Chris Grobe
@cgrobe.bsky.social
Theorist/historian of performance. ART OF CONFESSION (http://bit.ly/2BALZDt). Now writing on tech and the arts, politics and performance.
Five years ago today, I was slated to teach theories of play in a course called "The Performance of Politics." Instead, we sat and watched rioters storm the Capitol.
A year later, I published "The Deep, Dark Play of the US Capitol Riots." I still stand by its conclusions.
doi.org/10.1080/1352...
A year later, I published "The Deep, Dark Play of the US Capitol Riots." I still stand by its conclusions.
doi.org/10.1080/1352...
January 6, 2026 at 1:24 PM
Five years ago today, I was slated to teach theories of play in a course called "The Performance of Politics." Instead, we sat and watched rioters storm the Capitol.
A year later, I published "The Deep, Dark Play of the US Capitol Riots." I still stand by its conclusions.
doi.org/10.1080/1352...
A year later, I published "The Deep, Dark Play of the US Capitol Riots." I still stand by its conclusions.
doi.org/10.1080/1352...
It's weird to read a stack of theater reviews from the 1970s and to discover that critics were shamelessly plagiarizing each other.
January 2, 2026 at 8:12 PM
It's weird to read a stack of theater reviews from the 1970s and to discover that critics were shamelessly plagiarizing each other.
Excuse me while I convene a performance studies conference entirely about this quote:
"For Kirk and for much of society today, words are not expressions with referents, but rather, performative speech acts with specific functions — in his case, owning the libs."
www.theverge.com/policy/84960...
"For Kirk and for much of society today, words are not expressions with referents, but rather, performative speech acts with specific functions — in his case, owning the libs."
www.theverge.com/policy/84960...
The year politics became brainrot
You don’t bring a persuasive argument to a gunfight.
www.theverge.com
December 31, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Excuse me while I convene a performance studies conference entirely about this quote:
"For Kirk and for much of society today, words are not expressions with referents, but rather, performative speech acts with specific functions — in his case, owning the libs."
www.theverge.com/policy/84960...
"For Kirk and for much of society today, words are not expressions with referents, but rather, performative speech acts with specific functions — in his case, owning the libs."
www.theverge.com/policy/84960...
This is exactly the question being prepped for debate by the characters in Emmanuelle Mattana's fascinating play TROPHY BOYS.
... you know, just in case anyone boycotting CBS wants to read some drama: playlabtheatre.com.au/web/viewer.h...
... you know, just in case anyone boycotting CBS wants to read some drama: playlabtheatre.com.au/web/viewer.h...
December 21, 2025 at 3:14 AM
This is exactly the question being prepped for debate by the characters in Emmanuelle Mattana's fascinating play TROPHY BOYS.
... you know, just in case anyone boycotting CBS wants to read some drama: playlabtheatre.com.au/web/viewer.h...
... you know, just in case anyone boycotting CBS wants to read some drama: playlabtheatre.com.au/web/viewer.h...
Reposted by Chris Grobe
We are so excited to reveal the ASAP/17 logo for our upcoming conference in Madison, WI, on Oct. 15-17! Stay tuned for the CFP!
December 17, 2025 at 4:59 PM
We are so excited to reveal the ASAP/17 logo for our upcoming conference in Madison, WI, on Oct. 15-17! Stay tuned for the CFP!
Credit where credit is due: this a thoughtful, non-doom-hype-y article on higher ed and AI. In the year of our lord 2025!
Bonus points for not mentioning a single Ivy. Colleges mentioned include: Wyoming, UCSD, Western Ontario, Vanderbilt, and Illinois State.
www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...
Bonus points for not mentioning a single Ivy. Colleges mentioned include: Wyoming, UCSD, Western Ontario, Vanderbilt, and Illinois State.
www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...
Professors are turning to this old-school method to stop AI use on exams
A small but growing number of educators are experimenting with oral exams to circumvent the temptations presented by powerful AI platforms.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 12, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Credit where credit is due: this a thoughtful, non-doom-hype-y article on higher ed and AI. In the year of our lord 2025!
Bonus points for not mentioning a single Ivy. Colleges mentioned include: Wyoming, UCSD, Western Ontario, Vanderbilt, and Illinois State.
www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...
Bonus points for not mentioning a single Ivy. Colleges mentioned include: Wyoming, UCSD, Western Ontario, Vanderbilt, and Illinois State.
www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...
Reposted by Chris Grobe
September 22, 2025 at 12:46 PM
There’s nothing strange or “hypothetical” about this notion in a theater context. The idea that self-consciousness is the enemy and that actors need to travel some via negativa to strip it away — this is the post-Romantic consensus in actor training and acting theory.
Kleist "On the Marionette Theater" hits different in the chatbot era. Thirty years ago the notion that expression might be more fluent and graceful *without* self-consciousness was just an amusing Romantic-era hypothetical. Now, it's part of our daily routine. 15orient.com/files/kleist...
July 20, 2025 at 6:09 PM
There’s nothing strange or “hypothetical” about this notion in a theater context. The idea that self-consciousness is the enemy and that actors need to travel some via negativa to strip it away — this is the post-Romantic consensus in actor training and acting theory.
Submitted revisions of articles on back-to-back to days. As sports commentators would say, "He's on pace for 365 publications by July 15 of next year!"
July 17, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Submitted revisions of articles on back-to-back to days. As sports commentators would say, "He's on pace for 365 publications by July 15 of next year!"
Reposted by Chris Grobe
“Disability Works” turns 1 today! I’d like to celebrate by making sure it finds its way into the hands of even more readers. You can help by:
1) Requesting your library purchase a copy (link in bio)
2) Let me know if you assign it (I can zoom in!)
#disability #academicsky #historysky #booksky
1) Requesting your library purchase a copy (link in bio)
2) Let me know if you assign it (I can zoom in!)
#disability #academicsky #historysky #booksky
July 16, 2025 at 12:10 PM
“Disability Works” turns 1 today! I’d like to celebrate by making sure it finds its way into the hands of even more readers. You can help by:
1) Requesting your library purchase a copy (link in bio)
2) Let me know if you assign it (I can zoom in!)
#disability #academicsky #historysky #booksky
1) Requesting your library purchase a copy (link in bio)
2) Let me know if you assign it (I can zoom in!)
#disability #academicsky #historysky #booksky
Article submitted: my first essay on podcasts!
June 26, 2025 at 11:51 PM
Article submitted: my first essay on podcasts!
On the dangers of making your work “relevant” to AI:
“Like LLMs themselves, which deskill human writing and pollute the corpus of text on which LLMs continue to be trained, AI-relevant research also risks eroding its own foundations in now unfundable and ‘irrelevant’ research.”
“Like LLMs themselves, which deskill human writing and pollute the corpus of text on which LLMs continue to be trained, AI-relevant research also risks eroding its own foundations in now unfundable and ‘irrelevant’ research.”
June 24, 2025 at 11:33 AM
On the dangers of making your work “relevant” to AI:
“Like LLMs themselves, which deskill human writing and pollute the corpus of text on which LLMs continue to be trained, AI-relevant research also risks eroding its own foundations in now unfundable and ‘irrelevant’ research.”
“Like LLMs themselves, which deskill human writing and pollute the corpus of text on which LLMs continue to be trained, AI-relevant research also risks eroding its own foundations in now unfundable and ‘irrelevant’ research.”
what a way to find out that AI is trained exclusively on my writing
Working with a student on her story, I recommend using an em-dash. She says she can't, because professors will think she's using AI. She says that's a tell now. Is it? Is the hopeless race to outsmart AI causing us to lose bits of language and punctuation?
June 1, 2025 at 11:50 PM
what a way to find out that AI is trained exclusively on my writing
Coming soon (but hopefully with my name spelled correctly) ... "Too Much, Too Late: On Academic Responses to Generative AI"
May 7, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Coming soon (but hopefully with my name spelled correctly) ... "Too Much, Too Late: On Academic Responses to Generative AI"
APPLY! For the third year running, Shannon Steen and I will be co-leading an ASTR working session on "The Performance of Politics," this year around the theme of "institutions." Please spread the word.
site.pheedloop.com/event/astr20...
site.pheedloop.com/event/astr20...
PheedLoop
PheedLoop: Hybrid, In-Person & Virtual Event Software
site.pheedloop.com
May 1, 2025 at 1:12 PM
APPLY! For the third year running, Shannon Steen and I will be co-leading an ASTR working session on "The Performance of Politics," this year around the theme of "institutions." Please spread the word.
site.pheedloop.com/event/astr20...
site.pheedloop.com/event/astr20...
Typing out a text message to myself (my way of keeping certain things handy), I nearly jump out of my skin when those three dots appear. Someone is typing! (I am.)
Anyway, a psychoanalyst would have a field day with this.
Anyway, a psychoanalyst would have a field day with this.
April 21, 2025 at 1:51 AM
Typing out a text message to myself (my way of keeping certain things handy), I nearly jump out of my skin when those three dots appear. Someone is typing! (I am.)
Anyway, a psychoanalyst would have a field day with this.
Anyway, a psychoanalyst would have a field day with this.
The necessary antidote is this excellent op-ed by theater scholar (and dean of the arts) Harvey Young.
As he points out, the humanities are imperiled — on purpose — when the most expensive part of universities loses its funding.
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/03/12/o...
As he points out, the humanities are imperiled — on purpose — when the most expensive part of universities loses its funding.
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/03/12/o...
March 18, 2025 at 2:26 PM
The necessary antidote is this excellent op-ed by theater scholar (and dean of the arts) Harvey Young.
As he points out, the humanities are imperiled — on purpose — when the most expensive part of universities loses its funding.
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/03/12/o...
As he points out, the humanities are imperiled — on purpose — when the most expensive part of universities loses its funding.
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/03/12/o...
Looking in vain for an acknowledgment that the humanities exist and matter — to society, to universities, to individuals — in this column written by people who clearly benefitted extensively from them.
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/15/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/15/o...
Opinion | Colleges Are Under Attack. They Can Fight Back. (Gift Article)
This is a moment to trumpet the strengths of higher education and address its weaknesses.
www.nytimes.com
March 15, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Looking in vain for an acknowledgment that the humanities exist and matter — to society, to universities, to individuals — in this column written by people who clearly benefitted extensively from them.
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/15/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/15/o...
Reposted by Chris Grobe
The Trump administration has terminated $800 million in grants to Johns Hopkins University, spurring the nation’s top spender on research and development to plan layoffs and cancel health projects
Johns Hopkins Plans Staff Layoffs After $800 Million Grant Cuts
Local and international health research efforts are already winding down as the university braces for even more potential cuts.
www.wsj.com
March 11, 2025 at 9:03 PM
The Trump administration has terminated $800 million in grants to Johns Hopkins University, spurring the nation’s top spender on research and development to plan layoffs and cancel health projects
Reposted by Chris Grobe
As a JHU professor who works on other stuff, the role my colleagues play in global health is extraordinary and completely irreplaceable. The Trump administration is tossing our collective ability to deal with global problems onto a roaring bonfire.
They're going to fucking wreck the university with one of the best hospital systems in the goddam world
The Trump administration has terminated $800 million in grants to Johns Hopkins University, spurring the nation’s top spender on research and development to plan layoffs and cancel health projects
March 12, 2025 at 1:04 PM
As a JHU professor who works on other stuff, the role my colleagues play in global health is extraordinary and completely irreplaceable. The Trump administration is tossing our collective ability to deal with global problems onto a roaring bonfire.
Reposted by Chris Grobe
The AAUP wholly condemns this punitive weaponization of federal grant funding. This attempt to discipline & control a university campus is a transparent hallmark of authoritarian rule & harshly violates the central mission of education to serve the public good.
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/n...
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/n...
White House Cancels $400 Million in Grants and Contracts to Columbia
The Trump administration blamed the university’s failure to protect Jewish students from harassment during protests last year over the war in Gaza.
www.nytimes.com
March 10, 2025 at 5:42 PM
The AAUP wholly condemns this punitive weaponization of federal grant funding. This attempt to discipline & control a university campus is a transparent hallmark of authoritarian rule & harshly violates the central mission of education to serve the public good.
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/n...
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/n...
Trump’s Razor (stupidest reason = true) suggests that his administration hadn’t clocked that Khalil has a green card and are now forced to retrofit their policy to match the case. A big mistake provides a big opportunity for those of us who don’t want student visas used to censor political speech.
He’s here lawfully. He’s got a pregnant U.S. citizen wife. He was taken without a warrant or any form of due process. And he’s being punished for speaking his mind. As far as I can tell, the facts of this case are good for the good guys. We have to get them out there and repeat them often.
March 10, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Trump’s Razor (stupidest reason = true) suggests that his administration hadn’t clocked that Khalil has a green card and are now forced to retrofit their policy to match the case. A big mistake provides a big opportunity for those of us who don’t want student visas used to censor political speech.
Happy “Uneven U” Day to those who celebrate!
(To those who don’t understand what I mean, let me preach you the gospel of teaching essay-writing via the uneven U!)
(To those who don’t understand what I mean, let me preach you the gospel of teaching essay-writing via the uneven U!)
February 20, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Happy “Uneven U” Day to those who celebrate!
(To those who don’t understand what I mean, let me preach you the gospel of teaching essay-writing via the uneven U!)
(To those who don’t understand what I mean, let me preach you the gospel of teaching essay-writing via the uneven U!)
Submitted an article AND a reader’s report on the same day
a cartoon of a lion with the words " and so we are all connected in the great circle of life " below it
ALT: a cartoon of a lion with the words " and so we are all connected in the great circle of life " below it
media.tenor.com
January 11, 2025 at 1:10 AM
Submitted an article AND a reader’s report on the same day