Gillian Gower, PhD
@medievaliste.bsky.social
your least favorite professor’s least favorite professor
research: music, political culture, and identity in medieval England and beyond
academic editing and historical consulting ⤵️
glgower.com
research: music, political culture, and identity in medieval England and beyond
academic editing and historical consulting ⤵️
glgower.com
Pinned
Music and politics expert here. There is no music that is free from politics, because music is a human construct and whether or not we like to admit it, humans are all affected intimately by politics. Even music without words can express political ideas. You’re just noticing it for the first time.
I can only speak to academia and music, but in my experience this is an accurate assessment.
(Note that "affluent" here can simply mean what we used to call "middle class"; ultra wealthy Americans generally do not deign to become professors or artists.)
(Note that "affluent" here can simply mean what we used to call "middle class"; ultra wealthy Americans generally do not deign to become professors or artists.)
This is one of those things that rarely gets talked about that has had a massive effect.
As fields like journalism, art, and academia were collapsed and living expenses skyrocketed they came to skew increasingly toward people whose families could afford to supplement their income.
As fields like journalism, art, and academia were collapsed and living expenses skyrocketed they came to skew increasingly toward people whose families could afford to supplement their income.
If you're ever wondered why journalists seem so out of touch most of the time it's because in order to establish yourself you need to either come from money, marry into money, or be OK with abject poverty and daily financial panic
That third thing is unsustainable long-term
That third thing is unsustainable long-term
November 26, 2025 at 2:38 AM
I can only speak to academia and music, but in my experience this is an accurate assessment.
(Note that "affluent" here can simply mean what we used to call "middle class"; ultra wealthy Americans generally do not deign to become professors or artists.)
(Note that "affluent" here can simply mean what we used to call "middle class"; ultra wealthy Americans generally do not deign to become professors or artists.)
The real reason pecan pie is controversial is that no one knows how to pronounce its name
November 26, 2025 at 2:08 AM
The real reason pecan pie is controversial is that no one knows how to pronounce its name
The best part of the never-ending Wicked press tour is Cynthia Erivo's nails. The second best part is actually getting to hear two highly accomplished singers talking about their approach to vocal technique.
November 26, 2025 at 1:56 AM
The best part of the never-ending Wicked press tour is Cynthia Erivo's nails. The second best part is actually getting to hear two highly accomplished singers talking about their approach to vocal technique.
I have no problem with the use of machine learning technology for transcribing handwritten manuscripts. But given I've found ample human errors in printed transcriptions and debated the meaning of a single sign or letter, my take is that it's unwise to declare transcription to be a "solved" problem.
November 25, 2025 at 11:39 PM
I have no problem with the use of machine learning technology for transcribing handwritten manuscripts. But given I've found ample human errors in printed transcriptions and debated the meaning of a single sign or letter, my take is that it's unwise to declare transcription to be a "solved" problem.
Reposted by Gillian Gower, PhD
I am heavily invested in handwriting & historical documents. Historians need to weigh carefully whether time spent transcribing documents is “wasted,” or whether it actually helps thought processes & skills. This is not to say these tools should not be used.
Just consider the cost of “time saved.”
Just consider the cost of “time saved.”
New issue of my newsletter: "The Writing Is on the Wall for Handwriting Recognition" — One of the hardest problems in digital humanities has finally been solved, and it's a good use of AI newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...
The Writing Is on the Wall for Handwriting Recognition
One of the hardest problems in digital humanities has finally been solved
newsletter.dancohen.org
November 25, 2025 at 8:11 PM
I am heavily invested in handwriting & historical documents. Historians need to weigh carefully whether time spent transcribing documents is “wasted,” or whether it actually helps thought processes & skills. This is not to say these tools should not be used.
Just consider the cost of “time saved.”
Just consider the cost of “time saved.”
Reposted by Gillian Gower, PhD
"exiting the market" is a fun euphemism for thousands of students left without a school, thousands of people put out of work, entire local economies destroyed, and priceless knowledge lost.
I never thought it would be possible to have a stupider university policy than the Tories, but Labour schooled me.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Fifty higher education providers at risk of exiting market in England, MPs told
Regulator says 24 are at more immediate risk and may have to stop degree courses within next 12 months
www.theguardian.com
November 25, 2025 at 8:09 PM
"exiting the market" is a fun euphemism for thousands of students left without a school, thousands of people put out of work, entire local economies destroyed, and priceless knowledge lost.
Can you be charged with animal cruelty for neglecting your Tamagotchi back in 1996? Some private pilots are saying yes
November 25, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Can you be charged with animal cruelty for neglecting your Tamagotchi back in 1996? Some private pilots are saying yes
Reposted by Gillian Gower, PhD
Randos on the internet: “it has use cases if you’re careful!”
The biggest insurance companies in the country:
techcrunch.com/2025/11/23/a...
The biggest insurance companies in the country:
techcrunch.com/2025/11/23/a...
AI is too risky to insure, say people whose job is insuring risk | TechCrunch
Major insurers including AIG, Great American, and WR Berkley are asking U.S. regulators for permission to exclude AI-related liabilities from corporate policies. One underwriter describes the AI model...
techcrunch.com
November 24, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Randos on the internet: “it has use cases if you’re careful!”
The biggest insurance companies in the country:
techcrunch.com/2025/11/23/a...
The biggest insurance companies in the country:
techcrunch.com/2025/11/23/a...
Reposted by Gillian Gower, PhD
Happy St Katherine's Day to all scholars, librarians, and Katherines. May you win an argument against an annoying man today, in the true spirit of Katherine herself.
November 25, 2025 at 7:08 AM
Happy St Katherine's Day to all scholars, librarians, and Katherines. May you win an argument against an annoying man today, in the true spirit of Katherine herself.
Reposted by Gillian Gower, PhD
If you receive legal threats from Nigel Farage for your reporting of Reform, please get in touch.
We have employed a defamation lawyer specifically for this purpose and would love to help (and we do so on non-commercial terms). www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
We have employed a defamation lawyer specifically for this purpose and would love to help (and we do so on non-commercial terms). www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Reform’s ‘Trumpian’ legal threats hint at more aggressive approach to media
Ultimatums sent to publications appear to intensify as Nigel Farage’s party rises in polls
www.theguardian.com
November 25, 2025 at 8:29 AM
If you receive legal threats from Nigel Farage for your reporting of Reform, please get in touch.
We have employed a defamation lawyer specifically for this purpose and would love to help (and we do so on non-commercial terms). www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
We have employed a defamation lawyer specifically for this purpose and would love to help (and we do so on non-commercial terms). www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Gillian Gower, PhD
BREAKING: This is huge news, the EU's equivalent of the 🇺🇸Supreme Court's 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling.
🇪🇺Court of Justice just ruled all 🇪🇺countries must recognise same-sex marriages granted in other member states.
This effectively legalises gay marriage across 🇪🇺
🇪🇺Court of Justice just ruled all 🇪🇺countries must recognise same-sex marriages granted in other member states.
This effectively legalises gay marriage across 🇪🇺
www.reuters.com
November 25, 2025 at 10:10 AM
BREAKING: This is huge news, the EU's equivalent of the 🇺🇸Supreme Court's 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling.
🇪🇺Court of Justice just ruled all 🇪🇺countries must recognise same-sex marriages granted in other member states.
This effectively legalises gay marriage across 🇪🇺
🇪🇺Court of Justice just ruled all 🇪🇺countries must recognise same-sex marriages granted in other member states.
This effectively legalises gay marriage across 🇪🇺
I don’t think I can handle another traditional foods discourse. Wake me up when the tedious threads of white people virtue signaling are over
November 25, 2025 at 4:38 PM
I don’t think I can handle another traditional foods discourse. Wake me up when the tedious threads of white people virtue signaling are over
Reposted by Gillian Gower, PhD
We @uam-umd.bsky.social won. Faculty packed town halls, talked to their colleagues and collected hundreds of petition signatures. Now UMD is coughing up $8.75m, during a deficit, to fund faculty whose research is under attack. Not enough, but a helluva thing for a union the state calls illegal.
$8.75M Investment Supports ‘Research Resilience’… | Maryland Today
UMD, MPower Funds Combine to Help Preserve Institutional Capabilities, Lab Operations and More
today.umd.edu
November 25, 2025 at 2:32 PM
We @uam-umd.bsky.social won. Faculty packed town halls, talked to their colleagues and collected hundreds of petition signatures. Now UMD is coughing up $8.75m, during a deficit, to fund faculty whose research is under attack. Not enough, but a helluva thing for a union the state calls illegal.
Woke 2 means someone is going to hire me to be a professor again. Sorry if that upsets you, but I don’t make the rules of Woke 2
November 25, 2025 at 3:27 AM
Woke 2 means someone is going to hire me to be a professor again. Sorry if that upsets you, but I don’t make the rules of Woke 2
Reposted by Gillian Gower, PhD
Woke Ellington, composer of such hits as:
•Mood Indigo Hair
•Sophisticated Enby
•East St Louis Land Acknowledgement
•I Got It Bad (and That's Problematic)
•Mood Indigo Hair
•Sophisticated Enby
•East St Louis Land Acknowledgement
•I Got It Bad (and That's Problematic)
November 25, 2025 at 2:15 AM
Woke Ellington, composer of such hits as:
•Mood Indigo Hair
•Sophisticated Enby
•East St Louis Land Acknowledgement
•I Got It Bad (and That's Problematic)
•Mood Indigo Hair
•Sophisticated Enby
•East St Louis Land Acknowledgement
•I Got It Bad (and That's Problematic)
Begging media elites not to let Ken Burns get anywhere near music history again
November 25, 2025 at 1:34 AM
Begging media elites not to let Ken Burns get anywhere near music history again
The ChatGPT essay assignment post may have been deleted but the discourse remains Eternal
November 25, 2025 at 1:30 AM
The ChatGPT essay assignment post may have been deleted but the discourse remains Eternal
The early music authenticity debate but it’s five philosophy bros and one retired physicist who listens to classical rock doing AI euphoria
November 24, 2025 at 5:41 PM
The early music authenticity debate but it’s five philosophy bros and one retired physicist who listens to classical rock doing AI euphoria
…someone out there is doing “I reconstructed the W1 stemma with ChatGPT”, aren’t they
Trying to imagine an AHA panel that’s like “check out this lost document I generated with chatGPT, it solves a mystery!”
November 24, 2025 at 5:39 PM
…someone out there is doing “I reconstructed the W1 stemma with ChatGPT”, aren’t they
Reposted by Gillian Gower, PhD
"The right to literacy came at a heavy cost for many Americans. Power recognised that oppression is best maintained by keeping the masses illiterate.
Dont surrender to AI your ability to read write+ think when others once risked their lives and died for it."
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/set-tr...
Dont surrender to AI your ability to read write+ think when others once risked their lives and died for it."
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/set-tr...
I Set A Trap To Catch Students Cheating With AI. The Result Was Deflating
"I am no stranger to students trying to cut corners by copying and pasting from Wikipedia, but the introduction of generative AI has enabled them to cheat in startling new ways."
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk
November 24, 2025 at 5:05 PM
"The right to literacy came at a heavy cost for many Americans. Power recognised that oppression is best maintained by keeping the masses illiterate.
Dont surrender to AI your ability to read write+ think when others once risked their lives and died for it."
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/set-tr...
Dont surrender to AI your ability to read write+ think when others once risked their lives and died for it."
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/set-tr...
Are humanities fields other than music putting out conference panels that trumpet the “ability” of genAI to “create” “posthuman” “works” of “art” or are we just cooked?
November 24, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Are humanities fields other than music putting out conference panels that trumpet the “ability” of genAI to “create” “posthuman” “works” of “art” or are we just cooked?
Most of the freshman in my courses don’t know the difference between a song and a symphony. If they’re majors, they might know a little more—but they’ll take 2-3 courses in my field, max.
If you want me to also teach them to parse AI slop music criticism, change the degree requirements.
If you want me to also teach them to parse AI slop music criticism, change the degree requirements.
I will add the following: our students lack the research skills required to audit an LLM essay for errors. They don’t arrive on campus with these skills; we teach it to them over four long years. So throwing freshmen in the deep end and saying “swim your way to a shore of rectitude” is folly.
November 24, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Most of the freshman in my courses don’t know the difference between a song and a symphony. If they’re majors, they might know a little more—but they’ll take 2-3 courses in my field, max.
If you want me to also teach them to parse AI slop music criticism, change the degree requirements.
If you want me to also teach them to parse AI slop music criticism, change the degree requirements.
Reposted by Gillian Gower, PhD
It also misses the other problem: the disintegration of truth and falsity everywhere, especially outside academia. The fact that LLMs even exist creates a “permission structure of doubt”: Even things that are real and true can be easy doubted because they “could” be fake, they “could” be A.I.
Two years ago I had lunch with the dean of a department at one of Toronto’s major universities and she told me she had instructed all her profs teaching first-year classes to do exactly this. It sounded sensible and I wonder if it’s now more widely applied
November 24, 2025 at 1:04 PM
It also misses the other problem: the disintegration of truth and falsity everywhere, especially outside academia. The fact that LLMs even exist creates a “permission structure of doubt”: Even things that are real and true can be easy doubted because they “could” be fake, they “could” be A.I.
Reposted by Gillian Gower, PhD
This is not the way, and @cnygren.bsky.social and I lay out in detail why it isn’t in this essay here. static1.squarespace.com/static/55577...
November 24, 2025 at 1:16 PM
This is not the way, and @cnygren.bsky.social and I lay out in detail why it isn’t in this essay here. static1.squarespace.com/static/55577...
Reposted by Gillian Gower, PhD
It might be that the loudest people online are also the least connected to social action.
November 24, 2025 at 2:41 AM
It might be that the loudest people online are also the least connected to social action.