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Prof. B. (Tracey Billado-Lotson)

@billadot.bsky.social

Historian of 🇫🇷: C10th-12th Anjou; violence, customs, law, monks/nuns, lordship, unfreedom, charters. She/her.

37 Posts2753 Follower 964 Folgt

Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 5mo ago

He took the hand of a trembling teenager beside him, and told him not to worry, "It doesn't hurt." Vive la France. Vive l'humanité.

Homage to Marc Bloch By Georges Altman 1945

marxists.org

Liesbeth Corens@onslies.bsky.social · 2y ago

Today's the anniversary of the Nazis executing Marc Bloch. Or, someone who could sit with uncertainty, champion inquiry & trying to understand, and recognise plurality & perplexity. And, in that knowledge, made the choice not to remain passive. Bloch, Historian’s Craft (MUP, 1992), pp. 64, 119, 160.

his comrades address him with a look of amazement. "extraordinary! You don't even seem to mind this awful uncertainty!" My friend could have answered that, despite the popular prejudice, the mental climate of research is not so unsympathetic to ready acceptance of the lottery of fate.

Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 5mo ago

The AAUP chapters at Vanderbilt & Wash U have issued a joint statement denouncing the “State of Scholarship” report commissioned by their chancellors. Please, let’s make this as widely read as the gaslighting to which it responds.

Joint Statement on the "State of Scholarship" Report
The Vanderbilt University and Washington University chapters of the American Association of University Professors express our profound disagreement with the "State of Scholarship" report commissioned by our universities' chancellors. The report distorts the state of humanistic and social scientific scholarship at our universities and in the academy overall. Worse, it proposes a shocking intrusion of university administration into faculty governance and portends greater threats to academic freedom that should concern all faculty.
The report currently appears on Vanderbilt's website under the insignia of both Vanderbilt and Washington Universities. It is already receiving public condemnation. As the American Council of Learned Societies makes clear, the report is founded on false premises and anecdotal evidence and thus does nothing to "ensure deeper and more meaningful relations among scholars and members of the public." No doubt more rebuttals from scholars, departments, and professional societies will follow. It suffices for us to say that the report falls far short of the standards of political neutrality and disinterested inquiry it claims to champion. Historians, literary scholars, and anthropologists are singled out for caricature while the authors fail to acknowledge their own public biases against scholarship performed in the name of social justice. Nor does the report divulge its source of funding or conflicts of interest that may entail - standard practice for any work of humanistic or social scientific scholarship. In sum, the report is itself a clear example of "politicized" research that its authors attempt to decry.
What is most alarming is the guidance the report offers to its intended audience of university chancellors and presidents. By falsely arguing that humanities and social science departments are in the throes of an epistemological crisis, the authors lay the groundwork for university adminis…

Weakening faculty governance does nothing to solve the real challenges facing our universities, and undermines our ability to effectively address society's most profound problems and challenges, from the inequalities of wealth and white supremacy to the political consequences of climate change.
Indeed, the direst threats to public trust in higher education are not philosophical debates about the nature of truth. Currently, the federal government is dramatically cutting funding for the humanities and social sciences as well as for the natural sciences, engineering, medicine, public health, and the arts. In response, university administrations have instituted austerity measures, even as administrative salaries and administrative positions have taken up an increasing share of decreasing budgets.
The best way for scholars to cultivate diverse opinions and advance knowledge is by strengthening academic freedom. Political threats to higher education have degraded, and will continue to degrade, the quality of all fields of our universities' research, to the detriment of America's global standing.
We note that the organizations now working most actively and successfully to defend academic free inquiry from politicized federal interference are not university leaders but the American Council of Learned Societies, the Modern Language Association, and the American Historical Association - professional societies of the very disciplines chastised by the report.
We call on our chancellors to rescind the report and affirm their commitment to the intellectual autonomy of faculty, academic departments, and governing faculty bodies. Administrative interference into academic departments, as licensed by this report, is a violation of the standards of academic freedom that have made American universities the envy of the world. Rather than undermining these bedrock principles, administrators should vigorously and publicly defend them.
Vanderbilt University AAUP
vanderbiltaaup@gmail.com
Wa…

Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Biggest comeback in history? 999: Icelanders convert to Christianity & ditch Norse myth↩️ 1200's: Snorri Sturluson uses the power of euhemerism to make Norse myth biblical↩️ 1930's: a very Catholic Norse scholar pilfers the edda for character names↩️ 2026: Pope quotes a character called Gandalf 🇮🇸👑

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 5mo ago

I avoid AI tools because thinking is supposed to be hard. It’s what makes us human | Wendy Liu

As intelligence itself becomes privatised by big tech, allowing your intellectual faculties to wither in service of inane bots seems a dangerous move, says author Wendy Liu

theguardian.com

Monica H Green @monicamedhist.bsky.social · 6mo ago

I'm just going to juxtapose these two amazing posts, so I have them back-to-back. With so much crushing disrespect & defunding the Humanities have endured since 2008, I need to bask in this (fleeting?) moment of glory. 1/2 bsky.app/profile/paul...

Paula Krebs@paulakrebs.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Nice coverage in The Atlantic “The country’s commitment to the humanities has been affirmed in court, and I love that.” (Me)

Katie Hodges-Kluck, PhD @klhkhistorian.bsky.social · 6mo ago

I'm excited to finally be able to show off what our RBS comms team has been working on for the past several months! The site was built by openbox9, and Kim Curtis & I oversaw the process from RBS's end, but this truly was a team effort. Thanks to all who helped us get from concept to launch!

Rare Book School@rarebookschool.bsky.social · 6mo ago

RBS is pleased to announce the launch of our newly redesigned website, which offers a more accessible, intuitive, and richly connected experience for exploring the School’s courses, resources, and programs. We invite you to explore the new website at www.rarebookschool.org.

A vertically oriented graphic is topped by a horizontal black bar with bold white text reading, “Rare Book School Launches Redesigned Website.” Below this is a screenshot of the new RBS website’s homepage, which has a dark brick-red background against which the menu items and header text are in white and cream text. The menu items are: Courses, Scholarships & Fellowships, Events & Exhibitions, Community & Resources, and About RBS. Below this, display text reads, “Studying, Preserving, and Sharing Humanity’s Story.” This is followed by a cropped image of an East Asian line drawing showing a lion-like animal in the middle of a busy scene surrounded by people and holy figures in various dynamic poses. In the lower portion of the graphic, black text in a white box reads, “’This new website reflects who we are and whom we aspire to serve. Our community spans continents and career stages, and this site is designed to welcome all of them, from a first-time visitor curious about rare books to a seasoned scholar looking for their next course.’ – RBS Executive Director Michael F. Suarez, S.J.”

The Evil Dr. Joanna and Her Two Giant Demon Dogs @jlphistory.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Good morning. I wish I could express clearly to my students that the students who write poorly-expressed papers with gramatical errors and misunderstandings are doing so much better and learning so much more than students who ask a LLM to analyze an article for them.

Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Another university getting rid of things you could only ever do at a university and replacing them with stuff a 13-year-old can do on a phone

Post from Andrew A.N. Deloucas
@aandeloucas.com:

In line with discussion about the job market, the latest majors being closed at Syracuse University:

Nine majors "sunsetting":
• Classical civilization
• Classics (Greek and Latin)
• Digital humanities
• Fine arts
• German
• Latino-Latin American studies
• Middle Eastern studies
• Modern Jewish studies
• Russian
ALT

The First University in the Nation to Build a Center Dedicated to the Creator Economy
Syracuse University is creating something that doesn't exist anywhere else in higher education.
The Center for the Creator Economy is the first academic center of its kind on a U.S. college campus. Led jointly by the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Martin).
Whitman School of Management, the center reinforces Syracuse University's commitment to bold, forward-looking academic leadership.
By aligning strengths in entrepreneurship, media, communications, athletics and digital infrastructure, the University is charting how higher education can prepare students for the 21st-century economy.

Howard Eissenstat @heissenstat.bsky.social · last yr.

I am struck less by the hypocrisy of universities sanctioning their faculty than by their consistency. They are utterly consistent in their craven response to pollical pressure.

Ruth EJ Booth's (she/they) Resting Grump Face @ruthejbooth.bsky.social · last yr.

"If your books were uploaded to LibGen/fed into the LLMs, add your name to the potential class action lawsuit by tomorrow." Details: LibDem database: www.theatlantic.com/technology/a... Attorney form: www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-au... (This information comes via a reliable Discord source.)

Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI

Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.

theatlantic.com

Charlie Rozier @rozierhistorian.bsky.social · last yr.

The Haskins Society is now on BlueSky! Look out for posts over the next few days which advertise our involvement in the @imc-leeds.bsky.social Head over and give us a follow @haskinssociety.bsky.social

Rua M. Williams @fractalecho.bsky.social · 2y ago

If you're a grad student or an undergrad interested in research I need to you listen to me very carefully. You cannot learn to write good research papers if you do not read good research papers. Stop asking LLMs to summarize papers for you.

Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 2y ago

This passage from @benjamincarterhett.bsky.social's book on Hitler's rise to power has long haunted me for the way it describes how so many ordinary Germans had their minds & souls gradually rewired by the changing political climate of the 1930s. Watching something similar happen here is terrifying.

goose-stepping Stormtroopers. Suddenly, the whole. thing looks close and familiar Alongside the viciousness of much of German politics in the Weimar years was an incongruous innocence: few people could imagine the worst possibilities. A civilized nation could not possibly vote for Hitler, some had thought. When he became chancellor nonetheless, millions expected his time in office to be short and ineffectual. Germany was a notoriously law-abiding as well as cultured land. How could a German government systematically brutalize its own people? German Jews were highly assimilated and patriotic. Many refused to leave their homeland, even as things got worse and worse.
Tam German and am waiting for the Germans to come back; they have gone to ground somewhere," Victor Klemperer wrote in his diary-he was the son of a rabbi and a veteran of the First World War who chose to stay, and miraculously survived.
Few Germans in 1933 could imagine Treblinka or Auschwitz, the mass shootings of Babi Yar or the death marches of the last months of the Second World War. It is hard to blame them for not foreseeing the unthinkable. Yet their innocence failed them, and they were catastroph-ially wrong about their future. We who come later have one advantage over them: we have their example before us.

Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 2y ago

In a few years (max) when people start asking why we thought AI was a good idea I am creating a record that we did NOT think it was a good idea and the main reason people were ever convinced was billions of dollars of propaganda

Anna Meier @annameier.bsky.social · 2y ago

Rümeysa's legal team is coordinating a fundraiser for her and her family to help them deal with this crisis, including medical costs since ICE has kept Rümeysa from accessing all her medications. Please donate if you're able:

Justice for Rumeysa Ozturk

Dear Friends, Allies, and Supporters,

chuffed.org

Merien ten Houten @merien.com · 2y ago

If you are at an event where someone on stage gives a Hitler salute and that person is not dragged off by security and kicked out, you are at a Nazi rally.

Prof. B. (Tracey Billado-Lotson)@billadot.bsky.social · 2y ago

My condolences to his entire family. He will be truly missed. It is rare to find a scholar of his intellect and achievement who was also such a kind and lovely person.

Richard Moore@richardmoore.bsky.social · 2y ago

My father, the medieval historian Bob (R.I.) Moore, died peacefully this morning after a long and increasingly-not-fun battle with cancer.

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌@chanda.blacksky.app · 2y ago

In light of this deeply illegal activity at NSF and the ongoing attack on American science, I'm posting the slides from my 2017 talk at the American Physical Society about the Nazi take over of German physics/why German is no longer science's lingua franca 🧪 🧵 1/26 drive.google.com/file/d/1_MCm...

nazi germany & physics
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, PhD
Department of Physics,University of Washington, Seattle
APS April Meeting, January 2017
Dismantling the (Nazi) German Nuclear Reactor (Pile) at Haigerloch, 50 km SW of Stuttgart, in April 1945

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌@chanda.blacksky.app · 2y ago

LAWLESS NSF: Every NSF employee who is following the director on this funding freeze and fishing expedition is in violation of US code. per the post below, this language has been reauthorized twice, most recently by Biden in 2022 as the CHIPS Act. www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/... 🧪

Waitman Wade Beorn, PhD, FRHistS @waitmanwbeorn.com · 2y ago

In 1935, in compliance with the Nuremburg Laws, the German military dismissed all Jews serving in its ranks. Just sayin.

Erin Reed@erininthemorning.com · 2y ago

Everyone should be aware of the line that has been crossed in the Trump trans military EO. No longer is this about "evidence," "science" or "protecting kids." Now, explicitly, black and white, it's about trans people being "liars," "dishonorable," "false." It's a big step towards very bad things.

NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 2y ago

Whether it’s Obama, wearing a tan suit or Elon Musk doing Hitler salutes, both sides have engaged in incendiary behavior

Dr. Sabrina Mittermeier @smittermeier.bsky.social · 2y ago

What is the average professor afraid of? - mainly: „train delays“ - the projector in the class room not working again - being invited to things - explaining what they do again at parties that they were regrettably invited to after all - the continued destruction of their whole field - Eduroam

Post nicht verfügbar.

Katherine Weikert @kateweikert.bsky.social · 2y ago

I don't have further details, but proposed job cuts at Uni Northants are threatening several programmes, including their MA History. Please consider signing, please consider sharing. chng.it/5vBRtgx2xx

Sign the Petition

STOP The Job Cuts at the University of Northampton

chng.it

Nadine Whitney @nadinewhitney.bsky.social · 2y ago

Happy New Year from Dorothy Parker (and me).

Telegram sent by author Dorothy Parker to Robert Benchley on December 31st 1929.

Text reads.

You come right over here and explain why they are having another year.

Elizabeth Boyle @thecelticist.bsky.social · 2y ago

"By making over these women in our own image, we lose so much of what was distinctive and beautiful about their literature." What Were the Lives of Medieval Women Like? www.nytimes.com/2024/12/10/b...

What Were the Lives of Medieval Women Like? (Gift Article)

In “Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife” the historian Hetta Howes seeks to relate to figures of the past.

nytimes.com

weird medieval guys @weirdmedieval.bsky.social · 2y ago

snowball fight, italy, ca. 1400

Prof. B. (Tracey Billado-Lotson)@billadot.bsky.social · 2y ago

I guess the secret is out now: so pleased to be included in this collection for Sharon Farmer! Many thanks to Tanya Stabler Miller, Nancy McLoughlin and @abbydowling.bsky.social for all their work on the volume!

Medieval Work, Worship, and Power: Persuasive and Silenced Voices

Medieval Work, Worship, and Power: Persuasive and Silenced Voices celebrates Sharon Farmer's significant contributions to the fields of medieval European social, religious, gender, environmental, labo...

routledge.com