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Esther Peeren

@estherpeeren.bsky.social
427 followers 411 following 78 posts

Professor of Cultural Analysis - University of Amsterdam. Intellectual home: Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis. Intellectual hero: Mikhail Bakhtin. Musical hero: Meatloaf. Favorite animal: 🦛

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Reposted by Esther Peeren
Jamie Fox @whatlawfoxsays.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
When I started teaching in law school I was asked to speak to an undergrad meeting sponsored by the lit and phil depts. I stressed that the best prep for law school would come in poetry or analytic phil classes, or any classes with close reading. Because that's a foundational skill for lawyers.
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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
I don't think the official launch has happened yet, but it appears the new Hopkins Guide is up & running on ProjectMUSE. The editors have been working on this since at least 2020 (that's when they queried me). It has (by my count) 84 new entries. IMHO... muse.jhu.edu/resource/8
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Claire Boardman @claireboardman.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
"[The] social model of disability - it is not the person's condition but the societal and physical environment that holds them back - while conversations around barriers in towns and cities have improved, that is not the case for the countryside." @thelrm.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Disabled Monmouthshire author 'padlocked' out of nature
Bethany Handley says design, not disability, makes green spaces inaccessible for people like her.
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Historical Materialism Journal @histmat.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
A statement on the current developments at Istanbul Bilgi University by the Historical Materialism Istanbul organisers.
hmistanbul.org
Statement Regarding Current Developments at Bilgi University
The operation license of Istanbul Bilgi University was revoked by a presidential decree issued on early hours of May 20. This is where we held our last Istanbul HM meeting last April thanks to the …
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Polly Pallister-Wilkins @pollypw.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
📢 Job Alert! 📢 Do you work on critical approaches to militarism, war, and technology? Do you have expereince teaching introductory and advanced courses in international relations? Then come and work with us at the University of Amsterdam. #AcademicSky werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...
werkenbij.uva.nl
Vacancy — Assistant Professor in Political Science, Specialization in International Relations
<p>Are you an enthusiastic international relations scholar with a passion for education? Do you conduct research at and on the intersections of militarism, war, and technology? Are you interested in w...
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Esther Peeren @estherpeeren.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
Why does it have to take me 10 minutes to log into the systems the university uses with 2-factor identification etc. if these systems are so easily hacked… Luckily I’m too lazy to go into Canvas to send messages to students so I do it through my email, which means I can still reach them!
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Esther Peeren @estherpeeren.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
Ik voel me zeer vereerd en kijk ernaar uit om bij de KNAW actief te worden - zodat het voor nieuwe generaties mogelijk blijft om onderzoek te doen (ook als dit onderzoek niet onmiddellijk maatschappelijke invloed heeft).
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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 03/04/2026
‘Women were more often engaged in agricultural work – especially milking cows but also other forms of animal husbandry, along with weeding, sowing and harvesting crops – than they were in care work.’ @tomlukejohnson.bsky.social on early modern working patterns. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
Tom Johnson · Save My Beer: Industrious Revolution
Labour was once an organic part of the peasant household, done in the interest of subsistence. Certainly many people in...
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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
We’ve tried to make academic research entirely frictionless for our students — online reading lists with hyperlinks, individual book chapters scanned online, journal articles that never require learning what a journal is, online primary sources curated for them — and it’s just made them helpless.
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Jaap Kooijman @jaapkooijman.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
Academische vrijheid wordt wereldwijd bedreigd door rechtsextremisme en @nrc.nl publiceert doodleuk een opiniestuk dat stelt "Linkse dominantie op de universiteit ondergraaft vertrouwen in wetenschap." We leven in een omgekeerde wereld.
theguardian.com
Gender studies courses are shutting down across the US. The Epstein files reveal why | Joan Wallach Scott
Texas A&M University is the latest school to end women’s and gender studies programs and teaching race. We know why
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Journal of Democracy @jodemocracy.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
Narendra Modi and his ruling BJP have developed the textbook attack on India’s universities and centers of free thought. It offers a vital warning for other countries where higher education is in danger. muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/a...
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De Groene Amsterdammer @groene.nl · 01/01/2026
Filmclub 🎥| De docu 'From Ground Zero' vangt het leven in Gaza in tweeëntwintig korte films, waarin het voortdurende gezoem van drones alledaags is. Tussen puinhopen toont de film hoe mensen, ondanks alles, vasthouden aan waardigheid en een vorm van normaal leven. 👀 Kijk via: www.groene.nl/filmclub
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Esther Peeren @estherpeeren.bsky.social · 01/01/2026
’You end up seriously thinking that between one year and the next there is a break, that a new history is beginning; you make resolutions, and you regret your irresolution, and so on, and so forth.’ Thinking in academic years and my 18-month paper diary afford a bit of an escape from this!
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Esther Peeren @estherpeeren.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
Truly one of the worst movies I ever saw (and my expectations were low, given that I cannot stand Adam Driver).
theguardian.com
Megalopolis: the $120m Coppola flop that just won’t go away
A screening tour, a New Year’s re-release, a documentary, an incoming director’s cut … will we ever be rid of this historic misfire?
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John Holbein @johnholbein1.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
Experimental evidence that students are more likely to contest grades when they are delivered by an evaluator with a female-sounding name. "These findings suggest that women in evaluative positions face disproportionate resistance when delivering negative assessments."
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Esther Peeren @estherpeeren.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
My all-time favorite X-mas movie:
nytimes.com
‘Jingle All the Way,’ and the Super Bad Dad Superhero
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Esther Peeren @estherpeeren.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
Never got rid of my wired headphones - they are not easily lost and require no charging; I’ve even come to enjoy the inevitable need to detangle them whenever I take them out of my bag!
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Ryan Cordell @ryancordell.org · 19/12/2025
I think this post nails the actual problem, for researchers at least—AI hallucinations would simply not be a problem in academic work if we’d not normalized citation-as-signaling rather than actual engagement—you can only cite a fake paper if you’re not in the habit of reading the papers you cite
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Kari Maaren @angrykem.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
The whole point of being an academic is that you need to be willing to spend three days creating a 700-word footnote that you will later delete. And you need to LIKE IT.
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Merijn Oudenampsen @merijnoudenampsen.org · 15/12/2025
We have a cover! Will be out with Verso Books in June.
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profchander @profchander.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
me to grad students: share your work with each other, talk, exchange ideas! me to me: no one can ever see this draft it's garbage and they'll think i'm garbage and then i'll have to move into a dumpster where i belong
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n+1 @nplusonemag.com · 12/12/2025
It’s startling, the velocity with which a decades-long crisis in the humanities has, with the flourish of a few quick Executive Orders, become a crisis of the university, full stop. www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...
nplusonemag.com
Memos of Blood and Fire | Peter Coviello
So if you ask me about the signature strength of the department where I work, I will tell you. It is world-caliber field-defining research, wedded to a fantastically dynamic practice of instruction, a...
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Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
Most discussions about “misinformation” treat the problem as if people simply don’t have good enough critical-thinking skills. It sounds intuitive, but it’s not entirely accurate. The problem isn’t just individual ignorance, it’s the structure of the information environment people are placed into.
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max koss 🦩 @maxkoss.com · 10/11/2025
I do admire the author for the guts to include this image in his book.
a page from a book showing a self-made meme by the author with the image of a lonely excavator trying free the Ever Given as it got stuck in the Suez Canal, superimposed with text "this book" on the ship and "me trying to write it" on the comparatively small excavator.
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Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
‘Study after study shows that students want to develop these critical thinking skills, are not lazy, and large numbers of them would be in favor of banning ChatGPT and similar tools in universities’, says @olivia.science www.ru.nl/en/research/...
ru.nl
‘Opposing the inevitability of AI at universities is possible and necessary’ | Radboud University
Since the widespread release of ChatGPT in December of 2022, AI has taken over much of the world by storm – including academia. Most of this happened with very little pushback, despite a myriad of iss...
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The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 31/10/2025
Watch it here: www.thebulwark.com/p/heidi-heit...
thebulwark.com
Heidi Heitkamp: How Trump’s Trade Chaos Hurt Farmers
President Trump meets with Xi Jinping and agrees to an embarrassingly one-sided trade deal, as the “China Hawks” in the administration cower.
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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Interesting paper! When you ask people about the most important issue "facing the country," they often say immigration. But when you ask them about issues facing them personally, it doesn't crack the top 10. This indicates that voters are reacting to media narratives, not their own experience.
Immigration is the most important issue facing your countryImmigration is the 14th most important issue facing you personally
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Roos Vonk @roosvonk.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
Bij Eva aan tafel vinden drie rechtse duiders het vreemd dat GLPvdA niet veel harder is gegroeid. Ja jongens, hoe zou dat nou toch komen, in een land waar kiezers avond aan avond talkshows zien met overwegend (extreem)rechtse gasten en elke dag wordt gezegd hoe “de mensen thuis” Timmermans haten?🤷🏻‍♀️
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Labor Tech Research Network @labortechresearchnetwork.org · 23/10/2025
Ghost Workers in the AI Machine cwa-union.org/ghost-worker...
cwa-union.org
Ghost Workers in the AI Machine:
U.S. Data Workers Speak Out About Big Tech’s Exploitation
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Remco Breuker 🟥 @remcobreuker.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Analyse van de partijprogramma's van de verschillende politieke partijen aangaande hun plannen met het wetenschappelijk onderwijs. Maakt het wat makkelijker te besluiten wat te stemmen, wat mij betreft. #WOinActie
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Esther Peeren @estherpeeren.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
Call for Papers - Cultures of In/Visibility and In/Audibility Amsterdam, 23-24 April 2026. Join us! www.researchgate.net/publication/...
researchgate.net
(PDF) CfP Cultures of InVisibility and InAudibility Conference (Amsterdam, 23-24 April 2026)
PDF | Call for Papers for conference on "Cultures of In/Visibility and In/Audibility", 23-24 April 2026, Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis, deadline... | Find, read and cite all the research you n...
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Léonie de Jonge @leoniedejonge.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
Anti-immigration demonstration in the Netherlands escalates. This is exactly what happens when far-right ideas are tolerated and normalised over an extended period of time. The far right gains confidence and grows, both at the ballot box and in the streets. nos.nl/artikel/2583...
nos.nl
Anti-immigratie-demonstratie Den Haag escaleert, confrontatie met politie
De actievoerders steken vuurwerk af en zwaaien met Nederlandse vlaggen maar ook met prinsenvlaggen.
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Tijana Stevanović @tijana.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
here is the job ad in English: vacatures.knaw.nl/job/Amsterda...
vacatures.knaw.nl
Director International Institute of Social History - IISH - KNAW
Director International Institute of Social History - IISH - KNAW
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Ben Williamson @benpatrickwill.bsky.social · 07/09/2025
Peer reviewers are exhausted. It's common to spend *months* inviting reviewers, getting refusals, inviting more, maybe 12 or more, then 2 agree but 1 doesn't complete, so you go again. That's why your paper is in limbo. I'm very sorry, it's awful, but it's also an untenable academic labour issue.
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Erik Steinskog @eriksteinskog.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
"“If we stop producing people who are trained or educated to help undergraduates understand the most important things thought or written or painted in human history,” the renowned philosopher Robert Pippin said, “we might not be able to recover that.”"
theatlantic.com
If the University of Chicago Won’t Defend the Humanities, Who Will?
Why it matters that the University of Chicago is pausing admissions to doctoral programs in literature, philosophy, the arts, and languages
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 17/08/2025
Waterstones opens 10 new stores a year as younger adults embrace reading
theguardian.com
Waterstones opens 10 new stores a year as younger adults embrace reading
Bookshop chain says people are keen to escape their screens and says rise in sales is partly down to BookTok Times may be tough on the high street but the bookseller Waterstones is enjoying strong sales as younger adults embrace reading as an escape from their screens and as online competition eases. “People have come back to reading and buying books in bookshops as we have made a place which is an enjoyable and effective way to buy books,” says James Daunt, the CEO of the British retailer, which has 320 UK bookshops and owns the Foyles, Hatchards and Blackwell’s names, and whose parent group also owns Barnes & Noble, the US’s largest bookstore chain. Continue reading...
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Bonnie Honig @bonniehonig.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
“keeping the humans in humanities” 💯
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De Groene Amsterdammer @groene.nl · 03/08/2025
Anders dan de BBB beweert is noaberschap (burenhulp) geen typisch regionale deugd. Ook andere politieke actoren maken goede sier met de term, veelal om impopulaire maatregelen met de mantel der liefde te bedekken (‘participatiemaatschappij’). 👉 buff.ly/fuqPT86
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Pavel Pospech @pavelp.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
When we talk about "real life" in rural areas, what does the word "real" actually mean? Check out our chapter in this great new volume edited by @estherpeeren.bsky.social and Tjalling Valdés Olmos! brill.com/display/titl... @soc-muni.bsky.social
brill.com
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Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · 18/10/2024
My latest on “The New Artificial Intelligentsia,” part of the Legacies of Eugenics series in the Los Angeles Review of Books. Thanks to all who read + share! lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
lareviewofbooks.org
The New Artificial Intelligentsia | Los Angeles Review of Books
In the fifth essay of the Legacies of Eugenics series, Ruha Benjamin explores how AI evangelists wrap their self-interest in a cloak of humanistic concern.
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Roos Vonk @roosvonk.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
En die onnozele Wilders en Yesilgoz, die zogenaamd opkomen voor de gewone “hardwerkende” man/vrouw, laten het allemaal gebeuren. Gevolg: grote agro bedrijven krijgen het leeuwendeel vd subsidies, en wij krijgen stikstof, woningnood, slechtste water van Europa enz. En BBB blokkeert verandering.
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Esther Peeren @estherpeeren.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
New edited volume on rural imagi nations - out now, fully open access (thanks to the ERC)!
brill.com
Rural Imaginations for a Globalized World
"Rural Imaginations for a Globalized World" published on 09 Jul 2025 by Brill.
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Cas Mudde @casmudde.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
On the upside, this doesn’t even come close to the top-10 most embarrassing things Mark Rutte has done in his career.
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Mauricio Sellmann Oliveira @mausellmoli.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
“As you read, a line might hit you. You feel struck. You pause. Here’s where close reading happens. Hold up. Linger with that line. Read it again, a few more times. What gives it its force here in its immediate moment? Work out its power. Does it reveal something about the text’s project?”
defector.com
Close Reading Is For Everyone | Defector
In Sigrid Nunez’s 2018 novel The Friend, a famous writer kills himself. Not long before, he complains to the narrator about readers: “People talking about a book as if it were just another thing, like...
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Dan Sinykin @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...
press.princeton.edu
Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century
A user’s guide to the fundamental practice of literary studies, providing context, examples, and practical exercises
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Brendan Hodges @brendanhodges.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
I talked to Jia Zhangke about CAUGHT BY THE TIDES for @nextbestpicture.bsky.social, talking his grand, abstracted mosaic of this century's constant change. One of my favorite conversations I've done with a filmmaker in ages, proud of this one! Read here: nextbestpicture.com/the-next-bes...
nextbestpicture.com
The Next Best Picture Podcast - Interview With "Caught By The Tides" Filmmaker Jia Zhangke - Next Best Picture
Over the past several decades, Jia Zhangke has become the foremost filmmaker to capture not only the rapid development of China through the 21st century but also how that explosive expansion has shape...
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
Screenshot of a Facebook post by Quill Kukla: "It took just over two weeks for the search committee to hire a pope and it takes us academics like a year to hire a professor. Embarrassing!"
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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 09/05/2025
It is time to remember the ones who never abandoned the way to care for the dead the ones who said not only my dead and not only the official dead matter amidst all the matter. ‘The Historians’, a poem by Maureen N. McLane: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
Maureen N. McLane · Poem: ‘The Historians’
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Framer Framed @framerframed.nl · 09/05/2025
#jobvacancy Kunstinstituut Melly is Looking for a Curator of Collective Learning. Bring your expertise in (un)learning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and dialogue to shape innovative public programs that engage diverse audiences www.kunstinstituutmelly.nl/en/pages/836...
kunstinstituutmelly.nl
Job Vacancy Curator of Collective Learning 7e editie - Kunstinstituut Melly
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