the relentlessness of the AI headlines and data center fights starts to feel chaotic and difficult to hold cohesively in my mind UNTIL i listen to another interview with Karen Hao, and then I feel clear and get my talking points back in order www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/...

Why we should 'fight like hell' against Big AI | CBC Radio

Tech journalist Karen Hao, who once worked in Silicon Valley as an engineer, is sounding the alarm on holding AI giants accountable. She argues people need to push back against massive companies that ...

cbc.ca

99% of the time, when someone accuses you of selective outrage, it’s a way of politically demobilizing you and shutting you up “Why are you angry about data centers instead of fast fashion” isn’t about making you care about fast fashion. It’s about shutting you up about data centers And visa versa

I find it even more delightful that Wilson’s review is making people so angry. I want more brutal reviews of big budget Hollywood misogynist movies. there’s something very Philadelphia about her review that has no platitudes or polite wording, like fuck your movie. A Boston area prof would never

*whispers* you know we can do this cultural debate about art thing all the time, right? Websites and news organizations used to have culture critics on staff whose entire job was writing about books, movies, and TV. People read them and then discussed them. We have the technology to do this again.

Since I hear it is almost time to start thinking about the fall semester (I know! whisper it!) I wrote you an article to help you think about what you are actually hoping to do with your in-class digital assignments and what their futures will be www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Against cultural heritage wastelands

The twin scholarly booms of the 2010s, digital humanities and public humanities, introduced a relatively accessbile suite of platforms for managing digital and digitised content. Sudden interest in...

tandfonline.com

LRB should give Emily Wilson a movie review column. This was the most satisfying review I've read in a long time, as a fellow hater of Hollywood uncomplicated man movies.

London Review of Books@lrb.co.uk · last wk.

‘Nolan has read at least the first line of my translation of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘥𝘺𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘺 into iambic pentameter. In one interview, he cited my version of it: “Tell me about a complicated man.” But I would be ashamed to have written any part of this script.’ New, by Emily Wilson www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Delighted to share that Binding Media has won the 2026 N. Katherine Hayles Award for Criticism of Electronic Literature! So honored to received this particular award because Hayles' work taught me to think about the weird literary works I've always been interested in. @stanfordpress.bsky.social

The Trump-supported National Parks Service workers put up their racist, anti-black placards in the middle of the night, when they knew the city would be distracted by a prominent baseball game. Did they also wear white robes and hoods while they did it?

Slavery exhibits at the President’s House have been swapped for the Trump administration’s version

The change at the President's House happened overnight, allowing the government to switch out the displays and shut down the television screens while avoiding public scrutiny during the takedown.

share.inquirer.com

I’m delighted to join @lpolcha.bsky.social at @freelibrary.bsky.social to discuss @insurrecthistory.bsky.social on July 9! Join us if you’re in Philly! libwww.freelibrary.org/calendar/eve...

Events: Decolonizing Early America with Insurrect!

Insurrect! is an online publication devoted to anti-colonial frameworks and critiques of racial capitalism in Early American Studies. Editors Polcha and Mitchell join us in the Education, Philosophy, ...

libwww.freelibrary.org

i know ppl can feel overwhelmed or unsure about the veracity of GFMs; not sure what to say there bc i don't recognize a reality in which people who are trying to stay alive are fake/scammers, but included the testimonial from my friend to affirm that this is, sadly, real & this family needs our help

from my friend: "I got to meet his dad over a video call last week. They are really kind people. They've made it this far, but it's getting harder given the War on Iran made all costs skyrocket"

a dear friend here in Philly is organizing support for Waseem, a 24 y/o in 🇵🇸 who is trying to keep his multigenerational household of 12 family members alive. please boost widely & donate if you're able!! www.gofundme.com/f/hope-and-h...

Donate to Hope and Help for Waseem’s Family, organized by Egina Manachova

My name is Waseem, and I am a student trying with all my strength to keep my family … Egina Manachova needs your support for Hope and Help for Waseem’s Family

gofundme.com

I’ve said it before and will say it a few more times. When Trump 2.0 came for accreditation I knew we had crossed into a different era of white reclamation. Precise, focused, stealth. Anyway, you probably don’t want these reforms.

AAUP@aaup.org · 3mo ago

The US Department of Education is currently overhauling federal accreditation rules for colleges & universities. The April 6, 2026, Proposed Changes to Initial Draft Regulations unacceptably seek to narrow & control what can be taught, learned, & researched on college & university campuses. 🧵 1

A reminder that two-thirds of National Endowment for the Humanities staff were laid off last year from their *career* positions, and most divisions and programs were eliminated. None of which had to happen except by the inconceivable choices of a few in control. #NEH

Paula Krebs@paulakrebs.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Our next job in the courts is to pursue our claim against the shuttering of so many NEH depts and grant programs and the elimination of staff positions. If you want to help, please give to the fund at the top of this list, which is the one we are using for the lawsuit. www.mla.org/About-Us/Sup...

Anyone who claims to know, in the present, what this moment will have meant to history is selling something Silicon Valley may think they’re speedrunning the next Industrial Revolution when in fact they’re speedrunning right through to the next labor movement

Cabel Sasser@cabel.panic.com · 3mo ago

this graduation speech moment is notable, and her amazed shock at having failed to read the room feels instructive. when you're inside the bubble, you think everybody else is. but everybody isn't.

Atlanta-based job seekers! My department, Data & Decision Sciences, is hiring an undergrad program coordinator. This would be a great job for someone who wants to work directly with students and is interested in data science pedagogy. LMK if you plan to apply! staff-emory.icims.com/jobs/165242/...

brilliant lecture from Lorraine Daston on the development of rules/paradigms — from ancient measures, to medieval rulebooks, to logarithmic tables and Babbage's algorithms youtu.be/pqoSMWnWTwA?... (it's a precursor to her 2022 book which I must read)

Lorraine Daston: "Algorithms Before Computers: Patterns, Recipes, and Rules"

YouTube video by Simpson Center

youtu.be

Breaking NEWS!! Federal judge rules DOGE illegally terminated NEH grants last year in a summary judgment in favor of plaintiffs AHA, ACLA, and MLA, and orders the restoration of 1400 terminated grants

Grateful to reporter Matt Hartman for telling this story about changes in leadership at NEH. The firing of 22 out of 26 board members, including all members appointed by past presidents, is nothing short of a coup at an agency where the board reviews and votes on every single grant application.

The Assembly@theassemblync.bsky.social · 3mo ago

How Two Duke Alumni Helped Conservatives Take Over the NEH The Trump administration fired most of the National Endowment for the Humanities’ advisory board last year. Two Duke-trained political theorists are key figures now running the agency.

It's awesome when you finally read a book that you knew it was going to be great, and it is just as good as you expected it to be. Isadora Mota's "Freedom Horizon" is definitely one of those. Extraordinary archival research to recover Black resistance from 1848 to 1870 and many wonderful stories!

I learned yesterday that my book is officially “in press” with a publication date of April 2027 🥳📚

If you're willing and able to help out Hampshire workers who are suddenly facing job loss, there's a fundraiser: www.helphampshireworkers.com

Help Hampshire Workers | Support Hampshire Workers Today

Support Hampshire College staff and faculty facing job loss with emergency relief funds for essential needs. Contributions and support help provide immediate assistance during this critical time.

helphampshireworkers.com

The New York Review of Books@nybooks.com · 3mo ago

“The shuttering of Hampshire College,” writes Christopher Benfey, seems to represent “not so much another liberal arts domino falling as the symbolic end of a whole tradition of progressive education in the US.”

🔥HOT OFF THE PRESS🔥 “'Grammar of Resistance': Carnival as Political Counter-Narration in Grenada" by Sasha C. Wells Please Share! www.insurrecthistory.com/archives/gra...

“Grammar of Resistance”: Carnival as Political Counter-Narration in Grenada — INSURRECT!

“While characters like Jab-Jab are used as marketing devices, carnival in Grenada illustrates how Black cultural performance can function as a response to colonial and post-colonial oppression. Althou...

insurrecthistory.com

I'm co-teaching a gendered monsters class this term with Jakeya Caruthers, and for our "Witches" unit we had a pretty epic pairing of Richard Godbeer's edition of the Salem witch trial transcripts, Robert Egger's 2016 The VVitch, Maryse Condé's I, Tituba, and Kasi Lemmon's 1997 Eve's Bayou 🧹🧹🧹🧹

We will be discussing @lpolcha.bsky.social’s boffo article “Voyeur in the Torrid Zone” in Maroon Communities this morning 🤓

there's still so much fecundity and enduring beauty in the nonhuman world. let's preserve and treasure it.

Looking forward to ASECS in Philly next week, where I will be talking about the beloved Philadelphia abolitionist Benjamin Lay, his use of botanical dye to splatter fake blood on enslavers, and abolition ecologies 🩸🩸🩸🩸

Contract faculty at NYU are currently on strike for a fair first contract after 16 months of management's bad-faith stonewalling in negotiations. Please consider contributing to their strike fund if you can.

Donate to Support NYU Contract Faculty on Strike!, organized by John Simeonidis Jr

Please donate to support NYU Contract Faculty on strike! After a year a… John Simeonidis Jr needs your support for Support NYU Contract Faculty on Strike!

gofund.me

The Cokie Roberts Fellowship jump-started my research for my next book. It supports women's history archival research, the kind of scholarship we really need right now. They are accepting applications for the next cycle by April 15. archivesfoundation.org/cokie-robert...

Cokie Roberts Fellowship for Women’s History - National Archives Foundation

In November 2019, the National Archives Foundation launched a new research fund to honor Cokie Roberts, who shed light on […]

archivesfoundation.org

New post up on sugar cane burning in Florida and the fertilizer to bomb pipeline. It's a little scary. Ok, very scary.

My Brief Career as a Spring Break Bomber

Florida, Fertilizer, and Fires Everywhere

open.substack.com