Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Chris Slaby

Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 6h

As part of my resistance to the onlineification of higher ed, I've returned to paper submission of essays this semester, which has been a great reminder of how hostile to thoughtful engagement platforms like Canvas and Turnitin are. They genuinely suck.

5 3 71

Reposted by Chris Slaby

Dolly Jørgensen @dollyjorgensen.bsky.social · 4d

It’s real!!
I just got my first copy of Ghosts Behind Glass and it is beautiful. You all really need to order your copies. You will not regret it. press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

Double page spread with a photo of diorama

Chapter 3 Cursed treasures on left, lion on right

12 35 150

Reposted by Chris Slaby

Henry Snow @henrysnow.bsky.social · 3d

My colleague Jack Bouchard's book Terra Nova is out today! It's about early 16th-century mariners and the seasonal fishery around present-day Newfoundland, and its place within the Atlantic World. I cannot wait to read it

yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

Terra Nova

A bottom-up story of the fishworkers, whalers, First Nations, merchantwomen, oceans, and animals who together made a new colonial world in the early Atlantic...

yalebooks.yale.edu

1 21 56

Reposted by Chris Slaby

Joanne Harris @joannechocolat.bsky.social · 2d

The reason the Right are so invested in the myth that the arts have no value isn’t because the arts don’t generate wealth (they do); it’s that studying the arts teaches people to imagine better ways of judging the value of an idea than by counting how much money it makes…

58 510 1.9K

Reposted by Chris Slaby

Alex Hanna-ween @alexhanna.bsky.social · 1d

As an instructor, I'd rather see your fever dream, No Doze-fueled 4AM essays written at an IHOP rather than anything generated by an LLM.

Hope this helps

Dane 🔜 NYCC AA L-34 @monkeyminion.com · 1d

I wrote a 15 page report on heraldic symbolism in medieval armor and weapon design for my art history class the night before it was due (8am class). Made up 90% of it (only found one book for reference) and got an A. GenAI could fucking never.

wrote 20 pages on Faulkner's The Bear four hours before final papers were due on trucker pills and coffee and cigarettes and got an A, fuck you.
You people couldn't hang with real slackers.
finn
wokeupchic • 4d
It's fuck Al till your homework due in 25 minutes

40 440 1.8K

Reposted by Chris Slaby

Environment and History, White Horse Press @eandhwhp.bsky.social · 1d

Issue 31.4 of Environment and History is out now! This special issue entitled "Dam Scientists: The limits of scientific knowledge and environmentalism" features 6 research articles, 2 snapshots, and 3 book reviews. Read online here: liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/toc/whpeh/31... #envhist🗃️

12 12

Reposted by Chris Slaby

Kathryn C-K @kathrynck.bsky.social · 1d

I would respect this whole conversation a lot more if "We have to use AI" finished truthfully with "because powerful people are forcing us" instead of leaving it like it could be pixies

Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 1d

A striking thing about articles I’ve read claiming to “study the effects” of generative AI on student writing skills and consumption of information is that (1) they nearly always find the effects are negative and (2) most “conclusions” are still written assuming that we must use AI, for some reason.

1 33 110

Reposted by Chris Slaby

Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 3h

I did hear about this and I don’t know that I have TEA but I have THOUGHTS

first of all let us not skip past the symbolic significance of “Leo signed the document on Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi”

Julia L @calenmir.bsky.social · 3h

@clairewillett.bsky.social wanted to make sure you hear this (and hear any tea you might have regarding this): www.ncronline.org/pope-leo-bla...

Pope Leo blasts elitism, indifference toward poor in first major document

"I am convinced that the preferential choice for the poor is a source of extraordinary renewal both for the church and for society," the pope wrote in Dilexi Te.

www.ncronline.org

1 79 400

Reposted by Chris Slaby

NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 2h

The Virginia Senate just told UVA it’s not getting state funding if it accepts the compact since UVA exists to serve Virginia, its residents, & their interests—not be a tool of the federal govt. Scoop from our student newspaper, who’ve been doing vital reporting www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...

16 370 1.2K

Reposted by Chris Slaby

Annie Abrams @annieabrams.bsky.social · 5h

let’s have a conference

Anna E. Clark @annaeclark.bsky.social · 7h

I wrote about the divide between high school and college English, and what we might do to bridge it, for @publicbooks.bsky.social—part of an excellent roundtable on higher ed under Trump organized by @dennismhogan.bsky.social

www.publicbooks.org/toward-the-h...

Toward the Higher- and Secondary-Ed Alliance! - Public Books

The influence of K-12 policy and pedagogy on higher ed can perhaps be seen best in the trickle-up effect of the standards of the Common Core.

www.publicbooks.org

10 10 41

Reposted by Chris Slaby

Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 1d

It is also remarkable how far what is essentially advertising copy has penetrated into ostensibly neutral, scholarly contextualizations even of critical studies — rote invocations of AI’s “power,” “potential,” and ubiquity, untethered to any specific sources or data, are just background noise now.

3 71 570

Reposted by Chris Slaby

Eladio Bobadilla @eladiobobadilla.com · 1d

Coming soon to a bookstore near you :-)

3 45 210

Reposted by Chris Slaby

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 2d

“Someone” cancelled my family’s flight out of the country at the last second.

We got our boarding passes. We checked our bags. Went through security. Then at our gate our reservation ‘disappeared.’

240 1.8K 6.5K

Reposted by Chris Slaby

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 1d

Friends and comrades made a crowdfunding page for my family.

It’s really hard to post this. I know that there are a lot of other important issues asking for money but things have gotten to the point where we need to open ourselves up to your support.

Thank you for your consideration.

"Help us leave safely" on FreeFunder

Click here to support "Help us leave safely" by Dara on FreeFunder!

www.freefunder.com

45 730 1.7K

Reposted by Chris Slaby

Tobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 9d

An old military maxim often attributed to Napoleon is “an army marches on its stomach” and I feel the same way that a university thinks via its library. The slow and steady financial diminution of research libraries and the librarians who staff them is, to me, a slow-rolling higher Ed catastrophe.

4 55 180

Reposted by Chris Slaby

Jason W. Dean @jasonwdean.com · 9d

I should also add some context - I watched this happen at my former workplace, + tried to resist it. However, my current library has leadership that is Very Effective at advocacy for resources (staff and $), & that leadership is as equally committed to the work of "research library" as the staff is.

Tobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 9d

An old military maxim often attributed to Napoleon is “an army marches on its stomach” and I feel the same way that a university thinks via its library. The slow and steady financial diminution of research libraries and the librarians who staff them is, to me, a slow-rolling higher Ed catastrophe.

2 4 20

Reposted by Chris Slaby

Makkon @makkon.bsky.social · 8d

a flow-chart with 2 islands. "Do I need AI?" that flows into a final island saying "No"

8 5.2K 14K

Reposted by Chris Slaby

Sam Adams @samadams.bsky.social · 2d

quick question, who were the antifascists in 1930s Germany against

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 2d

From Donald Trump's Roundtable on Antifa just now —
"Antifa has been around in various iterations for almost 100 years in some instances, going back to the Weimar Republic in Germany."
— special guest Jack Posobiec

6 25 79

Reposted by Chris Slaby

Duke University Press @dukepress.bsky.social · 2d

Save 30% on #NewBook "Decolonizing Afghanistan," edited by @wazhmah.bsky.social and Robert D. Crews, which marks a decolonial turn in #Afghanistan and #AmericanStudies.
buff.ly/dnOAAgT

Book cover of Decolonizing Afghanistan: Countering Imperial Knowledge & Power, edited by Wazhmah Osman and Robert D. Crews. The background is light blue with the title in large dark blue text at the top. Below the title, there is an illustration of armored soldiers in helmets and gear blended with soft, colorful flowers. The editors’ names are written in red text above the illustration.

6 10

Reposted by Chris Slaby

Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 3d

If you're in the Boston/Cambridge area, in three weeks I'll be talking about my Van Gogh book at Harvard's Mahindra Humanities Center mahindrahumanities.harvard.edu/event/enviro...

Screen shot of Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard page: "The Environment Forum with Michael Lobel: Van Gogh and the End of Nature"

2 19

Reposted by Chris Slaby

Steven Nelson @snelsonus.bsky.social · 2d

Uncovering the lives of enslaved people is incredibly important. Here’s a great example of such work. #arthistory

hyperallergic.com/1047549/port...

Portrait of Enslaved Man Dispels Years of Falsehoods

The truth of Frederick Baker’s life was long obscured by a whitewashed history perpetuated by the Longwood mansion in Mississippi, new research says.

hyperallergic.com

9 30

Reposted by Chris Slaby

Princeton University Press @princetonupress.bsky.social · 9d

Our 70% Off Sale is live! 📚

Save on thousands of select titles & editions across subjects until October 31. Explore the books on sale and refresh your shelves this autumn: press.princeton.edu/sale/70-off

#ReadUP

Graphic reads "Annual Sale. 70% Off. October 1-31"

2 10 15

Chris Slaby @cjslaby.bsky.social · 2d

I don’t mean to be either naive or sentimental about C20 U.S. geopolitics, but, you know, there was (is) something to this idea of welcoming people to this place.

(I do also hasten to add that no one’s worth ought to be tied to this sort of excellence; everyone deserves a good and decent life!)

Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 2d

Six of the nine Nobel Prize winners this year work in the U.S.
Three of the six were born outside the U.S., which is the pattern most years. No country has benefited more from welcoming immigrants from around the world.
www.nobelprize.org

The official website of the Nobel Prize - NobelPrize.org

The Nobel Prize rewards science, humanism and peace efforts. This is one of the central concepts in the will of Alfred Nobel, and it also permeates the outreach activities that have been developed for...

www.nobelprize.org

1

Reposted by Chris Slaby

Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 2d

Six of the nine Nobel Prize winners this year work in the U.S.
Three of the six were born outside the U.S., which is the pattern most years. No country has benefited more from welcoming immigrants from around the world.
www.nobelprize.org

The official website of the Nobel Prize - NobelPrize.org

The Nobel Prize rewards science, humanism and peace efforts. This is one of the central concepts in the will of Alfred Nobel, and it also permeates the outreach activities that have been developed for...

www.nobelprize.org

27 450 1.2K

Reposted by Chris Slaby

Yael Rice @yaelrice.bsky.social · Sep 2

Excited to share my friend/colleague Melissa Kerin’s hot off the press @hyperallergic.com piece on Tibetan Buddhist museum shrine rooms. It’s likely to ruffle some feathers of our curator colleagues, but it needed to be said hyperallergic.com/1038180/the-...

The Fetishistic Fiction of Museum “Tibetan” Shrines

Institutions peddle a Western aesthetic of “traditional” Tibetan shrines without scholarly backing, negating their limitless lived variety.

hyperallergic.com

2 19 58