iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 11h

Every time I teach Media Studies intro, I begin by having students log their media diet for two weeks. I then anonymize & aggregate to present a picture of their collective media use & compare it to previous classes. Obviously caveat for size & selection biases, but trends 🧵 Music listening is up:

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Anthony Reed @blackpoetics.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

📣Everybody! Vanderbilt English is hiring a tenured associate professor of Global Modernism. We especially welcome candidates who study Anglophone modernisms comparatively alongside other modernist traditions of the early 20th century. Please help me get the word out! apply.interfolio.com/194557

apply.interfolio.com

Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

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Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg @theradr.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Please watch this. Sex ed doesn't stop rapists, but it helps *everyone else* understand that they need to intervene, and how. Sex ed is crucial for ending rape culture and keeping more people safe. I'm a proud member of the @educateusaction.bsky.social advisory board for a reason.

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Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

delighted to share with you a few slides from my powerpoint on the culture industry, which I first made in 2015 (?), pre-AI, and have added to, little by little, over the years, as the processes of homogenization have intensified & the smothering sameness of mainstream ideas become more choking: +

Slide from Culture Industry lecture: The Culture Industry / Art Under Late Capitalism. "The whole world is passed through the filter of the culture industry" (99).

Diagram from mid 2010s showing the consolidation of media conglomerates in publishing-- now hilariously (?) obsolete

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Kathy Harris @triproftri.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

JOB POSTING: SJSU Dept of Humanities is hiring Asst Prof of #DH . H&A has grt grp of #digitalhumanists thinking broadly & creatively about our world + new DH Center + incredible student groups + funding for convos re ethical tech, speaker series, etc. Due: 12/1/26 jobs.sjsu.edu/sj/en-us/job...

jobs.sjsu.edu

San José State University - Details - Assistant Professor in Dept Humanities - Digital Humanities

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Andy Famiglietti @afamiglietti.org · 30/09/2026

The point of cultural artifacts is that they are shared. Literally that's what makes them "culture." Will there be low value slop content in the background? Yes. Will it "personalized content" displace shared art and artists (even if some of those are synthetic some day)? No.

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Alexander Manshel @manshel.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

"Require full books" is ranked 25th out of 30 here, only a few above "Private school vouchers" and "Allow A.I. use." The explanation? "Some experts saw this as common sense, though there is little existing research."

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cmrn knzlmn @ckunzelman.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

If you are a graduate student in the humanities (construed as broadly as possible), what is the MOST EXCITING book published in the last five years to you? Please repost if you’re not a graduate student!

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michael röbbins @alienvsrobbins.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Pope’s lines from “An Essay on Criticism” have been much misunderstood: Where'er you find "the cooling western breeze," In the next line, it "whispers through the trees." It’s not the predictability of rhyme pairs that is being censured (Pope used “trees | breeze” more than once) but (1/2)

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Chris Forster @cforster.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

The @averyedison.com version of this comic is my favorite: bsky.app/profile/aver... And it remains the correct response to “IT HAS A SOUL” discourse. But this thread is right.

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Hagen Blix @hagenblix.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I think we could try to falsify that premise (Thankfully, logic tells us that doesn't necessarily invalidate the conclusion)

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Mar Hicks @histoftech.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Just found out that there’s a new, and final, installment of ITV’s groundbreaking 7up documentary series. Original creator/director Michael Apted died a few yrs ago so they got Asif Kapadia (dir. of Senna) to do it. Can’t wait to watch & have an existential crisis.

70 Up poster shows pictures of the children from 7up and them currently as 70 year olds

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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I am thrilled to announce that the American Studies Program at Boston University will be accepting new PhD Students for the 27/28 academic year. These are fully funded, unionized, 5-year positions, with 4 semesters of guaranteed dissertation fellowship in years 4 & 5.

Application Deadline: December 15, 2026
The American Studies Program at Boston University is a nationally recognized leader in the interdisciplinary field of American Studies. Our students and faculty study the disparate yet interconnected cultures of colonial North America and the United States as seen in the ideas and actions of its people, and as expressed in a range of forms, especially culture, the arts, media, literature, and institutions - often seen through a global or transnational lens. Formerly known as the American & New England Studies Program, we maintain active collaborations with many cultural institutions in the region, especially in the Boston Area. Our large PhD program has produced tenure-track protessors, public historians, museum curators, and directors at major universities, museums, and other cultural and historical institutions.
Funding Opportunities
PhD students receive full funding for up to five years (12 months a year) under a collective bargaining agreement. During this time, they take courses, teach in their fields and disciplines of interest, and develop and write dissertations. The fellowship package guarantees four semesters of dissertation fellowship in years 4 and 5, with no service obligations Additional funding is available from Boston University for travel to conferences, for archival research, and for internships.
Current students have recently received outside fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation, the American Antiquarian Society, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Huntington Library, the Smithsonian Institution, the Beinecke Library, the Corning Museum of Glass, the New Bedford Whaling Museum, and the American Historical Association.
Graduate Student Association
The Program's own independent Graduate Student Association (GSA) is comprised of elected PhD students who sponsor events and programs for developing professional skills, while representing our students' interests to the governing faculty.

A list of affiliate faculty, available also on the program’s webpage

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Chris Forster @cforster.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

During the sometimes contentious debate over "learning to code" more than 10 years ago now (😱) in DH-y circles, I was very lightly on "Learning to code" is good side. I now think that I was undervaluing the skill.

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Chris Forster @cforster.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

If you’ve managed to keep the mastodon faith, you’re a better man than I!

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Brandon Walsh @walshbr.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

ICYMI - my book dropped! Embedded Pedagogies brings together conversations on DH teaching and administration, offering theory, activities, and policies to imagine better educational institutions. Openly available: buff.ly/kQau5oV Launch event on 10/5 at 1:00 ET: cal.lib.virginia.edu/event/17640296

cal.lib.virginia.edu

Embedded Pedagogies Virtual Book Launch with Brandon Walsh

Join us to celebrate the launch of Embedded Pedagogies: Digital Humanities Teaching and the Infrastructure of Change, an open-access book authored by the Scholars' Lab's Brandon...

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Chris Forster @cforster.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

A fantastically sharp post that joins a sense of text's actual functioning (resonant with the Textpocalypse described by @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social) to a longer history of the class function of literacy that resonates with @mattseybold.bsky.social on deliteracy.

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Chris Forster @cforster.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

It took me too long to realize that this game is not a sequel to the groundbreaking first-person spy game set in Menlo Park.

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Chris Forster @cforster.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Mac Le Moray. (Like when the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie, that's...)

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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Omg nerds ftw

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Chris Forster @cforster.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Students are being exploited when they are asked to treat their one and only education as a gamble on the future needs of employers. They accept all the risk and cost while allowing the surplus value to accrue to Lockheed Martin or whoever.

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Chris Forster @cforster.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

This is the inevitable consequence of treating education as primarily job preparation. But if “hiring companies” are really the “customer” then why are students the one’s with debt burden?

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Chris Forster @cforster.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I’ll stop apologizing. But I’m including a citation to this post.

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Kieran Healy @kjhealy.co · 09/09/2026

Sounds like a Future Me problem, not a Current Me problem

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Meredith Martin @mmvty.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

It was a pleasure to help the author with this article and so serendipitous that @mellymeldubs.bsky.social was in town when we were in touch. Secret help from an incredible & stealth Princeton librarian also got @hathitrust.bsky.social in the convo, finally.

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Kristin Grogan @kristingrogan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I mourn the passing of Rachel Blau DuPlessis, whose writing taught me so much. Much to choose from, so here’s a bit of Blue Studios I had pinned above my computer for a while: A book should be porous; it should have enough air and space, enough blue air, so that whoever is enters it can breathe.

Extract from intro to rachel blau duplessis’ blue studios

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Chris Forster @cforster.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

My experience is folks talk more about THE HISTORY OF SEXUALITY (and just the very end, re biopower) than even the prison stuff. Which utterly ignores THE ORDER OF THINGS!

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mr. TIM @timkellogg.me · 07/09/2026

it is sooooo cool that we have an actual explainable algorithm here on bsky

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Chris Forster @cforster.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

That certainly seems… tricky. Though this seems the sort of thing @manshel.bsky.social has been thinking about.

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Chris Forster @cforster.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Thanks very much. That's very kind.

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Chris Forster @cforster.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

A reasonable guess! Walsh & Antoniak stress it in the Goodreads. I was surprised, tbh, how different Reddit seems in this regard. THE GREAT GATSBY ranks 3 in their Goodreads data, but 20 on r/classicliterature! School (high school & middle) is playing a role, but, less than I assumed!

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Chris Forster @cforster.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

People absolutely report finding it a compelling, propulsive, action-packed narrative. Potentially, it offers all the pleasure of blockbuster film, with the prestige of old French doorstopper novel.

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Chris Forster @cforster.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

You're not the only one: bsky.app/profile/ssel... There is definitely something going on; I so want the answer to be social media... but I suspect there is something I just don't know how about TCoMC exists in popular culture. (Confession: Haven't read it; and boy, it looks long.)

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Chris Forster @cforster.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Interesting... That puts the brakes a little on my Baudrillardish desire to assert "The Count of Monte Cristo Did Not Take Place [Until TikTok]."

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Chris Forster @cforster.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

John Williams's STONER was "rediscovered" in the early 2000s and I think it is pretty great. It has a section describing a comprehensive oral exam for a PhD in English that goes poorly; #nightmarefuel as they say.

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Chris Forster @cforster.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Yeah... some of those (esp. 2666, Secret History, Stoner) have a weird ubiquitousness on certain internet fora; and how/why they achieved that dominance really does puzzle me--no knock on the books at all (I haven't read 2666 b/c Bolano's SAVAGE DETECTIVES was so challenging).

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Chris Forster @cforster.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Thanks so much! I'm glad that argument wasn't too out there. After spending too much time counting, I sometimes long for (and given in to) a desire for not-entirely-defensible theorizing...

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Chris Forster @cforster.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I'd be curious to know which ones. I was stymied by some Dostoevsky and Murakami deep cuts; also, there are book series that fold stuff in ways that might make them less recognizable. Cormac McCarthy's ALL THE PRETTY HORSES (which I've *heard of*) gets folded into the "Border Trilogy" for counting.

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Chris Forster @cforster.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

(TL;DR: It's Wuthering Heights, The Count of Monte Cristo [weird, right?], and lots of Dostoevsky.)

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Chris Forster @cforster.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

What works does the r/classicliterature subreddit consider "classic"? This post gives you an answer (and some media ecological theorizing for good measure): cforster.com/2026/09/redd... With thanks to @mellymeldubs.bsky.social & @mariaa.bsky.social, whose work on Goodreads I borrow from.

cforster.com

The Reddit Classics

Reflections on the most frequently mentioned works in the /r/classicliterature subreddit.

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alex williams @atwilliams.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

[jacques lacan explaining why you have to relativize the clinical situation to talk, in part to prevent the countertransference, early 1950s, colorized]

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michael röbbins @alienvsrobbins.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I have to admit it's funny to begin a novel by arguing that all your problems can be traced to your mother's having asked your father, in the middle of your conception, whether he'd remembered to wind the clock

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Evan Urquhart @evanurquhart.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

An undergrad told her professor President Trump made teaching about gender identity illegal and then THE PROFESSOR was fired. This happened LAST YEAR in Texas. www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-...

nbcnews.com

Texas A&M fires professor over gender-identity lesson in literature course

Professor Melissa McCoul "has appealed her termination and is exploring further legal action," her lawyer told NBC News.

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Sarama Burwani @ hey there's a spider on your back @saramaburwani.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

$Panel 1: IEEE Single-Precision Floating Point standard Panel 2: Omni-Man: Look what they need to mimic a fraction$

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Stephanie Insley Hershinow @sinsleyh.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

It’s here! From the team that brought you Clarissa 2025, join us to read a rollicking delight of a novel. Whether you’re rereading or reading for the first time, there are lots of ways to join. We’ll have weekly Substack posts and bimonthly hybrid meetings.

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Mark Riedl @markriedl.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

For those who write tenure letters: you play an important role here. For the last few years I include a statement that the funding environment is bad and while any funding wins should be celebrated, lack of fundraising success should no longer be used as a meaningful metric for tenure.

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Maria Antoniak @mariaa.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I'm looking for a scholar who studies James Baldwin (broadly, his life and/or work) who is open to collaboration and computational methods. If you know someone nice, please let me know :D

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Jordan S. Carroll 🌹 @jordanscarroll.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

I can’t read about Meister Eckhart without imagining the makin’ copies guy calling him “the Eckhartmeister.”

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Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

The alchemists were right after all. 🤷🏽‍♀️

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