iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ross Bullen @bullenross.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Kinda wild that the pope has a better “art vs AI” policy than, say, Canada’s largest art and design university…

Reposted by Ross Bullen

Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

At the end of the day, the Canadian government's Campus Antisemitism and Student Experiences (CASE) study is propaganda politics laundered as legitimate social science by Canadian scholars. We break down all the methodological flaws in this work of professional malpractice 👇.

To make definitively broad generalizations grounded in a small, biased selection sample is an unacceptable error, yet this is something the authors of this report repeatedly do, such as when they assert, “95.7% said they had experienced or witnessed at least one instance of antisemitism over the previous 12 months” without providing a caveat such as “of those surveyed” or a strong note on the limitations of the report’s methodology. This finding of 95 percent has, predictably, been repeated ad nauseam in the media. In fact, the authors of the report have admitted that among the very small number of respondents who indicated Zionism was not important at all to them, 92 percent said their campus was safe and inclusive for Jewish students, a finding that directly contradicts the thesis that it is Jewishness, rather than the state policy of Israel, that is the object of critique on campuses.

The 95 and 92 percent figures, taken together, index a larger problem: the incentive for participants to articulate experiences that align with broader political projects in a moment of profound polarization. It is clear beyond doubt that students with Zionist proclivities reported discrimination and those with anti-Zionist leanings reported none. So, what the study seems to reveal above all is the political orientation of its participants. It is not really possible to falsify any of the findings beyond that. If Zionist students consider critique of Israel to be a form of harm, that is what they will report. But this is not an objective measure, as evinced by the testimony of anti-Zionist students.

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Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

“Operations designed to insist that everything is fine inevitably betray the fact that this is not the case. And indeed, everything is not fine.” newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

newleftreview.org

Frédéric Lordon, Warning Signs — Sidecar

On the economics of AI.

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Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

"what can be the value of a degree earned under these conditions, what happens to the qualification's authority, prestige, psychological significance and door-unlocking capacities, not just into jobs but into communities, reading worlds, lives of thought?"

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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Anybody who’s still advocating putting these tools anywhere near a school is not doing so despite the cognitive collapse they cause, but because of it. dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn...

Abstract
Using 30 months of panel data on 26,811 Chinese students in grades 7-12, we study how generative Al affects homework productivity and learning. The data combine monthly closed-book exams, high-school and college entrance exams, and homework scores and completion time across nine subjects. We exploit staggered Al adoption in a difference-in-differences design. Al adoption raises homework scores by 18% and reduces completion time by 30%, but lowers monthly exam scores by 20% within six months.
High-stakes entrance-exam scores fall by 18 and 24%, with the full penalty emerging only after about two years. The losses are largest in social science subjects, followed by STEM and languages, and are especially large for junior students, high-achieving students, and boys. The learning losses are concentrated among roughly 80% of Al users whose behavior is consistent with homework outsourcing, as indicated by exceptionally short homework completion time coupled with high homework scores. Al users who maintain similar homework completion time as non-Al users experience small learning losses.

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Ross Bullen @bullenross.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

A new school year means a new chance to succeed (or, more likely, fail) in academia! Luckily I have just the book for you. Lots of stuff in here from @mcsweeneys.net, lots of new stuff too, and all of it published by the good people at @humoristbooks.bsky.social. Get your copy today!

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The Public Domain Review @publicdomainrev.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

.@BullenRoss on how a story told by the African American novelist, historian, playwright, and physician William Wells Brown circulated, first through his own works, and then abroad, as a parable of American banking gone bad publicdomainreview.org/essay/willia…

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Leonore (Lee) Carpenter @leecarpenter.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

In case you are an academic who is currently being gaslit into believing that you're a caveman who wants their students to be jobless if you resist allowing AI in your classrooms... I present to you Berkeley Law's response, which can be summarized as "Fuck off directly into the sun."

law.berkeley.edu

Artificial Intelligence Policy

Effective Summer 2026 Purpose Future lawyers may need to use artificial intelligence (“AI”) fluently. But the current state of the technology requires that AI use be coupled with the cognitive […]

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Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

it's a monday morning in mid july so of course we're writing syllabi! against-a-i.com is here for you! and if you're a humanities teacher who's developed materials you'd like to contribute as we glow up for fall, please send! against-a-i.com

against-a-i.com

AGAINST AI -

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Ryan Boyd @ryanboyd.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

This is basically how grad school works

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Brad Congdon @brcongdon.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Publication News! You can now pre-order the Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Weird, edited by me and @jasonhaslam.ca Look at that cover!! www.cambridge.org/core/books/c...

cambridge.org

The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Weird

Cambridge Core - Literary Theory - The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Weird

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Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

New report finds that of the 20 Canadian schools w/ available detailed financial statements, the most invested in Israeli genocide are: McMaster: 20.9% Western: 17.5% Queen’s: 16.8% (pooled investments) and 14.9% (endowment) Waterloo: 13.5% Winnipeg: 13.4% www.justpeaceadvocates.ca/new-report-h...

We found detailed financial statements for 20 universities. All included investments in companies complicit in Israel’s Crimes. The estimated total of these investments is over $1.6 billion.7 The top 5 complicit universities, based on % of total portfolio analyzed, were:

McMaster University: 20.9%
Western University: 17.5%
Queen’s University: 16.8% (pooled investments) and 14.9% (endowment funds)
University of Waterloo: 13.5% (endowment funds)
University of Winnipeg Foundation: 13.4%

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Ross Bullen @bullenross.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

The launch party for HOW TO SUCCEED IN ACADEMIA (WHILE FAILING AT EVERYTHING ELSE) is in one week! If you're in Toronto, please consider coming. We'll have copies for sale (and pizza for free)! ocadfa.ca/blog/2026/03...

ocadfa.ca

Book Launch & Social: How to Succeed in Academia (While Failing at Everything Else) by Ross Bullen | OCADFA

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Ross Bullen @bullenross.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

If you’re in Toronto please come to the launch for my comedy book! Thanks to @humoristbooks.bsky.social for publishing it and to @ocadfa.bsky.social for hosting! There will be pizza, books for sale, and - because this is academia - a Power Point presentation [crowd booing].

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OCADFA @ocadfa.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

OCADFA invites you to a book launch and social! You can find information on the book from our Dispatch from December 2025 (page 12) or here: www.tinyurl.com/HSA-Bullen We’ll have copies of the book on hand for purchase, as well as pizza and light refreshments. Looking forward to see you there!

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McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 15/02/2026

I stumbled out of my bedroom to discover that I shared this tiny, squalid apartment with a person named Thad who claimed to be a part-time barista and a full-time experimental sound artist. He offered me a sip from his can of Red Bull and played some of his latest sound art for me.

buff.ly

My Name Is Gregor Samsa, and This Time I Woke Up as a Grad Student at Cal State San Bernardino

You’ve probably heard about the first time this happened to me. You know: guy goes to sleep, wakes up as a giant bug, freaks out his family, worrie...

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OCADFA @ocadfa.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

Our proposals will once again #RaisetheBar! for the over 600 members of OCADFA, & in doing so will improve student learning conditions. You can find more info on our proposals, & keep track of ongoing negotiations, on the updated Bargaining Section of our website. www.ocadfa.ca/bargaining-2026

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OCADFA @ocadfa.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

"The most charitable thing I can say about AI at OCAD U is that all of us – students, staff, and faculty – should have the right to not use it. But this is not a straightforward proposition." Read the full piece here: www.tinyurl.com/AI-RBullen #EdTech #aiart

tinyurl.com

AI, EdTech, and OCAD U

by Ross Bullen, Faculty of Arts and Science Faculty at OCAD University recently received an email from IT Services and the Centre for Learning and Teaching containing a link to a “Faculty AI Tool Usag...

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Ross Bullen @bullenross.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

I’ve got a little something in here on the troubling embrace of AI and EdTech at OCAD University…

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McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 21/01/2026

"I blink, and suddenly I’m standing in front of a room of college kids. Most of them are sleeping on their backpacks. I’m talking about some guy named Alain Robbe-Grillet and telling everybody that their essays were due three weeks ago."

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I Drank from the Wrong Holy Grail and Now I’m an Adjunct Professor of Comparative Literature

I was on vacation with the wife and kids. A week away from the office, not checking my messages, spending all day by the pool. Real nice time. Last...

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McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 19/01/2026

"It’s not all bad. I like Buffalo wings, and the Bills are pretty good this season. Sure, I’m grading five hundred papers a week and living in a 1990 Honda Civic, but at least I get to hold my office hours in the campus Starbucks." www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-d...

mcsweeneys.net

I Drank from the Wrong Holy Grail and Now I’m an Adjunct Professor of Comparative Literature

I was on vacation with the wife and kids. A week away from the office, not checking my messages, spending all day by the pool. Real nice time. Last...

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McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 20/12/2025

"Life as a bug was rough. Eating rotten food and scurrying around all day isn’t as fun as it sounds. But the worst part was all the essays college students were forced to write about how what happened to me was supposed to represent man’s inhumanity to man or whatever." "

buff.ly

My Name Is Gregor Samsa, and This Time I Woke Up as a Grad Student at Cal State San Bernardino

You’ve probably heard about the first time this happened to me. You know: guy goes to sleep, wakes up as a giant bug, freaks out his family, worrie...

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Lex Vaughn @lex.vaughn.theneedling.com · 18/12/2025

Oh and it's an excerpt of a new book! Thank you, seriously, perfect gift - done and done: humoristbooks.com/how-to-succe...

humoristbooks.com

How to Succeed in Academia (While Failing at Everything Else) - Humorist Books

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McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 18/12/2025

"This student seemed to have stumbled across that famous short story about my life as a bug. I’d read this story before, of course, but now that I was a grad student instead of a disgusting cockroach, it resonated in a different way for me."

buff.ly

My Name Is Gregor Samsa, and This Time I Woke Up as a Grad Student at Cal State San Bernardino

You’ve probably heard about the first time this happened to me. You know: guy goes to sleep, wakes up as a giant bug, freaks out his family, worrie...

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McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 17/12/2025

I stumbled from my bedroom to discover that I shared this tiny, squalid apartment with a person named Thad who claimed to be a part-time barista and a full-time experimental sound artist. Thad offered me a sip from his can of Red Bull and played some of his latest sound art for me.

buff.ly

My Name Is Gregor Samsa, and This Time I Woke Up as a Grad Student at Cal State San Bernardino

You’ve probably heard about the first time this happened to me. You know: guy goes to sleep, wakes up as a giant bug, freaks out his family, worrie...

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McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 15/12/2025

"I went to bed on my cozy bug’s nest of straw and wood shavings, and I woke up on a third-hand Ikea futon being propped up with a copy of Judith Butler’s 'Gender Trouble.'"

buff.ly

My Name Is Gregor Samsa, and This Time I Woke Up as a Grad Student at Cal State San Bernardino

You’ve probably heard about the first time this happened to me. You know: guy goes to sleep, wakes up as a giant bug, freaks out his family, worrie...

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Ryan Boyd @ryanboyd.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

There isn't a single problem "solved" by edtech that couldn't be fixed with smaller classes led by well-paid teachers given real academic freedom

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Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

"AI is the asbestos in the walls of our technological society, stuffed there with wild abandon by a finance sector and tech monopolists run amok. We will be excavating it for a generation or more." This piece on AI by Cory Doctorow is spectactular. pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/p...

The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Criticizing AI (permalink)
Last night, I gave a speech for the University of Washington's "Neuroscience, AI and Society" lecture series, through the university's Computational Neuroscience Center. It was called "The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Criticizing AI," and it's based on the manuscript for my next book, "The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI," which will be out from Farrar, Straus and Giroux next June:

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Humorist Books @humoristbooks.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

How to Succeed in Academia (While Failing at Everything Else), by Ross Bullen. If you really want to be an adjunct professor, real-life academic Ross Bullen will show you how it’s not all fame, glamour, and glory. As it turns out, there’s none of that at all! www.amazon.com/Succeed-Acad...

amazon.com

How to Succeed in Academia (While Failing at Everything Else)

How to Succeed in Academia (While Failing at Everything Else) [Bullen, Ross] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. How to Succeed in Academia (While Failing at Everything Else)

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Ross Bullen @bullenross.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

Did you know my new comedy book from @humoristbooks.bsky.social contains a complete history of the adjunct professor, from ancient times to modern times, including the names of the 99 adjunct professors aboard the Mayflower? Pick up a copy today! humoristbooks.com/how-to-succe...

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Ross Bullen @bullenross.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Great news if you're a fan of my stuff in @mcsweeneys.net (and bad news if you're not): I have written a WHOLE BOOK of academic satire! It's available NOW from the good people at @humoristbooks.bsky.social.

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Humorist Books @humoristbooks.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Considering a career in academia? Already stuck on a tenure path? Allow @bullenross.bsky.social to talk you right out of it. The hilariously harrowing and deeply silly HOW TO SUCCEED IN ACADEMIA (WHILE FAILING AT EVERYTHING ELSE) is out now from Humorist Books. www.amazon.com/Succeed-Acad...

amazon.com

How to Succeed in Academia (While Failing at Everything Else)

How to Succeed in Academia (While Failing at Everything Else) [Bullen, Ross] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. How to Succeed in Academia (While Failing at Everything Else)

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The Public Domain Review @publicdomainrev.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

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Ross Bullen @bullenross.bsky.social · 09/10/2025

BREAKING: The 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to a Melville Guy™

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McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 04/03/2025

"The following tips will help you feel like you belong in the Ivory Tower, even when that little voice in your head says, 'I’m not good enough,' or 'Nobody likes me,' or 'I’m actually half a dozen raccoons nestled inside an abandoned upscale Swedish jacket.'"

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How to Overcome Imposter Syndrome in Academia When You’re Six Raccoons Living in a Fjällräven Parka

Imposter syndrome is real. In a competitive field like academia, everybody feels like a fraud sometimes, whether it’s a scathing peer review, a nas...

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McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 06/03/2025

"Imposter syndrome is real. In a field like academia, everybody feels like a fraud sometimes, whether it’s a scathing peer review, a nasty comment from a student, or being shooed away by campus security when you get caught eating apple cores out of the dining hall dumpster."

buff.ly

How to Overcome Imposter Syndrome in Academia When You’re Six Raccoons Living in a Fjällräven Parka

Imposter syndrome is real. In a competitive field like academia, everybody feels like a fraud sometimes, whether it’s a scathing peer review, a nas...

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McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 22/02/2025

"A sign on your office door informs you that it is being turned into a private sauna for the university’s senior administration. Okay, okay, you can deal with this. You just need to find somewhere else to work."

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How to Finish Your Dissertation Before the Heat Death and Gradual Extinction of the Universe

Day 1: Find a desk in the office you share with twenty other grad students, set up your computer, and create a new document called “Dissertation.do...

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