iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 23/09/2026

The New York Times is actually incorrect about when the 21st century began (seriously, lol). They specifically disqualify The Sopranos since it started in the 20th century. Gilmore Girls started in 2000... which was still the 20th century.

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 30/08/2026

Critical mineral (water) shortage

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 19/07/2026

Looking for one more paper and/or a commentator! Actual deadline is 7/20

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 14/07/2026

Open call for contributions to a panel at SHOT (remote, 10/22-25) on automation and environment in historical perspective. Abstracts for contributions due by 7/18. www.historyoftechnology.org/annual-meeti...

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 09/07/2026

Excited to share that I've accepted a tenure-track position in the History of Technology at the University of Texas at Dallas! Now to find out if I can pull off a cowboy hat...

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 14/07/2026

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 09/07/2026

Excited to share that I've accepted a tenure-track position in the History of Technology at the University of Texas at Dallas! Now to find out if I can pull off a cowboy hat...

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 19/06/2026

UMWA also lost elections for two Sibelco plants last year. Getting to the election itself requires over a third on board, so seems likely that it's pretty contentious internally.

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 19/06/2026

Not the AI-generated political cartoon where two different entities are labeled UMW in a way that's sort of contradictory

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Ingrid Burrington @lifewinning.com · 15/06/2026

networksofny2026.bigcartel.com/product/netw... hi, did you like my book Networks of New York when it came out in 2016? you might like the updated 2026 edition which I'll be releasing in September and you can pre-order now

networksofny2026.bigcartel.com

Networks of New York, 2026 Edition (PRE-ORDER)

SHIPPING SEPTEMBER 2026! Networks of New York is a book by me, Ingrid Burrington. It helps readers identify indicators of physical internet and telecommunications infrastructure in New York City. Usin...

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 03/06/2026

I had a dream last night where I was workshopping the article I'm working on and... the dream feedback was actually really helpful.

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Alex Elizabeth Byrne McMillan @undeniablyalex.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

YOU’RE LISTENING TO SISYPHUS FM, THE HOME OF NON-STOP ROCK

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 04/05/2025

The first recorded use of "May the Fourth Be With You" is from a pro-Thatcher ad in the London Evening Standard when she was elected on May 4th, 1979. I am pro Star Wars and take no pleasure in reporting this.

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 12/05/2026

Alternate headline: U of F adding every discipline to one major, recreating Hampshire College and New College of Florida from first principles www.thecollegefix.com/u-florida-st...

thecollegefix.com

U. Florida students flock to new ‘philosophy, politics, economics, and law’ major | The College Fix

Hamilton School to roll out new degree in ‘war, statecraft, and strategy.’…

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 09/05/2026

Generally, more transparency around historical documents is good. This is very selective though, and otherwise we are in a moment where federal archives and parks are becoming more opaque. Worth asking why the push for transparency here & sudden secrecy on topics like George Washington's slaves.

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 09/05/2026

Public approval of foreign policy and data centers is low. Many people are deeply compelled by conspiracy theory and Ufology. Might as well periodically dust off some old documents to signal that we need to subsidize SpaceX/AI/Raytheon and pass trillion dollar military budgets, because aliens.

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 09/05/2026

But, mostly, it seems like a low stakes way to play into public distrust of institutions (frames the current admin as distinct from shadowy Cold War gov) and build trust in the military-technological complex (which tends to be where much of the ongoing distrust is coming from).

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 09/05/2026

Interestingly, both escalating US military-tech power and releasing UFO files have been bipartisan efforts under both Biden and Trump. There's some technological explanation for this overlap (e.g., the only really novel release so far has been high tech observations from fighter jets).

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 09/05/2026

When thinking historically about UFOs, it seems most salient to focus not on whether aliens are real but on what the government's rhetoric and public's beliefs tell us about our society. This is coming up in a period of the US exercising and escalating its chip, missile, and space dominance.

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 09/05/2026

Yeah I'm sympathetic to the impulse but very skeptical of the various plans to save Hampshire at this point, which unfortunately tend to range from vague to whacky (there was also one from a UMass econ grad student sharing his wisdom at the behest of the "univese and revolutionary goddesses").

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 08/05/2026

I agree. I think "Hidden" can work (because it implies it has been obscured, not that no one knows it), but unknown and untold are often a stretch or even disrespectful

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 29/04/2026

The Apple TV exec who greenlighted For All Mankind with the knowledge that by season 4 they could do constant product placement with retro iPods on Mars

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Jim Wald @citizenwald.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

Hey, look at this great honor that my former student Adam Quinn Adam Quinn received! THIS is what a Hampshire College education, under the best of circumstances and with the best of students, can achieve. The College may die, but its lessons live on and are passed on

screenshot from LinkedIn in which he announces that he has received a prestigious dissertation award (+ photo of award)

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 26/04/2026

One part of this is that it essentially killed the particular flavor of spy movie that it was parodying (i.e., I'm not sure a parody of the contemporary, moderately less absurd James Bond has as much inherent juice)

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 18/04/2026

Excited and honored to share that my dissertation was awarded the Gutman Prize for Outstanding Dissertation from @lawcha.bsky.social. It was incredibly fulfilling and validating to receive this recognition in a room full of the historians who inspired my research.

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Stanford University Press @stanfordpress.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Congratulations to @sfahrenthold.bsky.social! 🎉 Her book Unmentionables won the 2026 David Montgomery Award, sponsored by @oah.org with co-sponsorship by @lawcha.bsky.social.

Photograph 2026 David Montgomery Award certificate for Unmentionables on the left and a copy of the book on the right.

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 18/04/2026

It's so repetitive about that and the Langdon plot until the finale, with both of them basically just restating the problem in different conversations with each character. Wasn't that interested in the motorcycle thing even the first of the twelve times they established it.

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 18/04/2026

Reading is mostly just alright (though the density of options is great). If you walk south a bit to the Italian Market, South St, or Passyunk there's higher quality food (Angelos for pizza/cheesesteak, isgro pastries, Mawn Cambodian food, Center City Pretzel co, etc.)

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 18/04/2026

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 15/04/2026

how paying Philadelphia city taxes feels

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 15/04/2026

The longest Hampshire evaluation I received was by @citizenwald.bsky.social for my final Div 3 project (sharp contrast with a letter grade). The project gave me hands-on experience in history, and the extraordinary depth of advising and feedback now serves as a model as I begin to mentor others.

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 15/04/2026

Hampshire's narrative evaluations were more useful than a grade, allowing me to recognize and remember what I did well or could improve on in each class in detail. They were also sometimes fun, as in this alliterative one I received from mathematician David Kelly for Puzzles and Paradoxes.

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 15/04/2026

I don't usually think about that aspect but it's very true! It's even part of the landscape: I'd make tea with leaves from a forest garden on campus that started as a student project, and free bikes around campus were maintained by students.

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Christopher McKnight Nichols @cmcknichols.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Just confirming that Made by History will now be back up and running in the next few weeks with a new home and new partners at the Philadelphia Inquirer. Exciting! So, if you have pitches, now's the time to start sending them to madebyhistory@inquirer.com 🗃️ #MadebyHistory #HistoryMatters

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 14/04/2026

Hampshire's approach prepared me so well for grad school. The classes were rigorous seminars and workshops, the narrative evaluations guided me through a concerted effort to develop skills over the course of years, and the Div 3 senior project was as intensive and independent as a master's thesis.

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 14/04/2026

Hampshire College, my alma mater, just announced they are closing at the end of this year. Unfortunate for students and workers, of course, and for higher ed in general. Their distinctive interdisciplinary, student-driven, and project-based approach has so much to offer, especially in the age of AI.

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 11/04/2026

Grand opening of the history of fireworks special exhibit at the Science History Institute in Philly, fitting for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 09/04/2026

The email to customers references these devices being 14-18 years old, seemingly as a justification. That's... not very old compared to the lifespan of printed books, which impacts the sustainability and consumer value calculus for digital vs. paper.

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 09/04/2026

When the obsolescence wasn't planned well enough to maximize profits so they enforce artificial, unplanned obsolescence

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 06/04/2026

Definitely, the witchcraft angle helped market the book rather than provide evidence for its arguments. Slavery and colonialism seem like more central and telling systems to study for understanding gender and reproduction in the emergence of capitalism (e.g., www.dukeupress.edu/reckoning-wi...)

dukeupress.edu

Reckoning with Slavery: Gender, Kinship, and Capitalism in the Early Black Atlantic

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 06/04/2026

Off the top of my head, I can't think of another book that is so widely criticized by historians yet still so embraced by other fields (to its credit, this is because it does some compelling conceptual work on gender and capitalism that doesn't hinge on the accuracy of its witchcraft narrative).

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 03/04/2026

From Reid Wiseman/NASA: new image of our planet, with the aurora borealis visible at the edge

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 03/04/2026

(as you might be able to tell, the cover is a wood cut with ink made from recycled GPUs)

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 03/04/2026

Coming later this year: a transdisciplinary collection of work on ecology, industry, and technology in Oregon's Silicon Forest. My piece is on the history of the transition from a timber economy to an (unexpectedly still extractive/polluting) digital economy. www.sternberg-press.com/product/sili...

sternberg-press.com

Silicon Forest

Artists, media theorists, scientists, and science-fiction writers explore the reciprocity between ecology, industry, technology and consumption.

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 03/04/2026

e.g., in a history survey course: students without learning objectives context might think it's all about rote memorization and focus on that, students with that context might be more intentional about practicing and developing their writing and primary source analysis skills

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Adam Quinn @adamquinnphd.com · 03/04/2026

I've seen some people arguing that learning objectives are just a formality for admin, so I just want to throw it out there that telling students learning objectives is an evidence-based teaching practice that informs them about what they're learning and helps them more consciously practice skills

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Adam Rogers @jetjocko.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Yeah that’s cool

(See the quoted post for more; it’s a septagonal patch with the astronaut names around the edges and pictures of mythic animals and a stylized bird image at center)

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