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rafdebont.bsky.social
Raf De Bont 🟥
@rafdebont.bsky.social
3.4K followers 830 following 130 posts

Historian of science and the environment // Late adopter & cautious adventurer // Interested in 19th, 20th and 21st century natures // Author of Stations in the Field and Nature's Diplomats // https://moving-animals.nl

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Philosophy 48%
History 27%
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rafdebont.bsky.social
Raf De Bont 🟥 @rafdebont.bsky.social · 4d
Wearing a unicorn suit, I hope?

Reposted by Shannon Vallor, Fabián Muniesa, Alan Richardson , and 3 more

ccmmody.bsky.social
Cyrus Mody @ccmmody.bsky.social · 21d
we're hiring in STS @fasosmaastricht.bsky.social!

deadline coming up soon (February 8). focus is the social science-y corners of STS preferably w/ some interest in sustainability & environment - but interpreted broadly.

vacancies.maastrichtuniversity.nl/job/Maastric...
Assistant Professor Science, Technology and Society Studies
Assistant Professor Science, Technology and Society Studies
vacancies.maastrichtuniversity.nl

rafdebont.bsky.social
Raf De Bont 🟥 @rafdebont.bsky.social · Dec 23
Auch.

rafdebont.bsky.social
Raf De Bont 🟥 @rafdebont.bsky.social · Dec 11
I do think however that AI could easily produce hallucinations similar to those of Microsoft researchers!

rafdebont.bsky.social
Raf De Bont 🟥 @rafdebont.bsky.social · Dec 11
A report by 'Microsoft researchers' indicates that historians are the professional group whose work is one of the easiest to replace by AI. The article below shows what's wrong with the report.
royalhistsoc.org Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · Dec 11
What does Gen AI mean for the work of the historian and the value of historical experience, skills and craft?

'The Historian in the Age of AI' by @chriscampbell1.bsky.social.

New Comment article now available in 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society' bit.ly/4atErTB #Skystorians 1/2
Front page of 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society' Comment article, title 'The Historian in the Age of AI', by Chris Campbell. Full abstract: "This comment interrogates the methods and conclusions of Working with AI, a recent report conducted under the auspices of Microsoft, which identified historians as the profession with the second-highest ‘AI applicability’. It finds that the authors’ conclusions are based on an erroneous simplification and misrepresentation of a historian’s typical professional tasks, which have been publicly amplified by extensive media coverage. This comment then offers a wider provocation about the report’s conception of a professional historian, and whether it is related to the public application of ‘historian’ to a number of different practitioners with varied training and qualifications. In particular, it seeks to highlight a paradox which the report exposes: that we cannot defend the specialist training and expertise of professional historians against the encroachment of AI without also separating the academic skills and qualifications of historians from those engaged in more popular forms of historical writing and communication. The comment questions how we might grapple with this paradox without reverting to academic elitism."

Reposted by Margot C. Finn, Michael H. Whitworth, Carmen M. Mangion , and 4 more

royalhistsoc.org
Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · Dec 11
What does Gen AI mean for the work of the historian and the value of historical experience, skills and craft?

'The Historian in the Age of AI' by @chriscampbell1.bsky.social.

New Comment article now available in 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society' bit.ly/4atErTB #Skystorians 1/2
Front page of 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society' Comment article, title 'The Historian in the Age of AI', by Chris Campbell. Full abstract: "This comment interrogates the methods and conclusions of Working with AI, a recent report conducted under the auspices of Microsoft, which identified historians as the profession with the second-highest ‘AI applicability’. It finds that the authors’ conclusions are based on an erroneous simplification and misrepresentation of a historian’s typical professional tasks, which have been publicly amplified by extensive media coverage. This comment then offers a wider provocation about the report’s conception of a professional historian, and whether it is related to the public application of ‘historian’ to a number of different practitioners with varied training and qualifications. In particular, it seeks to highlight a paradox which the report exposes: that we cannot defend the specialist training and expertise of professional historians against the encroachment of AI without also separating the academic skills and qualifications of historians from those engaged in more popular forms of historical writing and communication. The comment questions how we might grapple with this paradox without reverting to academic elitism."

Reposted by Duncan Bell, Raf De Bont

bettovanwaarden.bsky.social
Betto van Waarden @bettovanwaarden.bsky.social · Dec 11
Vacancies:

Post-doc in Disinformation & European Democracy: vacancies.maastrichtuniversity.nl/job/Maastric...

Ass. Prof European Political History since 1900: vacancies.maastrichtuniversity.nl/job/Maastric...

Ass. Prof Political and Social Philosophy: www.academictransfer.com/nl/jobs/3566...
Post-doctoral researcher in Disinformation and European Democracy (4-year)
Post-doctoral researcher in Disinformation and European Democracy (4-year)
vacancies.maastrichtuniversity.nl

rafdebont.bsky.social
Raf De Bont 🟥 @rafdebont.bsky.social · Nov 26
All this in the slightly intimidating decor of the royal palace.

rafdebont.bsky.social
Raf De Bont 🟥 @rafdebont.bsky.social · Nov 25
And what an acceptance speech!

rafdebont.bsky.social
Raf De Bont 🟥 @rafdebont.bsky.social · Nov 25
You can probably blame the Dutch royals for lots of things, but not for their choice in Erasmus Prize winners. Hooray for Donna Haraway!

rafdebont.bsky.social
Raf De Bont 🟥 @rafdebont.bsky.social · Nov 25
4 hours and counting.

rafdebont.bsky.social
Raf De Bont 🟥 @rafdebont.bsky.social · Nov 25
In a moving train now. Overhearing a group of 17-year olds with migration background discussing what to study next year. History sounds cool, I hear them say. Particularly doing research and writing a thesis. So far, I really like this strike travel!

rafdebont.bsky.social
Raf De Bont 🟥 @rafdebont.bsky.social · Nov 25
20 minutes in. 0 km so far.

rafdebont.bsky.social
Raf De Bont 🟥 @rafdebont.bsky.social · Nov 25
Seeking adventure! Trying to get to Amsterdam from Leuven. By train. During a national railway strike.

rafdebont.bsky.social
Raf De Bont 🟥 @rafdebont.bsky.social · Nov 7
With great contributions by @nancyjjacobs.bsky.social, Vincent Bijman, @monicavasile.bsky.social, @greggmitman.bsky.social, @georgeiorda.bsky.social, @julesskotnesbrown.bsky.social, @moneschleper.bsky.social, @reginahorta.bsky.social, Christina Dunbar-Hester, Nitin D. Rai, Ajit Menon and Jim Webb.

Reposted by Dolly Jørgensen, Andreas De Block

rafdebont.bsky.social
Raf De Bont 🟥 @rafdebont.bsky.social · Nov 7
*Globalizing Wildlife*, a book edited by @vbateman.bsky.social, Tom Quick, and myself, is now available for pre-order with @uncpress.bsky.social!
Using code 01SOCIAL30 at checkout, you can save 30%
www.uncpress.org/book/9781469...
Globalizing Wildlife
Humans have always incorporated wildlife into processes of work, capture, and exchange. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, globalization became t...
www.uncpress.org

rafdebont.bsky.social
Raf De Bont 🟥 @rafdebont.bsky.social · Oct 29
Pre-discussing the Dutch elections @fasosmaastricht.bsky.social

Reposted by Peter Thorne, Du Toit, Ben Barr , and 2 more

waderstudy.bsky.social
International Wader Study Group @waderstudy.bsky.social · Oct 10
Today IUCN has officially declared the Slender-billed Curlew extinct, marking the first known global extinction of a formerly widespread migratory bird species whose range included mainland Europe, North Africa, and West Asia.

Read more here ⬇️
www.unep-aewa.org/fr/node/6632

rafdebont.bsky.social
Raf De Bont 🟥 @rafdebont.bsky.social · Oct 9
Well, I read it in Richard W. Burkhardt's 636 page long history of ethology 😊

rafdebont.bsky.social
Raf De Bont 🟥 @rafdebont.bsky.social · Oct 9
Just read that the doctoral thesis of Nobel Prize-winning ethologist Niko Tinbergen was 32 pages long. Efficient.

rafdebont.bsky.social
Raf De Bont 🟥 @rafdebont.bsky.social · Oct 6
Not so long ago, I wrote about the history of human interactions with (wild) hamsters.
A coda in the news today: the Flemish populist right makes the (no longer existing) “hamster coaches” a culture-war target - seemingly to discredit wider biodiversity efforts.
www.standaard.be/politiek/de-...
De Vlaamse hamstercoach, de favoriete pispaal van rechts, bestaat al lang niet meer: “Intussen is het beestje hier nagenoeg uitgestorven”
Onder meer Vlaams Belang-voorzitter Tom Van Grieken blijft uithalen naar de “hamstercoach”, als symbool van een Vlaamse regering die haar prioriteiten niet op orde heeft. In werkelijkheid is de functie allang geschrapt en werd Vlaanderen onlangs nog veroordeeld omdat ze de wilde hamster, een Europees bedreigde diersoort, niet genoeg heeft beschermd.
www.standaard.be

rafdebont.bsky.social
Raf De Bont 🟥 @rafdebont.bsky.social · Oct 4
Een prettige samenwerking tussen de binnenstadsfaculteiten ook.

rafdebont.bsky.social
Raf De Bont 🟥 @rafdebont.bsky.social · Oct 4
@fasosmaastricht.bsky.social is mooi vertegenwoordigd op het Weekend van de Wetenschap!

rafdebont.bsky.social
Raf De Bont 🟥 @rafdebont.bsky.social · Oct 3
Congrats, Jules! Sounds super-exciting!

rafdebont.bsky.social
Raf De Bont 🟥 @rafdebont.bsky.social · Oct 2
My neighbors' red maple. Although considered highly adaptable, this one individual has been suffering under increasingly hot and dry summers. Still, every October, it is my favorite non-native species.

rafdebont.bsky.social
Raf De Bont 🟥 @rafdebont.bsky.social · Oct 1
For those interested in a history of science take on Goodall's work: Robert Kohler has a great chapter on her in his book Inside Science.

rafdebont.bsky.social
Raf De Bont 🟥 @rafdebont.bsky.social · Oct 1
RIP Jane Goodall — she forever transformed what it means to do fieldwork.
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
Jane Goodall, world-renowned primatologist, dies aged 91
Jane Goodall Institute says ‘tireless advocate’ for natural world died in California during US speaking tour
www.theguardian.com

rafdebont.bsky.social
Raf De Bont 🟥 @rafdebont.bsky.social · Oct 1
"The report stresses that climate change and environmental degradation pose a direct threat to Europe’s competitiveness."
Framing environmental policy in this way may well be strategic, but still sad to see the value of nature primarily expressed in terms of geopolitical and economic competition.

Reposted by Raf De Bont

julesskotnesbrown.bsky.social
Jules Skotnes-Brown @julesskotnesbrown.bsky.social · Sep 30
I am thrilled to announce that I have been awarded a Wellcome Trust Career Development Grant. Over the next five years I'll be directing the research project "Conserving Global Health: Biodiversity Protection and the Prehistory of Planetary Health".
Poster depicting an owl hunting gerbils in a field, juxtaposed with an image of the zoonotic cycle of plague. Arrows connect a rat with fleas, and a man sleeping in a bed. The image reads 'Friend of the Farmer Conserve Owls'.

rafdebont.bsky.social
Raf De Bont 🟥 @rafdebont.bsky.social · Sep 29
Makes me wonder what the primary sauces are. Béchamel, Madeira and Hollandaise?