James Opp
LightNews LightNews
banner
jamesopp.bsky.social
James Opp
@jamesopp.bsky.social
660 followers 270 following 50 posts
History, photographic studies, 80s pop culture, and slurpees.
Carleton University
jamesopp.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by James Opp
jennifervevans.bsky.social
Important insight from Dagmar Herzog on the New Fascist Body venerated by today's right.

publicseminar.org/2025/11/new-...
Fascism's Body Politics - Public Seminar
Dagmar Herzog explains how ableism's historical legacy informs the fascisms of Donald Trump and Germany's AfD.
publicseminar.org
November 26, 2025 at 12:46 AM
Reposted by James Opp
olivia.science
Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia:
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n
Abstract: Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in the 21st with social media. For these collective blunders, we now regret our involvement or apathy as scientists, and society struggles to put the genie back in the bottle. Currently, we are similarly entangled with artificial intelligence (AI) technology. For example, software updates are rolled out seamlessly and non-consensually, Microsoft Office is bundled with chatbots, and we, our students, and our employers have had no say, as it is not considered a valid position to reject AI technologies in our teaching and research. This is why in June 2025, we co-authored an Open Letter calling on our employers to reverse and rethink their stance on uncritically adopting AI technologies. In this position piece, we expound on why universities must take their role seriously toa) counter the technology industry’s marketing, hype, and harm; and to b) safeguard higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, and scientific integrity. We include pointers to relevant work to further inform our colleagues. Figure 1. A cartoon set theoretic view on various terms (see Table 1) used when discussing the superset AI (black outline, hatched background): LLMs are in orange; ANNs are in magenta; generative models are in blue; and finally, chatbots are in green. Where these intersect, the colours reflect that, e.g. generative adversarial network (GAN) and Boltzmann machine (BM) models are in the purple subset because they are both generative and ANNs. In the case of proprietary closed source models, e.g. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Apple’s Siri, we cannot verify their implementation and so academics can only make educated guesses (cf. Dingemanse 2025). Undefined terms used above: BERT (Devlin et al. 2019); AlexNet (Krizhevsky et al. 2017); A.L.I.C.E. (Wallace 2009); ELIZA (Weizenbaum 1966); Jabberwacky (Twist 2003); linear discriminant analysis (LDA); quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA). Table 1. Below some of the typical terminological disarray is untangled. Importantly, none of these terms are orthogonal nor do they exclusively pick out the types of products we may wish to critique or proscribe. Protecting the Ecosystem of Human Knowledge: Five Principles
September 6, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Reposted by James Opp
ruha9.bsky.social
I need everyone, esp anyone working in education or tech (but really everyone) to WATCH THIS CLIP of @drtanksley.bsky.social discussing the technologies infiltrating our schools & psyches and how she is addressing it with our young people. youtu.be/5mtcSL4S3HQ
Howard University AI Panel
YouTube video by Tiera Tanksley
youtu.be
November 22, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Reposted by James Opp
bildoperationen.bsky.social
It took some time, but now my essay «Images from Images: Generative AI and the Reconfiguration of the ‹Photographic›» is finally out in open access, as part of the latest issue of «Photography & Culture» www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Images from Images Generative AI and the Reconfiguration of the ‘Photographic’
AI image generators such as Midjourney, Dall-E or Stable Diffusion are able to perfectly simulate the appearance of photographic images, but they are no longer part of the history of optical media....
www.tandfonline.com
November 21, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Reposted by James Opp
emilygdoucet.bsky.social
My book has a cover! Inventing Nadar will be out in April 2026 from @dukepress.bsky.social.
Book cover with aerial photograph showing an oblique aerial view of the city of Paris, picturing the avanue du Bois du Boulogne and the Arc de Triomphe. The surface of the photograph is annotated in red and black ink. The book title and author appear in white serif font: Inventing Nadar: A History of Photographic Firsts, by Emily Doucet .
November 20, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Reposted by James Opp
earlymodjustice.bsky.social
To “my students and to anyone who might listen, I say: Don’t surrender to AI your ability to read, write and think when others once risked their lives and died for the freedom to do so.”

www.huffpost.com/entry/histor...
I Set A Trap To Catch My Students Cheating With AI. The Results Were Shocking.
"Students are not just undermining their ability to learn, but to someday lead."
www.huffpost.com
November 21, 2025 at 12:22 AM
Reposted by James Opp
elinorcarmi.bsky.social
"For students, AI teaching appears to be less transformative than it is demoralising".

“I do not want to be taught by GPT.”

www.theguardian.com/education/20...
‘We could have asked ChatGPT’: students fight back over course taught by AI
Staffordshire students say signs material was AI-generated included suspicious file names and rogue voiceover accent
www.theguardian.com
November 20, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Reposted by James Opp
irisvanrooij.bsky.social
“Researching and reflecting on the harms of AI is not itself harm reduction. It may even contribute to rationalizing, normalizing, and enabling harm. Critical reflection without appropriate action is thus quintessentially critical washing."

-- @marentierra.bsky.social et al, (2025).
Critical AI Literacy: Beyond hegemonic perspectives on sustainability
How can universities resist being coopted and corrupted by the AI industries’ agendas? Originally published here: https://rcsc.substack.com/p/critical-ai-literacy-beyond-hegemonic
zenodo.org
November 14, 2025 at 7:16 AM
Reposted by James Opp
csnrec.bsky.social
Visiting Professor job

Political Economy and Work and Labour
Carleton University

Closing Date: December 1, 2025, or until a suitable candidate has been selected.

csn-rec.ca/job-postings...

@cpsa-acsp.bsky.social
November 14, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Reposted by James Opp
historyworkshop.org.uk
"Historical analysis is fundamentally different and more complex than producing a mass of visualizations and statistics that are the lifeblood of many A.I. programmes."

Gordon McKelvie @gordonmckelvie.bsky.social on the problematic use of A.I. within historical research.
Artificial Intelligence: A Warning for History
Does A.I. have the potential to simplify, and ultimately impoverish, our study of the past? Gordon McKelvie considers the recent explosion in A.I. and what it means for historians facing the current H...
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
November 11, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by James Opp
krisshrishak.bsky.social
"We are tearing people down by convincing them that they can't function without these tools. And we are doing this purely because some very rich unhappy oligarchs would like to become even richer if no more happier. There is nothing benevolent about this."
November 5, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Reposted by James Opp
hypervisible.blacksky.app
“The problem is that when it is installed in a health sector that prizes efficiency, surveillance and profit extraction, AI becomes not a tool for care and community but simply another instrument for commodifying human life.”
What we lose when we surrender care to algorithms | Eric Reinhart
A dangerous faith in AI is sweeping American healthcare – with consequences for the basis of society itself
www.theguardian.com
November 9, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Reposted by James Opp
willpooley.bsky.social
I think lots of you all will be as excited as I am to see Jess Moody’s “Plants, Enslavement and Public History” project website

and you can sign up for the mailing list in the little box in bottom right corner

plantpublichistory.blogs.bristol.ac.uk

🗃️🌿🪴
Plant Public History – Plants, Enslavement and Public History: Re-imagining green spaces as places of heritage and healing
plantpublichistory.blogs.bristol.ac.uk
November 7, 2025 at 6:53 AM
Reposted by James Opp
peterastevens.bsky.social
Today on @nichecanada.bsky.social, historian Gregory Klages discusses his latest project: publishing the diaries of Mark Robinson, who served as Park Ranger in Ontario's Algonquin Park for thirty years. @rgrmarkrobinson.bsky.social
niche-canada.org/2025/11/05/t...
The Algonquin Diaries: Reflections of an Early-20th-Century Park Ranger
Algonquin Park Ranger Mark Robinson’s diaries (1907–1936) detail social, environmental, and moral changes, offering rare insights into early conservation, policy, and wilderness life.
niche-canada.org
November 5, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Reposted by James Opp
burrata.bsky.social
It’s deeply ironic how fields like Africana studies, American studies, postcolonial studies, and frankly popular music studies get discussed as rarefied, elitist fields whereas in fact they center extremely common real world discourses.
November 4, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by James Opp
eskola.uk
“”AI” is a failed technology. … LLMs haven’t met any markers of success we’d apply to, well, literally any other technology.” Great article by Ethan Marcotte @ethanmarcotte.com

ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/agains...
Against the protection of stocking frames. — ethanmarcotte.com
“Artificial intelligence” is a failed technology. It’s time we described it that way.
ethanmarcotte.com
November 1, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Reposted by James Opp
queeralchemy.com
This is flying way under the radar. There is an open letter going around but I haven't heard anything about it from any of my colleagues.
michaelhendricks.bsky.social Michael Hendricks 🇨🇦 @michaelhendricks.bsky.social · 27d
Canadian researchers should be aware the there is a motion before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Research to force Tricouncils to hand over disaggregated peer review data on all applications:
Applicant names, profiles, demographics
Reviewers names, profiles, comments, and scores
November 4, 2025 at 2:38 AM
Reposted by James Opp
miriamposner.com
Eminently reasonable proposed principles for professors’ use of AI, from a student refusinggenai.wordpress.com/2025/08/29/a...
• Professors should never put a student's words or work into an AI software without their consent. • Professors should also be transparent about their Al usage with grading, curriculum building, and any other way they might use it in their teaching. • If a professor does use Al chatbots in the classroom, they should explain their reasoning behind this decision and how its usage will help students meet learning outcomes. • Professors should additionally respect a student's choice to refuse Al. To do this, it would be ideal that they have assignments that students can choose from that do
October 31, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Reposted by James Opp
sujo.bsky.social
"A lot of academic research on AI currently is also funded by the AI industry, which creates the risk of distorting scientific knowledge, similar to how we’ve seen happen in the past’, adds Iris van Rooij, co-author and professor of computational cognitive science at Radboud University."
November 2, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Reposted by James Opp
cjdenial.bsky.social
There's so much being researched and published about GenAI that I update the 'Against Generative AI' resource list almost every day. Check it out catherinedenial.org/blog/uncateg...
Against Generative AI – Cate Denial
catherinedenial.org
October 30, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Reposted by James Opp
gofrankgo.bsky.social
Back in my day, AI used to stand for Adobe Illustrator! And we hated that, too!
Grandpa Simpson yelling at a cloud
October 29, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Reposted by James Opp
liziwat.bsky.social
The seminar & book launch (online) for Color Protocols: Technologies of Racial Encoding in Chromatic Media (MIT, 2025) starts at 4pm – 5:30pm (UK), 12noon – 1:30pm (EST) Thursday 30th October 2025

Event details: colourandfilm.com/cfps/
October 28, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Reposted by James Opp
loriemerson.net
be still, my beating heart!
olivia.science Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · Oct 24
I am close to tears; they listened and made an english version apache.be/2025/10/24/b...

@apache.be you rule 🖤
October 27, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Reposted by James Opp
archivistsdotca.bsky.social
As the 50th Anniversary of the ACA comes to an end, our Professional Development Committee invites you to attend a panel discussion with five archivists reflecting on the past, present, and future of archives in Canada.

To register, please visit archivists.ca/event-6411193.
White background with maroon rounded borded. Centred, the ACA's logo and 50th anniversary logo are pictured. Underneath, bold black text reads: "Looking back and looking forward: Perspectives on the occasion of the ACA's 50th anniversary". Below, smaller text continues, "With Jazmine Aldrich, Donald Johnson, Laura Millar, Tom Nesmith, and Ciaran Purdome. Moderated by Mary Grace Kosta. Join us for a panel discussion with five archivists to reflect on the past and present state of archives in Canada, while considering some of their. hopes for our profession." Underneath, medium-bold text follows: "2:30 PM - 4 PM ET | Dec. 3, 2025 | 11:30 AM - 1 PM PT". Small text at the bottom of the graphic reads: "Free for ACA Members. Held virtually on Zoom".
October 27, 2025 at 5:17 PM
Reposted by James Opp
siobhanangus.bsky.social
Now is your chance to get Camera Geologica (and a bunch of other great books!) at 50%! www.dukeupress.edu/camera-geolo...
October 27, 2025 at 12:32 PM