iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

My mother and my aunt live in Delaware county, and have gone from voting for Trump in 2016 to quite literally thinking he's the antichrist and that Ramaswamy is a fraud. Thousands of such people!

000

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

Apparently I’m now on a hugging basis with one of the TSA agents at BUR 😆

070

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

It's an enstupifying technology, and we keep demonstrating it over and over agin.

000

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

This is literally the most kind of dangerous person on the planet. They're the president's cabinet, they're DOGE, they're the Cornell dudes.

0226

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

And thank you so much! I’m glad to have stumbled across you here!

010

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Online, I actually deleted Threads because Meta’s lack of moderation made it so much worse.

010

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

And it worked well. I’ve been studying biracial people for 15 years and have never experienced as much hate as I have in the past year. When I said I was doing research in Memphis, I got rape and death threats that consistently called me a colonizer and said things like “biracials should be killed”.

110

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Working out is not some Rosetta Stone-level code to crack. It’s mostly pick up heavy things and/or get your heart rate up. No need to bring in genetic analysis 😣

040

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Ah yes, the literal hundreds of pages of documents in my tenure dossier focused on my ability to generate revenue and attract students 😡

060

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

You’ll be shocked that people are being extremely normal about this in comments. DeGraff is a well-respected linguist, and the topic is a valid subject of linguistic inquiry, even if it doesn’t jibe with your politics. Tenure is supposed to allow us to explore ideas. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/09/u...

nytimes.com

The Controversial Class That M.I.T. Is Paying a Professor Not to Teach (Gift Article)

Michel DeGraff, a vocal pro-Palestinian activist, can’t be easily fired because he has tenure. But he has been kicked out of his department.

2308

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Lots of students who studied linguistics 5 years ago are better off (socially, emotionally, financially) than the ones who did CS. And linguists are increasingly “useful” because we understand language! I am so sick of having to justify the value of education itself to the public (and to students).

08120

Reposted by Prof. Nicole Holliday

Mei 🪽 @meidotwav.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

treat your body like a data center. consume as much water, art and literature as possible. upset local municipalities with your existence.

50169085542

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

The Netherlands took a few dozen American researchers last year who were fleeing the conditions of the U.S.. Smart policy to took advantage of our brain drain, since Trump aims to make it impossible to do research here.

091

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I’ve gotten used to atrocities as a matter of survival. But this, begging for a race war, asking Iran to destroy my home, and live-streaming a racist execution of a prisoner all in the same week is too much. I call, I write, I give, I vote, and I don’t understand why we can’t stop this.

3272

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

He was convicted of a horrible crime, but this is still a public spectacle lynching. It is racist, and it is deeply corrosive to the souls of every person who person who witnesses it. But it follows in a long American tradition. eji.org/news/history...

eji.org

Public Spectacle Lynchings

05018

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Email from Cal's lawyers: "As a significant producer and consumer of intellectual property, the University has a profound interest in upholding copyright law. And so do you". LOLOLOLOL Meanwhile, the higher-ups are encouraging everyone on campus to turn their brains over to plagiarism machines

0190

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

At Cal, some of our large classes are in rooms too small for all the students enrolled. When I learned this, I wanted to flip a table…education can’t include specifically encouraging students to not show up. www.sacbee.com/news/local/e...

sacbee.com

UC is hitting its enrollment targets. But permanent faculty hiring lags

Faculty say the University of California’s reputation for academic excellence and its contribution to new ideas and innovations is at stake.

1171

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

This is a great use of time, but I cannot run without a beat. I have seriously considered adding a metronome to podcasts/talks so I can run to them 😆

110

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Currently in an NLP workshop at Berkeley, and I’m quite literally one of 5 people (out of ~100) who is a wearing a color. I always expect very few women and black/Latinx people, but like, we’re not even allowed to WEAR colors!?

2261

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

"The cognitive scientist Alison Gopnik suggests A.I. is a “cultural technology” that emulates the stories and information humans have documented, and that we should think about A.I. agents as “fictive characters abstracted from text.”

0184

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Ah, OP wasn't defending it, she was saying the same in response to hand-wringing about the reasons that people don't host guests!

110

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

This, exactly...but this all feels very middle-class white American. Black folks have been having people over forever, in whatever space there was with whatever food there was. Some of these ideas about "ability" are rooted in self-consciousness about keeping up with the Joneses.

0172

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Thank you for saying this. We never had a "dining room", but that didn't preclude my family from having folks over and eating in the kitchen, outside, wherever there was space. Among the middle-class, expectations seems to always be rising due to lifestyle creep.

240

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I hope, I pray, that this incident at least leads to fewer executions in the future. Bur good lord, if Christa was in any other position and subjected to this treatment, she’d have a hell of a lawsuit. End the death penalty now.

0303

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The death penalty is plainly unconstitutional, in addition to being a human rights violation. It should never happen, anywhere, to anyone. Shame on every single person that failed the child that Christa Pike was. She was still someone’s child, and no state should be in the business of murder.

0328

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Finna grab my guillotine for real. It’s easy to blame the tech bros, but we should also be looking at major car dealers and dentists who are so good at making sure the tax code never makes them pay their fair share. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p...

podcasts.apple.com

Middlegarchs are the new Oligarchs

Podcast Episode · Planet Money · September 25 · 31m

0201

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I wrote that after episode 6 but before 7, however I stand by it!

030

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Niche ref, but it’s SO interesting that on Sterling Point, Ramona is colorblind. I think it was an intentional choice since she’s kinda masc, and colorblindness is roughly 15x more common in men, but what an interesting way to do that for a character.

150

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Next week, I'm teaching multilingual societies, and South Africa is one example. Every time I hear that Afrikaners are facing a "genocide", my blood almost literally boils. And now Trump is gonna use $500 million of our money on them, while letting black Africans die www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ67...

youtube.com

U.S. to accept more White South Africans as refugees

YouTube video by CBS News

0132

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

In the U.S., “sounding prestigious” is often more about not sounding like a poor or a person of color than it is about sounding like you’re from a specific place. But this is genuinely a final exam question in an undergrad sociolinguistics class.

020

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

That’s the problem…it’s less regionally constrained in the U.S. than many other places, so it’s easier to say what it isn’t. Generally, the Midwest doesn’t have many stigmatized dialect features. California and PNW also, though there’s lots of stigmatized varieties there too (especially ethnolects).

110

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

No, I was talking about ideas of where the “best American english” was spoken, especially in the early 20th century. Most countries have the prestigious dialect in their capital/biggest city, but in the U.S., DC was disqualified bc “too many black people” and NYC bc “too many immigrants”.

130

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

We watched this scene from Clueless in my undergrad sociolinguistics class today, and I still recommend it for anyone teaching perceptual dialectology of California (a la Bucholtz et al 2007). www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUyj...

youtube.com

High School Boys | Clueless

YouTube video by NOW PLAYING

2213

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I'm a sociolinguist, but same! Last week I asked why the prestigious dialect of American English historically isn't the one spoken in DC or NYC...so they got to see how language ideologies are also influenced by (often invisible) racism and xenophobia.

1110

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

He should be fired for plagiarism, poor judgment, and not giving a damn about students or even his own research. He won't be, but he should.

0374

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

"Disturbingly, many men point to women outnumbering men in college enrollment as evidence that feminism is ruining the world and unfairly penalizing men...But men are not structurally or legally prohibited from attending college as women were decades ago. Men are choosing not to go to college".

38934

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I've been spectulating that the way the AI bubble bursts is when a horrible, preventable tragedy kills people because of regulatory negligence. I should've known this administration would take that as a dare.

0329

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Students asked me how to get rid of AI Overview in Chrome, and this method has worked for me so here's a PSA! It's SO nice to not have to scroll past that nonsense! tenbluelinks.org

tenbluelinks.org

How to Turn Off Google AI Overview and Set "Web" as Default

06229

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

That was the reference, and I got a reasonable number of chuckles!

010

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Pleased to report that I made an Oregon Trail reference in class today (sociolinguistics, we're talking about the Westward expansion of English in the 19th-20th centuries) and they all got it! Apparently they're still playing that game in middle and high schools!

4410

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Just, ugh 😩 “what people’s AI agents…are already doing, is harassing people, making spam and sales calls, deleting your inbox, canceling flights, giving control of Instagram accounts to hackers, deleted companies’ databases…hacking companies, running scams, and snatching up dinner reservations”

0157

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I had to look up who she was, and the joke was worth it!

010

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

It's possible, but we've had voice changing technologies for a long time so I guess it's not exactly a new use. I should definitely mention that though, so thanks!

100

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I can see why people would want that, but I also think it’s a terrible use. Thanks for the suggestion!

030

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Oh I don’t love it to be clear, I’m just saying it’s a potentially useful and interesting context for sociolinguists to examine.

010

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I’m not saying the tech works great now, but I could imagine that especially in online settings like gaming, having a voice that sounds more like you think of yourself could be affirming.

100