist at youtube.com/rarebookschool Listen to the audio at soundcloud.com/rarebookschool

After nearly two years running our homespun ESTC 📚📜, we’ll soon retire it at the request of the ESTC. Proud to have been part of the @print-and-prob.bsky.social team 💪, led by Nikolai Vogler, that helped our scholarly community in a time of need 💜

My recent lecture for @rarebookschool.bsky.social can now be found on their YouTube channel youtu.be/ElvNacFyoWQ.

My recent lecture for @rarebookschool.bsky.social can now be found on their YouTube channel youtu.be/ElvNacFyoWQ.

As a book history/digital humanities scholar, I immensely enjoyed this @rarebookschool.bsky.social talk on Warren's term, computational bibliography, as a set of tools to connect the study of artifact (microscopic/Hinman) to ideology (systemic/Darnton). (1/7)

Here's another fun announcement. You can now access the first three episodes of Third Person Limited, a podcast on books and culture that I have been working on with my friend, Mason. thirdpersonlimited.com

Here's a nice announcement. I just turned in the final draft for my first academic book, 'Cartesian Theaters, Shakespearean Minds: Finding Descartes on the Early Modern Stage' to be published with Edinburgh University Press next year.

it's proofs day 😍 Introducing Catherine Sanger. This is another woman publisher that I found after an editor assumed traces of her labor in the English Short Title Catalogue were a typo. A [sic] was put next to her initial, and I spent weeks combing through Ancestry to figure out who she is.

oh hey this looks cool ;)

the rpince of denmark nods in agreement

I'm so excited for the Pittsburgh Review of Books!

🚨 Discourse alert!!! What should you teach engineers who have never read a critique of modernity before? 😰😳 I’d be tempted to throw them right in the deep end with Benjamin’s Theses on the Philosophy of History

Carnegie Mellon’s Department of English is thrilled to announce an exciting new PhD program in Computational Cultural Studies. We will begin to accept applications this Fall with an inaugural cohort to begin in 2026. www.cmu.edu/dietrich/eng...

Carnegie Mellon’s Department of English is thrilled to announce an exciting new PhD program in Computational Cultural Studies. We will begin to accept applications this Fall with an inaugural cohort to begin in 2026. www.cmu.edu/dietrich/eng...

Now emancipated from its paywall. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...

some personal news www.cmu.edu/dietrich/new...

As the debate continues about the value of humanities, arts and social sciences degrees, we have published a new toolkit that captures the vital contributions of SHAPE graduates to society, culture and the economy. It's covered here on WonkHE: buff.ly/pB45bCX Dive in here: buff.ly/WU6xBzT