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Mark Fisher

@markfisher.bsky.social
2.7K followers 999 following 140 posts

Asst Prof at Georgetown // Ancient Greek Political Thought // History of Democratic Theory // Humanistic Perspectives on AI

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Reposted by Mark Fisher
American Political Science Review @apsrjournal.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
From our FirstView: "What Would It Mean to Democratize Finance? An Evaluation of Divergent Conceptions of Democracy and Finance" by Leah Downey and Stefan Eich, @stefeich.bsky.social. buff.ly/pPVH3mv
APSR abstract for "What Would It Mean to Democratize Finance? An Evaluation of Divergent Conceptions of Democracy and Finance," by Leah Downey and Stefan Eich, Mapping calls to "democratize finance" along axes of democracy and finance, the authors argue power-centered accounts of democratization are most plausible but create instability by generating pressure toward power sharing. Full abstract is available in linked article.
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Reposted by Mark Fisher
AIDC @gu-aidc.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
TONIGHT: Making AI Work for the People Join @gabriela-ramos.bsky.social, @chinasa.bsky.social, @kdaniels8.bsky.social, and Michele Jawando at 5 pm today on Georgetown University's Capitol Campus for a critical conversation on AI and democracy! RSVP: events.georgetown.edu/aidc/event/m...
events.georgetown.edu
Making AI Work for the People
Co-hosted by AIDC, the Georgetown Democracy Initiative and Georgetown’s Institute for Politics and Public Service, this two-part panel discussion...
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Join us for this conversation with @durbin.senate.gov, @gabriela-ramos.bsky.social, @chinasa.bsky.social, and @kdaniels8.bsky.social on AI policy in the US and beyond.
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AIDC @gu-aidc.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
📢 AIDC’s Community Fellowship is now open! We invite DC-area researchers working in the humanities to apply for the 2026-2027 fellowship on the theme “Truth, Trust and Democratic Judgement.”
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Postdoc! Come to Georgetown and work at the intersection of democratic theory, AI, and the humanities.
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
Happy pub day for "The Autocratic Interpretation of Athens: Rethinking Regime Theory in Thucydides' 'Archaeology'," which appears in Polis 42,3 @dgb-ancientstudies.bsky.social You can find a preprint on my academia page or access the article here: doi.org/10.1163/20512996-12340479
This is a screen grab of the first page of the article, which includes the abstract and keywords.
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Reposted by Mark Fisher
Yale Classics Library @yaleclassicslib.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
New issue of Polis Vol. 42, No. 3 (2025) brill.com/view/journal... @dgb-philosophy.bsky.social @markfisher.bsky.social @dgb-ancientstudies.bsky.social
journal cover
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Reposted by Mark Fisher
Rebecca Kingston @rkingston.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
Congrats to Stefan Eich @stefeich.bsky.social‬ on winning the 2024 David and Elaine Spitz Prize from the International Conference for the Study of Political Thought (CSPT)! press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
press.princeton.edu
The Currency of Politics
Money in the history of political thought, from ancient Greece to the Great Inflation of the 1970s
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
What would we need to know to conclude that AGI was inevitable? We argue that the answer has more to do with the philosophy of social science than the tech itself. Grateful to have this piece included in the inaugural batch of Oxford Intersections: AI in Society. academic.oup.com/edited-volum...
The title page for "Making AI Inevitable: Historical Perspective and the Problems of Predicting Long-Term Technological Change," by Mark Fisher and John Severini. The abstract for the article, which is too long to transcribe, unfortunately.
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
Annual reminder that the quote is, in fact, "Kai su, teknon?"
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
I’ve had some great meals at Seychelles in Kerameikos. The neighborhood is a bit gritty, but the food is excellent, and the patio seating is very charming if you can get a res.
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
This is very good
newyorker.com
What if the Attention Crisis Is All a Distraction?
From the pianoforte to the smartphone, each wave of tech has sparked fears of brain rot. But the problem isn’t our ability to focus—it’s what we’re focussing on.
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Reposted by Mark Fisher
Susie Dent @susiedentwords.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
Word of the day is ‘catch-fart’ (17th century: an obsequious individual who will always follow the political wind.
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 19/01/2025
aka Caleb Williams easily had the best finish of any NFC North QB
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
This is outside my wheelhouse, but I remember a senior Cambridge School figure commenting that the best part about the book was its bibliography
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
We’re two weeks in, and I’m ready to cast my vote for genuflection as the word of the year
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Cleon Peterson is an extraordinary artist who updates classical forms to comment on contemporary political violence. His house and studio were destroyed in the fires, and he's selling a special set of prints to help his family of five (plus dog!) stay afloat. Please consider buying if you can.
store.cleonpeterson.com
CLEON PETERSON | STORE
Cleon Peterson is an LA based artist whose chaotic and violent paintings show clashing figures symbolizing a struggle between power and ...
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Cleon Peterson is an extraordinary artist who updates classical forms to comment on contemporary political violence. His house and studio were destroyed in the fires, and he's selling a special set of prints to help his family of five (plus dog!) stay afloat. Please consider buying if you can.
store.cleonpeterson.com
CLEON PETERSON | STORE
Cleon Peterson is an LA based artist whose chaotic and violent paintings show clashing figures symbolizing a struggle between power and ...
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
The closing paragraph from Geuss’ essay on Rawls, “Neither History nor Praxis,” has always been a favorite
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
Impossible. Bears fans feel nothing until time is expiring in the 4th quarter.
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
TIL that a UT undergrad started a nationwide campaign and got the 27th Amendment passed *out of sheer spite* when his prof refused to raise his poli sci paper grade. I'm going to start linking to this story whenever a student asks for a grade change. This is the new standard.
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
More like this, please
nbcnews.com
Eagles receiver A.J. Brown was reading a book on the sidelines of team's playoff win
Brown checked out an inspirational title and flipped through the pages of “Inner Excellence” by Jim Murphy.
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 01/01/2025
This feels a bit on the nose as far as portents go, but here’s to 2025.
nytimes.com
1 Dead After a Cybertruck Explodes Outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas
At least seven people were injured, the authorities said. Videos posted to social media appeared to show a vehicle engulfed in flames outside the lobby’s entrance.
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 31/12/2024
Finally, a historical account of the tumultuous 17th century in England, inclusive of one of the best first lines written by a historian in a while
The cover of The Blazing World by Jonathan Healey
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 31/12/2024
If you need a “maybe AI isn’t wholly bad” book, this looks at a number of case studies about how researchers are using tech to learn about non-human communication, most of which are pretty mind blowing
The cover of Karen Bakker’s The Sounds of Life
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 31/12/2024
A very readable retelling of the the French Revolution that attempts to do a better job accounting for developments in the social history of the period
The cover of Jeremy Popkin’s A New World Begins
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 31/12/2024
The most astute, self-aware, and intellectually disciplined attempt to flesh out some of the big questions at the center of the AI debates, with particular care shown to the role that metaphor plays in facilitating and distorting our thinking on the subject
The cover for Meghan O’Gieblyn’s God, Human, Animal, Machine
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 31/12/2024
This second one shows what we actually stand to lose by gutting the administrative state. Turns out I had no idea what most gov’t departments actually did, nor did I fully appreciate the negligence that actually occurred in the 2017 handover.
The cover for Micheal Lewis’ The Fifth Risk
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 31/12/2024
If your resolution/planned coping mechanism for 2025 is to read more good books, here are some recs I received from friends and colleagues this year that deserve to be paid forward No summary can do this first one justice. Just read it and you’ll understand.
The cover for Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marcels of Jurassic Technology
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 26/12/2024
And I will achieve enlightenment when I finally pay off my student loans
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 26/12/2024
Enjoying an alliterative Boxing Day
A copy of Bertolt Brecht’s Galileo splayed open on a wooden table
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 25/12/2024
Merry Christmas from a dog that definitely made it onto the nice list
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
Reminded once again that Love, Actually casually made up an Xmas tradition about telling the truth and we all just played along with it
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
Reposting my favorite pub from 2024 before winding down for the holidays; a short piece on the temptations and dangers of reading history opportunistically. If you are in the mood for an alternative take on what made Thucydides such a brilliant political thinker, enjoy!
aeon.co
What Thucydides really thought about historical analogies | Aeon Essays
In constantly reaching for past parallels to explain our peculiar times we miss the real lessons of the master historian
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Reposted by Mark Fisher
Fernanda Gallo @fernandag.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
JOB‼️ 4 years postdoc in Politics at our amazing @homertoncollege.bsky.social www.homerton.cam.ac.uk/junior-resea...
homerton.cam.ac.uk
Junior Research Fellow Competition 2025
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
The optics of this coinciding with the Amazon strike are appalling www.yahoo.com/entertainmen...
yahoo.com
Jeff Bezos to marry fiancée Lauren Sanchez in lavish $600M Aspen wedding next weekend: report
Bezos, 60, and his fiancé, 54, have remained mum on their wedding plans and have not yet publicly confirmed their wedding date.
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
Aren’t these…the same thing?
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
The Kennedy Center cleans up well for Christmas
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
They are known for being careful readers of the classics
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
Oakeshott on the diffusion of authority between past, present, and future From "The Political Economy of Freedom"
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Reposted by Mark Fisher
Rosario López @rosariolopez.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Just published! My latest article on John Pocock and how history 'inhabits' us aeon.co/essays/histo...
aeon.co
History is always political, and contest over it is a good thing | Aeon Essays
In his work on republicanism as a living idea, J G A Pocock showed that contesting history is part of a robust civic life
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Deep in the Foreign Service Journal archives and spending all my time reading the ads. Here's one from a midtown hotel in 1940 offering translations in Esperanto, rooms for $3.50, and ten-minute rides from Penn Station to Flushing.
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
I don't know, the casual violence it does to the Greek language screams to me "I used to pull the legs off spiders"
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
Appreciative that the Bears are no longer even pretending that they are going to win it in the 4th
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
Wait is the implication of this final pivot that it's not ultimately Gates or Soros behind it all but . . . the Olympian pantheon??? If so, please tell me more
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
That checks out
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
Well done Outlander (s5e12) for introducing a Thucydides quote that actually comes from Thucydides The bar is low, and a surprising number still manage to trip over it
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
Not a cat, but might as well be
Lemon melted into a comfortable lap and looking as if she’s smiling
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Mark Fisher @markfisher.bsky.social · 14/12/2024
Sixteen undergraduate papers away from 9 months of research leave. I've never been so eager to put up an out-of-office message. Thanks to the Loeb Classical Library Foundation for giving me time to finish the book. Finally.
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