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Donovan Schaefer

@feelingtheory.bsky.social
1.6K followers 1.1K following 2.5K posts

Professor, probably thinking about emotion. West coast soul in Philly. 🌱 Current projects: Secular artifacts; Confederate commemoration; conspiracy theory; pedagogy against AI. 📚✍️: donovanschaefer.com/research

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Donovan Schaefer
Barbara J. King @bjking.bsky.social · 12h
On chimpanzee + bonobo mothers carrying dead infants, by @tpuschel.bsky.social + Reece Hammond. Length of time "depends on how strong their bond was, [mom's] life experience, the physical risks of holding onto the body and how quickly it naturally breaks down." #primates #deathstudies #anthropology
theconversation.com
Why do some chimpanzee mothers carry their dead infants for months?
New research looks for patterns in this sad phenomenon.
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Emily Gorcenski @emily.gorcen.ski · 4h
I’ve been saying this for *years* and when I first started saying it I was called a genocide denier lmao
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Judith Weisenfeld @jlweisenfeld.bsky.social · 10h
Job: Princeton's Effron Center for the Study of America is conducting an open-rank search in Native American and Indigenous Studies in any field in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Review of applications begins November 1.
apply.interfolio.com
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
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Judith Weisenfeld @jlweisenfeld.bsky.social · 10h
Postdoc: Princeton's Effron Center for the Study of America is taking applications for a postdoctoral fellowship in Native American and Indigenous studies with the possibility of teaching one course per semester. Deadline: November 15, 2026.
apply.interfolio.com
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
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J-Qweln 🦇 🇨🇦🇨🇴 @jacquelinevalencia.ca · 10h
Doesn't matter where life takes me, I'll always be a transport nerd taking pics of a city in motion.
Tram in Amsterdam.London Underground. Piccadilly Circus.Anatole France station in the Paris Metro.Union Station, Toronto.
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 9h
new name going forward
Dear Dr. History,
I am a submission assistant in the field of qualitative research, education, teacher education, educational management, and my name is Emily.
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Donovan Schaefer @feelingtheory.bsky.social · 10h
This looks amazing! -------------------------- Big Ten Trans Pedagogy Forum Penn State, April 29-May 30. Submission Deadline: November 15 Submission Link: forms.gle/ph7LEVnt2Lif...
Trans Pedagogy CFP
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Donovan Schaefer @feelingtheory.bsky.social · 10h
Fascism is stupid and incoherent. No major LLM platform (possibly excepting Grok) is going to agree with anything RFK says. It's a mistake to see fascism as a sophisticated cabal rather than a pack of vile, clout-obsessed, narcissistic bumblers who just say whatever pops into their heads.
A Copilot prompt and response:

are covid vaccines effective?

Copilot said:
Yes. The strongest evidence shows that COVID-19 vaccines are effective, especially at reducing the risk of severe illness, hospitalization, and death. They are generally less effective at completely preventing infection, particularly as the virus evolves and immunity wanes over time.

Some key points:

The CDC states that real-world studies consistently find that COVID-19 vaccines provide protection against symptomatic illness, hospitalization, and death.

A 2025 multi-state U.S. study found that updated vaccines reduced COVID-related hospitalizations and provided particularly strong protection against critical illness and death, even though protection against milder disease declined over time.

The World Health Organization reports that all WHO-approved COVID-19 vaccines protect against severe disease and death, and it continues to recommend vaccination for people at
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Kevin M. Levin @civilwarmemory.bsky.social · 11h
Wonderful news. Congratulations to everyone involved. www.popville.com/2026/09/the-...
popville.com
“The African American Civil War Memorial Museum Is Reopening!” - PoPville
"Dear PoPville, Some long awaited U Street Corridor news: After some delays, the African American Civil War Museum is finally reopening in its permanent home in the historic Grimke School, tomorrow We...
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Charles Louis Richter @richterscale.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
you are invited to her gallery opening
A very tiny tabby kitten in a black post-surgery onesie that looks like a tight black shirt, very chic.
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
"Fuck that." "I'm Sherrod Brown and I approve of this message."
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Donovan Schaefer @feelingtheory.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Based.
Confederate Statue Beheaded in Brandon

https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/local/hillsboroughcounty/confederate-statue-vandalized-brandon-tampa/67-9ac74358-5870-4847-b33c-97ec9a680fb5
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Dr Katie Twomey @k2mey.eurosky.social · 28/09/2026
This is quite cool. My university is the first organisation in the world to force Microsoft to allow us to turn off copilot summaries in Word 365, after a backlash against it from staff (including, very vocally, me). That cannot have been easy for our heroic IT people so hats very much off to them!
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Donovan Schaefer @feelingtheory.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Hand-in-glove fit with white Protestant evangelicals' constant thirst to be a widdle persecuted religious minority.
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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
maybe it seceded
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Donovan Schaefer @feelingtheory.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Based.
Confederate Statue Beheaded in Brandon

https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/local/hillsboroughcounty/confederate-statue-vandalized-brandon-tampa/67-9ac74358-5870-4847-b33c-97ec9a680fb5
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Hemant Mehta @friendlyatheist.com · 28/09/2026
A $20 ticket gets Christians in the door. Then Life Surge pitches $97 seminars. Those seminars pitch courses costing up to $40,000. Tim Tebow and other faith-friendly celebrities supply the trust. Many customers are left carrying the debt. www.friendlyatheist.com/p/the-christ...
friendlyatheist.com
The Christian grift behind Life Surge’s celebrity-packed wealth seminars
Tim Tebow and other celebrities spoke at events pitching “Kingdom impact,” but some customers say they were left with crushing debt
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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
So for whatever reason seamless overrode my home address for where I was with my phone. Either via GPS or, I suspect, some dumb fucking AI application
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Donovan Schaefer @feelingtheory.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Huge thanks to everyone who made THE FOUCAULT CENTURY a success! An incredible turnout to hear some amazing papers & a dynamite opening talk from Niki Kasumi Clements on reading Foucault through his archives.
The Orrery Pavilion at the University of Pennsylvania Van Pelt library, with Niki Kasumi Clements standing at the front of a room of ~100 people.The Lea Library at the University of Pennsylvania, with a table covered in books relating to Foucault's career, being examined by Che PieperAmy Allen and Sabeen Ahmed, seated in front of a projected slide
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Ripley Rodentia 🏳️‍⚧️ @ripleyreplay.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Meta cares about disabled folks in the same way that transphobes care about women's sports i.e., as a reputation-laundering excuse to get away with using and hurting people
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Brian Ruh @brianruh.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I used to be pretty laissez-faire about gambling. Not for me, but fine if you wanted to do it, why should anyone stop a consenting adult, etc. Now I feel the entire industry needs to be burned to the ground. Not just online sports betting and prediction markets, but casinos, etc. as well.
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 24/09/2026
Someone just reminded me that Huang recently used *this* metaphor to describe AI www.ap.org/news-highlig...
Huang contended that there is a need for some government regulation and safety standards for AI, emphasizing that national security also needed to be a priority for the technology that has been powering stock market gains and U.S. economic growth in recent years.

Huang said society will adapt to AI just as it did to automobiles. He said cars were once portrayed as killing children, but the world changed its norms by having sidewalks and crosswalks and stopping kids from playing in the streets.

Huang skeptical of what government ownership of AI companies would achieve
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Chris Person @papapishu.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Sometimes a drug trip is a profound experience where you realize that you’ve been carrying pain in your heart for years, that you can forgive yourself. Other times you come up with a concept called “gay money” (money that’s gay) and you text your friend “gay money” days later. Both are healing. ❤️‍🩹
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Tim Price @timprice.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
You joined "grand vizier chat (secret)" You: dark rumors from aboard You: abroad* fuck Sssnakecharmer: mf said aboard WhispersintheChapel: ahoy matey lol PonderMyOrb changed the group name to "rumors from aboard"
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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Tens of thousands of voter registrations have gone unprocessed in Texas. Affecting large areas deeply. If you’re in Texas, check your registration is up to date and accurate ASAP. www.texastribune.org/2026/09/22/t...
texastribune.org
DPS voter registration applications weren’t sent to counties
Counties will start receiving a surge of applications less than two weeks before the Oct. 5 registration deadline, adding work at one of the busiest points in the election calendar.
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Donovan Schaefer @feelingtheory.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
In South Philly and this is v much the vibe
Kinda hard to explain
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David Mislin @davidmislin.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
To think that in the year of our lord 2026 anyone would be wooed by a predatory journal’s “special invitation to be a guest editor.”
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Richard Waite @waiterich.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Instead of: “the biggest driver of biodiversity loss is change in land and sea use” Try: “the human quest for food is the biggest driver of deforestation, freshwater use, and overfishing”
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Donovan Schaefer @feelingtheory.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
How can anyone write this and not see the dystopian writing on the wall? Do we really want a world where the second you list something for sale online you're flooded with disingenuous lowball offers from bots? I'll honestly never understand the way tech writers think. This is so obviously bad!
Wren told me it could message sellers and bargain on my behalf, and was already connected to my Facebook account. I gave the agent parameters: Buy only items that were half the price of what they retailed for, and make sure to haggle for the lowest price possible.

Wren combed through Marketplace and began messaging sellers about their listings, always starting the conversation with a lowball offer of $20 less than advertised. After receiving a counteroffer, it came back to me to strategize.
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Donovan Schaefer @feelingtheory.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
AKA the AQUA CLOBBA
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Richard Waite @waiterich.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Data check: humanity has destroyed ~1/3 of 🌎 forests, mostly for agricultural expansion to feed more people. To feed 9-10B people by 2050 while ending deforestation, 🌎 needs to sustainably increase productivity, minimize food waste, shift high-meat diets toward plants, and stop biofuel expansion.
Bar chart showing that humanity destroyed one third of the world’s forests by expanding agricultural land. 10,000 years ago there were 6 billion hectares ofof forests. Now there are 4 billion. Source: https://ourworldindata.org/world-lost-one-third-forests
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Verena Erlenbusch-Anderson @verena-erlenbusch.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Excited for this magnificent event, starting tomorrow at UPenn.
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Megan Goodwin @mpgphd.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
absolutely the fuck not
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Donovan Schaefer @feelingtheory.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
In South Philly and this is v much the vibe
Kinda hard to explain
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Christopher Tounsel @ctounsel1.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Those who live in the section where nine-tenths of the lynchings occur do not dare to tell the truth, even if they perceive it. Mary Church Terrell Born September 23, 1863
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Donovan Schaefer @feelingtheory.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
New scam just dropped! Fake email solicitation from an AI pretending to be a literary agent.
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Donovan Schaefer @feelingtheory.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This is my personal manifesto
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dan mentos @danmentos.com · 22/09/2026
[job interview] interviewer: so god killed all your kids? job: that's right
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Megan Goodwin @mpgphd.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
this lady should frankly never enjoy another peaceful day until her last
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depths of wikipedia @depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
when i mention "claude" you can assume i'm talking about the albino alligator not the llm
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Thomas Lecaque @tlecaque.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Anti-AI folks are mostly really angry at the way genAI boosters have ignored that their product has compromised so many of the strides made in accessibility by damaging online courses. Also, you seem confused about what I'm doing, and that may be because you don't have any idea what it is I do.
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Donovan Schaefer @feelingtheory.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
After almost a year of preparation, I couldn't be more excited that THE FOUCAULT CENTURY is happening this week! We've hit our registration limit for in-person but anyone who wants to join the Zoom session (Friday) is welcome to do so! Register here for a link: www.library.upenn.edu/events/fouca...
The Foucault Century
2026 Boardman Symposium
Sep 24–25, 2026 
Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion, 6th Floor, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center

Free registration is available here:
https://www.library.upenn.edu/events/foucault-century
Registration is separate for each day. Please register for either or both days you will be attending.

Speakers

Sabeen Ahmed
Amy Allen
Verena Erlenbusch-Anderson
Niki Kasumi Clements
Penelope Deutscher
David Halperin
Amy Hollywood
Lynne Huffer
Daniele Lorenzini
Donovan Schaefer
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Donovan Schaefer @feelingtheory.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Absolutely this. And not just a theory of communication but a theory of persuasion, how to move someone from a state of disagreement with you to a state of agreement.
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Donovan Schaefer @feelingtheory.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Absolutely this. And not just a theory of communication but a theory of persuasion, how to move someone from a state of disagreement with you to a state of agreement.
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Cameron Clark @cameronclark.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
A key point: you do need a theory of communication, alongside a theory of politics, to be an effective operator I think the centre and left struggle, generally, with "playing the game" - it's not enough to just have policy prescriptions you think will work
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
The lawyer for the Venezuelan man shot by ICE yesterday says he was discharged from the hospital and transferred to ICE detention while the bullet was still inside of him, and that in Pearsall he's not received any pain meds and was forced to sleep on the floor.
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Jeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
The provost of Dartmouth, at which I teach, has been using AI to write both academic papers & national op-eds, according to brave reporting by @thedartmouth.bsky.social. Many students are already bitter about AI. This leaves us as faculty no ground to stand on. www.thedartmouth.com/article/2026...
thedartmouth.com
Op-eds, academic articles by Provost Santiago Schnell flagged as ‘AI-written’ by ‘near-zero error’ AI detector Pangram
Schnell said he used artificial intelligence for “making writing processes more efficient,” but that AI was not a “substitute” for his own “intellectual judgment or authorship.”
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Donovan Schaefer @feelingtheory.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
In other news, I have personally committed $50 to a fund to rebuild after my kid pulled down a shelf with 38 antique vases at the Met
wsj.com
Exclusive | U.S. Proposes $5 Billion to Kickstart Fund to Rebuild Gulf Energy Sites
The proposal is under discussion with several Middle Eastern countries including Saudi Arabia and U.A.E.
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Donovan Schaefer @feelingtheory.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
In an internet full of jerks trying to trick you into buying stuff, the Singapore Ministry of Trade and Industry is refreshingly earnest
PAID POST: Ministry of Trade and Industry Singapore, The Many upsides of Living and Working in Singapore
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