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Thomas S. Davis

@thomassdavis.bsky.social
2.2K followers 621 following 767 posts

English/Env Hum/Analog Hum/Prof at Ohio State. The Extinct Scene: Late Modernism & Everyday Life (Columbia 2016). Forming Attachments: Aesthetic Education & Ecological Crisis (out for review!). www.thomassdavis.net

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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
For the briefest hallucinatory moment I wanted this to be an announcement that the US govt was replacing AI with the Situationist International. Alas. Back to the Sazerac.
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Read Sarah’s story instead of all the Ed Sheeran mess. And support HEAL-Palestine if you can.
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
White tears as brand management.
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Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
If I was in charge of an educational institution and learned that a technology fostered “cognitive surrender” in young people, I’d like to think I would do everything in my power to keep it away from the young people who pay my institution to educate them. But I guess I’m just a weirdo.
Students are using artificial intelligence for everything, including cheating, and a recent M.I.T. report said the technology was creating
"cognitive surrender."
Philip Cheung for The New York Times
Many university leaders are embracing A.I. anyway. →
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
It’s true! I‘ll be at UIUC in November to riff about Environmental Humanities at the Unit for Criticism & Interpretive Theory, which I have admired from afar for so long. My entire talk is about why Nathan is wrong. Just kidding. I am just gonna try to get by on the residual good vibes of his visit.
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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
BREAKING: Boston University's English department (my dept) recently voted to approve new learning outcomes for the English major, including an anti-AI provision that requires students to “craft and revise writing that is sustained, original, and generated without the assistance of AI."
bu.edu
New Learning Outcomes Announced | English
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Cirino believes market principles should dictate which courses & majors survive…unless it is the right wing “civics center” forced on OSU, which has low enrollments & low interest. In that case, you push new legislation that would require undergrads to take their courses. That’s freedom, baby!
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I had no idea Peter Weller received a PhD in the History of Art so I was surprised to see this in my inbox today. Academic life in the 21st century only ever gets weirder..
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
It can’t do any of these things you fucking dipshits.
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Caleb Wellum @calebwellum.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
The Renewable Normal (the latest After Oil book) is on its way. I cannot say enough about how wonderful the collaborative process of making this book was. Looking fwd to talking a bit about it next week at Petrocultures 2026 in Dresden.
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Aaaand look what just showed up in the mail.
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Our book The Renewable Normal, the third After Oil book, is out earlier than expected! If you’re at Petrocultures next week there will be discounted copies (come say hi if you’re in Dresden). Come for the critique of renewability & stay for the theories of hell & fuckedness!
nebraskapress.unl.edu
The Renewable Normal - Nebraska Press
The Renewable Normal confronts the aesthetic, affective, and political dimensions of the transition to renewable energy. Written by the After Oil Collective,...
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Professor Jason Arday's former students want to "gather everything good about Jason Arday, in the words of the people who were there" to make their contribution to the public record about him (rather than to debate events + controversies of recent months) leilacancode.github.io/everythinggo...
leilacancode.github.io
Everything Good About Jason Arday
First-hand accounts from people who knew him. Collected by his students.
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Yes. This is exactly how to respond to this bullshit posturing and bad faith “reporting.”@kwazana.bsky.social 👏👏👏
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
“Damn! Let him cook.“—My 12 year old’s response to Odysseus killing the suitors at the end of the film. We were also the only people in the theater who thought of this as “family night” evidently.
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
I’m late to this, but this is definitely worth your attention if it slid under your radar. Thanks @gabrielh.bsky.social for this!
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MSA Modernism & Environment SIG @msa-modenviro.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Modernism and Environment enthusiasts! Check out the TWO latest installments of our “Letters from the Field" blog series on @moderniststudies.bsky.social's M/m print+ "Modernism, Energy, and Environment" blog! Do read and share! modernismmodernity.org/forums/posts...
modernismmodernity.org
Letters from the Field: #2 and #3 | Modernism / Modernity Print+
I write from Tampa, Florida, where last year’s back-to-back hurricanes have subsided into this year’s drought, and where I have been thinking obsessively about the university as environmental infrastructure. Like Virginia Woolf’s narrator Mary Beton in A Room of One’s Own, I have “sat down on the banks of a river” on a university campus. I’ve thought about how this place
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
This Is the sort of thing I need to see when I wake up.
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WOSU Public Media @wosupublicmedia.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Ohio State professor brings awareness to Gaza crisis through boat convoy relief efforts
wosu.org
Ohio State professor brings awareness to Gaza crisis through boat convoy relief efforts
Maju Brunette, a global health equity professor at Ohio State, participated in the Global Sumud Flotilla — a citizen-based initiative to sail to Gaza in hopes to provide humanitarian aid.
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
We played Gilman Street with old friends Reversal of Man last week, conjuring up the ghosts of 90s DIY screamo/hXc & fulfilling a lifelong dream to play a venue I have admired as long as I have been aware of punk.
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Before I finish this damn book, I’ll be in CA & AZ for a mini-tour en route to the King of the Monsters fest next week. We (Prevail) will be with old friends Reversal of Man to conjure the spirit of chaotic, noisy 90s DIY punk/hardcore. If you’re in SF or LA, come say hi.
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Sam Adams @samadams.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
How is “viewpoint diversity” not just affirmative action for people with bad ideas
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
A new book from After Oil drops this fall. I had the great luck to write the chapter on "fuckedness" (that's three syllables) with some other awesome After Oilers. www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/978...
nebraskapress.unl.edu
The Renewable Normal - Nebraska Press
The Renewable Normal confronts the aesthetic, affective, and political dimensions of the transition to renewable energy. Written by the After Oil Collective,...
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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
As the Ohio State University Board of Trustees meeting begins and makes the news official, here’s @osuaaup.bsky.social’s statement on the selection of Provost Ravi Ballamkonda as the new permanent president of OSU
AAUP-OSU Statement on the Selection of Provost Ravi Ballamkonda as New Permanent OSU President

We are surprised and disappointed at the Board of Trustees' decision to choose a new permanent university president without even consulting faculty, staff, and students. Ohio State's system of shared governance - not to mention best practices in hiring university presidents - requires all of us having a say in the process. This hasty, undemocratic process starts this presidency on the wrong footing and sends the wrong message about our supposed shared values.

The speed and secretiveness of this selection follows a troubling pattern of institutional entitlement. The last few years at Ohio State under Ted Carter have been characterized by mass arrests, a chilling of free speech, allegations of covering up abuse, and now corruption. Why risk more public mistrust when OSU is already constantly in the news for the wrong reasons and there has been so much reputational harm? Now is the time to be more careful with decision-making and more accountable, not less.

In just the past two days, over 700 people-faculty, staff, students, alumni, as well as community members-signed our petition calling for a presidential search committee that reflects the democratic structure of the University Senate. That demand to be heard still stands. Going forward, we will continue to work to make sure that OSU faculty and others actually have a voice. This rushed process has given us no time to consider or discuss the merits of Provost Bellamkonda's elevation to the presidency, but we wish him well and hope for a successful presidency. If the new president wants to win the trust of the community, he should take immediate action to show that he represents a new era - repeal Ted Carter's anti-free speech policies, listen to abuse survivors, commit and to greater transparency and authentic shared governance going forward.
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Philip Leventhal @philipleventhal.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
Now available! Johanna Winant's eagerly anticipated, LYRIC LOGIC: HOW MODERN AMERICAN POETRY REASONS. Use the coupon code CUP20 and save 20%! tinyurl.com/4e7vphwa @johannawinant.bsky.social @columbiaup.bsky.social
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DrDinD.bsky.social @drdind.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
From the Tehran Times - photos of the school CHILDREN killed by an AMERICAN tomahawk cruise missile. The headline: TRUMP, LOOK THEM IN THE EYES (Ht @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social )
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
What I am seeing from within my university's (coercive) "AI Fluency" initiative, is growing student pushback. As the profs in this piece note, students grasp that they are being deskilled & enlisted into something without their consultation or consent (faculty too!).
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
The more we hear about all of this, the more batshit it seems. I'd push back on the "these kids" language. Nathan Cavanaugh owned (& sold) multiple tech businesses & was connected already w/ the Silicon Valley world that got him to DOGE. They are willingly part of an ideological project.
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AAUP-Ohio State @osuaaup.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
AAUP-OSU statement on Ted Carter’s resignation as OSU president: 

“The students, faculty, and staff of Ohio State deserve so much better than the failed leadership that has been inflicted on this institution over the years. The repression of free speech, the dismantling of diversity, the lack of accountability to survivors - the list goes on and on. We demand a more transparent presidential search that involves the input of faculty, staff, and other university stakeholders.”
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Well, well... "The president recently disclosed to trustees that he had an inappropriate relationship with someone seeking public resources to support her personal business and offered to resign. "
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
In what feels like a fever dream, it turns out my old band will be playing Gilman St in May as part of a short west coast tour. If anyone on here has Bay Area recs—food, bookstores, practice spaces—I’d love to hear them.
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
Our local NPR station WOSU did a much better job with the headline. Of course, this is a professor at the Chase Center, which was established by state law & is supposed to be the anchor for "viewpoint diversity" and "civility." The stories write themselves...
wosu.org
Ohio State Chase Center professor placed on administrative leave after assaulting cameraman
The Ohio political blog, The Rooster, published video showing Chase Center Assistant Professor Luke Perez hitting a cameraman and then throwing him to the ground.
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Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 07/02/2026
The degree to which both of these people are so completely full of shit, name checking things they have no understanding of, free associating “deep thoughts” & yet so perfectly confident in their half-assed knowledge, helps clarify why the entire elite class is so desperate to get us all on ChatGPT
68 mins: science, the soul and ethics
Towards the end of the interview, Epstein moves into more abstract territory, questioning the utility of science and the nature of humanity. Despite his background in mathematics, Epstein expresses a firm belief in the soul.
He calls the soul the "dark matter of the brain" - something that cannot be seen but whose effects are obvious. He references Leibniz and Schrödinger, arguing that science cannot explain why material substance is able to "think" or what differentiates a living body from a dead one.
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Zoë Plakias @zoeconomy.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
All of this!!! For example, Ohio State (not an Ivy but big deal R1) has... Wexner Medical Center Wexner Center for the Arts These are named after Les Wexner, who made his money on Victoria's Secret, Abercrombie, etc. + employed Epstein as his financial manager for 20 years + bankrolled his abuses.
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
I am planning Thursday’s class on climate anger as a form of political anger ( & using a wonderful piece by @doctorvive.bsky.social ) & thinking through different methods for analyzing emotion, extractive violence, & historical specificity and I think this is basically my whole pedagogy:
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Cathy Cowan Becker @ccbecker271.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
O-H ICE-OUT!
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
Reviews of my no tech, analog seminar were all positive: “this class gave me room to breathe,” “I loved not having screens in class,” “writing in our attention notebooks gave me space to think,” “this was the most immersive class I’ve ever taken,” “I felt like I could think freely,”l loved Sebald.”
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
It is worth noting that so many of these universities mandating AI are in states that liquidated DEI programs & made them illegal. Just in case you were unclear about the trajectory of “intellectual diversity” in higher ed, this is what it looks like.
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
We are under one of these impossible demands & I can tell you that one of the outcomes is backlash from undergraduates who will tell you (& Reddit & the school newspaper & anyone who will listen to them) that they don’t want the uni forcing AI on them (including the pop-up ChatGPT cafe on campus).
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Drop Site @dropsitenews.com · 10/12/2025
⚡️NEW from @dropsitenews.com: "Ask Jeffrey": Epstein Ran Wexner's Pro-Israel Philanthropy Machine, Emails Reveal The Wexner Foundation has long claimed Epstein had "did not make decisions regarding the use of Foundation’s funds.” New emails show that is...false. open.substack.com/pub/dropsite...
open.substack.com
"Ask Jeffrey": Epstein Ran Wexner's Pro-Israel Philanthropy Machine, Emails Reveal
The Wexner Foundation has long claimed Epstein "did not make decisions regarding the use of Foundation’s funds.” New emails show that is flagrantly false.
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
These are the new state mandated questions that will appear at the end of our student evaluations. Just in case anyone was curious about the effects of right wing higher ed legislation in Ohio:
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AAUP-Ohio State @osuaaup.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
The AAUP at Ohio State encourages all to attend this Tuesday event by Jewish Voice for Peace - Central Ohio @jvpcentralohio. We stand in solidarity with our colleague Tom Hayes of Ohio University who was removed from his teaching position after being detained in the humanitarian flotilla to Gaza.
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Homemade costume for Jevil from Deltarune for my 11 year old. His friends also went as video game characters & we saw some amazing Hollow Knight costumes.
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Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 24/10/2025
The AI industry wants us to believe AI superintelligence is the real threat from generative AI. But that narrative was crafted to distract from the many ways genAI is being used to tear our societies apart, as we saw this week when a deepfake video rocked the Irish election. It must be reined in.
disconnect.blog
Generative AI is a societal disaster
Governments are deluding themselves into believing investment justifies allowing AI to upend society
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
This is very good & reads like a speculative autopsy of my own uni. I would add to this mix the privatization of public university infrastructure—parking, energy systems, etc—that was also done in the name of growth, all of it done un-(or anti-)-democratically.
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
This is also the case here and students in my async class are rightly concerned; my analog class though? Shit, we are just showing up on Wednesday to read Sebald together and talk about the poisoning of seas, fishery collapse, & the use of hypotaxis to register the catastrophes of modernity.
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
“Water neutrality”: Late capitalism has gotten so innovative that it has conjured “waterwashing” as a cover for its endless plunder: “AWS, Meta, Microsoft, and Google all have clear water neutrality goals.”
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
In about three years the entire university pivot to AI curricula and schools and programs is going to be so deeply embarrassing. We will all pretend it never happened and I will be standing there, looking at people with a mirror in my eyes. This is all so embarrassing.
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Thomas S. Davis @thomassdavis.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Writing retreat in the mountains of West VA is going well. I’m going to finish this fucking book & yes, until further notice, my preface poaches its title from this abandoned truck I saw in the Bakken: “Piece of Shit, Left for Dead.” I also scared two coyotes by accident on a hike in Canaan Valley.
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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
Very bad: OSU unilaterally cancelled the registration of grad students attending the joint conference of the National Society of Black Physicists and the National Society of Hispanic Physicists. And OSU won't fund recruiting at the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science.
dispatch.com
Ohio State changes policy on group conferences after Trump administration threats
A federal investigation into potentially discriminatory practices at Ohio State prompted the university to change its policies regarding conferences.
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