Sign in

Jessica M. Elliott

@jmelliott.bsky.social
1.8K followers 757 following 35 posts

Associate professor of medieval history. Working on Jewish-Christian interaction, religious conversion, and attitudes toward converts in medieval France and Italy. She/her.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The rule they are overturning was predicted to give $120 billion in public health benefits by 2047, with projections that by 2035, it would would prevent up to 1,200 premature deaths, 870 hospital and emergency room visits, 360K asthma attacks, 48K school absence days and 57K lost workdays each year
10632621550
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
teachers of Bluesky: it is officially France, Haiti, and CLR James week in my Revolution philosophy class and...things are going to escalate pretty dramatically. any tricks or habits you all have developed around teaching particularly violent periods of history?
4246466
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
"wow, everyone knew this already" is such a cynical, annoying and unfortunately extremely common response to tech news. assuming your privacy is being violated and proving that it is are two very different things, and the latter is the result of hard work and rigorous reporting
221784329
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
New from 404 Media: humans are reading ChatGPT conversations. OpenAI has hired an army of contractors who read real ChatGPT users' chats. I've seen internal docs, the review system, and real user prompts. Sometimes they contain very personal and sensitive information www.404media.co/inside-proje...
404media.co
Inside ‘Project Lily’: The Humans Reading Your ChatGPT Chats
Humans are reading ChatGPT users’ prompts to improve OpenAI’s models, and those chats can include sensitive, personal information, according to leaked internal documents and real prompts seen by 404 M...
561996987
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Sarah Hayden @wearyourshaydes.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
there’s only like two sentences between “excel is incredibly important to worldwide business” and “we have a 57% accuracy rate”! What are we doing!
Microsoft has taken a gradual approach to adding Al elements to Excel, particularly because the data it handles powers some of the most important parts of businesses worldwide. "[Agent Mode] lets you build sheets that are auditable, refreshable, and verifiable," Chauhan says. "We have spent a ton of time making sure that the validation loop on all of these sub-agents is pretty tight."
Microsoft says its Agent Mode in Excel has an accuracy rate of 57.2 percent in SpreadsheetBench, a benchmark for evaluating an Al model's ability to edit real world spreadsheets. This result places Agent Mode above Shortcut.ai, ChatGPT agent with xIsx support, and Claude Files Opus 4.1. It's still behind the human accuracy of 71.3 percent, though.
632043
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
ashley fairbanks @ziibiing.com · 01/10/2025
if you aren’t super tuned into COVID news it is unlikely you know just how easily the newest variant spreads. vaccinate. mask. act like it is 2021. or you are probably going to get it. (ask me how i know!)
6296104
Jessica M. Elliott @jmelliott.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
I just need everybody to stop making things worse for one goddamn minute so we can all catch our breath
020
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Charlie Warzel @cwarzel.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
feels like we're living through some kind of cultural gas leak
13382441652
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 01/10/2025
We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.
649249418244
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
trans people are experiencing genocide in the US and UK @oh-that-amy.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
it is worth mentioning that many of these laws are written so broadly as to define any discussion of LGBT topics as pornographic
7607195
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Gwen Snyder is uncivil @gwensnyder.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
As always: the primary goal of disinformation isn't to make you believe the fake thing. It's to make you believe that everything is fake, so you shouldn't even bother attempting to discern truth.
5695193
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Moira Donegan @moiradonegan.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
The basic infrastructures that allow women to be participants in public life—birth control & abortion access, no fault divorce, childcare access & affordability, civil rights law in employment and public accommodations, the minimal efforts to mitigate sexual and domestic violence—are all crumbling.
492140687
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
JB_AU @jbau.bsky.social · 28/09/2025
This whole section really.
Finally: AI cannot do your job, but an AI salesman can 100% convince your boss to fire you and replace you with an AI that can't do your job, and when the bubble bursts, the money-hemorrhaging "foundation models" will be shut off and we'll lose the AI that can't do your job, and you will be long gone, retrained or retired or "discouraged" and out of the labor market, and no one will do your job.
AI is the asbestos we are shoveling into the walls of our society and our descendants will be digging it out for generations:
3996324278
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Dave Vanness @djvanness.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
A lot of people think that every international student admitted means one fewer spot for domestic students, when the opposite is more likely true - the tuition revenue international students bring allows public universities to provide substantial discounts to domestic students, improving access.
8158091670
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Meira Kensky @meirazk.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
I’m always saying that!
172
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · 28/09/2025
Can't we just get healthcare
3541295826993
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Mar Hicks @histoftech.bsky.social · 28/09/2025
Every good programmer I know has been saying this to me for months; meanwhile every not-great programmer I know has been trying to outsource their work to ai, causing more issues/delays than they if did it themselves. A lot of these tools only seem good to people who are not great at their jobs.
33716223
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
It is, far and away, the most challenging thing I’ve encountered since entering the academy. And that is saying a lot. I might be working on this but I keep putting it aside because I’m not medicated enough to describe how demoralizing it all is.
8952186
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Kevin Gannon (now a Moo Deng fan account) @thetattooedprof.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
The fundamental problem with the HBR-business/tech genre of AI studies is they all start from the premise that "learning" = "transfer of content" and thus "learning" is measured by "quantifiable restatement of said content," and that's just...not how learning works
16020
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Middle East Medievalists @mideastmedieval.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
Three-year VAP in Medieval Middle East/Islamic History at Colby's History Department jobs.chronicle.com/job/37887745...
jobs.chronicle.com
Visiting Assistant Professor of Medieval Middle East-3 year - Waterville, Maine, United States job with Colby College | 37887745
Description Visiting Assistant Professor in Middle East/Islamic History The Department of History at Colby College invites applications for a...
044
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
strigix @sovereignbeast.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
It's pretty wild to me that investigators have uncovered that anti-trans campaigns are largely funded by the fossil fuel industry, and that the presumed motivations are pretty directly to redirect the public conversation away from climate change... and that this isn't bigger news.
2841922474
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
The thing regular people don’t often grasp about ‘academic freedom’ is that if you don’t allow experts to research & teach in their fields of expertise, guided by their professional judgment & decades of training, you have effectively given up on the concept of knowledge & shut down your university
41366386
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
My department is hiring an associate/full professor of Early Modern/Modern Jewish History. Please apply and please share within your networks. I have been told to say we're very interested in the early early modern. Note: I am not involved in the search but am happy to answer general questions.
careers.historians.org
Tenured Associate/Full Professor in History, Deinard Chair in Early Modern/Modern Jewish History in Minneapolis, MN for University of Minnesota
Exciting opportunity in Minneapolis, MN for University of Minnesota as a Tenured Associate/Full P...
28368
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Michael Yarbrough (he/him) @mwyarbrough.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
At my institution, the Teaching and Learning Center's programs are now primarily focused on integrating AI into teaching. This includes their funded workshops. These used to be on different topics, and are one of the only ways for adjuncts to get some extra cash. Now they're almost all AI.
3174
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
August J. Pollak @augustjpollak.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
To be clear: this entire “we’ve got to run more pro-lifers” insanity is because literally a week ago polling showed that Democrats would prefer politicians like AOC and Mamdani over Jefferies and Schumer by, let me emphasize this, a 20 point fucking margin. www.politico.com/news/2025/09...
politico.com
Poll: Capitalism is out … and socialism is in
The movement is gaining popularity among Democrats, a left-leaning group found.
10283342329
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
ProPublica @propublica.org · 21/09/2025
Earlier this year, ProPublica found that the sepsis rate in second-trimester pregnancy loss hospitalizations increased by more than 50% under Texas’ abortion ban. Here’s how we did our analysis. (Published Feb. 2025)
propublica.org
Texas Won’t Study How Its Abortion Ban Impacts Women, So We Did
Since Texas banned abortion, no one has studied the statewide effects on pregnant women experiencing complications. Here’s how we sifted through data on millions of pregnancy hospitalizations and anal...
7433071863
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
Lemme spell it out. Trump's only leverage over Jimmy Kimmel and ABC came from FCC regulation. His direct power over H1-B visas gives him similar leverage over tech, higher ed, and others.
662657964
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
Critical part of the President's new $100,000 charge for H1-B visas: The Administration can also offer a $100,000 discount to any person, company, or industry that it wants. Replacing rules with arbitrary discretion. Want visas? You know who to call and who to flatter.
719124464696
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Sumitra Badrinathan @sumitra.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
there’s a lot of talk about big tech and corporations but so many international academic colleagues are also on H1Bs. no university is going to pay 100k extra a year to keep them. if this holds, it would essentially mean the end of foreigners on tenure track jobs at US universities.
1214058
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
this exists it is called thinking
Matthew McConaughey says he wants a private LLM, fed only with his books, notes, journals, and aspirations, so he can ask it questions and get answers based solely on that information, without any outside influence.
81331316088
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
I’m a Ghoul’s Girl @saraghaleb.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
It is fucked up what they did to the headphone jack
170145743298
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
Don't apologise for your dog showing up during the Zoom, apologise for hiding him all this time
433664461
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Laura Sell @laurasell.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
"More professors in the United States have been fired for controversial views in the past week than any other week in all of American history." www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...
insidehighered.com
Censorship Is the Authoritarian’s Dream
The right to free expression must include the right to say horrible and evil things.
7240121873
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
I’m having intro chats with dissertation students this fortnight, and one of them asked which historians I’d recommend for beautiful writing they could absorb to further develop their own writing style. So, gang, which are your favourite *writers* among historians, any time, any topic, any place. 🗃️
13516760
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Matthew Noe @noethematt.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
You don't say? #medlibs
05013
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
Concerned by this #UKHE -wide drive. It clearly is a way of removing representation from governance structures (a Department has a voice, committees, & governance structure, a 'subject area' does not), however much consultants/HR deny it is. Would be good to know how people protect representation.
3348
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 18/09/2025
The main function of AI is to make all text on the internet untrustworthy unless you personally know the source. We will boil the oceans and price people out of heat in winter for this.
228766
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
The Jewish Quarterly Review @thejqr.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
We are thrilled to announce that beginning with our winter issue in January 2026, the Jewish Quarterly Review will become fully open access, including future issues and our whole 136-year back catalog! Learn more about this exciting change on the blog: katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/bl...
katz.sas.upenn.edu
A Gift from JQR and the Katz Center
A century and a third of Jewish scholarship goes open access
02818
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Mar Hicks @histoftech.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
This number one tip on this advisory is to set public online profiles to private when facing harassment, which bsky does not allow, and which really should’ve been a feature implemented on day 1.
Top Five Tips for Engaging with Social Media
1. Set your personal social media accounts to private mode. setting to make all previous posts private. (From AAUP)
416168
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Matthew Cortland (they) @matthewcort.land · 17/09/2025
AHIP members committing to keep paying for all of the vaccines they've been paying for, throughout all of 2025 and all of 2026, with no copay or coinsurance, regardless of the action RFK Jr. takes is what passes for good news in September of 2025. www.patreon.com/posts/139083...
AHIP: Vaccines will continue to be covered
PUBLISHED SEP 16, 2025 • BY AHIP
WASHINGTON - AHIP released the following statement today regarding vaccine coverage.
"Health plans are committed to maintaining and ensuring affordable access to vaccines. Health plan coverage decisions for immunizations are grounded in each lan's ongoing, rigorous review of scientific and clinical evidence, and continual evaluation of multiple sources of data.
"Health plans will continue to cover all ACIP-recommended immunizations that were recommended as of September 1, 2025, including updated formulations of the COVID-19 and influenza vaccines, with no cost-sharing for patients through the end of 2026.
"While health plans continue to operate in an environment shaped by federal and state laws, as well as program and customer requirements, the evidence-based approach to coverage of immunizations will remain consistent."
###
by Matthew Cortland -
09/17/2025
SHOULDN'T NEED TO BE A LAWYER
PATREON.COM/MATTBC
210144
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Katelyn Burns @katelynburns.com · 16/09/2025
I didn't know who this person was 10 minutes ago but i love her
212704456
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
Look, PSLF absolutely needs reworking. As it currently stands, it's inaccessible for many LIS workers. That said, the proposed changes are going to make it even harder for us. The administration could potentially disqualify public and academic libraries, without any challenge process.
12417
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.blacksky.app · 15/09/2025
The Dept of Education is now accepting comments on a proposed rule that would overhaul Public Service Loan Forgiveness, and make it too expensive for students to go into work that threatens the Trump administration Folks have til *Sept. 17* to oppose the changes ballsandstrikes.org/legal-cultur...
ballsandstrikes.org
The Trump White House Is Trying to Price Law Students Out of Public Service
A proposed Department of Education rule would make borrowers ineligible for loan forgiveness if the administration doesn’t approve of their work.
2914741287
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
This technology is so clearly designed to profit off cheating and struggling students--its insidious. And yet universities keep announcing how they're allowing this company into its midst, to exploit and incapacitate our students even more
A photo from Jamie Keller Davis for the NYT: a color photo of a Chicago skyline showing three buildings photographed from street level. The one in the center has brown brick-like walls, and a very large poster advertising ChatGPT. The poster shows a conversation between a hypothetical student and ChatGPT: "Can you quiz me on the muscles of the leg?" "Can you build me a first time marathon training plan?" The text at the bottom of the poster reads: "ChatGPT Plus is free during finals.
12811233
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Jesspooka Kant 🎃 @jessdkant.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
Just FYI: while CDC is no longer tracking much of anything, wastewater data is still being reported. COVID-19 levels have just been nationally upgraded to “high”
HIGH
Nationally, the wastewater viral
activity level for COVID-19 is currently high.
15877433
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Felipe De La Hoz @felipedlh.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
I hope people understand that the anomaly here aren’t the conditions—the conditions are very typical—the anomaly is that they put a number of documented workers from a high-income country in those conditions. This is how people are treated in custody routinely
1946101528
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 13/09/2025
Reminder for Louisiana and others: the pertussis vaccine in current use crosses under 50% vaccine efficacy at around 4.5 years after your last dose and is virtually 0 at 8 years past, and that's in people whose priming (childhood) doses were the whole-cell vaccine.
616996
Reposted by Jessica M. Elliott
Ian L Morgan @ianlmorgan.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
Update 3: I just walked into the same CVS that denied me. I didn't have an appointment. They didn't ask me to attest to having an underlying medical condition. I just my COVID shot. If you have trouble, call your reps. You can speak up and change things.
1227