Rebecca Scales
@rebeccapscales.bsky.social
Historian; Rutgers Ph.D.; thinking about radio, listening, & sound; empire; tech, medicine, & disability; now writing about #polio in France. Baker & dog parent. Often exasperated. Tired of sitting still.
"AI flattens the historical record by relying on the most popular sources, eliminating minority voices" www.hnn.us/article/ai-i...
AI Is an Anti-Primary Source Machine
Real voices from the past are threatened by chatbots designed to amplify — and ultimately become — the loudest voices in the room.
hnn.us
Rochesterians: my colleague Tamar Carroll has organized a 2-day symposium at @eastmanmuseum.bsky.social on LGBTQ+ Workplace Equality featuring a terrific line-up of speakers. On also display: her curated exhibit about Kodak's Lambda network. www.eastman.org/event/free-a...
LGBTQ+ Workplace Equality Symposium | George Eastman Museum
Join us for two days of talks and discussions about LGBTQ workplace rights, queer photography, and museum education, in conversation with the exhibition Picturing Equality: The Lambda Network at Kodak...
eastman.org
This is the company some folks think it's okay to give their personal information to ... or to use to "triage" and respond to their emails prospect.org/2026/09/09/a...
Anthropic Is Building a Predictive Surveillance System to Monitor Activists - The American Prospect
New hires and comments in interviews show that the AI giant is using its capabilities against dissenters.
prospect.org
AI in the academy is 100% a labor problem and it's the one that no one will do anything about.
Asheesh Kapur Siddique@asheeshks.org · 4d agoWe know how to teach books in the age of AI: small classes, close reading, research-engaged learning (which is how you ’let students see you struggle’). The issue is nobody will hire and pay the requisite # of faculty to offer this.
My student introduced me to some new vocabulary today:
Got out of class and spent over an hour in my office talking to my favorite students about how much they all hate A.I., including the Comp Sci major who just switched degree programs to our vaguely digital humanities program. Listen to the kids.
When slimming down curricula is used for ideological ends: www.statesman.com/news/educati...
UT proposes cutting more than 100 'narrow' courses from core this spring
UT courses on slavery, race, sexuality and environmental history are among those that could stop counting toward UT's core.
statesman.com
JUST IN: A federal judge has thrown out the Trump administration's lawsuit against Rochester, NY over its sanctuary city policies, saying they don't improperly impede federal immigration enforcement. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
🚨EMERGENCY EPISODE: A bombshell whistleblower complaint, submitted to Sen. Richard Blumenthal's office, reveals that the U.S. Postal Service allegedly kept building a new system to restrict mail-in ballots even after federal courts ordered it to stop it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySb4...
BREAKING: Whistleblower Exposes Trump's Secret USPS Plan to Reject Thousands of Ballots at Once
YouTube video by Democracy Docket
youtube.com
Seems problematic
Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang.bsky.social · last wk.SCOOP: After the Census Bureau issued a highly unusual report tied to a President Trump-aligned think tank, the bureau’s parent agency, the Commerce Department, cut language banning political interference from its scientific integrity policy, @npr.org has learned www.npr.org/2026/08/31/n...
Beth Macy (!!) is running for office! How lucky would southwest VA be to get her elected as their congressional rep! Read her books if you don't know who she is! www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
This Appalachian memoir author is running as a Democratic contrast to JD Vance
Beth Macy is challenging Rep. Ben Cline in a bright-red Virginia district, hoping her own story and the stories she told about the region will win back rural and working-class White voters.
washingtonpost.com
I hope someone studies how Claude talks to you like the dude in your grad seminar that you just wanted to shut up
Alex Becker@alexcbecker.net · 2w agoIf you are a social scientist/economist and you want to study the AI transition I highly recommend you apply! www.anthropic.com/research/ena...
The uni is in a budget crisis, don't you know, but the radiator in my office (which I can't control) is hot, which might explain why it's so hot despite the AC being on. But we have no money for anything, you know.
Legitimately one of the best podcasts I've listened to: radiolab.org/podcast/radi...
Radiolab Presents: Dolly Parton's America
We enter the Dollyverse.
radiolab.org
happy first day of school! teaching college does not get easier. below are some resources for solidarity, courage, inspiration, collaboration first: assignment ideas, syllabus language, memes and more for the pro-learning classroom against-a-i.com
AGAINST AI -
against-a-i.com
At "Rally for Democracy" protest in Mount Kisco New York, Aug 22 2026:
What are some of the elite schools doing? As opposed to the third-tier ones who talk a good game? chicagomaroon.com/53262/news/s...
Sosc Core to Institute AI Ban, Technology-Free Classrooms This Fall
All social science Core classes will transition to an “analog” approach for the upcoming academic year, restricting in-classroom technology use and banning AI-assisted writing and grading for students...
chicagomaroon.com
so apparently these days you have to fill out a credit application to get a new phone, as if you were buying a mortgage?
Lemme guess, it's all going to be covered in gold leaf?
The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · 3w agoThe Kennedy Center's board voted to close its main campus for $250 million in renovations, according to a plan presented last week. The three major theaters — the Concert Hall, Opera House and Eisenhower Theater — will undergo structural renovations.
University leadership: We stand ready to support our faculty as they confront the disruptions & uncertainty caused by AI. Faculty: Great! We'll need smaller class sizes, especially for incoming students and— University leadership: Lol, no. We meant like subscriptions to Claude.
This 100% tracks with the convos I had with students last year. 1st & 2nd year students insisting that AI had already ruined a lot of their learning in high school and they want something different and better.
Dr Surekha Davies, Historical Monster Consultant (she/her)@drsurekhadavies.bsky.social · 4w ago18-34 year-olds can't stand (the most infamous) nine executives running AI-obsessed companies. If you know any of these young folks (or are one!), I am their/your people! If I were any more furious about these technofascist loser bros, I would burst into flames. 1/
This is an absolute travesty. Northwestern has, probably, the 2nd best library collection for African History/Studies in the USA (behind Yale and ahead of MSU, UCLA, etc). A self-inflicted wound that is absolutely, 100% unnecessary given the massive wealth of Northwestern--north of $15 billion.
SCOOP: Northwestern moves to close Program of African Studies
thepurplewire.beehiiv.com
Today in national stereotypes (or rather, 1951): "The American stereotype of a Frenchman is a being who bubbles like a bottle of champagne when the cork flies out. The true Frenchman, by contrast, is apt to be mentally stolid and leery of enthusiasm."
Aug 8. I have not finished anything I wanted to do this summer and am in a total state of denial.
All I wanted out of the second half of my summer was to write during the day and use my Little Theater membership at night. Why are there no movies to see? I have no interest in The Odyssey, films with Olivia Wilde, or one about a girl becoming a hobby horse enthusiast. What gives?
Finally got my hands on Tirailleurs to consider for my WWI/Film course this fall. Didn't love the film, but thought it raised some interesting historical questions to debate/discuss. Curious whether anyone else has taught it to undergrads. How did they react? What reading(s) did you pair it with?
