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Rebecca M. Bender

@rebeccadactyl.bsky.social
111 followers 125 following 45 posts

Spanish Professor, 19th-21st c. peninsular literature & culture; 1st-wave Spanish feminism; #motherhood #maternidad in literature; rural studies; visual studies; L2 literature pedagogy; blog: www.rebeccambender.com

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Rebecca M. Bender @rebeccadactyl.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Students showcasing the value of language skills across ALL disciplines and colleges via their time in Spain taking courses and working on their individualized, interdisciplinary research projects this summer - i'm so excited for the 7th year in 2027! www.k-state.edu/news/article...
k-state.edu
Spanish in action
K-State students combined Spanish-language immersion with hands-on research during a summer study-abroad program in Spain, connecting their academic interests with cultural experiences and real-world ...
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Nick Lloyd @spaincivilwartours.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
These beautiful pottok horses on Bianditz mountain, Navarra. Behind lie the Aiako mountains. The Pottok is an endangered, semi-feral breed of pony native to the Basque Pyrenees. This photo by Mikel Ortega was named image of the day on Wikipedia.
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David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
“Cutting this much from the university budget will mean that some of the core functions of the university will be lost. It’s not possible to just do more with less — to work smarter, to trim around the edges. We’re going to have to do less with less.” Gift link: www.startribune.com/umn-cuts-sta...
startribune.com
Perry: What we lose if the U cuts $225 million
"Austerity doesn’t work. Instead, it creates a death spiral, where reduction in services leads to reductions in revenue, which lead to reductions in services, which leads to reduction in revenue, whic...
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Roberto Ignacio Díaz @robertissimus.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Awesome news for Los Angeles and surely too for Velázquez’s formidable Conde-Duque, who now gets to live in California.
getty.edu
Getty Acquires Rediscovered Diego Velázquez Painting | Getty News
“Portrait of the Count-Duke of Olivares” strengthens Getty’s collection of 17th-century European paintings.
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Charles Logan @charleswlogan.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Yes, this:
A screenshot of Audrey Watters’ weekly post that reads, “This growing rejection and refusal of technology – inside and outside of schools – is about much much more than the technology itself. It is, in part, about the loss of control; the loss of agency, autonomy, and privacy. It is a response to the oligarchs’ efforts to undermine democracy. It is about these billionaires’ dismal, dystopian vision for the future – a wanton destruction of the planet writ large and local communities writ small; their apparent hatred for home and humanity alike.”
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Rebecca M. Bender @rebeccadactyl.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Non-Motherhood, (In)Fertility, and Choice in Two Recent Spanish Narratives - preview of my recent article published with the Hispanic Studies Review, where you can access the PDF (links in my blog post) rebeccambender.com/2026/09/03/n...
rebeccambender.com
Non-Motherhood, (In)Fertility, and Choice in Two Recent Spanish Narratives
This post shares my recent article, published in the Hispanic Studies Review, which analyzes two Spanish “hybrid narratives”: Míriam Aguilar’s “¿Y ahora qué?” (2024) a…
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Rebecca M. Bender @rebeccadactyl.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Student feedback was positive; there's a learning curve at the first 2-3 weeks) as they learn how to read a syllabus alongside readings (rather than have assignments fed to to them in Canvas), but in the end there were zero complaints. Not having/looking at laptops in class again is amazing!
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Rebecca M. Bender @rebeccadactyl.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
I started doing this last year and will do it again; made a massive difference and, while it's a ton of time up front, NOT using Canvas all semester - for me and students - ultimately saves a ton of time and reduces everyone's stress/anxiety. I updated grades on Canvas every 3-4 weeks; that was it.
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Sebastiaan Faber @sebasfaber.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Harvard 86-ing its writing center is a bit as if the wealthiest suburb in a hot, dry region threatened by climate change decided to save money by abolishing its fire department. www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...
thecrimson.com
In Defense of the Harvard College Writing Center | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson
As current and former Harvard College Writing Center tutors, we write to condemn the dissolution of the Writing Center as an independent entity and the laying off of its director, Jane Rosenzweig.
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Charles Logan @charleswlogan.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
"Let’s stop pretending Big Tech companies care about kids, educators or our public schools. It’s time we admit their end goal isn’t to better the educational landscape...And educators need to be more involved with decisions that directly affect what we do in the classroom,” writes Liz Shulman.
chicagotribune.com
Liz Shulman: Why are we still pretending Big Tech cares about our classrooms?
All kids deserve protection in school. Instead, AI companies are equipping classrooms with surveillance tech to gather data on K-12 students.
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Sebastiaan Faber @sebasfaber.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
No os perdáis este nuevo librazo editado por Mario Santana, Esther Gimeno Ugalde y @santiperezisasi.bsky.social, con casi 20 ensayos sobre la historia y el estado actual de los estudios ibéricos. brill.com/display/titl...
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Rebecca M. Bender @rebeccadactyl.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
With such a large study abroad group this year i read a bit less than normal, but these were a few books I enjoyed: a dystopic look at motherhood; poetry on (non)motherhood; a narrative exposing maternal grief & solitude; and my fav (punto bobo), interwoven narratives centered on a mother & daughter
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Rebecca M. Bender @rebeccadactyl.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
I actually got it via Interlibrary Loan, but thank you :) Will be referencing for my presentation in November on the "Intentional Revival of Analog Practices" out our AI Symposium (i believe Dr. Jared Horvath will give one of the keynote lectures!) lib.k-state.edu/technology/a...
lib.k-state.edu
2026 Heartland AI Symposium
The Heartland AI Symposium explores how artificial intelligence is shaping education, agriculture, business, creativity and everyday life.
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Charles Logan @charleswlogan.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
🚨 New publication alert 🚨 In which I join an all-star group of scholars to discuss the problems with what we call "critical optimism" about AI in education and offer instead three forms of AI refusal: curricular, bureaucratic, and administrative. The article is paywalled, so DM me for a copy.
journals.sagepub.com
Refusing Educational Technology: Artificial Intelligence, Inequity, and the Problem of Critical Optimism - Niral Shah, David Stroupe, Aman Yadav, Tess Bernhard, Charles Logan, Elizabeth B. Dyer, Peng ...
Artificial intelligence (AI)—like many technologies before—comes with hope and worry about its implications for education. In this essay, using generative AI as...
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Rebecca M. Bender @rebeccadactyl.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
I'd love a copy but can't DM either... I went back to tech-free "analogue" classes last fall and it's been so refreshing for both me and students (after a short period of adjustment!). Presenting on these "analogue adventures" this fall
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Christine Ferguson @cferguson.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
This looks really fascinating!
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Rebecca M. Bender @rebeccadactyl.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
New publication on 2 recent Spanish texts that expose the uncertainty & grief of prolonged fertility struggles, resist internalized societal pressures/cultural norms about biological motherhood, and reveal the complexities of maternal desire hispanicstudiesreview.cofc.edu/article/1624...
hispanicstudiesreview.cofc.edu
Se nos pasó el cuento, no el arroz: Non-Motherhood, (In)Fertility, and Choice in Míriam Aguilar’s ¿Y ahora qué? (2024) and Paola Andrea Ghirardi’s Diario de una bordadora (2024) | Published in Hispani...
By Rebecca Bender. Analyzing two 2024 Spanish first-person narratives, this article explores involuntary non-motherhood, challenging pronatalist assumptions and binary representations while foreground...
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Buckinghamshire Archives @bucksarchives.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Who doesn't love a bit of gossip?
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Dr. Thinking is fun @evenannaliese.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
This is the dumbest dystopia.
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Juan José Ponce Vázquez @jjponcevazquez.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Another reminder that LLMs make us all dumber. Adults can recover from the atrophied skills. There is no recovery for younger students who never developed them. www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-...
psychologytoday.com
Adults Lose Skills to AI. Children Never Build Them.
Discussions of cognitive offloading often miss a critical distinction: What AI does to a 45-year-old's brain is categorically different from what it does to a 14-year-old's.
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Cabel Sasser @cabel.panic.com · 11/05/2026
this graduation speech moment is notable, and her amazed shock at having failed to read the room feels instructive. when you're inside the bubble, you think everybody else is. but everybody isn't.
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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Statehouse subsidization of Canvas in places dominated by reactionaries tells you a great deal about what Canvas IS now: an enclosure of educational practices serving the ambition of automation & indoctrination.
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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
What I wish for everybody to remember when Canvas comes back online: The reason OUR data can be held for ransom is because Instructure, their owners (KKR private equity & Dragoneer venture capital), & our own employers (see ASU Atomic) monetize it. It's Canvas that hacked education & stole our IP.
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David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
huh. you what didn't get hacked? bluebooks, printed essays, grading notebooks, even excel files on my pc for tracking grades.
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Rebecca M. Bender @rebeccadactyl.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
That's me!! I stopped using it this academic year, went back to printed packets/binders, in-class exams and presentations, and it has been glorious - this incident further validates/justified that choice (though I feel back for all students/faculty struggling with this right now!)
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Rebecca M. Bender @rebeccadactyl.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
I love this. Might have to find an old typewriter or 2 (and learn to use it better myself!). My analogue Canvas-free classes were a massive improvement this year and I like the idea of adding more "old tech" to vary tasks & teach MORE analogue skills (ex: 3-ring binders were new to EVERY student!)
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Rebecca M. Bender @rebeccadactyl.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
My 2 semesters Canvas-free confirm = SUPERIOR Kane says: Screens offer students cover, a way to appear engaged without any actual sustained effort...when he got rid of all laptops & tablets, students' needs became plain. Education is profoundly & stubbornly SOCIAL www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
theatlantic.com
What Happened After a Teacher Ditched Screens
Why one early adopter of computers in classrooms has decided to toss them
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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
This is largely by design. If we stop thinking about AI as simply technology and instead as part of a political and economic program, its chief function become easier to see: namely to erode interpersonal trust so that ultimately we give up on forms of agreement & negotiation arbitrated by people.
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Rebecca M. Bender @rebeccadactyl.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Disgraceful. And languages have been dealing with this for years; many universities no longer require even a single language course, let alone basic competency via 4 semesters (which used to be a far more common requirement)...
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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
This is why the phrase comes up in so many of the things I've written about AI. AI does three main things: 1) dismantle the institutions necessary for democratic society to thrive 2) transfer wealth upwards 3) create the permission structure for (1) and (2)
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Chelsea @chelseasprite.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
This is called a community college and if we funded them properly we wouldn't need private individuals to offer these kinds of services.
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Rebecca M. Bender @rebeccadactyl.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Proud of my 2025 students for completing such great interdisciplinary research projects on-the-ground in Spain, and looking forward to what the 2026 cohort will come up with! Read a bit about their projects, which they presented at the KSWLA's annual conference! rebeccambender.com/2026/01/30/t...
rebeccambender.com
Transformative Study Abroad: Bridging Language and Research in Spain
First post of 2026! This year my goal is to return to posting at least once per month (*fingers crossed*). This past August 2025 I returned to my role as Associate Professor of Spanish – and …
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Sebastiaan Faber @sebasfaber.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
Madrid's reputation as “a graceless city of reactionary generals and slow-moving civil servants” is undeserved, says Luke Stegemann in his urban biography (@yalepress.bsky.social). Bécquer Seguín (@becquer.bsky.social) and I are not so sure. In @thenation.com. thenation.com/article/cult...
thenation.com
How Immigration Transformed Europe’s Most Conservative Capital
Madrid has changed greatly since 1975, at once opening itself to immigrants from Latin America while also doubling down on conservative politics.
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Miguel Antúnez López 🐌 @mantulopez.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
"La red aeroportuaria española ha crecido un 3,9% en pasajeros, un 4,1% en movimientos y un 7,2% en mercancías este 2025, tercer año más caluroso desde que hay registros. Estas cifras chocan con los objetivos de emisiones del sector y el propio Gobierno."
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Nick Lloyd @spaincivilwartours.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
1934 poster for premiere of Federico García Lorca's play Yerma.
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Bulletin of Spanish Studies & Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies @spanishbulletin.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
Calling all video essay practitioners in Spanish and Latin American Studies - submit to our special issue Moving Images/Moving Geographies: Video Essays in ‘Spanish’ Visual Cultures Details below go.qub.ac.uk/G6kbc
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Danielle Clarke @rhetorician.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
This is a stunning resource, beautifully presented - congratulations to Ros Smith Kathy Acheson and their team emwmlibrary.com
emwmlibrary.com
The Library of Early Modern Women's Marginalia
The Library of Early Modern Women's Marginalia.
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Rebecca M. Bender @rebeccadactyl.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
If i don't have funding to pay for packets, preparing all readings ahead & sending to the print center is extra labor for me up front, but WAY less for them (they can put attention into CONTENT not Canvas) and me during the semester. Asking them to print readings in past never worked well, lol
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Rebecca M. Bender @rebeccadactyl.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
Exactly... but "tech" has put up extra barriers/steps, and i think we have to remove them; having to log into an LMD, download, then print (via a sometimes cumbersome university network if they don't have their own printer) a reading every class or every week is tedious... so I do it for them
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Rebecca M. Bender @rebeccadactyl.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
I shared some student feedback here: bsky.app/profile/rebe...
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Rebecca M. Bender @rebeccadactyl.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
i refuse to give canvas any more of my labor/date or my students'. i use it as a gradebook only and update every 3 weeks. takes away grade anxiety, too, i've found... students don't get notifications on their phones about their grades. they get the grade in class, on their assignment, from me
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Rebecca M. Bender @rebeccadactyl.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
I got funds to provide packets last semester; but this spring my students will buy it from the printing center; should cost less than $15. They turn in all work in class, handwritten; i turn it all back next class with a few comments. I don't collect all homework, it's random. In-class essays, too
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Rebecca M. Bender @rebeccadactyl.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
I stopped using Canvas this year; instead of uploading documents, I made a PRINTED course packet. More work up front, but then it's all done and everything is in one place; schedule adjustments can be made in person/in class. Students liked it; they actually wrote on the text, engaged with it.
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Laprofmme @laprofmme.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
More student endorsement for tech-free teaching #pedagogy
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Bulletin of Spanish Studies & Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies @spanishbulletin.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
Call for Papers Cartographies of Spanish Modernism: (Re) Contextualising the Generation of 1927 go.qub.ac.uk/hFkbc This issue will focus on a variety of theoretical tools to examine the Generation of 27, the work of its canonical & non-canonical authors, & their literary and artistic afterlives
think.taylorandfrancis.com
Cartographies of Spanish Modernism: (Re) Contextualising the Generation of 1927
Critical engagement with issues of canonicity (decisions around inclusion and exclusion that shape literary historiographies).
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Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies @jscs-revista.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
We just published issue 26.4! Featuring articles on the trial of José Antono Primo de Rivera and artist Raquel Friera, as well as three essays on film: queer film in the Basque countryside, Violeta Salama’s "Alegria", and Elena Lopez Riera’s "El Agua" www.tandfonline.com/toc/cjsc20/c...
tandfonline.com
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Rebecca M. Bender @rebeccadactyl.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
student feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and interesting in terms of what students noticed, were/were not used to, etc... "autocorrect" as a distraction was interesting and i hadn't thought of it that way, but it makes sense - esp when writing in a second language or both Spanish/English
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Rebecca M. Bender @rebeccadactyl.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
With great examples of how these "new" assignments are mere variations of the assignments teachers have used for decades to encourage active learning & creativity, "except AI does the role playing and students are transformed from actors into spectators." curmudgucation.substack.com/p/ai-student...
curmudgucation.substack.com
AI Student Spectators
States are trying to figure out how to respond to AI in schools, and they are most flubbing it. A piece from CT Insider shows just how far in the weeds folks are getting.
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Mary Lawrence @wellonwheels.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
“Students should be main characters in their own education, and not observers, sidelined so that the plagiarism machine can shine.”
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Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 07/01/2026
everyone’s feeling it
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