Victoria Livingstone
@victoriajane.bsky.social
Writer | Mother | Immigrant | Managing Editor @mlnjournal.bsky.social | PhD Hispanic Lit | Fulbright (Brazil) | Bylines WaPo, Time, Guernica, etc. (she/her)
Book forthcoming w Bloomsbury Academic
Human Generated: https://victorialivingstone.substack.com/
Book forthcoming w Bloomsbury Academic
Human Generated: https://victorialivingstone.substack.com/
Pinned
I'm thrilled that my weird essay on babble, the avant-garde, and the confining language of capitalism found a home in Guernica: www.guernicamag.com/aquaduhka/
So true.
I am a naturalized citizen-- I was a child when both my parents were naturalized so it was automatic for me but I remember it very well.
I am a naturalized citizen-- I was a child when both my parents were naturalized so it was automatic for me but I remember it very well.
If you've ever been to a naturalization ceremony, you know they're filled with people whose palpable love of this country is twenty times stronger than the pinched "patriotism" of any native-born MAGA chud.
Just unspeakable assholery.
Just unspeakable assholery.
Read this: www.wgbh.org/news/local/2...
December 7, 2025 at 2:23 AM
So true.
I am a naturalized citizen-- I was a child when both my parents were naturalized so it was automatic for me but I remember it very well.
I am a naturalized citizen-- I was a child when both my parents were naturalized so it was automatic for me but I remember it very well.
Reposted by Victoria Livingstone
The Trump admin has paused all immigration and naturalization processes for people from one of the 19 travel ban countries; including Cuba and Venezuela.
Even people who fully passed the citizenship exam are having their cases put on hold, just inches from the finish line.
Even people who fully passed the citizenship exam are having their cases put on hold, just inches from the finish line.
Scoop: The Trump administration has paused all immigration applications filed by people from 19 countries banned from travel to the United States earlier this year, halting green card and U.S. citizenship processing for broad swaths of people.
More coming soon.
More coming soon.
December 2, 2025 at 9:19 PM
The Trump admin has paused all immigration and naturalization processes for people from one of the 19 travel ban countries; including Cuba and Venezuela.
Even people who fully passed the citizenship exam are having their cases put on hold, just inches from the finish line.
Even people who fully passed the citizenship exam are having their cases put on hold, just inches from the finish line.
Reposted by Victoria Livingstone
I must have missed the news that congress passed a law saying naturalization can totally be denied for arbitrary and capricious reasons and gave the president the authority to withhold citizenship from black and brown people
“She showed up as scheduled, and when she arrived, officers were asking everyone what country they were from, and if they said a certain country, they were told to step out of line and that their oath ceremonies were canceled.”
www.wgbh.org/news/local/2... @gbhnews.bsky.social
www.wgbh.org/news/local/2... @gbhnews.bsky.social
Immigrants kept from Faneuil Hall citizenship ceremony as feds crackdown nationwide
Trump administration is pausing naturalizations for immigrants from 19 countries.
www.wgbh.org
December 6, 2025 at 12:51 AM
I must have missed the news that congress passed a law saying naturalization can totally be denied for arbitrary and capricious reasons and gave the president the authority to withhold citizenship from black and brown people
It turns out that I cannot write two books at once + work full-time + be a single mother to a young child. (who would have guessed?)
For the next 3 months I'm shifting my attention from writing on AI to focusing on my forthcoming book. You can read about it here: open.substack.com/pub/victoria...
For the next 3 months I'm shifting my attention from writing on AI to focusing on my forthcoming book. You can read about it here: open.substack.com/pub/victoria...
December 5, 2025 at 3:06 PM
It turns out that I cannot write two books at once + work full-time + be a single mother to a young child. (who would have guessed?)
For the next 3 months I'm shifting my attention from writing on AI to focusing on my forthcoming book. You can read about it here: open.substack.com/pub/victoria...
For the next 3 months I'm shifting my attention from writing on AI to focusing on my forthcoming book. You can read about it here: open.substack.com/pub/victoria...
Just arrived-- how many of you am I going to see in Toronto next month for the @modernlanguage.bsky.social convention?
December 4, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Just arrived-- how many of you am I going to see in Toronto next month for the @modernlanguage.bsky.social convention?
Reposted by Victoria Livingstone
"Pete Hegseth is a murderer. He meets all of the legal qualifications to be a murderer. He should be charged with murder for his role in killing unarmed civilians on boats in the Caribbean...These attacks have killed an estimated 83 civilians...these people are not combatants."
Pete Hegseth Should Be Charged With Murder
No matter how you look at the strikes on alleged “drug boats”—as acts of war or attacks on civilians—Hegseth has committed a crime and should be prosecuted.
www.thenation.com
December 4, 2025 at 2:05 PM
"Pete Hegseth is a murderer. He meets all of the legal qualifications to be a murderer. He should be charged with murder for his role in killing unarmed civilians on boats in the Caribbean...These attacks have killed an estimated 83 civilians...these people are not combatants."
great thread:
Not one of the bigger issues, but an annoyance of teaching composition in the age of AI is that I'm constantly uncertain of what the students know and don't know, which makes it difficult to calibrate my teaching choices relative to my perceived sense of their understanding.
December 3, 2025 at 5:30 PM
great thread:
Tip for authors: Antagonizing your editors will not serve you well in the long term (or in the short term, really).
(most authors I deal with are wonderful-- but there are some exceptions).
(most authors I deal with are wonderful-- but there are some exceptions).
December 3, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Tip for authors: Antagonizing your editors will not serve you well in the long term (or in the short term, really).
(most authors I deal with are wonderful-- but there are some exceptions).
(most authors I deal with are wonderful-- but there are some exceptions).
I loved working on this issue. Open access on @projectmuse.bsky.social @hopkinspress.bsky.social
Just arrived! From Christy Wampole's essay on the Zeitgeist (including a discussion of the origin of the term) to editor Derek Schilling's reflection on experimental poetics-- this issue explores a quarter century of literature in French. OA! @hopkinspress.bsky.social
muse.jhu.edu/journal/128
muse.jhu.edu/journal/128
December 2, 2025 at 6:59 PM
I loved working on this issue. Open access on @projectmuse.bsky.social @hopkinspress.bsky.social
I'm in especially considering I have to turn in a book manuscript in 3 months!
starting Dec 1st! ie tomorrow!
for structure to eke out pages at a bonkers time of year (that is also a precious writing-est time):
you can do 250 words a day! books get written that way! if more, amazing! if not when grading or festive-ing, that's ok!
check in daily at #acadecawriteathon
for structure to eke out pages at a bonkers time of year (that is also a precious writing-est time):
you can do 250 words a day! books get written that way! if more, amazing! if not when grading or festive-ing, that's ok!
check in daily at #acadecawriteathon
is there a NaNoWriMo but for December and academic/ nonfiction? Should we start it?
December 1, 2025 at 1:35 AM
I'm in especially considering I have to turn in a book manuscript in 3 months!
The editorial accomplishment I am most proud of this year is soliciting a review essay from Yael Segalovitz on close reading. Stay tuned! And congrats again @johannawinant.bsky.social and @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social
Happy to see @johannawinant.bsky.social and @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social getting great press-- nice essay by Johanna here. Our Comparative Literature issue (now in proofs-- coming soon) has a terrific essay on the subject by Yael Segalovitz. Stay tuned!
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
The Claims of Close Reading - Boston Review
Literary studies have been starved by austerity, but their core methodology remains radical.
www.bostonreview.net
November 30, 2025 at 11:23 PM
The editorial accomplishment I am most proud of this year is soliciting a review essay from Yael Segalovitz on close reading. Stay tuned! And congrats again @johannawinant.bsky.social and @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social
open for submissions! Please share with colleagues in French.
A reminder that we are open for submissions for our French issue-- deadline January 30. Articles in French or English.
Email [email protected] with any questions.
Please share with interested colleagues!
Email [email protected] with any questions.
Please share with interested colleagues!
November 30, 2025 at 7:02 PM
open for submissions! Please share with colleagues in French.
Reposted by Victoria Livingstone
Leopards, faces, etc.
Major AI conference flooded with peer reviews written fully by AI
Controversy has erupted after 21% of manuscript reviews for an international AI conference were found to be generated by artificial intelligence.
www.nature.com
November 30, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Leopards, faces, etc.
Reposted by Victoria Livingstone
This quote from the Atlantic is right & true! One odd thing is how these points, which have been obvious for several years to anyone who spent five minutes considering how LLMs work & what education is, are finally coalescing into the standard take from the center of middlebrow opinion—why only now?
“Based on the available evidence, the skills that future graduates will most need in the AI era—creative thinking, the capacity to learn new things, flexible modes of analysis—are precisely those that are likely to be eroded by inserting AI into the educational process.”
“When you allow a machine to summarize your reading, to generate the ideas for your essay, and then to write that essay, you’re not learning how to read, think, or write.“
November 30, 2025 at 2:32 PM
This quote from the Atlantic is right & true! One odd thing is how these points, which have been obvious for several years to anyone who spent five minutes considering how LLMs work & what education is, are finally coalescing into the standard take from the center of middlebrow opinion—why only now?
Reposted by Victoria Livingstone
My microwave sings a little song when my Hot Pocket is done. Should it have the right to vote?
November 25, 2025 at 8:44 PM
My microwave sings a little song when my Hot Pocket is done. Should it have the right to vote?
yup--- also my experience as an editor except I sometimes go through a dozen names.
that list of four potential peer reviewers you gave your acquisitions editor? one of them is retired, another is chairing their department and simply can't, the third is on leave and has an autoreply up for months, and the fourth replied within 20 seconds to say "no."
November 25, 2025 at 2:03 PM
yup--- also my experience as an editor except I sometimes go through a dozen names.
New issue!
Reflections on a quarter century of writing in French. Check out this beautiful special issue edited by Derek Schilling. It's open access! @hopkinspress.bsky.social
November 24, 2025 at 9:13 PM
New issue!
Reposted by Victoria Livingstone
Yesterday my partner and I counted all the ads along Chicago's Brown Line for "Friend," a company selling an AI chatbot pendant, and tallied how many of those ads were defaced.
Still working on a longer piece on this, but here's the quick and dirty: we counted 104 "Friend" ads total, 42 defaced.
Still working on a longer piece on this, but here's the quick and dirty: we counted 104 "Friend" ads total, 42 defaced.
November 23, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Yesterday my partner and I counted all the ads along Chicago's Brown Line for "Friend," a company selling an AI chatbot pendant, and tallied how many of those ads were defaced.
Still working on a longer piece on this, but here's the quick and dirty: we counted 104 "Friend" ads total, 42 defaced.
Still working on a longer piece on this, but here's the quick and dirty: we counted 104 "Friend" ads total, 42 defaced.
Reposted by Victoria Livingstone
I keep coming back to this
November 23, 2025 at 11:00 PM
I keep coming back to this
Great idea from @ketanjoshi.co add this to pitch emails.
I have a Substack called "Human Generated" and I have written
for Time and UNESCO Ideas Lab about AI (and why I do not use it) so hopefully it's already clear, but still-- I'm going to consider adding a statement like the one below.
I have a Substack called "Human Generated" and I have written
for Time and UNESCO Ideas Lab about AI (and why I do not use it) so hopefully it's already clear, but still-- I'm going to consider adding a statement like the one below.
This is the generative AI non-use policy on my website: I am strongly considering actively including this prominently in any cold pitch email I send
If any media outlets sees this as a turn off, GOOD: I don't want to work for outlets that are neutral or open to fabrication and lies
ketanjoshi.co
If any media outlets sees this as a turn off, GOOD: I don't want to work for outlets that are neutral or open to fabrication and lies
ketanjoshi.co
November 23, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Great idea from @ketanjoshi.co add this to pitch emails.
I have a Substack called "Human Generated" and I have written
for Time and UNESCO Ideas Lab about AI (and why I do not use it) so hopefully it's already clear, but still-- I'm going to consider adding a statement like the one below.
I have a Substack called "Human Generated" and I have written
for Time and UNESCO Ideas Lab about AI (and why I do not use it) so hopefully it's already clear, but still-- I'm going to consider adding a statement like the one below.
Reposted by Victoria Livingstone
If you're trying to convince your friends to spend time on Bluesky rather than X, maybe show them this. X is not "the public town square" or about "free speech." It's "just what Elon Musk wants you to see." If you see stuff he doesn't like he'll step in to make sure you don't see it for long.
If you scroll on X, you are only being shown what Elon wants you to see. If you create content on X, no one will see it unless Elon wants them to.
November 21, 2025 at 1:31 AM
If you're trying to convince your friends to spend time on Bluesky rather than X, maybe show them this. X is not "the public town square" or about "free speech." It's "just what Elon Musk wants you to see." If you see stuff he doesn't like he'll step in to make sure you don't see it for long.
Reposted by Victoria Livingstone
After 140 years, MLN will have a regular issue devoted to Yiddish, Hebrew, and other Jewish languages. I don’t know about you, but I’m excited!
Please help us get the word out and please send me your work.
Please help us get the word out and please send me your work.
We are thrilled to announce a call for our inaugural Yiddish & Hebrew issue edited by @samspinner.bsky.social
Please circulate widely. We are open to work that engages with Jewish literature, culture, and thought in any language.
@hopkinspress.bsky.social
Please circulate widely. We are open to work that engages with Jewish literature, culture, and thought in any language.
@hopkinspress.bsky.social
November 21, 2025 at 12:50 AM
After 140 years, MLN will have a regular issue devoted to Yiddish, Hebrew, and other Jewish languages. I don’t know about you, but I’m excited!
Please help us get the word out and please send me your work.
Please help us get the word out and please send me your work.
I'm so excited to share this call for our inaugural Yiddish & Hebrew issue published by @hopkinspress.bsky.social
Please share!
You can email [email protected] with any questions.
Please share!
You can email [email protected] with any questions.
We are thrilled to announce a call for our inaugural Yiddish & Hebrew issue edited by @samspinner.bsky.social
Please circulate widely. We are open to work that engages with Jewish literature, culture, and thought in any language.
@hopkinspress.bsky.social
Please circulate widely. We are open to work that engages with Jewish literature, culture, and thought in any language.
@hopkinspress.bsky.social
November 20, 2025 at 8:12 PM
I'm so excited to share this call for our inaugural Yiddish & Hebrew issue published by @hopkinspress.bsky.social
Please share!
You can email [email protected] with any questions.
Please share!
You can email [email protected] with any questions.
Reposted by Victoria Livingstone
They're destroying American higher ed and CELEBRATING IT.
It's obscene.
It's obscene.
The White House just blasted this out under the headline "Good News You May Have Missed"
November 20, 2025 at 1:07 PM
They're destroying American higher ed and CELEBRATING IT.
It's obscene.
It's obscene.
Read the whole thread:
The bigger change is presentation, historically, these emails were visually chaotic: sudden colour changes, ALL CAPS, screenshots pasted at random. Classic signs of disordered thinking. Now they’re neat, structured, and grammatically consistent. The delusion hasn't changed, but the formatting has.
November 19, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Read the whole thread: