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Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti

@literaturegeek.bsky.social

8.8K followers 5.2K following 4.7K posts

@ScholarsLab Director ✨💻📚🏳️‍🌈 just+joyful, critical+creative tech+culture *Experimental/DH/library futures & community *DIY scholcom=letterpress+zines+blog+code *Bookadjacent data+making 3 neon !s in a hoodie; abolitionist Dr! 🏳️‍⚧️ They/Them AmandaVisconti.com

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Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · Nov 9

Hi new folks! I post on: intersections of tech/culture/justice, making+craft (zines, weird resin, letterpress/book arts, color+light, retro tech), directing a digital humanities research center, transformative justice, bookadjacent code/data. General enthusiast; laugh inappropriately loudly at puns.

Photo of a full-size-skull (front half) made of translucent resin, with embedded ramen noodle block in the brain area, and chatter teeth in the teeth area, held up to the sun so the light shines through the translucent resin from the back.

Photo of materials for the Ghost Books project artfully arranged on a floor, including a swirl of blue LEDs with silicone diffusion making them look like neon lights, superglue, acrylic and glass cut to size to be assembled into a rectangular-prism/book shape with smoothe or crenellated edges, and one of the books I'm basing the initial prototype on (10 PRINT) because of it's interesting blue and white patterned cover.

A photo of a white lab-hound mix dog lying down but with head up, basking in the bright sun with eyes squeezed shut in pleasure. There is a red brick wall behind the dog.

Example themed reading card deck, prepared for the ACH 2023 conference's #DHmakes (digital humanities making) session. An open plastic playing card case holds a playing-card-style card with information about the "#DHMakes at #ACH2023" project governing the readings chosen for inclusion in the deck; next to the case is a fanned-out pile of playing-card-style cards showing tech, GLAM, and social justice zine titles such as "Kult of the Cyber Witch #1" and "Handbook for the Activist Archivist"; on the top of the fanned pile you can see a whole card. The whole card is white with black text; the title "Design Justice for Action" is in large print at the top of the card, followed by a list of the zine's creators (Design Justice Network, Sasha Costanza-Chock, Una Lee, Victoria Barnett, Taylor Stewart), the hashtags "#DHMakes #ACH2023, and a black square QR code (which links to an online version of that zine).

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Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · 9h

I'm so glad! Yay for zine friends!

Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · 9h

'Knit Hello is a typeface for hand knitting, the outcome of a series of Typographic Knitting—or Typeknitting—workshops...based on slipstitches & a simple letterform grid, offers a simple, frustration-free process for beginners, w/o floats or getting entangled'. By Rüdiger Schlömer. #DHmakes

Knit Hello – Typeknitting

Knit Hello is a typeface for typographic knitting.

www.knithello.com

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Reposted by Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti

Scholars' Lab @scholarslab.bsky.social · 23h

As a friendly, free, open-to-all space for learning how to work w/textiles, art, paper/books, 3D printing, ceramics, wood, lasercutting, jewelry, electronics, & more. We work across all fields, & do serious scholarship via making—as well as play & have fun: www.instagram.com/slabmakerspa...

Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.

www.instagram.com

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Reposted by Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti

Scholars' Lab @scholarslab.bsky.social · 23h

SLab Makerspace Manager Ammon Shepherd hosted 4 UVA classes in our vibrant makerspace over the past week! Teach at UVA? We'd love to have your class in for a tour or free workshop supporting what you teach, or help build critical making into your syllabus. We cover craft both historical+new +

Makerspace

A welcoming space for creative crafting, tinkering, and experimentation with technologies like 3D printing, fabric arts, electronics, and physical computing. Open to everyone.

scholarslab.lib.virginia.edu

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Reposted by Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti

Scholars' Lab @scholarslab.bsky.social · 23h

Next week's free, public SLab events: learn to make a quick map of demographic or census data cal.lib.virginia.edu/event/15216591 or sew a tote bag cal.lib.virginia.edu/event/15378510; fresh coffee+ @shane.logoff.website elucidates pesky Python envionment+pkg mgmt cal.lib.virginia.edu/event/15167768

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Reposted by Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti

Scholars' Lab @scholarslab.bsky.social · 23h

Don't forget to sign up for our November *Zines Now!* free public workshops: @josefbeery.bsky.social teaches letterpress printing zine covers cal.lib.virginia.edu/event/14968895; Jess Walters teaches making advocacy zines cal.lib.virginia.edu/event/15124934 (Public=no UVA affiliation needed to join)

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Reposted by Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti

Josh Lappen @jlappen1.bsky.social · 1d

if there is one single thing that we should have learned from the last 30 years, and yet haven't, it's that the curation of information is an extremely difficult task - a science! - and that when you transfer it from trained experts to amateurs or automata, the results can be disastrous.

Caitlin Goodman @caitlinest.bsky.social · 1d

My day is shot bc a colleague just shared this UNC press release about a still to-be-named, to-be-designed, to-be-planned AI school where the only known fact seems to be that it will replace the library school.

www.unc.edu/posts/2025/1...

University leadership announces development of new school at Carolina | UNC-Chapel Hill

The School of Information and Library Science and the School of Data Science and Society will be founding leaders of a new school to amplify and lead Carolina’s response to the information and data ne...

www.unc.edu

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Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · 23h

Definitely deserves it

Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · 1d

I miss our community printshop's system allowing using rubber- & oil-based inks w/their better use experience+print outcome (storing solvents & solvent-drenched rags). Many forum posts eg on Briar Press on other cleanup options & nontoxic inks, just haven't had my own rubber-roller press to test on.

Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · 1d

Speedball relief ink had been fine for shapes (eg large type cut from acrylic; craft foam) so cost, fluorescent colors, simple cleanup make it good for some kinds of intro workshops; just not easy to cleanly print finer lines w/it

Closeup photo of a test print made with a laser engraved acrylic plate using @queermedieval.bsky.social's Portland Frog Hero art, showing the Speedball green fluorescent ink's tackiness sticking messily to the lines (print is also somewhat overinked)

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Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · 1d

Was fun to use our BookBeetle cart for a quick test, though! Since it's a screw press, blocks of any height work (didn't need to mess w/mounting to .918"). (I will use a frisket to avoid the unwanted smears, this was just a lazy pass to check outcome.)

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Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · 1d

The good thing about Speedball relief ink (all I've got @ work)—cleans up just w/hot water—is also the bad thing (viscosity is off, even renewing w/spraybottle, for fine engraved lines). Going to try a diff brand of safewash ink I like better at home, & hopefully reliable oil/rubber based ink soon +

Photo of a large black plastic cart holding a wooden BookBeetle screw press, surrounded by various pieces of testing out printing laser engraved acrylic plates using @queermedieval.bsky.social's Portland Frog Hero art. Green fluorescent ink, brayers, acrylic sheets with ink on them, and a pile of white paper with test prints on them are visible

Closeup photo of laser engraved acrylic plates using @queermedieval.bsky.social's Portland Frog Hero art showing a large inflatable frog suited person facing off against immoral and illegal government agents. Inked in green fluorescent ink.

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Reposted by Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti

Alex Gil @elotroalex.bsky.social · 2d

On the question of whether AI can do indexes. Here's the statement from the ASI.

Nicola King @nicolaking.bsky.social · 2d

Not yet - see the @asindexing.bsky.social statement asindexing.org/ai-news/stat... A human indexer would have caught that kind of error. An AI one might if it had been taught to do so.

Statement on AI and Book Indexing | American Society for Indexing

asindexing.org

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Reposted by Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti

Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 2d

Three SCOTUS cases saw movement this week targeting LGBTQ+ people: A conversation therapy case, a shadow-docket case on trans passports, and a sports ban that will determine equal protection for trans people.

Writer S. Baum details all of them in our latest.

Subscribe to support our journalism.

Three Supreme Court Cases Targeting LGBTQ+ People See Movement This Week

From sports to passports, these cases may determine the vitality of trans rights in the U.S. for generations to come.

www.erininthemorning.com

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Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · 1d

I wasn't sure what IHE stood for, but if it's higher ed institution, both University of Virginia's Faculty Senate (46 in favor, 6 against, 8 abstaining) & Student Council passed nonconfidece resolutions in our board (UVA's board is "visitors" rather than "trustees") over this summer

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Reposted by Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti

J.D. Sargan @jdsargan.bsky.social · 2d

It's true: I wrote a book. And what's more, the book is done and soon you'll be able to own a copy. And what's more more, if you want a hard copy you can order one for 50% off now, with the code SAR50. And if you want it digitally, it'll be open access!

www.arc-humanities.org/978180270163...

Trans Histories of the Medieval Book - Arc Humanities Press

Archival collections are political spaces: the decisions that govern whose histories are preserved, when, and by whom are not neutral. They reflect the commu...

www.arc-humanities.org

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Reposted by Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti

Roxanne Shirazi @roxanneshirazi.bsky.social · 1d

Watching a web archiving presentation and shout out to @literaturegeek.bsky.social for sharing the archived version of their dissertation website so it can be used to demo this new way of rendering web archives online 👏

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Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · 1d

Hurray! Huge thanks to @ilya.webrecorder.net for showing me how I can replace my broken static archival version of the original Drupal site with a Webrecorder recording

Reposted by Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti

Brandon Walsh @walshbr.bsky.social · 2d

Save the date for the next #ByteSizedPedagogy on Thursday October 23, 2025 from 1:00PM to 2:00PM ET. Will be featuring @kairosdoug.bsky.social and @cynthiaheider.com.

cal.lib.virginia.edu/event/15495666

#ByteSizedPedagogy: Douglas Eyman and Cynthia Heider

It’s important to maintain a balanced teaching diet! This free and open-to-the-public zoom series organized by Seanna Viechweg and Brandon Walsh is sponsored by the Scholars' Lab...

cal.lib.virginia.edu

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Reposted by Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti

dhnow.bsky.social @dhnow.bsky.social · 2d

CFP: DLFteach Toolkit, Volume 5 – Digital Pedagogy in Music & Sound Studies | Anna E. Kijas annakijas.com/cfp-dlfteach...

Call for Proposals - DLFteach Toolkit, Volume 5 - Digital Pedagogy in Music & Sound Studies | Anna E. Kijas

A simple, whitespace theme for academics. Based on [*folio](https://github.com/bogoli/-folio) design.

annakijas.com

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Reposted by Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti

Ryan Cordell @ryancordell.org · 2d

If you work with historical newspaper data, check out @matthewkollmer.com’s tutorial for generating image clippings—sections of the full page—based on text & coordinate data. Matthew’s been doing yeoman’s work figuring this in for a forthcoming exhibit for our Virality of Racial Terror project

Matthew Kollmer @matthewkollmer.com · 2d

If you, like me, sometimes need to generate thousands of clipping images from Chronicling America, then you may find this post helpful.

It provides my pipeline (code and explanatory text) for programmatically generating newspaper clipping images via the Chronicling America API.

How to Create Newspaper Clipping Images in Chronicling America, Programmatically – Matthew Johannes Kollmer

matthewkollmer.com

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Reposted by Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti

Matthew Kirschenbaum @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social · 2d

Virginia State Senate Dems just brought down fire and fury regarding the “Compact,” notifying the President and Rector that UVA would lose ALL STATE APPROPRIATIONS if it signs and cedes the University to “federal political control.” Notably, their letter directly restates points made here by @siva.

Siva @sivav.bsky.social · 2d

The “compact” for higher ed is an unserious document written by unserious people from a position of spectacular ignorance. No one should take it seriously. Sadly, my bosses are taking it seriously.

newrepublic.com/article/2013...

Why This Essay Could Cause the University of Virginia to Shut Down

How Linda McMahon’s latest “compact” would do deep and permanent harm to American higher education

newrepublic.com

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Reposted by Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti

alix e. harrow @alixeharrow.bsky.social · 2d

hi charlottesville! if you're voting in the city school board election this november, there are four candidates running for three seats. here's where they stand on the return of police to our schools:

keep police out of cville schools! 2025 school board candidate guide.
zyahna bryant [✓]: opposed school resource officers
lisa torres [✓]: voted against SROs
dashad cooper: supports SROs
emily dooley: voted for SROs as chair
VOTE NOV. 4 2025

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Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · 2d

I know @walshbr.bsky.social has listened to some (including for his walshbr.com/dh-on-the-go) and may have recommendations of ones he's fully listened to & thought well done?

DH on the Go · Brandon Walsh

walshbr.com

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Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · 2d

I've got a free zine on free & inexpensive options to access or buy a press, in peer review right now—I will try to remember to share directly once it's out in case it's useful (& will research & add vices to the options!)