We—and I cannot emphasize this enough—do not have to normalize the use of this technology. I know it’s already here and students are using it: that’s the point. They don’t need me to teach them how to use it the right way; it’s my job to teach them they don’t need it.

I genuinely feel like I’m losing my mind when I’m around other educators who are talking about teaching students “responsible uses of AI”.

I reviewed @profdarryljones.bsky.social's new biography of M. R. James. Long-awaited by fans, and surely the most important book about MRJ yet to appear this century: drfrancisyoung.com/2026/09/28/r... 📚👻📜

Review: ‘For the Dead Remember: The Life of M. R. James’ by Darryl Jones

Darryl Jones, For the Dead Remember: The Life of M. R. James (Oxford University Press, 2026), 437pp. M. R. James did not make it easy for anyone to write his biography. He introduced this difficult…

drfrancisyoung.com

Map of 300 years worth of mining tunnels underneath Cornwall, UK. [Keith Russ / abandonedminemodels. com] Original post

I am tired of having to pretend that the value of studying my discipline solely rests on the "marketable skills" we teach. Sometimes things are just worth knowing and doing because they make your life bigger and richer.

Erin Grievances@erinbartram.bsky.social · yesterday

I don't want to make civic arguments about history. I don't want to make instrumentalist arguments about history. I want engineers to understand my discipline is rigorous too and if not I want to be able to make fun of them forever because no historian ever built a bridge that broke in the wind.

I returned to my old place of work at some point yesterday, as I vaguely recall.

I had to come and say hello.

Mr Walker and the UK Government need to brush up on their phonetics - see me after class.

2yrs after I finished my MA History at Goldsmiths, my research rights were bought and I was hired to work as historical consultant on this TV show. It's had BAFTA and International Emmy nominations. I got a book deal, too. Goldsmiths: "No point in MA History, let's fire everyone and delete it."

Sarah Elizabeth Cox@oispooky.bsky.social · 5d ago

It's a Best Drama nomination for #AThousandBlows at the International Emmys! 🥊 www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/2...

I’m not saying I’m bribable, but if anyone wants to buy me this…

Kathryn VanArendonk@kvanaren.bsky.social · 3d ago

in the last several weeks i've become an obsessive browser of this giant auction site, where you can imagine owning an original bansky mural for a million dollars and also $25 worth of large antique keys and anyhow, i think it's totally reasonable to buy dorothy sayers' motorcycle right

Treusenedh is pronounced truhz-EN-edh, where dh is the th in 'this'. Would folks appreciate some reels with pronunciations? That's something we can think about doing. Gwiryow treus bys vykken! #Kernewek #Cornish #Kernow #Cornwall #trans #lgbtq

The problem with education is that it's a solved problem. Students need small classes, individual attention, lots of writing, lots of feedback, access to a well-stocked library, time to think, and time to talk with their peers. We just don't like the answer, so we keep trying to do other stuff.

post malone ergo propter malone@proptermalone.bsky.social · 5d ago

I don’t follow Andreessen particularly closely but every so often I get glimpses that suggest that he has pretty, pretty frustrating relationships with his wife and with his son

I remember becoming helplessly giggly over an essay that talked about Macbeth and his friend Banjo

So many, but the one I will never forget was not a typo, but the most desperate final gambit in an essay on, I think, Stravinsky’s Oedipus rex. The student recounted the tragedy ending with, “Few, today, put out their eyes.”

If you exchange the ability to read books and perhaps even write them for the ability to ask a machine to tell you about them or to put words in your mouth, you have not made a good trade. You have not traded like for like or worse for better. And that is the exchange being proposed

"Anti-immigrant march" is such a telling phrase. An immigrant is just a person who exercises the freedom they are born with, which is recognised by all human rights legislation, and moves across imaginary lines on the ground. Being "anti-immigrant" means anti-movement, anti-freedom and anti-person.

My favourite remains the student’s exam answer discussing at length Whistler and the London frog. Other than that minor error, it was a good essay, mind you. 🐸

John Gallagher@earlymodernjohn.bsky.social · 4d ago

I will always remember fondly the student who finished an essay with the line "In conclusion, the early modern period marked a massive shit in European history."

I will always remember fondly the student who finished an essay with the line "In conclusion, the early modern period marked a massive shit in European history."

Alice Wickenden@awickenden.bsky.social · 4d ago

my favourite typo is, & will always be, ‘the literary cannon’

'History is a Human Craft'. In piece about ethics, our classrooms and AI, I suppose I've put up my barricades and drawn my lines. I suggest 8 'considerations' before we do any teaching with AI. This is part of a new @royalhistsoc.org short series on 'AI and History Teaching' in Transactions.

This is true and it's tiresome how much it needs saying. We have to respect that people we don't like have the same rights we want to enjoy. Otherwise we're on the road to fascism no matter how "right side of history" we think we are.

👻madeline bOoOoOoOodent👻@oldenoughtosay.com · 5d ago

okay, today’s spicy hot take because I’ve seen this three times already this morning: The U.K. does not have any such thing as a ‘legal name’ this is a good thing! unequivocally! this means it also applies to people we don’t like

Everyone generally thinks he got this wrong but there is no express decision saying so. As a result, the official form which you can use to enroll a deed poll evidencing a change of name in the High Court includes an endorsement saying “please ignore him”. I can’t think of any similar example.

Unpopular opinion Histoire de France : quelqu'un qui serait capable de réciter dans l'ordre tous les rois / présidents depuis les origines, mais sans connaître l'enquête linguistique de 1863 ou les réalités qu'elle illustre, ne connaît et ne comprend en fait rien à la trajectoire historique du pays

Love the fact that in most places back then, rumours of a vampire in the neighbourhood would have had the local kids hiding in their bedrooms, while in the Gorbals, they were like: "Let's get tooled up and leather the cunt."

Odd This Day@oddthisday.bsky.social · 6d ago

Well, if it’s 23 September... YES, THAT’S RIGHT! It’s the 72nd anniversary of the hunt for the Gorbals Vampire, in which hundreds of children aged from four to 14, armed with dogs, knives, and sharpened sticks went looking for an urban myth

You know that bit in the Gospels where Christ says that if anyone causes a child to stumble,* it would be better for them to have a millstone tied round their neck and drowned in the sea? Well. * Matt 18:6

Tom Roberts@tpgroberts.bsky.social · 6d ago

Not to be all maudlin, but I think "sung by a child" is the bit that has broken something inside of me.

I'll be sharing some thoughts on the New Zealand artist Len Lye, who worked for the General Post Office Film Unit in the 1930s, making some dazzling animated shorts such as 'Rainbow Dance'.

My friend who works in education always says that we want education to solve all our society's problems, when we should see those problems as something we must solve in order to have good education

Come celebrate all the winners at the virtual MSA Prizes celebration during the Modernist Crossings Symposium sponsored by Modernism and Pedagogy on Wed., Sept. 30 from 9 am- 11 am EST. Registration is free: www.tickettailor.com/events/msamo... Congratulations again to all the winners!

Select tickets – Modernist Crossings - Teaching Modernism across the Curriculum, with MSA Prizes Announcement! – Zoom

Modernist Crossings - Teaching Modernism across the Curriculum, with MSA Prizes Announcement! – Zoom, Wed Sep 30, 2026 - All are welcome to join at the start of the event, when the MSA, and Second Vic...

tickettailor.com

Also of course "you are still basically a child but we think you have inherent qualities that make you a leader, here's a crowd of creatures who may well seem barely human to you, now lead them into battle" is not just "you are a Pevensey" but also "you are a subaltern in 1914"

It is, quite simply, a treat and a delight to write a letter of support for a review/tenure/promotion file. People are so brilliant, and their work so moving, and every time I get to make a deep dive into a file, I feel lucky to see humanity in action in these thoughtful ways.

Perhaps foolish to be sitting at my desk and smoking a pipe as I open with great anticipation @profdarryljones.bsky.social’s biography of MR James upon this illustration…