iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kiera Obbard @kieraobbard.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Hey folks! We've extended the deadline for abstracts for our 'trope' and 'maxxing' conference by one week--and announced a very cool respondent. Get your abstracts in and please share!

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Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

A truly heinous man has doxxed the Cornell victim on X and the comments are predictably vile. Based on countless interviews I’ve done with survivors, the trauma they are subjected to for coming forward is oftentimes even worse than the initial trauma they experienced. There is no real justice system

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Matthew Kirschenbaum @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

CFP: Generative Digital Humanities, a volume on AI and DH in the long-running Minnesota Debates in DH book series. To be co-edited by @zentralwerkstatt.org, @laurenfklein.bsky.social, @lnakamura.bsky.social, and myself. Deadline Nov. 1. Please share widely! dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu/page/cfp-gen...

dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu

CFP: Generative Digital Humanities | Debates in the Digital Humanities

Transforming scholarly publications into living digital works

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Kiera Obbard @kieraobbard.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

On #NationalDayForTruthAndReconciliation, I wrote about Chanie Wenjack, the history I wasn’t taught, the responsibility educators have to make sure students learn it, and what reconciliation asks of us now. thealmostprofessor.substack.com/p/rememberin... #TruthAndReconciliation

thealmostprofessor.substack.com

Remembering is Only The Beginning

On National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the history we were taught, the history we missed, and what comes next.

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Journal of Electronic Publishing @jepub.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

New Call for Papers alert! Consider submitting to our forthcoming special issue on "Accessibility in Digital Publishing" edited by Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social and John W Maxwell. CfP available here: journals.publishing.umich.edu/jep/news/253/ Abstracts due October 1 2026.

journals.publishing.umich.edu

Making sure you're not a bot!

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Nicole Bedera @nbedera.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

While we’re talking about campus sexual violence, I want to revisit the recent history of a topic where we have seen some of the biggest backslides: Expelling rapists from school.

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DLC+ @dlcplus.org · 28/09/2026

⏰ Just a few days left to submit to TROPE / MAXXING! If you’ve been thinking about the #CFP, now’s the time to send in your abstract. We’re accepting submissions through Oct. 2. Details + submission info: dlcplus.org/fall-2026-trope-maxxing/ Please share widely! #AcademicBluesky

dlcplus.org

Fall 2026: "Trope" and "Maxxing" - DLC+

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Kiera Obbard @kieraobbard.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Pleased to share a recently published chapter co-written with my friend Lauren McLean for Feminist Digital Methods! Our chapter propose three principles for conducting social media research from an intersectional feminist ethics of care. www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...

Black text on a white background that reads: 11 - Questions of Care: Embracing an Intersectional Feminist Perspective for Ethical Social Media Research by Lauren McLean and Kiera Obbard

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Gabriel Hankins @gabrielh.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Feminist / book history / reading cultures people, please send your students to our ACLA seminar on Embodiment Hunger and reading in community! We have folks for one great day of conversations and would love more -- www.acla.org/seminar/7c63...

acla.org

View Seminar | American Comparative Literature Association

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Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

However novel OpenAI agents’ hack of Hugging Face may be, it shouldn't eclipse what we already know about AI governance. Our new collection highlights a body of work that policymakers and researchers can draw on as they design approaches to safety and accountability. datasociety.net/research-lib...

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Dan Sinykin @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

But I will anyway, because I'm broken.

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Kiera Obbard @kieraobbard.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

📚 Very excited to host our Fall mini-conference on trope/maxxing! Get your abstracts in by Oct. 2 -- and remember, it's a keywords conference, so make sure you're engaging with the keyword (and not just an instance of 'maxxing' or a trope). #DH #culturalstudies #academicsky

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Kiera Obbard @kieraobbard.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Some thoughts on #chronicillness, the body, and #academia for Labour Day: thealmostprofessor.substack.com/p/living-in-...

Square greyed out image with white text overlay that reads: “we like to call academia flexible because the work can be done anywhere. But a job isn’t accessible simply because you can do it in sweatpants”.

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Kiera Obbard @kieraobbard.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

A love poem I received this morning from a scam artist 🥰 Freedom Mobile Notification: Oops! It looks like your card on file expired. To keep your service active, Update immediately at: givemeallyourmoneydotcom

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Camilla Holm Soelseth @supercamilla.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Looking for good articles/texts/thoughts on how (agentic) AI changes machine-assisted data analysis workflows Example: I see people choosing not to search for and use established software but instead prompt html-rendered dashboards (DIY vibing) to do stuff with data. Pro/con? #dh #digitalmethods

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Kiera Obbard @kieraobbard.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

September always fills me with excitement for the new school year. But this year feels different in Ontario because of the state of ed, the complexities in the Classroom Supplies Fund, and Doug Ford’s conflicting policies and posturing. #onpoli thealmostprofessor.substack.com/p/september-...

thealmostprofessor.substack.com

September Is Still the Start of the Year

September always fills me with a particular kind of excitement.

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Hillary Rodham Clinton @hillaryclinton.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Dolly Parton did all the good she could, for all the people she could, for as long as ever she could. From her legendary songwriting to the Imagination Library—which sent 1 million books a month to children across the country—she was the best of America. Dolly, we'll miss your great heart.

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Siobhán McElduff @siobhanmcelduff.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I pity anyone who would try to make Quebec change its language laws. It would be a massacre, but one with archaic oaths and panache.

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Chaucer Doth Tweet @levostregc.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Roses are redde Noble are the manatees For a bettir future Teach artes and humanityes

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Matthew Dowd @matthewjdowd.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

happy bday poet Dorothy Parker, b.1893, Long Branch, NJ. “In youth, it was a way I had, To do my best to please. And change, with every passing lad To suit his theories. But now I know the things I know And do the things I do, And if you do not like me so, To hell, my love, with you.”

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Chaucer Doth Tweet @levostregc.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Influencers? Meanest thou the three Fates who weave, measure, and cut the whisper-thin yet iron-strong threades that bynde togethir all of spacetyme? - threades that spelle out, yn sorcerous glyphs unreadable to any save the three, everyething that ys, was, or will be? Aye, Ich knowe of influencers.

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Shannon Mattern @shannonmattern.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Another reminder that, amidst the myriad challenges facing academia, researchers also have to re-imagine the political economy of publishing. The biggest academic publishers (Wiley, Springer, Elsevier, etc) are also among the most restrictive and rapacious.

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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

*whispers* you know we can do this cultural debate about art thing all the time, right? Websites and news organizations used to have culture critics on staff whose entire job was writing about books, movies, and TV. People read them and then discussed them. We have the technology to do this again.

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Kiera Obbard @kieraobbard.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Every few years, headlines announce that “heroin chic” is back. Over the past few months, I’ve been thinking less about fashion and more about the phrase 'take up less space’—and how women and marginalized folks are encouraged to shrink in #academia. thealmostprofessor.substack.com/p/taking-up-...

thealmostprofessor.substack.com

Taking Up Less Space

What the return of "heroin chic” shows us about who is expected to shrink.

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Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

New research suggests that LLMs can develop their own biases from experience, separate from their training data. This can lead them to stereotype job applicants even more than humans do. www.technologyreview.com/2026/07/20/1...

technologyreview.com

AI is more likely than humans to form biases when hiring

AI doesn’t just learn stereotypes from its training. It can cook up new ones, too.

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Jessica Smith @thedaybooks.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

It’s nice to see everyone’s textual analysis of The Odyssey It’s almost like the humanities give you entertainment, feelings, pleasure, and fun/interesting stuff to talk about, as well as lenses into both past and current society

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Feminist Media Studies @femmediastudies.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

📚 Another fantastic batch of articles is headed into production at Feminist Media Studies! One of my favorite parts of being Social Media Editor is getting these sneak peeks at the scholarship that's on its way. Here's a thread of what's coming. 🧵

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Martin Paul Eve @eve.gd · 21/07/2026

Wow. Final judgement in the Anthropic class action is approved. Anthropic will pay $1.5 billion to authors whose works it pirated. The lawyers get $101.56 million (6.8%); a third of what they initially requested. There is a 30-day notice-of-appeal period. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

storage.courtlistener.com

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Kiera Obbard @kieraobbard.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

New on Substack: I've been thinking about the Ontario #wildfires, climate change, and what these disasters reveal about inequality and public policy in Ontario. Here's my latest essay. I'd be interested to hear what others think. #onpoli #climatechange open.substack.com/pub/thealmos...

open.substack.com

The Policy Failure Behind Ontario’s Wildfires

On Climate Change, Bad Budgets, and Who Gets Left Behind

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Dr. Casey Fiesler @cfiesler.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

So a reasonable question here would be... why are students using AI to do their coursework (especially when it's against the rules for a class!) if they also think that it's bad for them? Because they assume that everyone else is using it, and if they don't, they will be at a disadvantage.

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Dr. Casey Fiesler @cfiesler.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

This data is absolutely wild. The mean midterm score was 96, and the mean final score was 48. The *mode* midterm score was 100. The professor says that he intentionally made the midterm harder, and also that in 20 years this class final had never had a final exam average lower than 65.

ECON 1170 Midterm & Final Exam scores. A chart showing midterm score on the right and final exam score on the left for each student. The results are visually striking, summarized in the text of the post.

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Dr. Casey Fiesler @cfiesler.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Been thinking a lot about the students in this class (presumably, but not certainly) using AI on a take-home midterm and then bombing the in-class final. www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty... But I think the real story here is not *that* students use AI, it's (part of) *why* students use AI. 🧵

insidehighered.com

Brown Professor Suspects Most of His Class Used AI to Cheat

Brown University leaders’ response to the alleged cheating incident has been “meek,” the professor said.

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s. e. smith @sesmith.lol · 13/07/2026

The fact that J.K. Rowling successfully bullied Amnesty International into taking down a report that accurately called out her attack on trans people, especially trans women, is so repulsive and such a display of the power of her money, and her choice to put her vast fortune behind persecution.

thepinknews.com

Amnesty removes report that called JK Rowling's centre 'anti-rights'

Amnesty International UK has removed a report which labelled JK Rowling's sexual abuse crisis centre Beira's Place as "anti-rights".

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Tanja Grubnic @tanjagrubnic.com · 14/07/2026

Speaking of @dlcplus.org ... we're crowdsourcing keywords for our upcoming mini-conferences! What keywords should we add next? 👀

mentimeter.com

DLC keyword suggestions - Mentimeter

Create, interact, and analyze — engage audiences and spark real conversations in meetings and classes.

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Tanja Grubnic @tanjagrubnic.com · 14/07/2026

If you're at ELO, come to our panel tomorrow organized by @kieraobbard.bsky.social for @dlcplus.org: "On the Peripheries of E-lit: Studying Digital Literary Cultures (Plus)"! Ft. us, @supercamilla.bsky.social. @magdalenakorecka.bsky.social + adv. board members @antimony27.bsky.social + Tess McNulty

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Kiera Obbard @kieraobbard.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

"The past decade has been hard on Ontario universities." You can say that again. How much longer can public infrastructure receive too little attention from our elected officials until they reach a crisis point? buff.ly/jk1R2eM #PublicPolicy #OnPoli

buff.ly

Ontario: The new pragmatism - University Affairs

After a decade marked by funding cutbacks and a tuition freeze, the province’s universities face the future with an eye for opportunities.

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Kiera Obbard @kieraobbard.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Ontario's universities are often discussed as businesses or cost centres, but they also function as research hubs, regional anchors, cultural institutions, and workforce developers. Like digital infrastructure, their value extends beyond immediate economic returns. buff.ly/KZhbyMj #HigherEd #OnPoli

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Kiera Obbard @kieraobbard.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

AI policy discussions often focus on innovation and growth. Less attention is paid to the infrastructure required to support those ambitions. Data centres, energy demand, water use, and local impacts are increasingly important policy considerations. buff.ly/Th4phhK #AIInfrastructure

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Kiera Obbard @kieraobbard.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

"Social media platforms are known to be driven by recommendation algorithms that may send us down “rabbit holes” of the same type of (increasingly extreme) content. This can lead to a distorted view of the world and our place in it...

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Kiera Obbard @kieraobbard.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Ontario universities spent the last decade adapting to fiscal constraint, tuition freezes, and changing enrolment patterns. These adaptations don't just represent resilience—they show a system stretched beyond its intended capacity due to budget cuts. buff.ly/jk1R2eM #HigherEducationPolicy #OnPoli

buff.ly

Ontario: The new pragmatism - University Affairs

After a decade marked by funding cutbacks and a tuition freeze, the province’s universities face the future with an eye for opportunities.

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Kiera Obbard @kieraobbard.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Research consistently suggests that the relationship between social media use and well-being is more complex than popular narratives imply. Good policy depends on understanding nuance rather than assuming simple cause-and-effect relationships. buff.ly/6W2Abq5 #EvidenceBasedPolicy #SocialMediaPolicy

buff.ly

Is social media making you unhappy? The answer is not so simple

Contrary to what you may have heard, your mindset may be the biggest thing affecting how social media connects to your wellbeing.

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Kiera Obbard @kieraobbard.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

"It's probably the most horrendous intervention into university autonomy in the history of the province." How should policymakers balance democratic accountability for publicly funded institutions with the principle of institutional autonomy? buff.ly/XiM0PH3 #UniversityGovernance #HigherEd

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Kiera Obbard @kieraobbard.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Ontario's Bill 33 has generated debate about where authority should reside within the post-secondary system. Supporters emphasize accountability; critics emphasize institutional autonomy. buff.ly/XiM0PH3 #HigherEducation #Governance

buff.ly

Critics mull challenge to Ontario’s Bill 33 - University Affairs

Government regulation of student fees, admissions criteria, cause controversy around new provincial education law.

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Kiera Obbard @kieraobbard.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

A recent court ruling on AI-generated search summaries raises important accountability questions. When AI systems generate mis- or dis-information, where should responsibility lie? For me, it's with the platform. buff.ly/k34MzSn #AIGovernance #PolicyResearch

wired.com

A Court Has Ruled That Google Is Liable for False Statements Generated by AI Overviews

The ruling holds that a company that designs, trains, operates, and manages an AI system must assume legal liability for any damages caused by the responses it generates.

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Anastasia Salter @anasalter.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

We are excited to share the program for our fully online @eliterature.bsky.social ELO 2026 Conference, coming up this July! Check it out and consider registering to join us if you haven't - it is free for all ELO members! stars.library.ucf.edu/elo2026/comb...

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