every time I have to write a syllabus I am filled with rage at the circumstances that have separated me from my library for more than four years now

One of the ways you can see this is driven by an industry looking for some way to make itself profitable? No one has shown any concern that students demonstrate basic competency with computers before enrolling (or graduating)—and, many do lack that.

Wrote a bite-sized review of the new Lockwood, which continues to reveal new treasures to me each time I read it

If anyone (@thebaffler.com @nplusonemag.com @publicbooks.bsky.social) might be interested in an article offering an ideological post-mortem of almost four decades of The Best American Poetry anthology as a conservative publishing project, I'm yr guy.

ICYMI, I wrote about modernism and the allure of biography for The Nation, through Zachary Leader's new biography of Richard Ellmann, Ellmann's majestic biography of James Joyce, and some Virginia Woolf, because I can't help myself.

Spent some time with Zachary Leader’s biography of Richard Ellmann, thinking about modernism and biography’s complicated allure

another foray into this blue zone. anyway I’m kicking around Chicago for a few weeks, if any of you live in the supposedly windy city

What was I supposed to do, judge the president on every other thing he has done?

Deleting the apps so I can meet someone the old-fashioned way (given the same bed at a coastal inn)

Anytime someone you know mentions using ChatGPT or any other genAI, say "you know, I read this article about how incredibly bad for the environment genAI is" and refer them to this article.

I guess you could say the people who thought Andrew Cuomo ran a better campaign than Zohran Mamdani were sequestered in echo chambers and out of touch with what people offline wanted out of a candidate

This gyre is looking awfully wide

so far the greatest contribution made by (purported) AI is quickly identifying (so many) people, who get paid to read and write, who have lost (or never had) respect for reading and writing

In an act of unspeakable arrogance former BP oil executive Lord Browne of Madingley, as he is styled, is running to be Chancellor of Cambridge. It really adds insult to injury given the extraordinary damage the 'Browne Review' inflicted on higher education in Britain, the humanities in particular.

one step closer to the day when i can finally stop explaining uk abortion law to people who go, “but abortion is legal in britain, isn’t it?” 🎉

I still can't get past the idea that people in America are now supposed to accept that this is a valid form of law enforcement and just assume it's fine when random dudes in groups with face-coverings, no ID, no warrant, & no uniform grab people off the street and force them into unmarked vehicles

I didn’t know Simon but he was always a warm and encouraging presence on Twitter; he felt like a good colleague from afar. My thoughts are with everyone who’s missing him today.

What did I know, what did I know of love's austere and lonely offices?

I just like to post these data from time to time to puncture the mythological aura of mid 20th c protests. They were less popular than pretty much any 21st c mass action & people criticizing them used the same lines. Protest is about people coming together, shaping narratives, & building power.

what are your cool BL lunch recs and Islington evening recs?

Worth noting today that the entire budget of the NEH is about $200M.

Today is the day the NEH has been fully dismantled in all but name.

A real privilege to hear @nicksturm.bsky.social open Notley's poetry up the way he does, with all his characteristic devotion & unpretentious brilliance, & to think (and feel) with Nick about the languages of public & private grief, grief owned and grief shared. I'm so glad this podcast is back.

This is 10-12 tenure-track assistant professors’ salaries at many places. A whole academic program’s worth of money, pissed away, In Times of Austerity, on rent-a-cops going after students who dared speak. Nobody behind this should have a career.

this is like drake and kendrick lamar but they're both drake

On my way to Edinburgh to interlope among the Beckettians! Here’s hoping they’re nice to an ignoramus comme moi-même.

patricia lockwood in the lrb on the american pope when

Woke Marxist Pooooope Say you’ll love me agaaaaain

finally read checkout-19 and I feel bad but I did like pond more

Brooklyn bus stop ads being replaced with guerilla public service announcements.

watched my cat cough up a hairball yesterday and thought, yes, that's what writing is like

For all the faults of the NHS and international health surcharge notwithstanding it still makes me a little giddy every time I see a doctor and no money changes hands

it's amazing how dedicated this administration is to complete and total immiseration

Beyond the Burger has made it onto jobs.ac.uk! Fully funded PhD, in an exciting topic, in collab with the British Library. Please share! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMT293/b...

Good rundown of yesterday’s deplorable decision by the UK Supreme Court

The UK supreme court today ruled that the terms ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ in the Equality Act refer to biological sex. Trump's Executive Order 14168, issued on 20 January, similarly proclaims to be ‘Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government’. Judith Butler: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

i can't believe this is real but it is

noooooo not Harvard giving people an excuse to reveal that they went to Harvard

Way to go, Harvard, for making us all say nonsensical things like “Way to go, Harvard.”

This. An emergency recall of parliament on a weekend for British Steel. Nothing at all for UK HE which employs far more people, has already shed 10,000 academic jobs, with several institutions on the brink of collapse. A reminder: we train all the doctors, teachers, engineers, nurses, lawyers &c &c

Looking to write a review of Lockwood's second novel — any takers?

my poor cat, who gets most of his enrichment and play from me, does not understand that I do not control whether birds come to the feeder or not

🔥 📝 FOLKS — I'm working on a piece for Slate about the NEH cuts. If you've been affected in ANY way and would be willing to talk with me, please message me! I would love to learn more and include your story. katina [at] katinarogers [dot] com #humanities #neh #education #highered

Fully funded (4 year) PhD studentship supervised across Keele Univ. and the British Library: "Eighteenth-Century Knowledge Work in the Harleian Collection". You'll generate your own project focused on how this unique collection was created and used: www.keele.ac.uk/study/postgr...

This exciting resolution from Rutgers University Senate is exactly the kind of model I think higher ed needs: a mutual defense pact of, in this case, Big 10 schools. They call for member institutions to create a joint defense fund and make resources available to any member institution under attack.