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Elliott Sturtevant @elliotts.bsky.social · 3d

I am sympathetic to the need for positive programs, and I am looking for ways (in my little corner of the academy) to collaborate with colleagues in the arch. sciences, for instance, but calling for an end to skepticism and accelerating the concentration of power is not the answer.

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Elliott Sturtevant @elliotts.bsky.social · 3d

A helpful read for thinking about the need to push back against false dichotomies—maker/taker, builder/critic, innovator/regulator—that are currently being used to further marginalize the humanities.

Shannon Mattern @shannonmattern.bsky.social · 3d

Accdg to Bratton, "the intellectuals + artists of this critique industry have seized the public's imagination with its scrutiny of AI, which permeate universities and the arts. Such questions stand in the way of progress." Glad Eryk articulated critiques *within media studies* about StackTheory™️

Is the Media Studies Cabal in the Room With Us Right Now?

I read The Stack in 2020 as a grad student in ANU's Applied Cybernetics program. I give it credit for directing my attention to the interaction between layers of digital and physical infrastructures. ...

mail.cyberneticforests.com

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Elliott Sturtevant @elliotts.bsky.social · 4d

Have a short piece coming out in arq soon that maps out some of my thinking on this. Hoping the next project can be on waste and environmental sinks.

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Elliott Sturtevant @elliotts.bsky.social · 4d

I'm co-hosting this event, titled "Values of Waste," with Alistair Cartwright at the University of Liverpool in two weeks! Please come if you happen to be in the area! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/values-of-...

Values of Waste

This day-long symposium explores the social and material histories of bio-based construction and architecture.

www.eventbrite.co.uk

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Elliott Sturtevant @elliotts.bsky.social · 13d

Got a gash on my head from that concrete as a kid! Watch where you sit!

Reposted by Elliott Sturtevant

Pollyanna Rhee 이채영 @parhee.bsky.social · 15d

An excellent line-up featuring two very lovely grad school classmates, including @elliotts.bsky.social!

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 15d

Energy historians: the Hagley Museum and Library is hosting "The Power of Energy" conference on October 30-31. It's an online conference and registration is now open. This will be a great chance to hear some exciting new research. Hope to see you there (virtually)
www.hagley.org/research/con...
🗃️

2025 Fall Conference | Hagley

www.hagley.org

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Elliott Sturtevant @elliotts.bsky.social · 23d

Little appreciation for my Stargate references in class today. "You know, Abydos, where they first travelled to after entering the Stargate?"

Reposted by Elliott Sturtevant

Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 26d

"Trump has been signaling for a decade or so that political violence committed by his supporters is acceptable and might even be rewarded...Trump and...his acolytes frame such conduct not as violence, but as legitimate...self-defense;...they portray themselves as perpetual victims."

New column:

Violence As Policy in Trump’s America

Jan-Werner Mueller argues that the murder of Charlie Kirk has highlighted the fundamental asymmetry of contemporary US politics.

www.project-syndicate.org

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Elliott Sturtevant @elliotts.bsky.social · 26d

I highly recommend both!

Talia Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 26d

.... well

i wrote one book about weird right wing internet shit

and one book about conservative american religion

Jason Kirk @jasonkirk.fyi · 26d

Every outlet covering any of this stuff needs to have somebody who actually knows conservative American religion and somebody who actually knows weird conservative internet shit. See in here how they not just overlap, but also collide

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Reposted by Elliott Sturtevant

David Rolfe @dorolfe.bsky.social · Sep 9

Shoot. It. Into. My. Veins.

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · Sep 8

"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.

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Elliott Sturtevant @elliotts.bsky.social · Aug 30

"It is as if the administration is building a simulacrum of authoritarianism, albeit one meant to bring the real thing into being." www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/o...

Opinion | The Visual Language of Trump’s Authoritarianism

www.nytimes.com

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Elliott Sturtevant @elliotts.bsky.social · Aug 30

"The postmodernists may have won the battle, but the modernists . . . won the war. What’s ridiculous about all of this, however, is that one side—not dissimilar to the rest of Trump’s quixotic culture warrior fantasies—never stopped fighting." www.thenation.com/article/cult...

No, the White House Is Not Getting a 90,000-Foot Extension

But Trump’s doomed proposal does give us a revealing glimpse into his state of mind.

www.thenation.com

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Reposted by Elliott Sturtevant

AAUP chapter @UT Austin @utaustinaaup.bsky.social · Aug 27

Calling all part-time and full-time faculty in the South: Speak out on academic freedom, shared governance, and your working conditions! Survey closes 8/29 at 5pm ET. States: AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, TX, VA. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

2025 AAUP Faculty in the South Survey

The Georgia conference of the American Association of University Professors [AAUP] and its partners in states across the South have been at the forefront of fighting attacks on higher education. To as...

docs.google.com

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Reposted by Elliott Sturtevant

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · Aug 19

People working in universities know a lot of the work that makes the organization function is outsourced to for-profit companies (catering, landscaping) or runs on platforms requiring payments to such companies: Workday, Canvas, Microsoft, Zoom.

This thread will be for less obvious examples. 1/

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Reposted by Elliott Sturtevant

AAUP @aaup.org · Aug 21

During the Great Recession & the pandemic, doctoral candidates could continue their studies until things got better. This time, the Trump admin cuts to research funding have stripped many of that option.

“This is way worse than those earlier crises. Doctoral students are in panic mode.”

A ‘Great Defection’ threatens to empty universities and colleges of top teaching talent

Political attacks and other problems appear to be driving an exodus of Ph.D.s and faculty from higher education, threatening a diminished experience for undergraduates.

hechingerreport.org

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Elliott Sturtevant @elliotts.bsky.social · Aug 21

Just wish a single email from my employer was something like: "We are hiring more TAs and increasing the Writing Center's capacity!" Rather than the more familiar: "We are pleased to announce our exclusive partnership with Panopto at the upcoming EdTech Conference!"

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Reposted by Elliott Sturtevant

Elliott Sturtevant @elliotts.bsky.social · Aug 8

I'm chairing a panel on "The Architecture of US Empire" at the College Art Association (CAA) conference in February 2026. Abstracts due Aug. 29. Please consider applying! Description ⬇️ caa.confex.com/caa/2026/web...

CAA 114th Annual ConferencePreliminary Program

caa.confex.com

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Elliott Sturtevant @elliotts.bsky.social · Aug 8

(Panel description also available via link above.)

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Elliott Sturtevant @elliotts.bsky.social · Aug 8

I'm chairing a panel on "The Architecture of US Empire" at the College Art Association (CAA) conference in February 2026. Abstracts due Aug. 29. Please consider applying! Description ⬇️ caa.confex.com/caa/2026/web...

CAA 114th Annual ConferencePreliminary Program

caa.confex.com

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Elliott Sturtevant @elliotts.bsky.social · Aug 8

Very keen for similar suggestions (now that AI literacy seems to be a mandatory part of all our jobs).

Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · Aug 8

still looking for other similar suggestions including different kinds of assignments, but also:

if you're assigning students in any humanities discipline to read one piece on understanding college in AI times, what is the piece?

will compile contributions on a stable webpage soon!

Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · Jul 21

syllabus time, teaming up for the herculean efforts of reinventing writing assignments. here, some prompts for required weekly low stakes 250-500 word reflections/ process pieces that have proven relatively conducive to real writing in lit class. please share any similar suggestions in thread.

Elliott Sturtevant @elliotts.bsky.social · Aug 7

"The Voting Rights Act is quite likely dead. Long live the Voting Rights Act." www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/o...

Opinion | The Death of the Fourth American Republic

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Elliott Sturtevant

Joseph Howley @illdottore.bsky.social · Aug 5

My colleague Prof Marianne Hirsch has shared a letter she sent Columbia’s Acting President Claire Shipman about the dangerous measures the university is taking as part of its “agreement” with Donald Trump and Stephen Miller. open.substack.com/pub/riseupco...

I’m afraid that the actions Columbia has taken, hypocritically encouraged by truly antisemitic U.S. government officials, will have the effect of fomenting anti-Jewish prejudice on a large scale. Scholars of racism and antisemitism will tell you that it is extremely dangerous to single out one group for preferential treatment over others. Columbia has singled out Jews on campus, bending over backwards to respond to their experiences since October 2023, while ignoring the concerns of other groups. This is especially true of the large group of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim members of our community who, among a diverse group of students and faculty protesting a brutal war, have been persecuted, vilified and cruelly silenced by the university.

While the agreement with the Trump administration stipulates that Columbia cannot provide special benefits to any group, the university has agreed to do the opposite for Jews. The University has announced that it will appoint faculty in Israel and Jewish Studies (presumably Jews). It will support Jewish life with a special new administrator. It will further elevate the Antisemitism Task Force. It agreed to issue a large pay-out to Jewish students and staff to settle EEOC complaints. It will proceed with mandatory antisemitism training by partisan pro-Israel non-academic organizations. And it has adopted the utterly restrictive IHRA definition of antisemitism that, you have written, will guide disciplinary procedures with “zero tolerance” – contrary to its drafter’s advice and the judgement of over a thousand scholars of antisemitism.

Besides being blatantly contradictory to the basic “non-discrimination”—or, more accurately, anti-DEI – principles Columbia signed on to, this is just the kind of special treatment, or perceived special treatment, that has historically served to foment resentment, prejudice and racialized persecution. Clearly, this is what we are seeing across the country in relation what the right wing is disingenuously describing as preferential treatment of women, queer and trans people, disadvantaged minority groups and immigrants. In singling out Jews in this way, Columbia is amplifying antisemitic tropes about Jewish power rather than combatting anti-Jewish sentiment.

In a broader sense, Columbia does not have to be in the position in which we find ourselves. Our university could accept political protest as part of the practice of democratic world citizenship. It could encourage solidarity, rather than enmity, among the diverse members of our community. It could allow us all to express our views freely, to learn and to change our minds without being policed and punished. It could express its care for all those who are, right now, experiencing fear and despair. Columbia could still be on the right side of history.
Sincerely,
Marianne

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Reposted by Elliott Sturtevant

Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · Jul 17

“It’s not that traditional liberal arts is out of step with student demand. Instead, it’s out of step with the priorities values desires of a powerful board of trustees with no apparent commitment to liberal education, an administrative class.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/o...

Opinion | Students Want the Liberal Arts. Administrators, Not So Much.

www.nytimes.com

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