iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Frances Garrett

Trans News Network @transnews.network · 06/07/2026

Thank you to everyone supporting our first anniversary fundraiser! We are getting closer and closer to $3,000 and every share and donation helps us get there. Support our worker-run newsroom, help fund journalism that sides with trans communities, not the powerful.

transnewsnetwork.networkforgood.com

Trans News Network's First Anniversary Fundraiser

Since our founding nearly a year ago, Trans News Network has exposed how The New York Times ' bigotry is directed from the very top , revealed Epstein's extensive network of anti-trans cronies...

011374

Reposted by Frances Garrett

Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Interested to learn that No Kings protests are, according to national poll, far more popular than any American politician — which may have implications for American politicians. This is a video of my speech at No Kings #3, 3/28, Cincinnati youtu.be/hHErbPXonus

youtu.be

50501 Cincy No Kings 3/28 - Timothy Snyder, Author and Historian

YouTube video by Fifty Fifty-One Cincinnati

141266291

Reposted by Frances Garrett

Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

This was published in the dead week between Christmas and New Year’s. If you work in education & were, reasonably, taking a break, maybe you missed it. Don’t miss it.

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.

214969

Reposted by Frances Garrett

Times Higher Education (THE) @timeshighered.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

What does neuroscience suggest about how students learn best? Mussab Aswad explores how brain-aligned, experiential learning builds deeper understanding and real-world capability: ow.ly/cgqc50XSkq8 #HigherEd #AcademicSky #EduSky

ow.ly

How does the brain learn? And why don’t we teach that way?

Neuroscience shows traditional teaching is not enough. Instead, an experiential approach can return learning to its natural order

021

Reposted by Frances Garrett

pathuoft.bsky.social @pathuoft.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

It’s 2026. Is the University of Toronto really closing a popular program designed around non-Eurocentric lifeways, modes of knowing, and teaching practice? Learn more at pathuoft.net/blog/ #contemplativestudies #bpmh #contemplativescience #buddhism #uoft #truthandreconciliation #mentalhealth

041

Reposted by Frances Garrett

pathuoft.bsky.social @pathuoft.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

The Buddhism, Psychology, and Mental Health program is an internationally recognized minor at the U of T. 2026 is our 20th anniversary. Over 1,000 students take our courses yearly. Why is the University proposing to close this popular program? Please add your name: www.change.org/p/protect-th...

041

Reposted by Frances Garrett

Jes Battis @jesbattis.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

An issue we're seeing at all levels of university is that many students are simply refusing to do *anything*. They aren't reading the syllabus, aren't following assignment guidelines, aren't engaging with material, ignoring deadlines. And this might seem like old news, but it truly has ramped up.

26050401164

Frances Garrett @francesg.bsky.social · 23/11/2025

“If we don’t have freedom of attention, we can’t have true freedom of intention. And if we don’t have freedom of intention, every other freedom is illusory or impossible.” open.substack.com/pub/buddhism...

010

Reposted by Frances Garrett

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.

391215006119

Reposted by Frances Garrett

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 06/09/2025

Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity. 1/n

Abstract: Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or
even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in
the 21st with social media. For these collective blunders, we now regret our involvement or
apathy as scientists, and society struggles to put the genie back in the bottle. Currently, we
are similarly entangled with artificial intelligence (AI) technology. For example, software updates are rolled out seamlessly and non-consensually, Microsoft Office is bundled with chatbots, and we, our students, and our employers have had no say, as it is not
considered a valid position to reject AI technologies in our teaching and research. This
is why in June 2025, we co-authored an Open Letter calling on our employers to reverse
and rethink their stance on uncritically adopting AI technologies. In this position piece,
we expound on why universities must take their role seriously toa) counter the technology
industry’s marketing, hype, and harm; and to b) safeguard higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, and scientific integrity. We include pointers to
relevant work to further inform our colleagues.

Figure 1. A cartoon set theoretic view on various terms (see Table 1) used when discussing the superset AI
(black outline, hatched background): LLMs are in orange; ANNs are in magenta; generative models are
in blue; and finally, chatbots are in green. Where these intersect, the colours reflect that, e.g. generative adversarial network (GAN) and Boltzmann machine (BM) models are in the purple subset because they are
both generative and ANNs. In the case of proprietary closed source models, e.g. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and
Apple’s Siri, we cannot verify their implementation and so academics can only make educated guesses (cf.
Dingemanse 2025). Undefined terms used above: BERT (Devlin et al. 2019); AlexNet (Krizhevsky et al.
2017); A.L.I.C.E. (Wallace 2009); ELIZA (Weizenbaum 1966); Jabberwacky (Twist 2003); linear discriminant analysis (LDA); quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA).

Table 1. Below some of the typical terminological disarray is untangled. Importantly, none of these terms
are orthogonal nor do they exclusively pick out the types of products we may wish to critique or proscribe.

Protecting the Ecosystem of Human Knowledge: Five Principles

11341522055

Reposted by Frances Garrett

McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 29/08/2025

Now, instead of reading the latest email from the Subdean for Academic Affairs and Climbing Wall Management, simply click on the ADMINISTRATOR LANGUAGE DETECTED icon to reveal the message in simple English and determine the threat level to your department, program, or mental health.

buff.ly

Faculty, Rejoice: Gmail Can Now Translate “Deanspeak”

We are thrilled to announce that Google Translate has recently added “Deanspeak” to its suite of language-detection tools. In addition to offering ...

06017

Reposted by Frances Garrett

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

The great @jksteinberger.bsky.social provides some excellent pointers in this essay. Please read it (and follow her): jksteinberger.medium.com/a-few-points...

jksteinberger.medium.com

A few points for the left

A few thoughts as the flames of fascism rise up all around, consuming people and planet.

1933690

Reposted by Frances Garrett

Mimi Khúc @slothprof.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

the university's violence just becomes clearer and clearer. thank you again @amyrwong.bsky.social for such a deep and generous read of dear elia ❤️

032

Frances Garrett @francesg.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

This looks like an important counterpoint to the AI enthusiasm we’re being showered with at U of Toronto

uva.theopenscholar.com

Rethinking the Inevitability of AI

050

Frances Garrett @francesg.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

This is such a clear presentation of climate colonialism - an outstanding resource for any audience

1195