Counterpoint: no they don’t. University administrators, academic advisors, faculty in STEM departments, boards of trustees, state funding bodies, employers, etc. are the ones who “need to do more.” “The Humanities” (whatever that means) is already doing the absolute most.

Asheesh Kapur Siddique@asheeshks.org · 13h ago

"Unlike large math or physics courses, humanities courses are often best delivered as discussion seminars, which place a natural cap on their size . . . if done well, there will in fact be a need to hire more faculty to lead small-group seminar discussions." www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

I’ve been known to try to type “airplane” and “aircraft” simultaneously, which typically leads to “aircrap.”

Aparna Nair@disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 2d ago

Mine tends to be pubic health sigh

Yes, we were learning about the Encyclopédie and the Enlightenment today in my history of technology class, how can you tell?

Karen advised my MA at Queen’s 2010-11. I was fresh out of journalism and armed with more enthusiasm than skills or awareness of what “doing history” was. Although I didn’t continue at Queen’s, Karen shaped how I understood this profession—grounded in community, the “personal,” and the “political.”

ActiveHistory.ca@activehist.bsky.social · 5d ago

Karen Dubinsky, Professor Emerita of History and Global Development Studies at Queen’s U, passed away on 4 Sept. 2026 after a brief illness. Karen was a longtime supporter of—and contributor to—Active History. We mourn her loss, even as we celebrate her life. Post by Susan Lord and Scott Rutherford

I do these too. I call them “Engagement Challenges” because I want to imply that “engaging” with course material matters. They’re not worth points on their own, but students get a “check” for meeting the requirements. (I also refer to “attendance and participation” as “engagement” for this reason.)

Gregory A. Hargreaves@bordergroves.bsky.social · last wk.

My students are mostly first years. So part of my job is to teach how to do college in addition to teaching history. This involves some tough love. Pop quizzes are a great way to teach students that, yes, they actually *do* have to do the reading when assigned.

Friends: academic undergrad-appropriate articles/essays/chapters about the Luddites and early industrialization? I casually used the colloquialism in class today and a student asked what it meant. I immediately sent them a couple of podcast eps, but I want to provide some reading material too.

hey so I have a Log Driver’s Waltz sweatshirt and it goes so hard * I also had a Log Driver’s Waltz t-shirt from a NFB/Roots collab from like 2014 but I wore and washed it so much it’s falling apart. ** I also have a Telefrancais sweatshirt. (Both sweatshirts are from Retrokid.ca )

Retrokid™ - Show off your childhood

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Faine Greenwood@faineg.com · 2w ago

everyone stop what they’re doing and watch the classic Log Driver’s Waltz animation right now

EVERYBODY needs a history of science class …comp sci is collapsing. But history/philosophy/soc/anthro of computing? Thriving! Relevant expertise! Rich texts! Want to study Computer but can no longer Do Computer due to LLMs? Boy do I have a humanities discipline for you! (/s it’s all collapsing…)

Chris Millard@chrismillard83.bsky.social · 3w ago

this is perhaps the most useful thing that LLMs and GenAI have done: to provoke people into articulating (over again) that even the 'hardest' of 'hard sciences' are human endeavours, with human meaning, and concerned with human understanding of the significance of the world we all inhabit

I’m teaching a 3h night class this semester and I look JUST LIKE THIS when I get home at like 9:30 pm.

Dr. Blair Stein@blairstein.bsky.social · 4w ago

She’s at it again! I like this one so much it just might be my new author photo. Really captures how I’m feeling about the new semester.

Fascinated by all the Canadians in the replies. I’m from Ottawa, moved to Oklahoma in 2012 until 2019 for grad school ,and have since also lived in northern New York and now Michigan. This said OKC was my least likely city, and NYC was my most. I don’t even know what I sound like any more.

Jerry Chen@jcsalterego.bsky.social · 3w ago

near 20 years in texas and i still got my northeastern roots mydialect.us/quiz-standar...

me, but with a joke from like Anchorman or Zoolander or something

Ted McCoy 🖖@tedmccoy.bsky.social · 3w ago

Dead silent lecture theatre as I ask my students if they are into an album I like that was released when they were all eight years old

oh no. (my Madisons are mostly Aidens, Braydens, Jadens, and Caidens/Kaydens, also some Jaylens and the occasional Kailyn. I even taught a Braylon once.) p.s. not making fun of my students! I care deeply for all my Aidens. These are just the names they have!

McSweeney's@mcsweeneys.net · 4w ago

"On the day the administration released the new strategic plan, which didn’t reflect the committee’s work, they called for volunteers to form a committee to start drafting the next new strategic plan." www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/pro...

She’s at it again! I like this one so much it just might be my new author photo. Really captures how I’m feeling about the new semester.

Dr. Blair Stein@blairstein.bsky.social · last mo.

My niece (almost 3) drew this picture of me. She drew the whole family, but she said this one was me because of the hair on top and my phone. Touché, niece.

[bullhorn] what do we want? [crowd] A SINGLE, EASY TO SUMMARIZE BUT NEVERTHELESS SLIGHTLY SURPRISING OR QUIRKY EXPLANATION OF “MODERNITY” [bullhorn] when do we want it? [crowd] EVERY TIME A BOOK GETS PUBLISHED

She’s at it again! I like this one so much it just might be my new author photo. Really captures how I’m feeling about the new semester.

Dr. Blair Stein@blairstein.bsky.social · last mo.

My niece (almost 3) drew this picture of me. She drew the whole family, but she said this one was me because of the hair on top and my phone. Touché, niece.

ONTARIO VESPUCCI

This could be about Rocky Horror OR Clue OR Muppet Treasure Island. And that’s the beauty of it.

Charles Louis Richter@richterscale.bsky.social · last mo.

tim curry's genius was in knowing full well how ridiculous a part was and giving it everything he had regardless, treating it as the most important character that had ever been written and in the process making it real

I’m watching an episode of Reacher with my dad and Reacher kills a bad guy by smushing him between compact shelving at an archive. “This is totally unrealistic,” I say. “No way Reacher would be allowed by himself in the stacks.” “I don’t think this happened in the book,” my dad responds.

My niece (almost 3) drew this picture of me. She drew the whole family, but she said this one was me because of the hair on top and my phone. Touché, niece.

Ages ago my dad gave me his microscope from the 1960s, locked in its case. We tried everything to unlock it, but didn’t want to damage the case and it seemed silly to call a locksmith. LAST YEAR on a whim he brought all his junk drawer “mystery keys” to my house and lo and behold! Microscope!

darth™️@darthbluesky.bsky.social · 2mo ago

for a junk drawer to legally qualify as a real junk drawer, what is the ONE absolute mandatory item it must include? a mysterious key that does not unlock any thing

I have taken the 2-3 lbs of copper that were in the camera which you were probably saving for surveillance Forgive me they were so accessible so valuable and so disruptive

Faine Greenwood@faineg.com · 2mo ago

chat can anyone verify that every single Flock camera has about 2-3 Ibs of copper and about 1-2 grams of gold

hey so just imagine a gritty, Game of Thrones medieval-style film version of Peanut Butter Sandwich by Shel Silverstein A fickle king, his scheming royal court, some upstairs/downstairs class drama with the various townspeople. It takes place over 20 years, which I think classifies it as an epic.

Jesse Hawken@jessehawken.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Studio execs are going to want to adapt more poems for the big screen now

so I started thinking about my fall courses today (sorry!) and I have a question for #skystorians : What’s your favorite academic article (chapter, edited volume essay, etc) about non-European science in the early modern period? My 200-level “Scientific Revolution” survey could use a refresh.

In 2018 I went to the archives hoping to find evidence for something that turns out wasn’t there. That’s how it goes sometimes! Today I’m writing about a tangentially related topic and realized I had photos and notes from that visit. USEFUL STUFF was in there. For this other thing! From 8 YEARS AGO.

Sometimes I think “no, I’m not one of **those** airplane nerds.” And sometimes with only the pilot’s name, a geographic location, and one misspelled mention of the manufacturer I can identify an airplane in some blurry film footage from 1948.

that thing where you spend a whole afternoon hunting down the origins of a historical anecdote and ILL request some articles from like 1937 and a book that’s been out of print since 1974 because maybe just maybe it might be mentioned for like one sentence that will probably be edited out anyway

EVERYBODY riding a bicycle

Scott 𐚁 Cataloochee Hogtoe 𐚁 Cave@hellabarnes.bsky.social · 3mo ago

what is the reverse historical dorito? the thing from the past that would blow our minds in a positive way

When I was a tween my grandma would take *just me* to her favorite Chinese restaurant in Montreal. We’d get Hunan dumplings and she would always ask for spoons at the end so we could finish every drop of the spicy peanut sauce. I can’t remember the name of the restaurant, and I miss Grandma a lot.

Jacquelyn Gill@jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 3mo ago

What’s a meal that haunts you because you can never have it again? Mine is mango rundown tofu, from Jamerica in Madison. I’ve tried unsuccessfully to recreate it form other recipes and nothing has ever come close. And if you search for it, you find tons of posts from other people who also miss it.

I am also terrible EXCEPT when it’s a Benin bronze. I’ve been playing for a little while and rejoice when a Benin bronze appears because I can get it right on and compensate for my shitty scores on other rounds.

Bethany Brookshire@beebrookshire.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Ok this is FUN. It's a daily game from the Met, where you get 10 objects, and you have to identify where and WHEN they objects are from. I am terrible at this game. TERRIBLE. I love it. anthropeum.com

A recent (low-stakes!) experience that I’d like to add to Today’s Discourse about archival work and “discovering” things. I’ve been working for years with an archival collection at a museum. It is not well catalogued. It’s not even in the database search. 1/