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Cameron Blevins

@cblevins.bsky.social

Digital History | US History Professor at CU Denver 📖 Paper Trails: The US Post and the Making of the American West 📖 cblevins.github.io

190 Posts2511 Follower 471 Folgt

Dan Cohen @dancohen.org · 3w ago

A new essay: “Perils of the New Armchair Scholarship” — Like nineteenth-century scholars who wrote about the world without deeply engaging with it, academics who lean too heavily on AI risk becoming paper-thin newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/peri...

Perils of the New Armchair Scholarship

Like nineteenth-century scholars who wrote about the world without deeply engaging with it, academics who lean too heavily on AI risk becoming paper-thin

newsletter.dancohen.org

Cameron Blevins @cblevins.bsky.social · 3w ago

Thrilled that "Expanding Queer Cartographies" has won a Digital Justice Development Grant from @acls1919.bsky.social! Our project will digitize & map thousands of women- and lesbian-friendly bars, restaurants, bookstores, etc. that appeared in the lesbian travel guide Gaia's Guide (1970s-1990s) +

American Council of Learned Societies@acls1919.bsky.social · 4w ago

ACLS announces the recipients of the 2026 ACLS Digital Justice Grants. $800,000 in grants will fund community-led and publicly engaged digital projects across the US.

Cameron Blevins @cblevins.bsky.social · 2mo ago

🎙️ We're thrilled to release Listening to Auraria's Past, an audio walking tour of Denver's old Westside neighborhood that was razed by the city in the 1970s to build a downtown campus for higher education. This tour tells the story of the displaced community that lived there: aurariahistory.org +

Listening to Auraria's Past

A Historical Tour of a Displaced Neighborhood

aurariahistory.org

Daniel van Strien @danielvanstrien.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Built a useful GLAM model this week: flags blank index cards before expensive OCR. Cheap, scales, adapts. IMO the technical barrier is now very low, the main one is knowing how. So I wrote this up as a chapter: danielvanstrien.xyz/ai-patterns-for-glam/patterns/index-card-classifier.html

Two archival index cards side by side. Left, labelled "blank": a bare card with only a punch hole near the bottom centre. Right, labelled "content (not-blank)": a typed catalogue card with shelf number, book title, date, and a library form stamp.

Rebecca Wingo @rebeccawingo.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Are you tired of the same old, same old in your US History II survey? Feeling stuck in a rut? Annoyed that your students won't read long articles? Have no fear -- "US History in 15 Photographs" is here to save the day!

book cover of us history in 15 photographs

Jim Clifford @jimclifford.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I'm launching a new project with @joguldi.bsky.social today: Working Papers in Critical Search. Today we're publishing the first working paper: "Why a Working Paper Series on Critical Search Now" #digitalhistory #digitalhumanities working-papers-in-critical-search.github.io/paper-001-in...

Why a Working Paper Series on Critical Search Now – Working Papers in Critical Search

working-papers-in-critical-search.github.io

Cameron Blevins @cblevins.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Google Slides' new "Beautify this slide" AI tool is comedic gold. Don't think I could have made an uglier, more illegible slide if I tried:

Results of clicking "Beautify this slide" for Google Slides.
Text of slide:
Please fill out your FCQ
for this class by 11:59PM tonight!
https://colorado.campuslabs.com/
Currently only 65% response rate - if you get to 85% everyone gets 4 extra points on Final Exam
Complete assignment: “Did you fill out the FCQ for HIST 1362?” on Canvas (part of Participation grade)

Andrew Heiss @andrew.heiss.phd · 3mo ago

Got to present this early draft paper today at a neat workshop organized by @rohanalexander.bsky.social. It's my attempt to grapple with the need for struggle and friction in learning in a world where LLMs remove all that friction. Read the whole thing at stats.andrewheiss.com/pinky-lychee/

AI for Me, Not (Yet) for Thee? Desirable Difficulties and Deliberate Friction with LLMs

Author: Andrew Heiss

Affiliation: Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University

Latest version: May 1, 2026

Details: This is a short position paper written for the Toronto Data Workshop’s 2nd Colloquium on Applications of AI, “Notes on the Future of Quantitative Social Science,” held at the University of Toronto on May 1, 2026.

Abstract: I am simultaneously a critical skeptic of large language models (LLMs) and their role in the learning process, and a reluctant and wary user of those same tools in my own work. This essay is an attempt to work through this tension by examining how LLM-based tools shape and reshape the foundations of expertise required to use them. If learners can generate working code through a Google search, if they can upload a blank problem set template and get a completed assignment in seconds, and if they can design, carry out, and analyze research projects in minutes, how can they build the expertise that is required to work with LLM output? Relatedly, if experienced researchers spend the bulk of their time reviewing LLM output and not working through code themselves, what happens to their expertise? The answer to these questions, I argue, is to deliberately introduce difficulty and friction in quantitative work, allowing learners to build expertise and helping experienced researchers maintain it.

Paul Röttger @paul-rottger.bsky.social · 3mo ago

New paper w/ UK AISI: Millions of people now use AI to help them write and communicate. In three experiments (14k participants, 3m+ human ratings) we show that AI writing assistance systematically distorts writer personas – their perceived beliefs, personality, and identity. 🧵

Mackenzie @mackymoo.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I dumped some feelings in a blog post about teaching DH right now. mackenziekbrooks.info/update/2026/...

AI feelings

A few weeks ago, toward the end of the semester, I left my classroom, walked into sunshine and 80 degrees, and started crying. The weight of the semester was...

mackenziekbrooks.info

Melanie Walsh @mellymeldubs.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I'm proud that Responsible Datasets in Context (RDIC) also won a DH Award for Best Training Materials. This is a project with @electrostani.bsky.social, @miriamposner.com, Sylvia Fernández, and Anna Preus. www.responsible-datasets-in-context.com

Home

Responsible Datasets in Context

responsible-datasets-in-context.com

Melanie Walsh @mellymeldubs.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Fun to see that "Bears Will Be Boys," which I wrote with folks from the @puddingviz.bsky.social, won a 2025 Digital Humanities Award! pudding.cool/2025/07/kids...

screenshot of Bears Will Be Boys essay that shows the title and a smiling cartoon bear with thick black glasses

Cameron Blevins @cblevins.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Generative AI has forced me to think a lot more concretely about all the discrete components of doing historical work - and where the value of those different pieces lie

I think we need to stop asking whether Al is "good" or "bad" for historians, or trying to discuss how to police our students who we think are "cheating", and start asking more specific questions. For which of our many tasks has Al already crossed the threshold of
"good enough"? Which parts of our labour process are being cheapened, which are being reorganised? And what happens to the formation of future historians if the junior work through which expertise is built gets outsourced to machines?

Lucas Poy@lucaspoy.bsky.social · 4mo ago

A new post on my Substack with some thoughts on the impact of generative AI on academic labour lucaspoy.substack.com/p/if-you-are...

Christopher McKnight Nichols @cmcknichols.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Just confirming that Made by History will now be back up and running in the next few weeks with a new home and new partners at the Philadelphia Inquirer. Exciting! So, if you have pitches, now's the time to start sending them to madebyhistory@inquirer.com 🗃️ #MadebyHistory #HistoryMatters

Cameron Blevins @cblevins.bsky.social · 4mo ago

"Student AI Bill of Rights" is a nicely scoped document from @studentdefense.bsky.social. It raises some interesting questions around enforcement/implementation + defendstudents.org/all/student-...

Student Defense Unveils “Student AI Bill of Rights,” Calls For Adoption From Higher Education Institutions — Student Defense

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 3, 2026 MEDIA CONTACT press@defendstudents.org 303-646-7816 Student Defense Unveils “Student AI Bill of Rights,” Calls For Adoption From Higher Education Inst...

defendstudents.org

Cameron Blevins @cblevins.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Interesting parallels here in the “flow” of vibe coding vs. gambling

One thing many of us love about computer programming is our experiences of flow. On the surface, vibe coding can seem to induce a similar flow. However, it often violates the same characteristics of flow that fail with gambling:
• Vibe coding does not provide clear clues of how well one is performing (and even provides misleading losses disguised as wins).
• The match between challenge level and skill level is murky.
• It provides a false sense of control in which people think they are influencing outcomes more than they are.
With vibe coding, people often report not realizing until hours, weeks, or even months later whether the code produced is any good.

Rachel Thomas@math-rachel.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Vibe coding is the creation of large quantities of complex AI-generated code. Executives push lay-offs claiming AI can handle the work. Managers pressure employees to meet quotas of how much code must be AI-generated... yet results are far from what was promised 1/ www.fast.ai/posts/2026-0...

Anastasia Salter @anasalter.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Gave a talk today on some of the pragmatic ways I use agentic tools in my work, including for building tools and using local models. I recorded some simple examples and shared everything here: anastasiasalter.net/PragmaticAge... (the site itself is a silly example 👾)

Pragmatic Agentic AI in Digital Humanities

A guided tour through agentic tools for humanities scholars

anastasiasalter.net

Dan Cohen @dancohen.org · 4mo ago

New issue of my newsletter: “Vibe Analysis” — Despite its unserious name, vibe coding shows promise for elements of serious scholarly work Featuring good work by @sarahebull.bsky.social, @jasonheppler.org and @cblevins.bsky.social newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/vibe...

Vibe Analysis

Despite its unserious name, vibe coding shows promise for elements of serious scholarly work

newsletter.dancohen.org

Cameron Blevins @cblevins.bsky.social · 4mo ago

This is so, so well-articulated.

People call this friction "grunt work." Schwartz uses exactly that phrase, and he's right that LLMs can remove it. What he doesn't say, because he already has decades of hard-won intuition and doesn't need the grunt work anymore, is that for someone who doesn't yet have that intuition, the grunt work is the work. The boring parts and the important parts are tangled together in a way that you can't separate in advance. You don't know which afternoon of debugging was the one that taught you something fundamental about your data until three years later, when you're working on a completely different problem and the insight surfaces. Serendipity doesn't come from efficiency. It comes from spending time in the space where the problem lives, getting your hands dirty, making mistakes that nobody asked you to make and learning things nobody assigned you to learn.

Minas Karamanis@minaskar.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Hey, I wrote a thing about AI in astrophysics ergosphere.blog/posts/the-ma...

Cameron Blevins @cblevins.bsky.social · 4mo ago

📣 New historical data visualization! "How Fast Was the Mail?" is an interactive map showing how long information took to travel across the US between 1882-1908: cblevins.github.io/mail-time/ +

How Fast Was the Mail?

Explore mail transit times via railway between major U.S. cities, 1882–1908.

cblevins.github.io

Lauren Tilton @nolauren.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Join @taylor-arnold.bsky.social and me for a postdoc to expand distant viewing! 2 years. Awesome liberal arts college. Great city. Option to teach 1-2 courses a year for extra pay. Thanks to Mellon for the opportunity! Happy to answer any questions. richmond.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/staff_...

Lincoln Mullen @lincolnmullen.com · 5mo ago

A few months ago I realized my rare and valuable skill—writing code as a historian—was still valuable but no longer rare. Now I'm thinking about what it means when the technical barriers to digital history drop away.

Behind, ahead | Lincoln Mullen

A historian reflects on how agentic AI coding tools have changed the possibilities for digital history, making once-rare programming skills widely accessible, and argues that digital history should be...

lincolnmullen.com

Jason Heppler @jasonheppler.org · 5mo ago

Lincoln asks, what if generative AI has reduced the technical barriers to doing digital history? Similarly I ask, with an example, what if vibing Just Works?

Behind, ahead | Lincoln Mullen

How agentic AI coding tools have changed the possibilities for digital history, making once-rare programming skills widely accessible, and with an argument that digital history should be judged by the quality of its ideas, not the difficulty of its implementation.

lincolnmullen.com

Katie McDonough @kmcdono.bsky.social · 5mo ago

How are historians rethinking environmental and social history via improved OCR of imperial archives? Join us this Wednesday 3pm UK time to hear from @jimclifford.bsky.social and @historyjacob.bsky.social - registration link below.

Katie McDonough@kmcdono.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Join the Lancaster-Manchester Environmental #DH Seminar on March 11 @ 3pm UK (online) for a talk by @jimclifford.bsky.social & @historyjacob.bsky.social: "Solving OCR: Using olmOCR to Follow Commodities across the British World" www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/solving-oc... #dhist #ocr #envhist 🗃️

Simon P. Couch @simonpcouch.com · 7mo ago

Whenever I read discourse on AI energy/water use that focuses on the "median query," I can't help but feel misled. Coding agents like Claude Code send hundreds of longer-than-median queries every session, and I run dozens of sessions a day. On my blog: www.simonpcouch.com/blog/2026-01...

A bar chart showing the electricity use of several daily activities with the subtitle "The 'typical query' is not a useful way to think about coding agents' energy use." The bar for a 'typical ChatGPT query' is not even visible. My median Claude Code session is somewhere between the average US household per minute and toasting bread for three minutes. My median day with Claude Code is something like running a dishwasher.

Katie McDonough @kmcdono.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Solving OCR: Using olmOCR to Follow Commodities across the British World

Join the Lancaster-Manchester Environmental DH Seminar for a talk and discussion with Jim Clifford and Jacob Polay (Saskatchewan).

eventbrite.co.uk

Maria Antoniak @mariaa.bsky.social · 5mo ago

I gave a short talk at Cornell yesterday on my science-of-science work investigating how AI is being used by researchers and how we should go about crafting policies in response. Blanket policies are hard, privacy is important, we need more measurement. Slides: drive.google.com/file/d/1gNTK...

In early 2024, researchers were already heavily using AI for work
- Survey of 816 verified authors via Semantic Scholar
- 81% of researchers reported using LLMs in their workflow
- Top uses: information seeking & editing
- Rare for data tasks: 6973% never use LLMs for data cleaning or generation

The measurement problem
LLM content has risen sharply in both review and non-review papers.
Review papers do have a higher prevalence rate.
But non-review LLM papers outnumber review papers 6x.
CS.CY Computers & Society) faces potential 50% cuts compared to CS.CV (Computer Vision) would only face 3%

Interdisciplinary researchers — who move between cultures and write in the “borderlandsˮ — are experts at adapting their writing. LLMs currently are not.

Private information can appear in unlikely prompts

Lucy Li @lucy3.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Models are now expert math solvers, and so AI for math education is receiving increasing attention. Our new preprint evaluates 11 VLMs on our QA benchmark, DrawEduMath. We highlight a startling gap: models perform less well on inputs from K-12 students who need more help. 🧵

Title, author list, and two figures from the paper.
Title: The Aftermath of DrawEduMath: Vision Language Models
Underperform with Struggling Students and Misdiagnose Errors
Authors: Li Lucy, Albert Zhang, Nathan Anderson, Ryan Knight, Kyle Lo
Figure 1: On the left is a math problem, where students are asked to draw x < 5/2 on a number line. The right side shows two example student responses that differ in correctness. DrawEduMath pairs each math problem with one student response, and prompts VLMs to answer questions about the student response.
Figure 2: VLMs consistently perform worse on answering DrawEduMath benchmark questions pertaining to erroneous student responses. Performance on non-erroneous student responses is labeled with specific VLMs’ names; that same model’s performance on erroneous student responses is directly below.

Cameron Blevins @cblevins.bsky.social · 5mo ago

This whole thread is great. I've been focusing so much on how AI can short-circuit learning that I haven't been considering the flip side of spurring motivation by expanding what ppl (in my case, students) think they're capable of doing

Cat Hicks@grimalkina.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Across my interviews with developers, AND across my conversations with people who were not as of several months ago developers and now are (???), this motivation effect is clear. I am baffled that psychology is not more interested in this: the expectation of what's possible is changing for people

Anastasia Salter @anasalter.bsky.social · 5mo ago

I find this to be the most depressing example of agentic AI adoption out there (as someone who does see real value in agentic coding tools for DH), but I'm even more depressed by the "abandon Canvas" solutions I see folks posting in response. This impacts anything involving a computer, period. (4/5)