I think we can agree that AI detectors are out. But universities are ignoring the fact that faculty cannot really out-design assessments to meet the challenges of this moment. We need sustained institutional support to be the best teachers we can be, and we aren't getting it.

Inside Higher Ed @insidehighered.com · 16h ago

AI Detectors Are Out, New Assessments Are In A growing number of universities have prohibited AI detectors, arguing they are ‘unreliable’ indicators of cheating. But where does that leave faculty, who know all too well that cheating is rampant in the age of AI? https://bit.ly/4wGitF7 #EDUSky

I work at a public library. People who want to use AI seem to have no trouble doing so. People who don't want to use AI have a harder time. I crowdsourced and then finalized this document "How to disable or avoid intrusive AI" and then gave it a short URL: notoai.org Please pass along if it's useful

More anti-slop weapons: a web font that sends different text to the 'AI' scrapers compared to what is read by humans, i.e. what the text actually says. Not sure it's all that useful but it sure is fun to fight back. www.creativebloq.com/design/fonts...

This free font "poisons" AI

Hate AI? Then you might want to try ShieldFont.

creativebloq.com

it's a monday afternoon at the end of july, of course we're writing syllabi against-a-i.com is here for you! and if you're a humanities teacher who's developed materials you'd like to contribute as we glow up for fall, PLEASE SEND! against-a-i.com

150,000 marched yesterday in London for trans rights. Opened the Sky News app. Scrolled and scrolled. Nothing. BBC News app. Nothing. Guardian app. Nothing. This is what actual silencing looks like.

In asexuality studies we would call this "compulsory sexuality", and as Sherronda J. Brown reminds us in the intro to Refusing Compulsory Sexuality, there is a *lot* of overlap btwn CS and rare culture.

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

For the right in general, they not only get to dictate how everyone else gets to have sex, when, and why; they need to create a world where everyone they find attractive must want to have sex with them, when they want it, how they choose it. Its all about controlling sex, consent and pleasure.

Todd Blanche is violating federal law by covering up the Epstein files. Rather than confirming him as attorney general, the Senate ought to demand his prosecution.

Just had meeting with kiddo's school. She has been fully supported, treated with full equality & dignity for years. All of that changes from September. Full segregation & humiliation across the board. The school staff cried in the meeting. This will absolutely lead to children's deaths 1/2

It's tedious to have to litigate every disclosure of sexual violence against a powerful or hell even not-powerful man in terms of "credibility" and "corroboration," when everyone knows that what's at stake is not whether the specific allegation is true but whether it matters.

‼️ The deadline to apply for the @srsrensoc.bsky.social Society for Renaissance Studies Scholars of Colour MA Scholarship is fast approaching. Applications must be submitted by 15 July 2026.   Full details and the application portal can be found on our website: rensoc.org.uk/apply/schola...

I have not really talked about this guy for months because if we are being real he milkshake ducked A VERY LONG TIME AGO and I didn’t want to add to the discourse, but for god’s sake stop acting like men are owed massive power unless proven otherwise.

You aren’t putting him in jail. You’re just letting him continue on his perfectly fine life without being one of the hundred most powerful people in the country.

5/ There is clearly NO SHORTAGE OF CASH at Exeter 6/ Don’t believe the hype - out of touch managers are trying to trash our fantastic uni. Our student numbers are strong, our disciplines are strong, our finances are strong. Let’s keep it that way and #DefendExeterUni

Missed the VC’s speech? Lucky you. Here’s the financial highlights! 1/ Confirmed Exeter uni is STILL IN SURPLUS for 25/26 2/ The top 16 execs at Exeter have a combined pay packet of nearly £4m 3/ The VC has a pay packet of nearly £400k a year 4/ Our cash reserves are going up, year on year [1/2]

RUDE

Brandon T. Snider@brandontsnider.bsky.social · last mo.

Back on my bullsh

So... instead of listening, supporting, or even just respecting LGBTQ+ people during Pride month, some leaders in the US decided June needed a “rebrand”? Calling it “nuclear family month” or “fidelity month” doesn’t magically erase queer people, our histories or our families.

The most dangerous thing about AI is not that the machines might one day think. It is that we are being trained, by men with enormous financial gains riding on our acquiescence, to stop thinking for ourselves.

Since I did do my PhD in cyanobacteria growth and treatment optimization modeling AND work in the water treatment industry, I’m gonna share my theory as to what’s happening here and how to fix it. People are focusing on the painted bottom of the pool increasing residual heat, and while that 1/19

derek guy@dieworkwear.bsky.social · 2mo ago

RIP Mark Rothko. You would have loved how the hydrogen peroxide bleach is only turning the Reflecting Pool blue around the perimeter

I am *thrilled* to share that we are hiring again! A tenure track job in early modern literature! I’ve found Wesleyan a terrific place to work—help us spread the word? wesleyan.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/career...

If you think that criticizing objectivity means evidence should be irrelevant, you have no business being an humanist or any kind of academic.

Just in time for Pride, we have news about the notorious "pink planet," a billion year-old gas supergiant that's 57 light years from Earth. Turns out that this old, pink planet is extremely salty, which feels relatable. news.northwestern.edu/stories/2026...

Famous ‘Pink Planet’ harbors a salty surprise

James Webb Space Telescope finds salt clouds surround one of the coldest objects ever studied

news.northwestern.edu

RIP Margaret Cavendish, you would have hated AI. (see if you can spot the two Early Modern Accidental Emoticons (TM) )

Remember my post earlier this year about the tendency of sex positivity to slip into sex normativity? Or my Early Modern Asexualities conf. paper about the values of differentiating forms of love and attraction? Well: here is that, but in the seventeenth century: #SAM #AspecHistory #RenAsexy

Your reminder that fairy tales are full of stepmothers because women once routinely died in childbirth, from postpartum sepsis, or from other infectious diseases and left behind housefuls of motherless children. Stable nuclear families are made possible by vaccines, antibiotics, and safe abortions.

Catherine Frieman@cjfrieman.bsky.social · 2mo ago

One reason i think everyone should take an archaeology class is to internalise with tangible examples that there is no pure, natural past utopia and that antibiotics and vaccines are what stand between us and a 50% child mortality rate and scores of women dying needlessly during pregn and birth

Standing ovation for Rep. Beatty, who sued Trump over the renaming of the Kennedy Center, took him to court, and won!

The hill I will die on: Women say "like," "um," and "err," so frequently, because when there is the slightest pause in their speech, they are interrupted by men, and don't get the floor back to speak.🤷🏿‍♂️ So people that are frequently interrupted tend to use more verbal fillers. Let women speak.

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2mo ago

The hill I will die on: I really don’t like ‘like’ – or other imprecise and redundant speech | Louis de Bernières

Gender-affirming care for minors is not a bad thing. It’s been so needlessly demonized and the position has been so thoroughly capitulated to that I think people forget it’s actually a good thing. A Grammy award winning artist had gender affirming surgery at 16. It’s a great thing!

Kat is objectively right. For anyone who needs more convincing, I wrote a book on how exactly abuse is rewarded by powerful institutions:

On the Wrong Side: How Universities Protect Perpetrators and Betray Survivors of Sexual Violence

How Universities Protect Perpetrators and Betray Survivors of Sexual Violence

bookshop.org

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

If sexual abuse was really considered a terrible thing, the world's richest and most powerful people wouldn't be abusers. The most valued technology wouldn't produce sexual abuse on demand. And allegations of abuse wouldn't be framed as positive depictions of masculinity. Our culture rewards abuse.

Charting watermarks in Margaret Cavendish's books at the Huntington this week, and delighted as always to see the UFO lurking in the pages of Cavendish's Playes. 👽