What will do in the AI mania? 1) devastating environmental effects 2) devastating labor effects 3) alarm about cognitive surrender 4) the fact that it's not productive for companies and is in fact counterproductive It should be 1, 2, and 3 but it will be 4. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/o...

Opinion | I Helped Run Lululemon. The A.I. Revolution Is a Hot Mess. (Gift Article)

The A.I. revolution is stalling because companies don’t want to admit that integrating the technology is expensive and slow and requires human effort.

nytimes.com

Daaaamn. “AI is the asbestos we're shovelling into the walls of our technological society. Our descendants will spend generations digging it out again, and the longer the bubble goes on without popping, the longer it will take to repair the damage." www.thenerve.news/p/cory-docto...

Cory Doctorow: The people who tell you ‘AI is changing everything’ are lying

It has become impossible to tell managers mesmerised by artificial intelligence that the tools are not, in fact, helpful. So employees just play along with the fiction to keep their jobs, writes our t...

thenerve.news

Word to the wise: any president or board that responds to this letter without formally consulting their faculty and staff through established governance bodies and after a public comment period is abdicating their fiduciary responsibility. #MakeSharedGovernanceMatterMore www.ed.gov/media/docume...

“Prof. Jill Galvan @jillgal.bsky.social said creating an Ohio Civics Board to have sole authority over the state's civics curriculum cuts against the goal of intellectual diversity. The bill, she argued, would establish ‘a state-mandated monopoly on civics.’”

The Columbus Dispatch@dispatch.com · 3d ago

Enrollment ranges from packed classrooms to nearly empty seats as one Republican state senator pushes to give university civics centers more power.

TMC with a must-read list on AI for our times, with a shoutout to the list composed by "literary scholar @mattseybold.bsky.social" on here!

Tressie McMillan Cottom@tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 3d ago

It will depress you! Sorry about that but it’s kind of my jam. I selected well-written books, some of them are even wryly funny at times — if you come from a culture with macabre humor. Still, the issue is big, complex, and scary. All the more reason for us to face it together.

“If this was true, I would be in jail” is not a real profession of innocence; it is a brag about how strenuously the state protects the male right of private sphere violence against women and children.

Rebecca Solnit@rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 4d ago

Those who believe things like this are working hard at not understanding the finite options available to someone whose abuser has not been prosecuted, found guilty, etc. by the law. And how rarely those things happen to abusers, esp. high-status white male abusers.

Watching the spousal abuse conversation by one-upping politician good guys in my state is nauseating.

I cannot rest from discourse. I will see that film again tomorrow. I will drink life to the lees. Again I will enjoy greatly, will suffer greatly, both with those that love me, and in Pleasantville NY. I am become a meme. Film showing: burnsfilmcenter.org/booking/the-...

The Odyssey : Jacob Burns Film Center

The Odyssey, Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Christopher Nolan, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Odysseus, Greek, Classic, Antiquity

burnsfilmcenter.org

Often my academic friends ask how they can help when they learn how Texas is restricting teaching and denying tenure. The answer: Join AAUP. Your dues—small as they are (~$30)—help build collective power to fight for legislation, policy, and in the courts for students, faculty, & staff. Join us!

And this part: "Because the little people can say no. And the big boys can scream and shout and cajole and spend their money and that can work. But not always. Maybe not even mostly. What they can’t do is just say, who gives a fuck; we’re doing what we want."

Josh Marshall@joshtpm.bsky.social · 6d ago

Why the Backlash Against Data Centers Is So Potent talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/why-t...

I've been waiting for this to come out since hearing Emily's amazing paper on it at NAVSA 2025. So excited for this whole Vict Studies-heavy issue, including @ronjaunee.bsky.social et al.'s (super personally resonant) "Dislodged." I love love love how we keep stretching & reflecting on this field.

Emily Steinlight@emilysteinlight.bsky.social · 6d ago

It’s been a hard week and I nearly missed that this was finally out. I wrote “Victorian Studies and the American State” 5 years ago and have been discussing it with some of you for a decade. Surreal to see, and grateful to be in the good company of @jakeromanow.bsky.social and brilliant respondents

"As Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei Asia found in a recent investigation, just five US tech giants — Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Oracle — are hiding an estimated $1.65 trillion in debt that doesn’t appear on balance sheets. futurism.com/artificial-i...

AI Companies Are Trying to Hide a Staggering Amount of Debt

AI companies are pouring tens of billions of dollars into enormous data centers. They're being built on top of a mountain of hidden debt.

futurism.com

Worth reading the entire letter at the link.

American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio@acluohio.bsky.social · 7d ago

📢Ohio State's "Chalking Ban" silences an entire medium of speech in order to discriminate against one political viewpoint; it must not stand for another school year. Without action from the university, we will not hesitate to take legal action in federal court. www.acluohio.org/press-releas...

Damn, I wish I'd seen the Odyssey already so I could play too

Higher ed watchers: this will have major ripple effects because writing/comp is such a key part of every college student's general ed curriculum. Heads up to K-12 teachers in @ncte.org too. www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

NCTE Dissolves 77-Year-Old Composition Association

The National Council of Teachers of English’s decision was met with swift backlash from Conference on College Composition and Communication members, who say their organization is vital to advancing co...

insidehighered.com

proofs! 💖💖💖 @devingarofalo.bsky.social

Devin Garofalo@devingarofalo.bsky.social · 4mo ago

THE BARBARA JOHNSON COLLECTIVE has a cover, a website, and is available for preorder! (Use code NUP2026 for a discount.) See the full contents at the link below — lucky to be part of this extraordinary project and excited to see it in print this fall! ✨🔥 nupress.northwestern.edu/979889948066...

While you're canceling, ask NCTE what they plan to do with the $4.6 million of members' dues and fees that they held as recently as March 6, 2026, in CCCC reserves, $500K more than was in those same reserves in 2024, according to the Executive Secretary Treasurer's report.

Kendall Gerdes 📚🦕@kendalljoy.bsky.social · 2w ago

Anybody on Reddit want to upvote a call to leave NCTE? www.reddit.com/r/ELATeacher...

I would like to stage a really smart “where did we go wrong” and “what is actually happening” group conversation about the university and literary/cultural criticism with informed people… 1/5

Honestly I remember dragging my 11yo to a Victorian poetry class on a school closure day and being so proud that he could see his mom doing his job, then catching sight of him halfway through the class struggling to stay awake

Jeff Lazarus@jlazarus.bsky.social · 2w ago

For my entire career I've wanted to be the professor who gave a lecture while holding my student's babies and I'm continually disappointed that none of my students bring babies to class. (Really I just love babies and my own kids are big now.)

"The Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) is committed to supporting the agency, power, and potential of diverse communicators inside and outside of postsecondary classrooms." cccc.ncte.org/cccc-about/

About CCCC - Conference on College Composition and Communication

Mission Statement Meet the Leaders Click here for the current members the CCCC Officers and Executive Committees! Learn more about current CCCC Executive Committee members in these short videos. CCCC ...

cccc.ncte.org

This helped me to feel more than emotionally manipulated by Disclosure Day. Spielberg as self-conscious about screen magic tricks and and his/our personal investment in believing & doubting them. lareviewofbooks.org/article/disc...

Lights in the Sky | Los Angeles Review of Books

Considering Steven Spielberg’s ‘Disclosure Day’ and his magic-of-movies persona.

lareviewofbooks.org

For those following CCCC news: rapid response to the NCTE moves to eliminate it.

Dan Libertz@dlib24.bsky.social · 2w ago

From Kathleen Blake Yancey with clearest info about possible actions: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Petition to draw national attention to UT-Austin's outrageous denial of Dr. Chaar López's tenure on the basis of his research into border-surveillance technology.

Texas Conference of the AAUP@texasaaup.bsky.social · 2w ago

⭐️⭐️Open Letter Concerning the Tenure Denial of Dr. Iván Chaar López⭐️⭐️ “The future of academic freedom depends upon institutions demonstrating that difficult scholarship will be evaluated on its merits and that faculty governance remains a meaningful safeguard against arbitrary decision making.”

It's come to this. The people are standing up to protect Texas' public universities from their own administrators & government. *People’s Hearing on Protecting Ethnic and Women’s and Gender Studies in Texas Higher Education* Wednesday, August 12, 2026 9:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.

For those who don't quite understand why this is serious, denial of tenure usually means losing your job. It also means that you can meet every metric. Be an outstanding scholar and teacher. Do everything the college asks of you and more. Students love you. Colleagues love you. Now, you're fired.

Texas Conference of the AAUP@texasaaup.bsky.social · 2w ago

🚨Lauren Gutterman, former chair of the American Studies department and AAUP UT Austin Chapter VP: “Iván’s case is a warning for all faculty across the university, because it suggests that achieving excellence in your field is no longer enough to secure tenure and promotion.” ⬇️

Fantastic analysis covering so many prongs of the situation. Automation & deskilling are always about labor-cost saving, esp. in service work, which is what education is. (I think all the time comparatively of telephone operators, some of the 1st service workers. Automated out of existence.)

Dennis Hogan@dennismhogan.bsky.social · 3w ago

Many faculty have been sounding the alarm about the problems generative AI poses for student learning. Strangely, some higher ed administrations seem have emerged as major AI boosters. Why? As I write in the latest @hedgehogreview.bsky.social it's a labor story: hedgehogreview.com/issues/the-f...

Mahmoud Khalil has filed a federal lawsuit against what he alleges is a “public-private conspiracy” to deport him, taking aim at both the Trump admin and a constellation of right-wing figures that relentlessly targeted him over his involvement in anti-Israel protests at Columbia University.

Mahmoud Khalil is suing the White House and Heritage Foundation

The suit alleges a "public-private" conspiracy against Palestinian activists that violates the Ku Klux Klan Act.

motherjones.com

Saw the person bagging my groceries was reading Flynn's Dark Places, raved, said oh! Flynn's been compared to a book I'm excited to read next, I'll find the title! Was still searching long after this poor roped-in bagger had obvi lost interest, so hey, here it is. Victorianists: that cover ALONE.

Dr. Samantha Pinto’s book release date is today. Please join me in congratulating @samanthapinto.bsky.social 💐💐💐💐

Duke University Press@dukepress.bsky.social · last mo.

Check out our new July releases, including "Inside the Body of Black Feminism" by @samanthapinto.bsky.social, which connects historical studies of medical racism with Black feminist theories of the body. buff.ly/zs9RK2C

“Your horror has been stolen from you” is a 10/10 sentence.

unraveled@unraveledpress.com · 3w ago

You can and should point out that police killing people daily is the "norm" in America. But that doesn't mean you *accept* the normalization of this violence and the way some people rush to smugly point these things out contributes to collective fatigue. Your horror has been stolen from you.