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Chris Cantwell

@cdc29.bsky.social
3.5K followers 1.6K following 450 posts

Birdwatching Historian of Birdwatching Loyola University Chicago linktr.ee/cdc29

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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 13h
Though the confrontation with the other meth cooks at the end of episode 10 is pretty sick. Also TV on the Radio.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 14h
It is then immediately followed by what is to me the hardest scene to watch in show: when Walt makes Walter Jr. hurl by pushing tequila on him. The narcissism and the abuse is just too much for me. Even more than some deaths in the show.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 14h
Season 2, Episode 9, Days Out, is probably my favorite Breaking Bad episode. It’s the last of the kind if anti-MacGyver aspect of the show with the battery. And then the final scene. Man.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Agree. I don't use them for readings classes or seminars. But for project-based classes, where things are done in steps, it's actually nice to have the scaffolded assignments there where students can turn stuff in on behalf of their groups and my inbox is saved from doing some of this work.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
yep. the user interface always makes me feel like I am not the one they wrote use cases for.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Ha. Fair. But I think classes will need some kind of LMS or digital presence going forward (we use Sakai, I don't mind it, but it is not user friendly) and having an agent standardize the dates, outputs, and formats that go on sites like that was appealing to me. Also, the lunches.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
A lot going on in this post, but I kinda love most of it. 1) let AI build your Canvas class for you, and 2) universities should return to blanketing campuses with (free!) lunchtime conversations. computationalhistory.substack.com/p/how-ai-sav...
computationalhistory.substack.com
How AI Saved One Professor from Drudgery
Implications for Administrators
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Am looking at Chap 11 now especially. Also--do you do the web editing!?!?!
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Footnotes are repeated in several sections, with one linked and one dead. Block quotes are also not set apart in any way in most sections--though I'm now realizing that may have been a design choice. If I rediscover the dead links I'll let you though--though they may be fixed as you said.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Amazing. Thank you.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Thank you!
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Agreed
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Thank you!
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
An additional note to say that the genre and period is open. So, folk, hip hop, jazz, whatever would be of interest.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Our students are interested in doing a symposium on music & resistance in America's pasts & presents. My familiarity is with the folks who wrote on labor songs, but most of them have moved on. Who would you recommend my students consider as participants? Who is working in this space? 🗃️
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
There have been some articles that have shown that the pervasiveness of screens and the emphasis on tech literacy in schools have led some Gen Z and Gen Alpha kids to seek out legacy media like CDs for their novelty--or even organize screen-free hangout times.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I think it's more the rising generation's more tepid approach to digital culture. But this could be at play too.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I had a realization yesterday while teaching that I think for the first time since I became a faculty member in 2013, notebooks outnumbered laptops in my introductory history class made up mostly of freshman. It could be this group. But it also felt like a sign of the times.
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Reposted by Chris Cantwell
dan sinker @dansinker.com · 24/09/2026
I wrote about the unraveling of social media and offer a proposal: maybe we just... stop? dansinker.com/posts/2026-0...
dansinker.com
What If We Just Stopped? | dansinker.com
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Thank you! The two month old is especially heartbreak. And also troubling.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Ha. Just realized how many its / it's is in that post. Too many. Wonder what manifested that tick. Thanks.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I DO NOT! Thank you so much for sharing!
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
My first post explores the people John James #Audubon enslaved, and so far as I've been able to tell this may be the first time these names have been put to print. My hope is that it is the first of many post on the histories behind the birding world /end avianamericana.substack.com/p/a-is-for-a...
avianamericana.substack.com
A is for Audubon
Or, what how I spent my summer vacation.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
🗃️ Welp, I've started a Substack. It's called Avian Americana, and is something of a history blog for #bird nerds and a #birding blog for history buffs. It follows my ongoing effort to retell American history from the perspective of it's birds. /1 avianamericana.com
avianamericana.com
Avian Americana | Chris Cantwell | Substack
History for Bird Nerds and Birds for History Buffs. Click to read Avian Americana, by Chris Cantwell, a Substack publication. Launched 20 hours ago.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Related to this, I'm also hoping to do some birding on Friday or Saturday morning with @ncph.bsky.social, so if that's of interest lemme know. It's fall migration after all!
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
🗃️ For folks in RI, @ncph.bsky.social's annual meeting will feature conversations on religion & public history. One is a working group on church closures & the other is an awesome plenary being held at the the church Roger Williams founded. Please share widely, as the plenary is open to the public!
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
there's a special feeling in academia when you have the final classes of the week fully prepared, it feels like the week is over already.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Happy Breaking Bad Day to those who celebrate
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
What a story.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
@loyolahistdept.bsky.social's 🗃️ History Grad Student Assoc released the CFP for their annual conference. This always draws students from across the country, and because of the strength of our public history program it is also a great networking event. Please share widely!
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I had a similar vision for a history exhibit or digital archive that I called "Long COVID."
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Just learned from our writing center that student appointments have dropped by 40% since the advent of AI. There's a study to be done on how much of that is a result AI doing the work, & how much is a result of faculty no longer assigning papers.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Good to see @samplereality.bsky.social do some disruption again. Felt like like seeing a new twitter bot for the first time. americanatlas.world
americanatlas.world
The Atlas of America — Making Names Great Again.
The official atlas of the U.S. Board on American Names. Every place name on Earth, reviewed and brought into compliance. Current as of this morning.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
For 🗃️ folks in the Chicago area, @loyolahistdept.bsky.social organized a nice little talk for me to celebrate my book's publication. There will be food, so it will be worth it! Would love to see anyone who's in the area and free there.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
“What I have to put in” and “what I want to put in” are good headers.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Hats off to @louishyman.bsky.social & @historians.org for organizing this AI & History Conference. Incredibly bummed I can't attend. proflouishyman.github.io/ai_conferenc...
proflouishyman.github.io
AI and History Conference 2026
A practitioner-focused conference for historians using AI and computational methods, October 15–16, 2026 at Johns Hopkins University.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Among the many changes I've noticed as an academic, a particularly annoying one is the length of our syllabi. The front matter my U requires now makes the document 7 pages long before I even get to the schedule. And this is to say nothing of the surveillance of the content some of my colleagues feel
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
The West Virginia "Coal Wars," 1912-1921.
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Reposted by Chris Cantwell
Joseph S. Pete @nwi-jsp.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
'Midwestern Vernacular' contemporary photography exhibit opens at Chesterton Art Center nwitimes.com/life-enterta...
nwitimes.com
'Midwestern Vernacular' exhibit opens at Chesterton Art Center
The Chesterton Art Center will showcase scenes of the Midwest at its new contemporary photography exhibit.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
I know. it's a cryptic skeet but I just have to write something cause i'm alone!
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
My policy is to never, ever talk about student work online unless I 1. have their permission & 2. it's to brag about them. Only once did a tragic & hilarious misuse of Wikipedia 10 years ago test my resolve. Today, a jaw dropping use of AI is similarly challenging me because it is so unnerving.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
“We are all migrants through time.” - Mohsin Hamid
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
“Location, location, location., the realtors say. Geography is destiny, respond the historians.” - Mohsin Hamid, “Exit West”
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Follow up to say a coyote just jogged past me as I sit on the front porch reading to maybe I had the critter wrong.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Some kids on my block apparently just summoned a one-eyed lion.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Hat’s off to the curator of the John James Audubon Museum who installed this panel to the people Audubon enslaved while living in KY. It is the first post acknowledging this history, and the curator says it will not be the last.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
The dehydration headaches of archival research are real.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Also, signs of the times. (Look closely at the bottom.)
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Appreciate this curatorial nod to silence in the @kyhistsoc.bsky.social‘s exhibit on the state, and our nation’s founding.
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Chris Cantwell @cdc29.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Somehow I missed this. Thanks so much. Very generous.
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