Ben Lee
@bcgl.bsky.social
Assistant Professor @ the University of Washington iSchool | formerly an Innovator in Residence @ Library of Congress | essays in WIRED, Gawker, The New Republic, Longreads, Current Affairs, etc. 🌐 www.bcglee.com
Very excited to share that my @longreads.com essay, "Uncanny Testimony," received the 2026 American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) Writing Award in the Technology category! Enormously grateful to the judges for selecting my essay! longreads.com/2025/09/25/a...
Uncanny Testimony - Longreads
As the last Holocaust survivors approach the end of their lives, an AI scholar grapples with technology that promises to freeze them in time.
longreads.com
Our faculty are leading in the classroom, the lab and beyond – and we want to bolster support for this vital work. Make your gift today for #HuskyGivingDay to support faculty teaching, research and student mentorship: bit.ly/ischoolHGD26
I’m thrilled to have an essay in the latest print issue of the Bennington Review! It’s about my year working at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the convergence of collective and inherited memory. Enormously grateful that the editors selected it! bcgl.substack.com/p/new-essay-...
New essay in the Bennington Review
Greetings in 2026!
bcgl.substack.com
Last May, @toddpresner.bsky.social, Robert Ehrenreich, and I convened a symposium at @ischool.uw.edu to explore "AI and the Future of Holocaust Research & Memory." Our resulting white paper is now officially online and contains provocations, reflections, and refusals: doi.org/10.6069/cx72...
AI and The Future of Holocaust Research & Memory
How will the advent of AI impact the future of Holocaust studies? Will it provide new methods for analyzing data and displaying information for research and education that will benefit the field, or w...
doi.org
@rjainrjain.bsky.social's Gates Cambridge Scholarship is such exciting news and so well-deserved! Can't wait to hear what the year at Cambridge brings! grad.uw.edu/rijul-jain/
Rijul Jain
grad.uw.edu
Our new class aims to help students across the University of Washington gain a broader, better understanding of AI. Assistant Professor Ben Lee @bcgl.bsky.social has been teaching Informatics 110 as part of an effort to build robust AI literacy for all students. ischool.uw.edu/news/2026/02...
Informatics class helps UW students get a handle on AI
Students today are being asked to engage with artificial intelligence in all aspects of their lives — in their personal lives, education and careers. But...
ischool.uw.edu
Calling all technologists, artists and other creative visionaries: The Library of Congress has opened the call for the next Innovator in Residence! Apply by 2pm ET April 10 newsroom.loc.gov/news/library...
The plenary videos from the CNI meeting are now available: 🤝Shaping CNI’s Future Together 📚A Landscape of AI in Libraries @bcgl.bsky.social 🏆AUPresses Stand UP Award @brettbobley.bsky.social @aupresses.bsky.social 💰The State of Funding for US Higher Ed, Science, and Technology in a Time of Change
CNI Fall 2025 Membership Meeting - YouTube
CNI Fall 2025 Membership Meeting videos at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill Washington, DC. Learn more at: https://www.cni.org/mm/fall-2025
youtube.com
Publication day! My article on how to read an 18C newspapers, on digital remediation, and on the unfree press out in the world. Thanks @andy-schocket.bsky.social @historymatterssyd.bsky.social & M. Karrs for making it all possible. @universitypress.cambridge.org lnkd.in/eEwbdbSw
Figured I’d wait to post anything for this, but I can’t tell you how excited I am for us to have the opportunity to be funded to do this work. We really do believe that our project connecting communities, digital archives of the early Black press, and human-AI systems will have a large impact
Jim Casey@jimccasey1.bsky.social · 8mo agoIt has been so much FUN to think with @profdancy.bsky.social, @snblickhan.bsky.social , Tiffanie R. Smith, and @bcgl.bsky.social & many others. Getting to dream & plan alongside these courageous people has been a real ray of hope in this otherwise horrible moment.
For "Communities in the Loop: AI for Cultures & Contexts in Multimodal Archives," congrats to: Jim Casey, Christopher Dancy, @snblickhan.bsky.social, Tiffany Smith, Benjamin Lee. (And I must also include @profgabrielle.bsky.social !)
Schmidt Sciences@schmidtsciences.bsky.social · 8mo agoJUST 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
Seconding all of this — so much fun not work with so many people I deeply admire, and we can’t wait to share out as our project progresses!
Jim Casey@jimccasey1.bsky.social · 8mo agoIt has been so much FUN to think with @profdancy.bsky.social, @snblickhan.bsky.social , Tiffanie R. Smith, and @bcgl.bsky.social & many others. Getting to dream & plan alongside these courageous people has been a real ray of hope in this otherwise horrible moment.
I can confirm, thinking with this crew is honestly wonderful, 10/10, Dream Team experience. I have more to say but a meeting to facilitate! More soon.
Jim Casey@jimccasey1.bsky.social · 8mo agoIt has been so much FUN to think with @profdancy.bsky.social, @snblickhan.bsky.social , Tiffanie R. Smith, and @bcgl.bsky.social & many others. Getting to dream & plan alongside these courageous people has been a real ray of hope in this otherwise horrible moment.
Honored to be giving an opening plenary talk on AI & libraries later today at CNI 2025! I’m excited for the conversation with Kate Zwaard and for the full program by @cni-org.bsky.social! www.cni.org/events/membe...
Schedule
CNI Fall 2025 Membership Meeting December 11-12, 2025 Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill Hotel, Washington, DC PDF Schedule View the CNI Fall 2025 Membership Meeting schedule & directory.…
cni.org
Coalition for Networked Information@cni-org.bsky.social · 8mo agoTomorrow, the CNI Fall meeting commences; safe travels to our attendees and speakers, journeying from near and far, who will be joining us in DC this Thursday and Friday. See the schedule at: www.cni.org/mm/fall-2025...
I am beyond thrilled to share some good news: 1. I've moved to a new job at UC Santa Barbara. 2. We have been selected for a 2025 Humanities and AI Virtual Institute award from @schmidtsciences.bsky.social! Both, we hope, will allow us to continue building the work! + hfa.ucsb.edu/news/schmidt...
Schmidt Sciences awards $750,000 to UCSB-led team to transform Black press archives with AI | Division of Humanities and Fine Arts
English professor Jim Casey leads a national coalition to recover 19th-century African American newspapers using machine learning and public crowdsourcing.
hfa.ucsb.edu
Guest Post on GovScape. It is a great example of how we can build on each other's systems and work to enable access to government information! Follow @govscape.bsky.social for more! www.datarescueproject.org/guest-post-g...
Guest Post: GovScape: A Public Search System for 10+ Million Government PDFs
This week's guest post is from Benjamin Charles Germain Lee, Assistant Professor at the University of Washington, and Kyle Deeds, Assistant Professor at Boston University. Learn more about their recen...
datarescueproject.org
Thank you to @datarescueproject.org for publishing this blog post by @kdeeds.bsky.social and myself on GovScape! Extremely grateful to @datarescueproject.org for all their incredible work!
Data Rescue Project #DataRescue@datarescueproject.org · 8mo agoGuest Post on GovScape. It is a great example of how we can build on each other's systems and work to enable access to government information! Follow @govscape.bsky.social for more! www.datarescueproject.org/guest-post-g...
Very excited to have a software paper with @yh-huang.bsky.social in the CHR journal on the Digital Collections Explorer, our open-source multimodal viewer for digital collections!
Rebecca Sutton Koeser@suttonkoeser.bsky.social · 8mo agoCheck out the recently published software paper on Digital Collections Explorer by @yh-huang.bsky.social and @bcgl.bsky.social - web-based, open-source exploratory, multimodal search for cultural heritage collections doi.org/10.1017/chr....
New Research Tool: GovScape (US Gov PDFs) govscape.net ||| Research Paper (preprint) About #GovScape arxiv.org/abs/2511.11010 #govdocs @eotarchive.org
Anyone interested in govt transparency and public access should check out GovScape from @bcgl.bsky.social and his team👇 It's an incredibly powerful tool that allows visual, semantic text, and keywords search of 10 million U.S. government PDFs (70 million pages!) and counting: www.govscape.net
Ben Lee@bcgl.bsky.social · 9mo ago1/ Announcing GovScape – a public search system for 10 million U.S. government PDFs (70 million pages)! GovScape offers visual search, semantic text search, and keyword search. Explore below: Website: www.govscape.net ArXiv link: arxiv.org/abs/2511.11010
We’re live! Search 10 million+ U.S. government PDFs (70 million pages)! GovScape offers visual search, semantic text search, and keyword search. Explore below: Website: govscape.net ArXiv link: arxiv.org/abs/2511.11010
Huge step forward in enabling access and use of content archived from government websites!
Ben Lee@bcgl.bsky.social · 9mo ago1/ Announcing GovScape – a public search system for 10 million U.S. government PDFs (70 million pages)! GovScape offers visual search, semantic text search, and keyword search. Explore below: Website: www.govscape.net ArXiv link: arxiv.org/abs/2511.11010
1/ Announcing GovScape – a public search system for 10 million U.S. government PDFs (70 million pages)! GovScape offers visual search, semantic text search, and keyword search. Explore below: Website: www.govscape.net ArXiv link: arxiv.org/abs/2511.11010
govscape.net
Assistant Professor Ben Lee @bcgl.bsky.social's essay on the topic of AI and Holocaust Memory, “Uncanny Testimony,” was published by @longreads.com: longreads.com/2025/09/25/a...
Uncanny Testimony - Longreads
As the last Holocaust survivors approach the end of their lives, an AI scholar grapples with technology that promises to freeze them in time.
longreads.com
“For all its futuristic appeal, I felt myself turning to the past. I yearned to speak with my grandmother about her life.” A scholar at the intersection of AI and Holocaust memory wrestles with technology that speaks with the dead. By @bcgl.bsky.social: longreads.com/2025/09/25/a...
Uncanny Testimony - Longreads
As the last Holocaust survivors approach the end of their lives, an AI scholar grapples with technology that promises to freeze them in time.
longreads.com
For @longreads.com, I wrote a personal essay about AI Holocaust testimony, my grandmother, memory, and memory loss longreads.com/2025/09/25/a...
Uncanny Testimony - Longreads
As the last Holocaust survivors approach the end of their lives, an AI scholar grapples with technology that promises to freeze them in time.
longreads.com
Appreciated this thoughtful piece from @bcgl.bsky.social. Eloquently puts into words some of concerns about a particular use of AI that I've been grappling with.
Longreads@longreads.com · 10mo ago“But what if, instead of resisting the deaths of the last survivors, we allow ourselves to accept their mortality?” The grandson of an Auschwitz-Birkenau survivor grapples with the use of AI to reanimate the dead. A new essay on @longreads.com, by @bcgl.bsky.social: longreads.com/2025/09/25/a...
“But what if, instead of resisting the deaths of the last survivors, we allow ourselves to accept their mortality?” The grandson of an Auschwitz-Birkenau survivor grapples with the use of AI to reanimate the dead. A new essay on @longreads.com, by @bcgl.bsky.social: longreads.com/2025/09/25/a...
For @longreads.com, I wrote a personal essay about AI Holocaust testimony, my grandmother, memory, and memory loss longreads.com/2025/09/25/a...
Uncanny Testimony - Longreads
As the last Holocaust survivors approach the end of their lives, an AI scholar grapples with technology that promises to freeze them in time.
longreads.com
My lab is running a study to investigate how serendipity relates to information seeking in digital collections. We're looking for researchers & practitioners who have used, designed, or stewarded digital collections to participate in our survey (<10 min): forms.gle/zGJDZZ14vx2M...
Survey on Serendipity and Information Seeking in Digital Collections
Purpose of the Study We are seeking to understand the different methods of information seeking in digital collections. In addition, we would like to understand what the participants' perceptions of se...
forms.gle