Erica Fretwell
@ericafretwell.bsky.social
good enough professor | The Art of Slight Living, 1900/2000 (in progress) | Sensory Experiments (Duke UP, 2020) | she/her
Reposted by Erica Fretwell
‘Effective Altruism did not originate in the clean room of a thought experiment but in the matrix of compromise we call a social world … from conversations among elites and has necessarily been molded by the pressures on them and the opportunities afforded them.’
By @benwurgaft.bsky.social
By @benwurgaft.bsky.social
Opinion | How a Thought Experiment Changed the World
Peter Singer and the roots of effective altruism.
www.chronicle.com
November 23, 2025 at 1:05 PM
‘Effective Altruism did not originate in the clean room of a thought experiment but in the matrix of compromise we call a social world … from conversations among elites and has necessarily been molded by the pressures on them and the opportunities afforded them.’
By @benwurgaft.bsky.social
By @benwurgaft.bsky.social
Reposted by Erica Fretwell
Watching Mamdani's victory speech, I'm struck by his—and his campaign's—unabashed vision of the US as an immigrant society, a culture built from the ground up from diversity. It is a complete rejection and reversal of the search for a white-washed homogeneity that the political right projects.
November 5, 2025 at 4:47 AM
Watching Mamdani's victory speech, I'm struck by his—and his campaign's—unabashed vision of the US as an immigrant society, a culture built from the ground up from diversity. It is a complete rejection and reversal of the search for a white-washed homogeneity that the political right projects.
Reposted by Erica Fretwell
I love that Mamdani is what the right claimed Obama was: A Muslim socialist born in Africa. The right practically manifested Mamdani into existence.
November 5, 2025 at 2:25 PM
I love that Mamdani is what the right claimed Obama was: A Muslim socialist born in Africa. The right practically manifested Mamdani into existence.
the day began with dick in a box and ended with zohran in office!!!!! not used to this good feeling! gonna bottle it up
November 5, 2025 at 2:45 AM
the day began with dick in a box and ended with zohran in office!!!!! not used to this good feeling! gonna bottle it up
Today my kid became a tween. He said, "Please don't put strawberries in the oatmeal again, Mom. They don't fit the vibe."
November 4, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Today my kid became a tween. He said, "Please don't put strawberries in the oatmeal again, Mom. They don't fit the vibe."
Miriam speaks truth (as always). A few years ago it really hit hard how foreign my students feel to me (and I them). One response is to be a jackass who blames the difference on them. Another option is humility. We should all strive for the latter.
Thinking about the Jill Lepore “students got difficult in 2016” thing: there’s a point for all of us when “youth opinion,” such as it is, no longer feels intuitive. It happened for me in the last few years. To understand where they’re coming from, you might have to do a little research.
November 1, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Miriam speaks truth (as always). A few years ago it really hit hard how foreign my students feel to me (and I them). One response is to be a jackass who blames the difference on them. Another option is humility. We should all strive for the latter.
Reposted by Erica Fretwell
I have an essay contrasting theory camps and communist ones in the latest issue PMLA, which reflects on the 1983 Illinois Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture conference. I sketch a material history of the perilous assumption that professional actions necessarily constitute political activity.
Theory Camp versus Commie Camp | PMLA | Cambridge Core
Theory Camp versus Commie Camp - Volume 140 Issue 3
www.cambridge.org
October 30, 2025 at 12:28 AM
I have an essay contrasting theory camps and communist ones in the latest issue PMLA, which reflects on the 1983 Illinois Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture conference. I sketch a material history of the perilous assumption that professional actions necessarily constitute political activity.
Reposted by Erica Fretwell
Who robbed the Louvre right answers only
October 19, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Who robbed the Louvre right answers only
Reposted by Erica Fretwell
Happy anniversary of the Sudden Departure to all who celebrate. For an @atpost45.bsky.social cluster edited by @ericafretwell.bsky.social and @annakrauthamer.bsky.social, I wrote about the trauma of living to tell (and retell) the tale.
post45.org/2025/01/bein...
post45.org/2025/01/bein...
October 14, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Happy anniversary of the Sudden Departure to all who celebrate. For an @atpost45.bsky.social cluster edited by @ericafretwell.bsky.social and @annakrauthamer.bsky.social, I wrote about the trauma of living to tell (and retell) the tale.
post45.org/2025/01/bein...
post45.org/2025/01/bein...
bring back a thousand little geocities
apparently it's a place where things are happening but i have zero desire to get on substack
October 5, 2025 at 10:16 PM
bring back a thousand little geocities
Of all the individual actions we're told to do that don't actually do anything to solve the climate crisis (relative to the damage done by corporations and private jets), stomping on a lantern fly that has no business being in harlem really does feel like doing something.
September 28, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Of all the individual actions we're told to do that don't actually do anything to solve the climate crisis (relative to the damage done by corporations and private jets), stomping on a lantern fly that has no business being in harlem really does feel like doing something.
Was extolling the 90s-era magic (and safety) of the Tin Can phone to @rezekjoe.bsky.social & husband (IRL!!!) yesterday, so figure today I might as well proselytize on a broader scale!
tincan.kids?srsltid=AfmB...
tincan.kids?srsltid=AfmB...
Tin Can - The Landline, Reinvented for Kids
The super-magical Wi-Fi landline for kids. No screens, no texting, no strangers — just real conversation with Grandma, besties, and contacts you approve. Plug in, twirl that cord, and time-travel to p...
tincan.kids
September 28, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Was extolling the 90s-era magic (and safety) of the Tin Can phone to @rezekjoe.bsky.social & husband (IRL!!!) yesterday, so figure today I might as well proselytize on a broader scale!
tincan.kids?srsltid=AfmB...
tincan.kids?srsltid=AfmB...
1. Bravo
2. Bravo
3. F***ing Bravo
2. Bravo
3. F***ing Bravo
list 3 things you can talk about for 3 hours with no prep
1. the feces of various species
2. lunch meat
3. sweetbreads
1. the feces of various species
2. lunch meat
3. sweetbreads
list 3 things you can talk about for 3 hours with no prep
1. Virginia Woolf
2. Leonard Woolf's wife
3. Adeline Virginia Stephen
1. Virginia Woolf
2. Leonard Woolf's wife
3. Adeline Virginia Stephen
September 26, 2025 at 12:02 AM
1. Bravo
2. Bravo
3. F***ing Bravo
2. Bravo
3. F***ing Bravo
Reposted by Erica Fretwell
CHOTINER: Many say Middlemarch is the greatest 19th-century novel.
GEORGE ELIOT: I sought only to shine a light on unhistoric acts, people destined for unvisited tombs.
CHOTINER: These Chotiner memes—Star Wars, the poem about plums, Moby-Dick. Are you jealous?
GEORGE ELIOT: That f***ing whale.
GEORGE ELIOT: I sought only to shine a light on unhistoric acts, people destined for unvisited tombs.
CHOTINER: These Chotiner memes—Star Wars, the poem about plums, Moby-Dick. Are you jealous?
GEORGE ELIOT: That f***ing whale.
September 25, 2025 at 11:53 PM
CHOTINER: Many say Middlemarch is the greatest 19th-century novel.
GEORGE ELIOT: I sought only to shine a light on unhistoric acts, people destined for unvisited tombs.
CHOTINER: These Chotiner memes—Star Wars, the poem about plums, Moby-Dick. Are you jealous?
GEORGE ELIOT: That f***ing whale.
GEORGE ELIOT: I sought only to shine a light on unhistoric acts, people destined for unvisited tombs.
CHOTINER: These Chotiner memes—Star Wars, the poem about plums, Moby-Dick. Are you jealous?
GEORGE ELIOT: That f***ing whale.
ding ding ding ding
I think…people’s obsession with “a cause”…is precisely because autism’s genetic randomness is hard to stratify by social class……………..
THERE. ARE. NO. 'CAUSES'. OF. AUTISM.
(other than being born as a member of Homo sapiens, which is a huge risk factor for turning out to be Autistic).
(other than being born as a member of Homo sapiens, which is a huge risk factor for turning out to be Autistic).
September 23, 2025 at 8:56 PM
ding ding ding ding
Reposted by Erica Fretwell
Every single Isaac Chotiner interview
September 23, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Every single Isaac Chotiner interview
shouldn't be, yet am, surprised to see the general course survey questions shift from they have been for decades about student perception of instructor preparedness and availability to student perception of whether the instructor is 'indoctrinating' students ("divergent viewpoints" etc)
September 22, 2025 at 9:11 PM
shouldn't be, yet am, surprised to see the general course survey questions shift from they have been for decades about student perception of instructor preparedness and availability to student perception of whether the instructor is 'indoctrinating' students ("divergent viewpoints" etc)
Reposted by Erica Fretwell
“Not only is the ratio of AI’s resource rapacity to its productive utility indefensibly and irremediably skewed, AI-made material is itself a waste product: flimsy, shoddy, disposable, a single-use plastic of the mind.”
www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/the...
www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/the...
Large Language Muddle | The Editors
The AI upheaval is unique in its ability to metabolize any number of dread-inducing transformations. The university is becoming more corporate, more politically oppressive, and all but hostile to the ...
www.nplusonemag.com
September 17, 2025 at 2:39 PM
“Not only is the ratio of AI’s resource rapacity to its productive utility indefensibly and irremediably skewed, AI-made material is itself a waste product: flimsy, shoddy, disposable, a single-use plastic of the mind.”
www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/the...
www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/the...
if anyone's looking for a distraction, i'm happy to discourse on how overrated apple picking is
September 15, 2025 at 1:38 PM
if anyone's looking for a distraction, i'm happy to discourse on how overrated apple picking is
Reposted by Erica Fretwell
We need to bring back the communal living room computer
How the shared family computer protected us from our worst selves
It was vital to our lives, yet remained quiet and unobtrusive
www.theverge.com
September 12, 2025 at 5:16 PM
We need to bring back the communal living room computer
Reposted by Erica Fretwell
Honestly it seems to me that one of the most important tasks for modern parents is raising their kids to be mostly offline normies
September 12, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Honestly it seems to me that one of the most important tasks for modern parents is raising their kids to be mostly offline normies
Reposted by Erica Fretwell
"How Are the Very Rich Feeling About New York’s Next Mayor?"
A Dramatic Reading of The Recent New York Times Dispatch from the Hamptons.
Presented by The Gilded Age's Morgan Spector.
A Dramatic Reading of The Recent New York Times Dispatch from the Hamptons.
Presented by The Gilded Age's Morgan Spector.
September 8, 2025 at 10:56 PM
"How Are the Very Rich Feeling About New York’s Next Mayor?"
A Dramatic Reading of The Recent New York Times Dispatch from the Hamptons.
Presented by The Gilded Age's Morgan Spector.
A Dramatic Reading of The Recent New York Times Dispatch from the Hamptons.
Presented by The Gilded Age's Morgan Spector.
Reposted by Erica Fretwell
Here’s the thing: I too hope the rumors are true, but even if they are, we are still in deep 💩—and for a very long time to come.
August 30, 2025 at 1:42 PM
Here’s the thing: I too hope the rumors are true, but even if they are, we are still in deep 💩—and for a very long time to come.
Reposted by Erica Fretwell
I know there's a lot happening today, but this is sneaking in under the radar. This proposed new rule would absolutely crush foreign PhD students, potentially making it impossible for them to enroll with any certainty of their ability to finish www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
August 28, 2025 at 3:29 AM
I know there's a lot happening today, but this is sneaking in under the radar. This proposed new rule would absolutely crush foreign PhD students, potentially making it impossible for them to enroll with any certainty of their ability to finish www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
Reposted by Erica Fretwell
"The disciplining of Ben Robinson is a violation of his academic freedom that sends a chilling message to all faculty members."
jeffreycisaacdesign.wordpress.com/2025/08/19/i...
jeffreycisaacdesign.wordpress.com/2025/08/19/i...
Indiana University’s Disciplining of Ben Robinson is an Embarrassment and an Outrage
August 19, 2025 Ben Robinson is a tenured Associate Professor of Germanic Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, where he has taught for over 20 years. Rick Van Kooten is a tenured Professor o…
jeffreycisaacdesign.wordpress.com
August 19, 2025 at 8:52 PM
"The disciplining of Ben Robinson is a violation of his academic freedom that sends a chilling message to all faculty members."
jeffreycisaacdesign.wordpress.com/2025/08/19/i...
jeffreycisaacdesign.wordpress.com/2025/08/19/i...