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Xaq Frohlich

@comedoergosum.bsky.social

1.3K followers 550 following 86 posts

Historian and STS scholar at Auburn University | xaqfrohlich.com. Author of From Label to Table: Regulating Food in America in the Information Age

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Xaq Frohlich @comedoergosum.bsky.social · Oct 24

My book, From Label to Table (UC Press), is now officially available to order!: www.amazon.com/Label-Table-....
How did Nutrition Facts come to appear on millions of everyday American household products?Order the book and learn more about this important history! #FromLabelToTable
#FDA

Book cover of From Label to Table: Regulating Food in America in the Information Age by Law Frohlich

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Xaq Frohlich @comedoergosum.bsky.social · 19d

Oops! And here's the link to it: desperatelyseeking.substack.com/p/three-grea...

Three great books about food and nutrition

With a focus on the history of science

desperatelyseeking.substack.com

Xaq Frohlich @comedoergosum.bsky.social · 19d

Wow! Just came across this very positive review of my book that was published last year by @susanaramirez.bsky.social , and it's in very good company with books by @haushoferl.bsky.social and @charlottebiltekoff.bsky.social . Definitely agree these three books read well together!
#FromLabelToTable

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Xaq Frohlich @comedoergosum.bsky.social · 22d

Excited my book was reviewed in the Journal of American History! Liked this quote in Bryan McDonald's review: "This informative study provides compelling insight to help us understand the effects of legislation and standards making on the American food landscape":
academic.oup.com/jah/article/....

From Label to Table: Regulating Food in America in the Information Age

Xaq Frohlich's From Label to Table is a detailed and readable history of how food labeling became a critical part of American food regulation and Americans

academic.oup.com

Xaq Frohlich @comedoergosum.bsky.social · Sep 5

... My class's first assignment thinking about AI was comparing human's claims for intelligence against claims made for other apes versus claims made for AI: auburn.instructure.com/courses/1654....
Opens up a nice irony: Animals are insufficiently rational, but machines are insufficiently emotional.

Tech & Civ Course Guide to the AI Journal: AI Showcase

auburn.instructure.com

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Xaq Frohlich @comedoergosum.bsky.social · Sep 5

Yes! I've used the phrase "public interest AI" on grant proposals, drawing from past initiatives on "public interest technology". And I certainly appreciate your journal's consideration of posthumanist frames when critiquing AI...

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Xaq Frohlich @comedoergosum.bsky.social · Sep 5

I'm really nerding out on this great critical history of GenAI in the @criticalai-journal.bsky.social : read.dukeupress.edu/critical-ai/...

Just what I needed to wrap my head around how AI can work for the humanities, and the need for more critical AI literacy and human-centered AI.

The Origins of Generative AI in Transcription and Machine Translation, and Why That Matters

Abstract. In this essay, written in dialogue with the introduction to this special issue, the authors offer a critical history of the development of large language models (LLMs). The essay's goal is t...

read.dukeupress.edu

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Xaq Frohlich @comedoergosum.bsky.social · Aug 23

My "Technology & Civilization" students kicked off our first AI-engaged assignment! They asked AI: “What Makes Me Human?” and shared their responses as artifacts on this collaborative Whiteboard.

Try it yourself with the Assignment 1 prompt, posted here: auburn.instructure.com/courses/1654...

Xaq Frohlich @comedoergosum.bsky.social · Aug 12

Thanks for sharing! Very interested to hear what other historians think of it!

Reposted by Xaq Frohlich

Business History Conference @businesshistoryc.bsky.social · Aug 12

Thanks for sharing this! Reposting here for those in the #bizhis #appliedhistory community who may be interested.

auburn.instructure.com/courses/1654…#BusinessHistoryr#DigitalHumanitiese#AILiteracyc#HigherEdE#HistoryTeachingng

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Xaq Frohlich @comedoergosum.bsky.social · Aug 11

Been building something new this summer: a 10-assignment AI Journal for my "Technology & Civilization" undergrad course.
It blends AI tools + humanities learning to spark reflection and critical AI literacy.
Guide + highlights here: auburn.instructure.com/courses/1654....
Check it out!

Xaq Frohlich @comedoergosum.bsky.social · Jul 16

Auburn-Opelika people, I'm giving a talk at the Museum Of East Alabama in ten days: Saturday, July 26th 11-12PM. It's free and open to the public. I'll be using my book, From Label to Table (@ucpress.bsky.social, 2023), to talk about recent happenings in food politics.

Join us for the conversation!

Xaq Frohlich @comedoergosum.bsky.social · Jul 10

My pleasure! I enjoyed the book, and look forward to thinking about ways to use it in my courses.

Xaq Frohlich @comedoergosum.bsky.social · Jul 10

Selfishly wondering whether my book on the history of FDA food labeling might one day help people piece together how we got here.
#FromLabelToTable

Xaq Frohlich @comedoergosum.bsky.social · Jul 10

Absolutely love the video graphic accompanying this @nytimes.com story on the ongoing collapse of the @fda.gov: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/m...

Some thoughts: I count myself among the “F.D.A. watchdogs” who were once constructively critical—now deeply dismayed by the agency’s gutting...

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Xaq Frohlich @comedoergosum.bsky.social · Jul 10

Wrote a review for @hnetreviews.bsky.social of a great food studies book, Ways of Eating by @benwurgaft.bsky.social & White:
www.h-net.org/reviews/show...

Choice quote: “many of the things we imagine to be traditional or permanent features of our lives with food are, in fact, very recent arrivals”

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Xaq Frohlich @comedoergosum.bsky.social · Jun 26

One more AI-related course certificate received! This one for Auburn University's Writing Across the Curriculum course, "Teaching Critical Thinking with AI-Engaged Writing Assignments."
If you have any good ideas for university-level AI-engaged assignments, I'd love to hear them!

Xaq Frohlich @comedoergosum.bsky.social · Jun 23

Check out this fun conversation I had with historian David Parsons about "MAHA Moms" and food politics past and present on his podcast, Nostalgia Trap, "Ep 416 - America Eats Itself w/Xaq Frohlich": www.patreon.com/posts/131914.... (Also on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and YouTube).
#FromLabelToTable

Xaq Frohlich @comedoergosum.bsky.social · Jun 3

Did this fun interview about my book, From Label to Table, with two food historians Kelly Spring and Matt Phillpott, as part of their "Hungry Historians" podcast series: open.spotify.com/episode/1QYV...
It's a new #foodstudies series, but they've already lined up some great food studies speakers.

Xaq Frohlich - From Label to Table: regulating food in America in the Information Age

Hungry Historians · Episode

open.spotify.com

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Xaq Frohlich @comedoergosum.bsky.social · May 27

Unofficially, this was a Fulbright finalist application. Won't go into it further, but you can imagine. Very grateful to the Fulbright Denmark Commission for resurrecting my project!

Xaq Frohlich @comedoergosum.bsky.social · May 27

Very excited to announce I'll be doing a research and teaching stay at @sdu.dk in the Spring 2026 semester. Was awarded the 2025-2026 Distinguished Scholar in American Studies Grant from the Binational Commission for Educational Exchange between Denmark and The United States of America.

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Xaq Frohlich @comedoergosum.bsky.social · May 23

Obtained a new certification: "AUAI: Experimenter" from Auburn University Biggio Center! Part of my month-long deep dive into how to use AI tools for food studies, STS, and humanities research and teaching. Will be sharing ideas in the months to come. I welcome your thoughts here on how to use AI.

Xaq Frohlich @comedoergosum.bsky.social · Apr 24

If you missed the American Society for Legal History Virtual Book Club last week, you can watch here the recording of @seanvanatta.bsky.social and me discussing our two books: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEYe....

Compliments of the @businesshistoryc.bsky.social .
#businesshistory

Xaq Frohlich & Sean Vanatta -- Book talk #bizhis #books

YouTube video by Business History Conference

www.youtube.com

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Xaq Frohlich @comedoergosum.bsky.social · Apr 22

Happy Earth Day! And happy last day of Environmental History Week. @berghahnbooks.bsky.social has a sale on enviro history books, including our volume, Risk on the Table: www.berghahnbooks.com/title/Creage.... Buy it this week and get 25% off with the code EARTH25!
#environmentalhistory
#earthday

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Xaq Frohlich @comedoergosum.bsky.social · Apr 14

It's AI Week for me!

• Tues: playing with DALL-E and Deep Research in our "Visualizing History Lab" grad seminar
• Wed: Google AI Day @ Auburn: biggio.auburn.edu/programs/art...
• Thurs: The Conversation webinar on "Using AI Safely"

Goal: how to use AI to augment work in STS and the humanities

AI and Historical Research

AI everything! For a month! That’s one way to describe the talk I gave for Brown’s AI and Humanities Research group, part of the Center for Digital Scholarship. Less clickbaity: How mig…

stevenlubar.net

Xaq Frohlich @comedoergosum.bsky.social · Apr 9

Join me and @seanvanatta.bsky.social online a week from today for our talk about both our books and intersections between legal history and business history, part of the American Society for Legal History Virtual Book Club, co-hosted with @businesshistoryc.bsky.social : aslh.net/virtual-book...

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