iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Isaac Samuel @rhaplord.bsky.social · 18h

The ancient world was a far more interconnected place than is commonly recognised. Nearly 2,000 years ago, a sailor named Diogenes travelled 25 days inland from the coast of Tanzania to reach the source of the Nile near the “Mountains of the Moon” www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/ancient-ex...

africanhistoryextra.com

Ancient Expeditions to Central Africa and the Circumnavigation of the Continent

The ancient world was a far more interconnected place than is commonly recognised.

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Sarah Brierley @sarahbrierley.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Thanks to @voxdev.bsky.social for chatting with me about the findings of my new book, The Co-opted State. For those who teach on corruption and governance, I hope this podcast might be useful for students.

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expertsurvey.bsky.social @expertsurvey.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

How do networks of informants and experts shape our knowledge of the world? We held a Full Paper Panel at the American Political Science Association apsa.bsky.social Annual Meeting in Boston. 👇

apsa.bsky.social

APSA (@apsa.bsky.social)

The American Political Science Association (APSA) is the leading professional organization for the study of political science. www.apsanet.org

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Jim Clifford @jimclifford.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Ezra Klein makes an important intervention here. Refocus the conversation on keeping human control of AI instead of EVERYONE WILL DIE. youtu.be/fjZ90V_JREk?...

youtu.be

Why Are We Sprinting Off the A.I. Cliff? | The Ezra Klein Show

YouTube video by The Ezra Klein Show

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Fall of Civilizations Podcast @fallofcivilizations.com · 17/09/2026

The video version of Episode 21 is coming for Patreon subscribers on Saturday! This part of the world really has to be seen to be believed. With original reenactments and some of the best drone photography I've ever seen, find out how the Majapahit Empire of Indonesia rose and fell...

patreon.com

Episode 21 is coming soon to video! | Fall of Civilizations Podcast

I'm really excited to announce the release of the video version for Episode 21 on the Majapahit Empire and the history of Java. This has bee

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Josef Woldense @woldense.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Will you be at APSA? Want to meet great people part of the Democracy & Autocracy Section? Join us in the... 1️⃣ Business meeting | 6:30pm| Sharaton Boston Hotel: Room Fairfax B 2️⃣ Reception | 7:30pm | Clerys: 113 Dartmouth St

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Edward Goldring @edwardgoldring.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Publication day was last weekend. Book cake was this weekend🥳 Available for $35 with Cornell (unfortunately does not come with cake): cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...

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Josef Woldense @woldense.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

"What can this person do that we cannot?"... Just finished reading "AI Native PhD Students" by @eytan.adar.prof. Excellent! I highly recommend it. eytanadar.medium.com/ai-native-ph...

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Tobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

James Bond: you think I haven’t faced death before? Supervillain: oh, I don’t expect you to die, Mr. Bond. I expect you to suffer. *opens travel funding reimbursement software I think you will find your motorboat rental and casino reservations especially complex James Bond: no. no. pls kill me

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Jim Clifford @jimclifford.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Mark Humphries is thinking carefully about teaching history and GenAI. Humanities professors risk driving away the few students still in our programs if we double down on in-class reading and writing. substack.com/@generativeh...

substack.com

No More Muddling Through

Why the détente between students and professors over AI will end in 2026.

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Dr. Verena Krebs @krebsverena.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Giving a plenary talk at the Big Byzantinist Bash aka ICBS in Vienna later this month — the article version of my talk has just been published Open Access! What was Byzantium to 15th-century Solomonic Ethiopian kings? TLDR Version: not a real place, but an idea. ➡️ doi.org/10.14220/978...

Screenshot of the title page:

Verena Krebs
All Roads Lead to Ethiopia: Byzantium in the Solomonic Imagination
Abstract
Despite the prominent role assigned to "Rome" in the Kəbrä Nägäśt, the founding epic of he Solomonic Dynasty of Christian Ethiopia, not a single Solomonic embassy was ad dressed to the rulers of Byzantium-even as close to a dozen missions were dispatched tc the courts of Latin Europe between 1400 and 1530 CE. This article examines how "Rome" functioned in the Solomonic royal imagination of the fifteenth century by looking at texts connected to the Tä 'ammərä Maryam, the Ethiopian Miracles of Mary, translated into Gə`əz around 1400, and at writings composed under King Zär' a Ya'ogob (r. 1434-1468). In these sources, Rome and Constantinople blur into a single miraculous geography; a dream- Byzantine craftsman is conjured to serve an Ethiopian king; and a True Cross relic obtained from Venice is recast as a gift of gratitude from "New Rome." The article argues that Byzantium, as "Rome," was instrumental to Solomonic sovereignty precisely because it existed as a concept rather than a real place--a malleable Christian elsewhere to be drawn upon for local political purposes, precluding the need for any engagement with the con- temporary polity.
Keywords: Ethiopia; Byzantium; Solomonic Dynasty; Dawit Il; Zär' a Ya'əqob; Kəbrä Nä- gäśt; Tä` ammərä Maryam; Ga'az literature; diplomacy; royal ideology; relics

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Josef Woldense @woldense.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Want to learn about empires across human history? @fallofcivilizations.com has you covered. Incredibly well produced podcast. Check it out!

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Anne Meng @annemeng.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

🚨 New in @apsrjournal.bsky.social! 🚨How do the origins of authoritarian regimes shape their subsequent trajectories? @kbclarke.bsky.social @jackpaine.bsky.social and I are excited to share "Rebel Victory and Authoritarian (Dis)Order" /1

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Josef Woldense @woldense.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Do you teach about authoritarian regimes? Check out this new book! I snuck my way in it and shared my coup game you can play with your students.

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Aditya Dasgupta @adasgupta.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

New (well, finally published) paper out at AJPS on "Bureaucrat Assignments as Instruments of Political Control": doi.org/10.1111/ajps... . We estimate Indian land officials' preferences over geographical posts and test a "matching market" model of how politicians use assignments to extract rents 1/3

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 18/06/2026

Mamdani's speech at the Knicks parade was easily the best I've ever heard at an event of that sort. I posted the whole thing on YouTube for your viewing pleasure. Highly recommended.

youtube.com

Mamdani Remembers Some Knicks Guys during phenomenal parade speech

YouTube video by Aaron Rupar

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Sacha Epskamp @sachaepskamp.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

I spent the past semester building interactive teaching apps with AI-assisted coding. I used my personal website to share them with my students, but that makes them hard to find for other educators. So I built Galvoro — galvoro.app

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Carl Müller-Crepon @carlmc.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

🚨 New paper in the @apsrjournal.bsky.social: Nils-Christian Bormann and I propose to model the electoral effects of ethnic and other cleavages with a new *Covoting Regression Model*. A short on the method and our results on ethnic voting in Sub-Saharan Africa. doi.org/10.1017/S000...

doi.org

Coethnics Covote in Africa: Studying Electoral Cleavages with a Covoting Regression Model | American Political Science Review | Cambridge Core

Coethnics Covote in Africa: Studying Electoral Cleavages with a Covoting Regression Model

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Josef Woldense @woldense.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Civil war is not just a human trait www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/s...

nytimes.com

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African Politics Conference Group @africanpoliticscg.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

The call for 2026 APCG Award Nominations is live! The deadline for nominations is May 1st. Nominate scholars for Best Dissertation, Best Graduate Student Paper, Distinguished Africanist, Best Article and Best Book! www.afpol.org/blog/2026-ap...

afpol.org

2026 APCG Award Nominations

The 2026 APCG Award nominations are now open and due May 1st! Nominate scholars for Best Dissertation, Best Graduate Student Paper, Distinguished Africanist, Best Article and Best Book.

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Edward Goldring @edwardgoldring.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

My book - “Purges” - has a release date (August 15) and a front cover. I started work on this as my PhD dissertation at the end of 2017 - excited for it to finally be coming out! www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...

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Adam Scharpf @ascharpf.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

Russia, Venezuela, Iran, China, the Sahel region, the United States ... Want to know why state agents carry out brutal repression — or participate in illegal coups? Our new book "Making a Career in Dictatorship" provides answers — it just got published by @academic.oup.com: tinyurl.com/ystwm3tf

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𝙅𝙖𝙘🍩𝙗 𝙉𝙮𝙧𝙪𝙥 @jacobnyrup.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

We are happy to release the Paths to Power Dashboard. It is the perfect tool for politics nerds! You can find it here: ptp.isv.sv.uio.no/ptp/ It allows you to explore governments from 1966-2021 using the PtP and WhoGov datasets. See examples below. The app has been programmed by Stuart Bramwell.

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Felix Haass @felixhaass.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

🚨Job alert! 🚨 I'm advertising a PhD position (66%) in Comparative Politics at HU Berlin. Ideal candidates combine a research interest in autocratic politics, conflict, and/or political violence with strong quantitative methods skills. ⏳ 4 (+2) years | 🗓 DL 16.01; Start March/April 26 More info:

hu-berlin.de

Research fellow (m/f/d) in the field of “contentious politics/political violence/autocratic politics” - Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

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Elizabeth (Bit) Meehan, PhD @elizabethbitmeehan.com · 19/12/2025

the analogy I use with friends and family all the time is the jump from collegiate to professional sports. as soon as I explain it that way, it clicks in their brains what the academic job market is like.

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Sarah Brierley @sarahbrierley.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

I am hiring a post-doctoral fellow (2 years) to work on all things political finance in Africa. There are no teaching obligations, and lots of opportunities for fieldwork. A PhD in Political Science is a requirement. Please spread the word! Happy to answer questions - send them to my LSE email.

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Andrew Heiss @andrew.heiss.phd · 09/12/2025

Some closing thoughts for my students this semester on LLMs and learning #rstats datavizf25.classes.andrewheiss.com/news/2025-12...

Will you incorporate LLMs and AI prompting into the course in the future?
No.

Why won’t you incorporate LLMs and AI prompting into the course?
These tools are useful for coding (see this for my personal take on this).

However, they’re only useful if you know what you’re doing first. If you skip the learning-the-process-of-writing-code step and just copy/paste output from ChatGPT, you will not learn. You cannot learn. You cannot improve. You will not understand the code.

In that post, it warns that you cannot use it as a beginner:

…to use Databot effectively and safely, you still need the skills of a data scientist: background and domain knowledge, data analysis expertise, and coding ability.

There is no LLM-based shortcut to those skills. You cannot LLM your way into domain knowledge, data analysis expertise, or coding ability.

The only way to gain domain knowledge, data analysis expertise, and coding ability is to struggle. To get errors. To google those errors. To look over the documentation. To copy/paste your own code and adapt it for different purposes. To explore messy datasets. To struggle to clean those datasets. To spend an hour looking for a missing comma.

This isn’t a form of programming hazing, like “I had to walk to school uphill both ways in the snow and now you must too.” It’s the actual process of learning and growing and developing and improving. You’ve gotta struggle.

This Tumblr post puts it well (it’s about art specifically, but it applies to coding and data analysis too):

Contrary to popular belief the biggest beginner’s roadblock to art isn’t even technical skill it’s frustration tolerance, especially in the age of social media. It hurts and the frustration is endless but you must build the frustration tolerance equivalent to a roach’s capacity to survive a nuclear explosion. That’s how you build on the technical skill. Throw that “won’t even start because I’m afraid it won’t be perfect” shit out the window. Just do it. Just start. Good luck. (The original post has disappeared, but here’s a reblog.)

It’s hard, but struggling is the only way to learn anything.

You might not enjoy code as much as Williams does (or I do), but there’s still value in maintaining codings skills as you improve and learn more. You don’t want your skills to atrophy.

As I discuss here, when I do use LLMs for coding-related tasks, I purposely throw as much friction into the process as possible:

To avoid falling into over-reliance on LLM-assisted code help, I add as much friction into my workflow as possible. I only use GitHub Copilot and Claude in the browser, not through the chat sidebar in Positron or Visual Studio Code. I treat the code it generates like random answers from StackOverflow or blog posts and generally rewrite it completely. I disable the inline LLM-based auto complete in text editors. For routine tasks like generating {roxygen2} documentation scaffolding for functions, I use the {chores} package, which requires a bunch of pointing and clicking to use.

Even though I use Positron, I purposely do not use either Positron Assistant or Databot. I have them disabled.

So in the end, for pedagogical reasons, I don’t foresee me incorporating LLMs into this class. I’m pedagogically opposed to it. I’m facing all sorts of external pressure to do it, but I’m resisting.

You’ve got to learn first.

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Carl Müller-Crepon @carlmc.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

🚨Jobs!🚨 3-year PostDoc positions (aka Research Officers) at @lsegovernment.bsky.social to work with me on the local consequences of border change. Please reach out for questions and apply by Jan 4th to join the team and department: I’d love to hear from you! Job ad: jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

jobs.lse.ac.uk

Research Officer

Research Officer, , <p style="background: white; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><em><span style="color: #333333;">LSE is committed to building a diverse, equitable and truly inclusive university</s...

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Daniel de Kadt @dandekadt.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

For anyone interested in the visualisation workshop materials I mention in this thread, you can find them here: github.com/ddekadt/MY58...

github.com

GitHub - ddekadt/MY580_data_visualisation

Contribute to ddekadt/MY580_data_visualisation development by creating an account on GitHub.

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Parking Reform Network @parkingreform.org · 28/11/2025

Minimum parking requirements create financially insolvent land use patterns. The two apartment buildings on the right generate six times more in property taxes than the big box store on the left, while occupying almost half the space! #BlackFridayParking

Satellite image of a commercial development along a stroad. On the left there's a big box store that says "Property taxes: $102,485, Parcel Size: 17,766 meter square. On the right there's two apartment buildings that read "Property taxes: $626,002, Parcel Size: 10,930 meter square"

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Aditya Dasgupta @adasgupta.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Do architecture and urban planning affect political behavior? Happy to share a paper that @tesaliarizzo.bsky.social and I have coming out at the APSR which uses computer vision to investigate how the built environment shapes inequalities in civic participation in Mexico: osf.io/preprints/so.... 🧵1/5

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Felix Haass @felixhaass.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

🚨 New article out! “Right-Wing Terror, Media Backlash, and Voting Preferences for the Far Right” in @bjpols.bsky.social 👉 doi.org/10.1017/S000... We (Alex De Juan, @juvoss.bsky.social & I) examine how right-wing attacks shape support for the far-right in Germany. Short summary thread below 👇

Abstract for the article: How does right-wing terrorism affect electoral support for populist radical right parties (PRRPs)? Recent research has produced contrary answers to this question. We argue that only high-intensity attacks, whose motives and targets mirror PRRPs’ nativist agenda, are likely to generate a media backlash that dampens electoral support for PRRPs. We test this argument by combining high-frequency survey and social media data with a natural and survey experimental design. We find that right-wing terror reduced support for the radical right party Alternative für Deutschland after one of the most intense nativist attacks in recent German history. An analysis of all ninety-eight fatal right-wing attacks in Germany between 1990 and 2020 supports our argument. Our findings contribute to an understanding of how political violence triggers partisan detachment and have important implications for media responsibility in the aftermath of terrorist attacks.

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M.Woldemariam @mikewoldemariam.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

New essay in Foreign Policy with Abel Abate D. on Eritrea-Ethiopia tensions. It covers the sources of mutual restraint thus far; some of the factors that are eroding this delicate balance; and what can be done to avert another war the Horn of Africa cannot afford. foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/21/e...

foreignpolicy.com

The Risk of a New Ethiopian-Eritrean War Is Growing

Changing dynamics in Tigray could erode the current balance of uncertainty.

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International Studies Association @isanet.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

Preparing for your upcoming #ResearchTalk? Sign up for two courses, taught by @woldense.bsky.social, to enhance your #Communication and apply #Storytelling principles to your #Presenting, and #Teaching skills! Open to both ISA Members and non-members. Register: buff.ly/PUXowRN

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Vincent Arel-Bundock @vincentab.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

Whoa—my book is up for pre-order! 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐌𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭 & 𝐌𝐋 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐢𝐧 #Rstats 𝐚𝐧𝐝 #PyData The book presents an ultra-simple and powerful workflow to make sense of ± any model you fit The web version will stay free forever and my proceeds go to charity. tinyurl.com/4fk56fc8

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Josef Woldense @woldense.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

Paper alert 📣 Rapid advances in AI has some believe that LLM agents can replace real participants in human-subject research. If true, this would be huge! Following a growing body of research, we delve deeper into this topic and examine the merits of this claim. 🧵... arxiv.org/abs/2509.03736

arxiv.org

Are LLM Agents Behaviorally Coherent? Latent Profiles for Social Simulation

The impressive capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) have fueled the notion that synthetic agents can serve as substitutes for real participants in human-subject research. In an effort to evalu...

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Marianne Dahl @mariannedahl.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

📊 New dataset and paper alert! We’re proud to launch the Opposition Movements and Groups (OMG) Dataset, 1789–2019: a global dataset covering 1,452 mass mobilization movements. It was just published in Comparative Political Studies. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... Below follows a 🧵

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Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

My drawn statement on Ai as standalone from my now finished minicomic as syllabus for new liberal studies class! As promised this is shareable, printable - all from my site, feel free to make use of it, cite me & let me know how it’s received. Share away all here! spinweaveandcut.com/fall-2025-sy...

a snippet of a mini-comic, at top - straight line stretches from point A to B. Immediately below, same dot at A, then becomes a curving, meandering line that winds through the page and ends at a point with rays and a question mark emanating from it. Text reads: "Nothing can do this for you - that robs you of experience and conflates answers with learning. Rather, it's all the decisions you make along the way, the mistakes, struggles, and surprises! These pathways you create - this is learning.

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Josef Woldense @woldense.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Just a reminder: if you're on the job market or just interested in research presentations, join my upcoming workshop. (I promise, no money was exchanged for @caileighglenn.bsky.social endorsement)

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African Politics Conference Group @africanpoliticscg.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

Our member Josef Woldense is leading a two-day virtual workshop on August 26 and 27: The Research Presentation as Storytelling. Learn how to present your work through a compelling narrative. More details available on our website: www.afpol.org/blog/the-res...

afpol.org

The Research Presentation as Storytelling: A Two-Day Virtual Workshop with Josef Woldense

The goal is to help participants see research presentations not as a monologue of facts but as a compelling narrative. The exploration begins with the fundamentals: What is storytelling? What makes st...

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Josef Woldense @woldense.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

📢🗣️...Are you a graduate students about to go on the market? Or perhaps you're just interested in research presentations. If so, check out my free two-day workshop: The Research Presentation as Storytelling

Flyer for a workshop on giving research presentations. Contains QR code and link to the workshop landing page

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Anton Kronborg @antonkronborg.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

Zambian politics have been quite dramatic in the last 20 years (timeline below). With that kind of competition, you’d expect MPs to fight to gain an edge in every arena, especially MPs elected on a thin margin. However, I find the opposite in Zambia’s parliament: doi.org/10.1080/1357...

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