Amalia S. Levi, PhD
@amaliasl.bsky.social
Archives, life writing, history. Research focus: Caribbean Jewish history; slavery; record-keeping & archival dependencies; digital history. Archival silences that are not. https://hcommons.org/members/amaliasl/
Reposted by Amalia S. Levi, PhD
'Beyond the book: recycling print in early modern England' is out in splendid & lovely English Literary Renaissance.
50 free downloads, warm & ready to go, at www.journals.uchicago.edu/eprint/Q2MMD...
(pcis: Bodleian coffret lined w. Horace & Virgil; damasked pages in Worcester College deed box)
50 free downloads, warm & ready to go, at www.journals.uchicago.edu/eprint/Q2MMD...
(pcis: Bodleian coffret lined w. Horace & Virgil; damasked pages in Worcester College deed box)
January 17, 2026 at 9:49 AM
'Beyond the book: recycling print in early modern England' is out in splendid & lovely English Literary Renaissance.
50 free downloads, warm & ready to go, at www.journals.uchicago.edu/eprint/Q2MMD...
(pcis: Bodleian coffret lined w. Horace & Virgil; damasked pages in Worcester College deed box)
50 free downloads, warm & ready to go, at www.journals.uchicago.edu/eprint/Q2MMD...
(pcis: Bodleian coffret lined w. Horace & Virgil; damasked pages in Worcester College deed box)
🔥 "to address what is missing from the cultural record, we should not replace the real with the fabricated. We must elevate the accountability, specificity, and reflection that has long accompanied archival work"
arxiv.org/abs/2502.19190
arxiv.org/abs/2502.19190
Provocations from the Humanities for Generative AI Research
The effects of generative AI are experienced by a broad range of constituencies, but the disciplinary inputs to its development have been surprisingly narrow. Here we present a set of provocations fro...
arxiv.org
January 16, 2026 at 3:07 PM
🔥 "to address what is missing from the cultural record, we should not replace the real with the fabricated. We must elevate the accountability, specificity, and reflection that has long accompanied archival work"
arxiv.org/abs/2502.19190
arxiv.org/abs/2502.19190
Subaltern Lives | Cambridge University Press & Assessment
www.cambridge.org
January 16, 2026 at 2:39 PM
Thanks. It is talked among humanities scholars, but most people don't realize the scale of heritage collections out there. And also: for self-evident reasons LLMs are marketed as if they know..."everything."
Here's a good article raising some issues:
journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/da...
Here's a good article raising some issues:
journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/da...
journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de
January 15, 2026 at 9:29 PM
Thanks. It is talked among humanities scholars, but most people don't realize the scale of heritage collections out there. And also: for self-evident reasons LLMs are marketed as if they know..."everything."
Here's a good article raising some issues:
journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/da...
Here's a good article raising some issues:
journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/da...
Reposted by Amalia S. Levi, PhD
Among all the details of this great watercolour showing the interior of a British museum around the 1780s, is a #Greenland Kayak (in the upper right corner). This collection of Sir Ashton Lever (1729-1788) echoes the #earlymodern Wunderkammer and adds a colonial interest of the world. #skystorians
January 14, 2026 at 8:16 AM
Among all the details of this great watercolour showing the interior of a British museum around the 1780s, is a #Greenland Kayak (in the upper right corner). This collection of Sir Ashton Lever (1729-1788) echoes the #earlymodern Wunderkammer and adds a colonial interest of the world. #skystorians
Reposted by Amalia S. Levi, PhD
Level up: “Provocations from the Humanities for Generative AI Research,” arXiv:2502.19190, preprint, arXiv, January 12, 2026, doi.org/10.48550/arX.... Written by some of the best minds I've had the honor of collaborating with or admire up close over the years. Absolutely solid read.
Provocations from the Humanities for Generative AI Research
The effects of generative AI are experienced by a broad range of constituencies, but the disciplinary inputs to its development have been surprisingly narrow. Here we present a set of provocations fro...
doi.org
January 14, 2026 at 6:36 PM
Level up: “Provocations from the Humanities for Generative AI Research,” arXiv:2502.19190, preprint, arXiv, January 12, 2026, doi.org/10.48550/arX.... Written by some of the best minds I've had the honor of collaborating with or admire up close over the years. Absolutely solid read.
Reposted by Amalia S. Levi, PhD
University archives are home to many under-described hazards. Especially if they have or had medical or dental programs.
"As I have been working on an inventory of our medical instruments..." Archivists really do have the coolest jobs in libraries. From University of Louisville Libraries 📚 uofllibraries.wordpress.com/2026/01/07/f...
From the archives: When poison was medicine
By Cassidy Polack As I have been working on an inventory of our medical instruments in the Kornhauser Health Sciences Library’s historical collection, I have come across a wide variety of items. Su…
uofllibraries.wordpress.com
January 8, 2026 at 8:08 PM
University archives are home to many under-described hazards. Especially if they have or had medical or dental programs.
Reposted by Amalia S. Levi, PhD
Leonardo da Vinci's legacy won't be found in his DNA: defector.com/leonardo-da-...
Leonardo da Vinci’s Legacy Won’t Be Found In His DNA | Defector
This week researchers from the Leonardo da Vinci DNA Project announced they have made the kind of breakthrough you might expect from a project with that name: They have potentially identified…
defector.com
January 9, 2026 at 4:03 PM
Leonardo da Vinci's legacy won't be found in his DNA: defector.com/leonardo-da-...
Reposted by Amalia S. Levi, PhD
Please join @dlocaribbean.bsky.social for a series of workshops focused on Copyright and Ethical Reuse facilitated by copyright expert @perrycollins.bsky.social. Register here, dloc.domains.uflib.ufl.edu/workshops/, to receive the Zoom links.
January 8, 2026 at 4:59 PM
Please join @dlocaribbean.bsky.social for a series of workshops focused on Copyright and Ethical Reuse facilitated by copyright expert @perrycollins.bsky.social. Register here, dloc.domains.uflib.ufl.edu/workshops/, to receive the Zoom links.
Reposted by Amalia S. Levi, PhD
Love this: MTV video archive as retro media experience, including adverts! “This site streams 27,000 music videos, 24/7, across 7 decades... You get dropped in and see what comes on next, just like we all used to…You don’t curate it. You don’t optimize it... just let it play."
wantmymtv.vercel.app
wantmymtv.vercel.app
MTV REWIND - I Want My MTV
Celebrating 44 years of continuous music videos. Stream classic music videos 24/7.
wantmymtv.vercel.app
January 7, 2026 at 11:07 AM
Love this: MTV video archive as retro media experience, including adverts! “This site streams 27,000 music videos, 24/7, across 7 decades... You get dropped in and see what comes on next, just like we all used to…You don’t curate it. You don’t optimize it... just let it play."
wantmymtv.vercel.app
wantmymtv.vercel.app
Back when Twitter was useful, I asked historians and archivists about the things they found in the archives that made them go 'wut?' and wrote this piece about it.
theconversation.com/i-asked-hist...
theconversation.com/i-asked-hist...
January 4, 2026 at 10:58 PM
Archivists/librarians please share the coolest thing in your collections that will never be digitized.
I live in the heart of California gold country. One of the richest mines ever in CA is nearby. Opened circa 1860 closed 1942. A local foundation has preserved the records on site. I know not a stitch has been digitized and am confident no more than 2 pro historians have ever been in there.
January 4, 2026 at 10:58 PM
Two superb threads for whoever thinks that archives are "dusty" aka boring.
Despite their shortcomings, biases, silences, they contain wonders.
Despite their shortcomings, biases, silences, they contain wonders.
January 4, 2026 at 10:58 PM
Two superb threads for whoever thinks that archives are "dusty" aka boring.
Despite their shortcomings, biases, silences, they contain wonders.
Despite their shortcomings, biases, silences, they contain wonders.
😅😆 don't put ideas in me!
January 3, 2026 at 4:29 PM
😅😆 don't put ideas in me!
😄 That's the first thing I did after my dissertation submission! I had missed so much to read printed, fiction, non-academic books! Already finished one, and on to another.
January 3, 2026 at 4:02 PM
😄 That's the first thing I did after my dissertation submission! I had missed so much to read printed, fiction, non-academic books! Already finished one, and on to another.
Everything inexplicable becomes explicable if one applies Trouillot's silencing framework.
There is nothing inexplicable about why some histories are not widely known.
The Elaine massacre of October 1919, writes Atul Dev, represents “a pivotal episode of American history, consigned inexplicably to the margins.” https://go.nybooks.com/4s3ui6p
December 31, 2025 at 11:44 AM
Everything inexplicable becomes explicable if one applies Trouillot's silencing framework.
;) ignorance is bliss!
December 23, 2025 at 6:11 PM
;) ignorance is bliss!
o haha, sorry!
December 23, 2025 at 4:50 PM
o haha, sorry!
....why.... ? I want to know the story of a) who donated it... and b) who decided to keep them and c) under...what series they're arranged and described...
December 23, 2025 at 4:34 PM
....why.... ? I want to know the story of a) who donated it... and b) who decided to keep them and c) under...what series they're arranged and described...
@thiagokrause.bsky.social for what it's worth, I know someone at the Belize archives. If you want, I could ask them to suggest someone in Salvador (if they know).
December 23, 2025 at 4:25 PM
@thiagokrause.bsky.social for what it's worth, I know someone at the Belize archives. If you want, I could ask them to suggest someone in Salvador (if they know).
December 22, 2025 at 12:59 PM
This is why...historians still have to go to archives, as @marcus1984.bsky.social @contingent-mag.bsky.social has written.
contingentmagazine.org/2019/03/25/m...
contingentmagazine.org/2019/03/25/m...
Why Do Historians Still Have To Go To Archives?
Why do historians go to archives? Hasn’t everything already been digitized?
contingentmagazine.org
December 22, 2025 at 11:38 AM
This is why...historians still have to go to archives, as @marcus1984.bsky.social @contingent-mag.bsky.social has written.
contingentmagazine.org/2019/03/25/m...
contingentmagazine.org/2019/03/25/m...
Digitization is a laborious process, and @harchivist.bsky.social has explained it superbly here:
+
peelarchivesblog.com/2017/05/31/w...
+
peelarchivesblog.com/2017/05/31/w...
Why don’t archivists digitize everything?
Today on the blog we’re tackling one of our most frequently asked questions: “Why don’t you digitize everything?” and its related runner-up, “When will you be putting all your records o…
peelarchivesblog.com
December 22, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Digitization is a laborious process, and @harchivist.bsky.social has explained it superbly here:
+
peelarchivesblog.com/2017/05/31/w...
+
peelarchivesblog.com/2017/05/31/w...
Archives can't digitize everything because
understaffed
underfunded
undervalued
overworked
volumes of materials
pre-/post-processing costs
copyright
ethical concerns
digital preservation issues
environmental impact
[...]
Most importantly: information is not in the content but in the context!
+
understaffed
underfunded
undervalued
overworked
volumes of materials
pre-/post-processing costs
copyright
ethical concerns
digital preservation issues
environmental impact
[...]
Most importantly: information is not in the content but in the context!
+
Wait until you hear that LLMs can only train on digitized/datafied info.
Most of the FACTS scholars use are in archives/libraries.
Less than 1% of archival colletions worldwide have been digitized.
Also: lots of facts are not even in archives, but in the attics.
Most of the FACTS scholars use are in archives/libraries.
Less than 1% of archival colletions worldwide have been digitized.
Also: lots of facts are not even in archives, but in the attics.
suspect a big reason why many academics and others who work in areas where getting facts RIGHT is key are disinterested in using LLMs for research:
they’ve tried it, they keep noticing major errors in output, and they conclude that having to verify all that doesn’t actually save them time.
they’ve tried it, they keep noticing major errors in output, and they conclude that having to verify all that doesn’t actually save them time.
December 22, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Archives can't digitize everything because
understaffed
underfunded
undervalued
overworked
volumes of materials
pre-/post-processing costs
copyright
ethical concerns
digital preservation issues
environmental impact
[...]
Most importantly: information is not in the content but in the context!
+
understaffed
underfunded
undervalued
overworked
volumes of materials
pre-/post-processing costs
copyright
ethical concerns
digital preservation issues
environmental impact
[...]
Most importantly: information is not in the content but in the context!
+