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Joseph Cermatori

@cermatori.bsky.social
1.8K followers 1.2K following 161 posts

criticism & theory - literature, art, performance, politics and culture 🌿 assoc. prof. @ Skidmore College author: “Baroque Modernity” (JHUP 2021) www.josephcermatori.com

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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Some more nice professional news! This semester I’m stepping into a new role as Co-Director of Skidmore’s Center for Humanistic Inquiry, alongside my department colleague Barbara Black. I’m looking forward to working with colleagues whose research I might not otherwise encounter,
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
My book *Baroque Modernity* turns five this fall. What a treat to know that reviews of the book are still gradually coming out. Here's one that was just published recently in the journal “Theatre History Studies.” muse.jhu.edu/pub/181/arti... 📚🎭✍🏼 #booksky #baroque #literary #criticism #academia
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
🌿🌿🌿
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
“We live in an age where knowledge is no longer sitting outside of society or the economy, offering a picture of how society works.“ — @will-davies.bsky.social on the “deconstruction of the figure of the intellectual,” in conversation on the @lrb.co.uk #podcast. #writers #critics #critique 📚🎧
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Great development from Columbia’s Core Curriculum! Total ban on all electronic devices from the CC classroom. And “Faculty committees governing the Core [will] discuss the full range of the AI working group’s recommendations this fall.” 🔥🦁🩵🖤 @columbiauniversity.bsky.social h/t: @rezekjoe.bsky.social
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Graduates boo AI — “Kareen Gill, a recent graduate of American University, thinks a lot of her generation is feeling pessimistic about AI. … ‘I think at the beginning we were excited about it and it was this cool thing, ‘Oh, I can write an essay for you,’ but now like, we don't want that anymore…’”
npr.org
Advice for 2026 commencement speakers: Don't bring up AI
Commencement speakers who bring up the sweeping changes that artificial intelligence is driving are facing boos from the Class of 2026.
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Born on this Day: the great Greek-Alexandrian poet Constantine Cavafy, trailblazer in modern gay poetry. I wrote about him for Accelerate Magazine, seen through the lens of gay photographer Duane Michals. #gaypoetry #gayartists #lgbtq #nationalpoetrymonth #taurean tang.skidmore.edu/collection/e...
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
Final week of spring semester — teaching ORLANDO: A BIOGRAPHY 💖 #currentmood #virginiawoolf #booksky
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Ida B Wells' Winchester Rifle @dytsras.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Bluesky might be the only place on the internet where I dont have to see any ads
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
nytimes.com
Orban, Beacon to the Right, Concedes Defeat in Hungary’s Election
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
h/t: @alexanderchee.bsky.social — “The plan's $38 billion budget is more than the total annual spending for 22 states, according to state budget data.”
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
About small liberal-arts colleges, Ian Bogost writes in @theatlantic.com: “The form of higher ed that they provide seems poised to be the most resilient in the years to come.” 🎓 #educationmatters #academia #liberalarts #academicsky #SLAC
theatlantic.com
The Accidental Winners of the War on Higher Ed
Go to a small liberal-arts college if you can.
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
After the past week, this headline from @mashagessen.bsky.social in the @nytimes.com says it all.
nytimes.com
Opinion | State Terror Has Arrived
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
New semester, new office — starting to feel like I’m settled in. For everyone who’s with me returning to the classroom this month: stay warm, stay strong, keep up the good fight. Education matters. #academia #highered #humanitiessky #officehours
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
“Perhaps most surprising is that these trends were distinctly robust among the youngest American adults — those under 25. This group increased its animus against marginalized groups in general and gay people in particular at a faster rate than older Americans did.” #stophate #gaypride
nytimes.com
Opinion | Americans Are Turning Against Gay People
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
“Georges de La Tour’s scan of the visual field is a stark, bold testing out of basic facets of experience. What is it to face another human, when that person cannot see you?“ 🕯️🔥 @lrb.co.uk #baroque #arthistory
lrb.co.uk
Julian Bell · At the Musée Jacquemart-André: On Georges de La Tour
Georges de La Tour’s scan of the visual field is a stark, bold testing out of basic facets of experience. What is it...
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
“The crisis of the humanities has been revealed by the events of the last year to be a crisis of civil society writ large. … Many [non-humanities] educators now see that defunding the humanities is the tip of a spear aimed at them as well.” The answer is “to organize.”
chronicle.com
The ‘Crisis of the Humanities’ Is Over. That’s Not a Good Thing.
All of higher ed now suffers the attacks of politics and technology.
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Reasons for hope, from @adambonica.bsky.social “There is another America inside this one, visible in the statistics of nations that made different choices. Call it Latent America: the nation that would exist if our democracy functioned to serve the public rather than protect the already powerful.”
data4democracy.substack.com
The Wall Looks Permanent Until It Falls
On the optimism of preparation in a time of democratic decay.
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
“Mamdani — the son of the filmmaker Mira Nair, a onetime rapper and a sometime patron of comedy, music and theater — this week prevailed upon the annual Under the Radar festival, which is running through Jan. 25, to make 1,500 free tickets available.“
nytimes.com
Handing Out Free Tickets, Mamdani Says Theater Should Not Be ‘a Luxury’
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
From the “Strength in Numbers” Substack: “Americans do not want war with Venezuela”
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jon ben-menachem @jbenmenachem.com · 21/10/2025
Wow. Harvard nuking its PhD programs - Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75% - Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60% - Social Sciences by 50–70% - History by 60% - Biology by 75% - The German department will lose all PhD seats - Sociology from six PhD students to zero
thecrimson.com
Harvard FAS Cuts Ph.D. Seats By More Than Half Across Next Two Admissions Cycles | News | The Harvard Crimson
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences slashed the number of Ph.D. student admissions slots for the Science division by more than 75 percent and for the Arts & Humanities division by about 60 percent for th...
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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 11/10/2025
UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 4: Sylvia Rivera In the 1970s, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of NYC. Our trans neighbors faced immense cruelty. But in Sylvia Rivera, they found a champion. As we combat Trump’s politics of darkness, her legacy can light the path forward.
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
“The crisis in criticism is not just about fewer jobs but about the intellectual health of of our culture. If we let art criticism become an exclusive club for the well-connected and well-funded, we risk creating an echo chamber that flatters power...” @nyobserver.bsky.social #artswriting #criticism
observer.com
The Death of the Full-Time Critic and What It Means for the Future of Art Writing
If we let art criticism become an exclusive club for the well-connected and well-funded, we risk creating an echo chamber that flatters power rather than interrogates it.
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
Dispatch from the University of Chicago: “The university’s trustees and leaders view it preeminently as a tax-free technology incubator, and its debt load is so great that it is abandoning ideals it once held dear in order to sustain that goal. We are simply choosing not to be a university.”
compactmag.com
The Crisis of the University Started Long Before Trump
The University of Chicago is in crisis. Under extraordinary financial strain, it has diminished its faculty-student ratio and hired hundreds of “lecturers”: teachers whom it pays little and whom it do...
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
Portait of the sculptor Alessandro Vittoria, Giovanni Battista Moroni, 1551-1552, oil on canvas, 87.5 cm × 70 cm (34.4 in × 28 in), Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. #portraiture #arthistory #moroni
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
(1/14) So many tributes these past few days in honor of Robert Wilson (1941–2025) — widely hailed as the most significant American theater director of his generation. Here’s a memorial thread. #RobertWilson #avantgarde #contrmporary #opera #performance #theaterhistory #theater #InMemoriam
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Tim Howles @timhowles.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
We should be ok then:
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Susan Klaiber @susanklaiber.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
Early design for Bernini's baldacchino in St. Peter's, topped by the Risen Christ (rather than orb with cross as executed). #HappyEaster
Detail of an early design for the baldacchino in St. Peter's, Rome. Four twisted columns arranged in a square rise. Each column bears an angel on top. Each column also supports a curved rib; the four ribs rise to meet above the center of the square plan. A canopy hangs between the columns, supported by ribbons held by the four angels and suspended from the framework of the four ribs. The intersection of the ribs at the top support a platform bearing a sculpture of the Risen Christ.
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Turns out Millennial Grey was a thing in the 1420s too…
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David Wallace-Wells @dwallacewells.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
We are living in a new branch of history, created by Covid and only now, five years later, really coming into view. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
Opinion | How Covid Remade Our America, Five Years Later
It feels as if the pandemic is behind us. But we’re living in the world it made.
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Needed a momentary break from the headlines, the gloom, and the doom, so took a daytrip into the city to catch Cy Twombly at the Gagosian, and Isabelle Huppert and Robert Wilson at NYU’s Skirball Center. 💛 #cytwombly #isabellehuppert #robertwilson #contemporaryart #nyc #nyu
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
Really wishing I lived in London right now, not least of all so I could go catch Jonathan Bailey play Richard II at the Bridge Theater. I meannnnnn.... www.nytimes.com/2025/02/18/t... #williamshakespeare #theater #londontheater #jonathanbailey
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
Butler: “Those who celebrate his defiance and sadism are as claimed by his logic as those who are paralyzed with outrage. Perhaps it is time to stand apart from these passions to see how they work, but also to find passions of our own.” — @theguardian.com, 6 Feb 2025 #RefuseFascism #DemocracyNow
theguardian.com
Trump is unleashing sadism upon the world. But we cannot get overwhelmed | Judith Butler
Those who celebrate his defiance and sadism are as claimed by his logic as those who are paralyzed with outrage
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Useful reading, with some much needed perspective and recommendations. *9. Prepare for a long fight* “This is the fight of our generation, and it will take time.” #defenddemocracy #refusefascism
democracydocket.com
Ten Things We Can All Do to Protect Democracy
From Marc | The most common question I receive is how everyday citizens can help in the fight for democracy.
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
Spending the afternoon in editor mode, working to prepare a new collection of the nonfiction writings of Thornton Wilder. Here he is with Gertrude Stein, visiting her summer home in Bilignin, France, ca. 1937/1938. #thorntonwilder #gertrudestein #moderndrama #modernism
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
New research from Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University “finds that as humans increasingly rely on generative AI in their work, they use less critical thinking, which can ‘result in the deterioration of cognitive faculties that ought to be preserved.’” #brainrot #forreal
404media.co
Microsoft Study Finds AI Makes Human Cognition “Atrophied and Unprepared”
Researchers find that the more people use AI at their job, the less critical thinking they use.
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Useful reading, with some much needed perspective and recommendations. *9. Prepare for a long fight* “This is the fight of our generation, and it will take time.” #defenddemocracy #refusefascism
democracydocket.com
Ten Things We Can All Do to Protect Democracy
From Marc | The most common question I receive is how everyday citizens can help in the fight for democracy.
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
In honor of the birthday today of Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956)—poet, theorist, and dramatist—here’s a YouTube video adaptation of one of his short prose texts, “If Sharks Were Men.” More urgent and disturbing today than any time in recent memory, seems like. 🦈 #brecht #antifascist #refusefascism #HBD
youtu.be
If Sharks Were Men by Bertolt Brecht
YouTube video by Boka Art Residence
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
Opening this week in Saratoga Springs, NY, a *major* exhibition of queer lives, queer visual art, queer performances, and queer archival practices. "a field of bloom and hum" Tang Museum Feb 14-Jul 20 #queer #queerlives #queerart #queerarchives 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ Info below: ⬇️ ⬇️ tang.skidmore.edu/exhibitions/...
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
Here’s the political theorist and historian of reactionary conservatism, Corey Robin, writing on Facebook about recent a recent shift in how left-liberal pundits are responding to our country’s unfolding hostile takeover. @joriegraham.bsky.social
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 02/02/2025
H/t @alexanderchee.bsky.social: “They’re shortselling on our destruction.”
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Joseph Cermatori @cermatori.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
John Singer Sargeant, “Piazza Navona, Rome,” 1906, watercolor, ink, and pencil on paper (21 x 17 in.)
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