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Michael Röllinghoff

@roellinghoff.bsky.social
5.7K followers 759 following 819 posts

Assistant professor of Japanese Studies at HKU. I write about settler colonialism, empire, and Indigenous sovereignty in Hokkaido and the transpacific. PhD from UToronto, Postdoc at UTokyo. Views mine, like/repost ≠ endorsement.

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Reposted by Michael Röllinghoff
勉誠社編集部 @benseyedit.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
本日は #日本酒の日 です。 #アジア遊学 312 畑有紀・芳澤元編『日本酒を読み解く 歴史・文化・技術』(bensei.jp/index.php?ma...) 信仰との関わりや文学での表現、業界の動向や地域社会での役割など、人文社会科学領域の諸分野から多層的な広がりをみせる #日本酒 の文化の在り方を体系的に捉える。
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Jean-Michel Basquiat @basquiat.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Derelict, 1982 botfrens.com/collections/27/content…
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Derelict
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Michael Röllinghoff @roellinghoff.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Just arrived in the post, literally gift wrapped. Congratulations, @sandeepbak.bsky.social!
Gift wrapped books; beautiful wrapping paper.The titles: FANTÔMES DE LA RÉVOLUTION NOIRE: Une histoire culturelle transatlantique by Grégory Pierrot and FRONTIÈRES QUEER: Sexualité, colonialité, décolonialité by
Sandeep Bakshi
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Jeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I give up. I’m moving into a cave.
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Torsten Weber @torweber.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Please seriously consider buying your books (and everything else too) from other places
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Astra Taylor @astra.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Forget grandiose talk of curing cancer - this is what AI is actually doing to healthcare. In the words of one cardiologist: “it’s bots fighting bots, agents fighting agents, a horrible dystopic future nobody wants to live in.”
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Frankie Huang 黄碧赤 @ourobororoboruo.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I have learned about Lucy Guo against my will, and I really think people need to stop worshipping “self-made billionaires” for their smarts and start assuming every one of these motherfuckers were able to amass so much wealth because their depravity has no bottom line.
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Alex Cheung @klalexcheung.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
My new article tells the story of peri-urban Chinese villagers in early 20th century Hong Kong when the colonial government settle land ownership, implement ‘improvement schemes’ and remove their village homes. If you are interested in #ColonialCities, or #HongKongHistory in general, check it out!
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Deva Woodly @devawo.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
See, I refuse to let them make me say I hate technology. Because it’s not true! I LOVE technology. I don’t like weird mean dudes demanding we pour all of earths resources into a project that *they advertise* as world destroying. Because that is incredibly stupid, on its face.
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The Narwhal @thenarwhal.ca · 23/09/2026
Nova Scotia repealed its decades-old moratorium on uranium mining last year. For now, mining companies appear to be snubbing the province’s open call for uranium exploration, but some residents are still petitioning for the ban to be reinstated.
thenarwhal.ca
As Nova Scotia tries to kick-start uranium mining, residents worry while industry shrugs
Amid the critical minerals rush, Nova Scotia lifted a four-decade uranium exploration ban last year. No mining company responded, but locals still worry
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NDP @ndp.ca · 22/09/2026
Today @avilewis.ca, MP @heathermcpherson.bsky.social and labour leaders came together to send a clear message to Mark Carney: Canada's airports are not for sale. If you agree, sign the petition at: www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en...
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本屋lighthouse(ライトハウス) @books-lighthouse.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
web灯台よりコンテンツ、更新しました٩( ᐛ )و 香港釣魚新手日記――花おじいちゃんの夕飯を釣る/吉田育未 第6回(番外編):カナダで「大西洋の金」を釣る book-lighthouse.theletter.jp/posts/47daa6...
book-lighthouse.theletter.jp
香港釣魚新手日記――花おじいちゃんの夕飯を釣る/吉田育未
第6回(番外編):カナダで「大西洋の金」を釣る
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jbralston.bsky.social @jbralston.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
For those asking: www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/...
thetimes.com
University of Edinburgh plan to cut 90 degrees is ‘cultural vandalism’
The University and College Union says the mothballing of courses will ‘drive a wrecking ball’ through higher education in the city
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
And every day there is more Fresh AI Hell. What's worse than polluting the information ecosystem with synthetic text dressed up to look like news? Dressing it up further as the work of fake Indigenous journalists: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
cbc.ca
‘Very harmful’: website uses AI to generate northern Indigenous news ‘correspondents’ | CBC News
The website WE NEWS has three northern Indigenous 'AI correspondents.' Their profiles say they are 'a member of Yukon First Nation,' 'of Dene heritage,' and 'an Inuk raised in the North.' Experts in t...
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Yellowhead Institute @miskoaki.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Yellowhead is hiring two Indigenous Research Assistants to support the Borders Hide the Horizon Red Paper. For more information and how to apply, visit us at yellowheadinstitute.org/work-with-us/
Poster with “WE’RE HIRING” headline, seeking Indigenous Research Assistants for the Borders Hide the Horizon Red Paper. Application deadline: October 1, 2026, 11:59pm EST.Job posting for a part-time researcher at Yellowhead Institute, open to Indigenous applicants, with details on qualifications, hours, pay, location, and an overview of the research project.
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Chelsea Szendi Schieder @chelseaszendi.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Event: Looking Back at Walterina Markova: Trans Misogyny and Modalities of Living in the Japan-occupied Philippines Website for registration and detailed event description, including speaker bios and abstracts: www.econ.aoyama.ac.jp/laboratory/2...
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lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Government has spent years arguing in court that elderly Quakers sitting down and holding placards about Palestinian Action are, in fact, terrorists who must be treated as such. Meanwhile their reaction to these people is to stress that they understand their "reasonable concerns". Infuriating.
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Avi Lewis @avilewis.ca · 18/09/2026
Ce n’est pas sans raison que les précédents gouvernements libéraux ont envisagé de privatiser les aéroports sans finalement le faire.
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The Tyee @thetyee.ca · 18/09/2026
What if we were to treat affordable housing as economic infrastructure, competing with pipelines and ports? It’s a comparison that reflects housing’s actual importance to overall economic output and productivity, Ernest Lang writes. thetyee.ca/Opinion/2026...
thetyee.ca
The Nation-Building Strategy Nobody Can Tariff | The Tyee
Why Mark Carney should get government far more involved in delivering affordable housing for Canadians.
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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The fallacy that University leaders pushing AI are falling into is thinking that the point of undergraduate research is to find things out. It isn't. What students find out is typically already generally known. The point of undergraduate research is to learn how to find things out.
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Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
But is it fascism? Do they really yearn for apocalypse? Isn't that polarizing? Shouldn't we be nice to them? We made a short video so folks can hear the end timers in their own words and judge for themselves: www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK2n...
youtube.com
How modern fascism works | End Times Fascism | Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor
YouTube video by Naomi Klein
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Josh Shepperd @joshshepperd.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Feels like universities might also want to wait to liquidate hundreds of years of educational practice before transforming themselves into single-corporation stewarded data centers.
cbsnews.com
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei: "For too long the industry lied" about AI risks
The head of the artificial intelligence company calls the exponential rate of AI developments a "warning sign," with risks for humanity, and says, "We need to slow down." He talks with "Sunday Morning...
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Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
"People are really mad and however mad you are, it’s not enough. Because there is something so profound about no longer believing in the future, about seeing no value in our shared home, in the natural world. They’re traitors to creation.” www.theguardian.com/books/2026/s...
theguardian.com
Naomi Klein: ‘Extreme wealth has a deranging effect. It turns you into a supremacist’
She’s tackled neoliberalism and the digital world, now the writer and activist is taking on tech billionaires. She explains how the super-rich are capitalising on climate and financial chaos in pursui...
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Konrad Lawson @kml.muninn.net · 12/09/2026
Friday night additions to the Interactive Map of the Japanese Empire: 1) administrative units for French Indochina 2) Burma railway lines (no animation or stations yet) 3) Japanese railway lines and stations (1930 and 1942) thanks to the dataset from 国土数値情報ダウンロードサイト froginawell.net/reference/ja...
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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
The conflation of AI-critical with technophobic is tactical & infuriating. While accusing us of just knee-jerk hating tech, they’re enshittifying search engines, degrading digital archives, sundowning or enclosing popular tools, etc. We were all happily using that tech!
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Decolonial Memories @colonial-memories.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Memories of German colonialism in the Pacific: Veranstaltung von „Brot für die Welt“ thematisiert Lage in Bougainville mit historischem Bezug zur deutschen Kolonialherrschaft. @kilderbenhauser.bsky.social @he-mel.bsky.social @misereor.bsky.social @uni-jena.de
Seite 1 der AnkündigungSeite 2 der Ankündigung
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Scott Gray @scott1gray.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Fixed that for you, BBC.
Racist gang forces its way into a hotel and threatens a group of teenagers
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Michael Röllinghoff @roellinghoff.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Seeing older people contentedly watching very obviously AI generated dramas on their phones is unnerving.
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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
This is the culture Sam Altman has talked openly about creating. It seems entirely likely that it’s the only kind of culture tech billionaires is really capable of envisaging, because it’s the only medium in which they can exist. Why other people are still interested is for them to explain
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 08/09/2026
A new version of ChatGPT is about to drop. Academics like @alexhanna.bsky.social and Emily Bender have been pointing out for literal years that these scare tactics about how powerful and scary AI is actually work as marketing. At this point, being this gullible is a choice.
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Michael Röllinghoff @roellinghoff.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Timeline cleanser in case you need one: here in Hong Kong we have pilons warning about the slippery wet ground that’re shaped like banana peels.
Banana peel shaped wet floor warning.
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Michael Röllinghoff @roellinghoff.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
This is why people vote for fascists— they’ve already seized the middle. And, it’s not just about the dangers of “appeasement”: their views already inform how their many of their Labour/Christian Democrat/Democratic/otherwise centrist opponents see the world.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
80 year-olds with pro-Palestine signs: arrested as terrorists. Greens planning to block a road, to highlight an existential crisis: sent down for years. Masked far-right thugs blocking roads and ports, using intimidation, obstruction & threatening behaviour: no arrests. The real two-tier policing.
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Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 06/09/2026
How nationalists, religious fundamentalists and tech titans turned their backs on a shared future: ft.trib.al/CNQUWbK
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Brendan Hark! T'is nearly Halloween. @brendanjharkin.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
No arrests for this by the way
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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
The idea that classrooms are chiefly spaces for product testing, and that it is irresponsible pedagogy not to enforce this, is both cynical and vile, and “fuck off” is a cogent response from any professional educator to any non-teaching salescreep or tech-but-not-subject-matter expert who voices it.
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Michael Röllinghoff @roellinghoff.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
As a Canadian, living somewhere with palm trees continues to freak me out a bit.
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Jimmy Thomson @jameswsthomson.com · 04/09/2026
This kind of report should be accompanied by a press conference—not with some low-level bureaucrat, but with the prime minister. Flanked by all of his ministers. In prime time, with technical briefings. This report says we're facing unimaginable disaster, yet we didn't even get a briefing.
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Amy Stanley @astanley711.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
What is the point of trying so hard to maintain your academic freedom if you’re going to abandon the entire educational enterprise, sacrifice the undergrads to the tech companies, and then light your reputation on fire?
thecrimson.com
Harvard Humanities Faculty Push Back on Deming’s Call for AI Use in Writing Courses | The Harvard Crimson
Harvard faculty in the humanities and social sciences expressed broad concern over an email Harvard College Dean David J. Deming sent students Wednesday suggesting that artificial intelligence be inte...
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Michael Röllinghoff @roellinghoff.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Do any US/Japanese history folk know anything about the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi's consulate in Hakodate? All I've got to go on is that it opened in 1871, meaning, it would've been built to serve Hawaiians in Hokkaido -- probably whalers, but who knows -- rather than Japanese migrants going to Hawaiʻi.
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Nevin Thompson @nevint.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Attacks on permanent residency seem to be a thing among peer nations. This is NZ, the UK is about to make it tougher to qualify, Japan is also making it tougher or even impossible to qualify, the United States' new "green card memo" is a way to force applicants to essentially self-deport...
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Quinn Slobodian @quinnslobodian.com · 31/08/2026
Fyre Festival imperialism
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Konrad Lawson @kml.muninn.net · 30/08/2026
Interactive map updates: Added train lines and stations for 1930 vs 1942 for Korea and Taiwan (근대 철도 DB & 日治時期鐵路分布圖 as foundation) + "Train Tools" feature, currently only for Taiwan, lets you animate the rail network (according to a 1936 列車時刻表. froginawell.net/reference/ja...
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Michael Röllinghoff @roellinghoff.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
I was surprised to learn that the author of Hyperpolitics is "only 32". Reading it, I fully expected him to be a Rémy Girard-esque aging, cretonistic academic Marxist who survives in neoliberal late capitalist academia by escaping into his own hedonistic tendencies and undeserved self-assuredness.
theguardian.com
Meet the man whose groundbreaking book is being devoured by the left
Anton Jäger has been lauded for his exceptional ability to make sense of these strange political times – and he’s only 32. The writer and academic explains why we’re living in an age of hyperpolitics
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Michael K. Bourdaghs @mbourdaghs.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
New book: Susan L. Burns, "Mapping Medical Modernity: Urban Space and Public Health in Tokyo, 1868-1920" (University of Pittsburgh Press). upittpress.org/books/978082...
upittpress.org
Mapping Medical Modernity - University of Pittsburgh Press
|9780822967996|Urban Space and Public Health in Tokyo, 1868–1920|Mapping Medical Modernity explores the history of medical modernization and public health in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-centu...
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jon ben-menachem @jbenmenachem.com · 23/08/2026
I think the class of school administrators (not just in higher ed) who act fast to insulate core pedagogical functions from AI will reap major rewards for their trouble. In a few years, there will be an extremely stark difference between people who used AI in school and people who are competent
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Michael Röllinghoff @roellinghoff.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Abandoning one’s child on a mountainside really ought to be taken a little more serious than this. 🫤
theguardian.com
Man leaves young son on Mount Fuji before ascending Japan’s highest peak
Boy, seven, had complained of feeling tired so father left him with snacks and a soft drink and continued his climb
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Robbie Richardson @londonmikmaq.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
A clip of the opera in Mi'kmaq, with komqwejwi'kasikl (Mi'kmaq hieroglyphics) captions- excited to see this tonight!
youtube.com
Rafael Payare and Emma Pennell performs "You can die properly now" — with the OSM
YouTube video by medici.tv
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Dr. Nick Posegay @nposegay.northsky.social · 20/08/2026
University of Ghent waking up to the fact that having a "race realist" on staff with stated intentions to become a professor of "eugenics and race science" is not ideal for their PR ambitions. They were fine with him 3 weeks ago though, so this investigation is the direct result of public pressure.
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Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
"...professors at my mini-viva questioning my use of the term 'Asian American canon', insisting that 'canon' was the remit of white authors (and reciting names to me as I fought back tears)..." www.vogue.co.uk/article/camb...
vogue.co.uk
I Aspired To Get My PhD At Cambridge – I Left Because Of The Racism
“I could write a second memoir solely on the racism I experienced at Cambridge University as a Master’s and PhD student,” writes Jill Damatac, a Filipino-American author who was a student at Cambridge...
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