Tessera

Machine images, argues Kyle Sossamon, are no longer meant to mean anything. The antagonisms of representation, engagement, and resistance have been smoothed out. And they call on us to act, not interpret. @versobooks.bsky.social www.publicbooks.org/the-treacher...

The Treachery of Machine Realism - Public Books

“The bombed elementary school in Iran appears to have become a target thanks to satellite imaging. In this case, what the image represented — and to who — was a matter of life and death.”

publicbooks.org

“Such images are burned into the brains of anyone who cares about education.” @cole-adams.bsky.social on the Palestine solidarity movement: www.publicbooks.org/the-last-gra...

The Last Graduate Students? - Public Books

“I began writing this as a record of what it felt like to be a student then, as collective attachments to values—long recognized as fraying, with the knell of the next scapegoat, or horrifying…

publicbooks.org

“One summer afternoon, 10 years ago, I received an email that I initially thought was a prank from a friend.” New at PB: Antonio Y. Vázquez-Arroyo on an email he received from Fredric Jameson—and the fruitful intellectual conversation that followed.

“The Poetics of Social Forms”: Remembering Fredric Jameson (1934–2024) - Public Books

“No other thinker, Hegelian Marxist or otherwise, has lived up to this modernist vocation with the originality, intellectual élan, aesthetic intelligence, and political trenchancy of Fredric Jameson.”

publicbooks.org

“Planning a life was coming to feel impossible, or silly; writing a dissertation more impossible, and much, much sillier.” New at PB: As universities are brought to their knees by the Trump administration, @cole-adams.bsky.social asks how scholars can make their work responsible to the world.

The Last Graduate Students? - Public Books

“I began writing this as a record of what it felt like to be a student then, as collective attachments to values—long recognized as fraying, with the knell of the next scapegoat, or horrifying…

publicbooks.org

“Over the decades, Jameson showed great intellectual independence and courage in going against the grain of anti-Marxism.” www.publicbooks.org/the-poetics-...

“The Poetics of Social Forms”: Remembering Fredric Jameson (1934–2024) - Public Books

“No other thinker, Hegelian Marxist or otherwise, has lived up to this modernist vocation with the originality, intellectual élan, aesthetic intelligence, and political trenchancy of Fredric Jameson.”

publicbooks.org

New at PB: @cole-adams.bsky.social reflects on what it’s like to be a grad student in the 2020s, when public good, responsibility to others, and democracy itself face the final chopping block. www.publicbooks.org/the-last-gra...

The Last Graduate Students? - Public Books

“I began writing this as a record of what it felt like to be a student then, as collective attachments to values—long recognized as fraying, with the knell of the next scapegoat, or horrifying…

publicbooks.org

“Contemporary images rendered by computer vision and generative AI are no longer representational, they are activational.” @versobooks.bsky.social www.publicbooks.org/the-treacher...

The Treachery of Machine Realism - Public Books

“The bombed elementary school in Iran appears to have become a target thanks to satellite imaging. In this case, what the image represented — and to who — was a matter of life and death.”

publicbooks.org

Public Books @publicbooks.bsky.social · 4d ago

“What is an image if it is no longer even made to be viewed by human eyes, even as it acts on us?” @versobooks.bsky.social www.publicbooks.org/the-treacher...

The Treachery of Machine Realism - Public Books

“The bombed elementary school in Iran appears to have become a target thanks to satellite imaging. In this case, what the image represented — and to who — was a matter of life and death.”

publicbooks.org

New at PB: In a new review of “How to See Like a Machine: Images After AI” by Trevor Paglen (@versobooks.bsky.social), Kyle Sossamon asks: In an age of machine images, by what means can we establish an ethics of seeing? www.publicbooks.org/the-treacher...

The Treachery of Machine Realism - Public Books

“The bombed elementary school in Iran appears to have become a target thanks to satellite imaging. In this case, what the image represented — and to who — was a matter of life and death.”

publicbooks.org

Public Books @publicbooks.bsky.social · 4d ago

New at PB: Antonio Y. Vázquez-Arroyo remembers receiving an email from Fredric Jameson ten years ago. What he at first thought was a prank became “one of the most intense, fruitful, and memorable intellectual experiences [he has] ever had.” www.publicbooks.org/the-poetics-...

“The Poetics of Social Forms”: Remembering Fredric Jameson (1934–2024) - Public Books

“No other thinker, Hegelian Marxist or otherwise, has lived up to this modernist vocation with the originality, intellectual élan, aesthetic intelligence, and political trenchancy of Fredric Jameson.”

publicbooks.org

Public Books @publicbooks.bsky.social · 5d ago

“Spectacular destruction—a bombed hospital, a collapsed bridge—generates headlines and outrage. But poisoned soil does not photograph well.” New at PB: Hucen Sleiman on why we do not yet have a name for the violence that makes return impossible. www.publicbooks.org/the-uninhabi...

The Uninhabitable Front - Public Books

“Israeli military aircraft flew low over the Lebanese villages of Ras Naqoura and Aita al-Shaab, spraying agricultural fields with a fine mist... Within days, the green of fields, orchards, and olive…

publicbooks.org

Public Books @publicbooks.bsky.social · 5d ago

“Two years ago today—on September 22, 2024—Fredric Jameson passed away. Every day since has shown our loss, especially politically.” www.publicbooks.org/the-poetics-...

“The Poetics of Social Forms”: Remembering Fredric Jameson (1934–2024) - Public Books

“No other thinker, Hegelian Marxist or otherwise, has lived up to this modernist vocation with the originality, intellectual élan, aesthetic intelligence, and political trenchancy of Fredric Jameson.”

publicbooks.org

Public Books @publicbooks.bsky.social · 6d ago

“The 2006 destruction was never fully repaired; the 2023–4 campaign added new contamination on top of old. War layers damage cumulatively, each conflict deepening the uninhabitability.” www.publicbooks.org/the-uninhabi...

The Uninhabitable Front - Public Books

“Israeli military aircraft flew low over the Lebanese villages of Ras Naqoura and Aita al-Shaab, spraying agricultural fields with a fine mist... Within days, the green of fields, orchards, and olive…

publicbooks.org

Public Books @publicbooks.bsky.social · 6d ago

“Research about Black undocumented people is pretty scant right now.” Felecia Russell’s book “Amplifying Black Undocumented Student Voices in Higher Education” asks us to remember that the undocumented community is not a monolith. www.publicbooks.org/being-undocu...

“Being Undocumented Is Already a Chronic Stress. Then, Add in Blackness”: Talking with Dr. Felecia Russell on the Experience of Black Undocumented Folks - Public Books

"Growing up, I really didn't get exposed to the conversations about immigration, until I found out that I didn't have the proper documentation. Once I learned that, my world, I felt, just really…

publicbooks.org

Public Books @publicbooks.bsky.social · 7d ago

“We record their lives in a spirit of grief for their loss and admiration for their accomplishments and to demand that their killers face accountability for their crimes.” New at PB: Remember Them: Palestine Scholars Murdered in the Gaza Genocide. www.publicbooks.org/remember-the...

Remember Them: Palestine Scholars Murdered in the Gaza Genocide - Public Books

“In Palestine, some 87,000 students have suffered a near total disruption of their studies for the duration of the genocide, and more than 1200 have been killed. Upwards of 200 academic staff have…

publicbooks.org

Public Books @publicbooks.bsky.social · 7d ago

“Consider South Lebanon today. Villages still stand. Homes are intact. Roads are open. … Yet farmers cannot cultivate their land.” New at PB: Hucen Sleiman on ecological warfare. www.publicbooks.org/the-uninhabi...

The Uninhabitable Front - Public Books

“Israeli military aircraft flew low over the Lebanese villages of Ras Naqoura and Aita al-Shaab, spraying agricultural fields with a fine mist... Within days, the green of fields, orchards, and olive…

publicbooks.org

Public Books @publicbooks.bsky.social · 7d ago

“Some of the students were able to find a community through the UndocuBlack Network (UBN). When they couldn’t find community at their institutions, they somehow found a community at UBN.” www.publicbooks.org/being-undocu...

“Being Undocumented Is Already a Chronic Stress. Then, Add in Blackness”: Talking with Dr. Felecia Russell on the Experience of Black Undocumented Folks - Public Books

"Growing up, I really didn't get exposed to the conversations about immigration, until I found out that I didn't have the proper documentation. Once I learned that, my world, I felt, just really…

publicbooks.org

“On the morning of February 1, 2026, Israeli military aircraft flew low over the Lebanese villages of Ras Naqoura and Aita al-Shaab, spraying agricultural fields with a fine mist.” Homes, lands, roads all still exist. But life becomes impossible. www.publicbooks.org/the-uninhabi...

The Uninhabitable Front - Public Books

“Israeli military aircraft flew low over the Lebanese villages of Ras Naqoura and Aita al-Shaab, spraying agricultural fields with a fine mist... Within days, the green of fields, orchards, and olive…

publicbooks.org

“If in earlier novels Cusk has been at work excising plot, dialogue, and character, here she might be said to be performing a transplantation.” New at PB: Nora Shaalan on how “Life of M” shows a change in Rachel Cusk’s approach to setting. www.publicbooks.org/rachel-cusks...

Rachel Cusk’s Diminishing Returns - Public Books

“Cusk remains one of the most formally restless novelists of our time. The trouble is that this inventiveness may now be outpacing Cusk’s thinking.”

publicbooks.org

“They were members of the global intellectual community, and we are all impoverished by the loss of their contributions that would have enriched the worlds of the humanities and sciences.” NA new archive commemorates the scholars killed in genocide in Gaza. www.publicbooks.org/remember-the...

Remember Them: Palestine Scholars Murdered in the Gaza Genocide - Public Books

“In Palestine, some 87,000 students have suffered a near total disruption of their studies for the duration of the genocide, and more than 1200 have been killed. Upwards of 200 academic staff have…

publicbooks.org

“One of the first themes that emerged was the problem of invisibility. For instance, one student said, ‘No one expects a Black person to be undocumented.’” New at PB: Felecia Russell on her work with undocumented Black students. www.publicbooks.org/being-undocu...

“Being Undocumented Is Already a Chronic Stress. Then, Add in Blackness”: Talking with Dr. Felecia Russell on the Experience of Black Undocumented Folks - Public Books

"Growing up, I really didn't get exposed to the conversations about immigration, until I found out that I didn't have the proper documentation. Once I learned that, my world, I felt, just really…

publicbooks.org

“The numbers vary. The pattern does not: War is increasingly waged against the ecological conditions of inhabitation.” New at PB: Hucen Sleiman looks at the way environmental destruction in warfare makes life impossible for generations to come. www.publicbooks.org/the-uninhabi...

The Uninhabitable Front - Public Books

“Israeli military aircraft flew low over the Lebanese villages of Ras Naqoura and Aita al-Shaab, spraying agricultural fields with a fine mist... Within days, the green of fields, orchards, and olive…

publicbooks.org

New at PB: Nora Shaalan reviews “Life of M” by Rachel Cusk. www.publicbooks.org/rachel-cusks...

Rachel Cusk’s Diminishing Returns - Public Books

“Cusk remains one of the most formally restless novelists of our time. The trouble is that this inventiveness may now be outpacing Cusk’s thinking.”

publicbooks.org

“That question still made me feel alienated.” Dr. Felecia Russell recalls her first meeting at a Dreamers club at her high school. “Why is she here?” another student asked—because there were no other Black students in that room. www.publicbooks.org/being-undocu...

“Being Undocumented Is Already a Chronic Stress. Then, Add in Blackness”: Talking with Dr. Felecia Russell on the Experience of Black Undocumented Folks - Public Books

"Growing up, I really didn't get exposed to the conversations about immigration, until I found out that I didn't have the proper documentation. Once I learned that, my world, I felt, just really…

publicbooks.org

“A ceasefire may be signed. Borders may reopen. But violence is no longer something that happens. It is something the environment becomes.” www.publicbooks.org/the-uninhabi...

The Uninhabitable Front - Public Books

“Israeli military aircraft flew low over the Lebanese villages of Ras Naqoura and Aita al-Shaab, spraying agricultural fields with a fine mist... Within days, the green of fields, orchards, and olive…

publicbooks.org

“This archive is produced by a group of academics to honor and commemorate these lives and those of the many other teachers and researchers in higher education murdered in Gaza during the genocide.” www.publicbooks.org/remember-the...

Remember Them: Palestine Scholars Murdered in the Gaza Genocide - Public Books

“In Palestine, some 87,000 students have suffered a near total disruption of their studies for the duration of the genocide, and more than 1200 have been killed. Upwards of 200 academic staff have…

publicbooks.org