Chris Riedel
@medievalhistory.bsky.social
Teaching medieval & ancient history at a SLAC in Michigan. Researches nostalgia. Lots of nerdy things. A greyhound named Malibu. Still misses old Twitter. he/him 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈
Reposted by Chris Riedel
Really fast we are going to have to decide if universities exist to help humanity cultivate lives worth living or to crank out workers, it can't be both.
December 9, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Really fast we are going to have to decide if universities exist to help humanity cultivate lives worth living or to crank out workers, it can't be both.
Close second would be the absolute masterpiece Without a Clue
December 8, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Close second would be the absolute masterpiece Without a Clue
I'm sure I could have come up with hipper, classier, and definitely less problematic films. But to the extent there's an inner child left in me, he still adores Swiss Family Robinson and climbing around the treehouse at Disney World.
December 7, 2025 at 11:59 PM
I'm sure I could have come up with hipper, classier, and definitely less problematic films. But to the extent there's an inner child left in me, he still adores Swiss Family Robinson and climbing around the treehouse at Disney World.
Sadly I don't have grad students (I teach at a SLAC), but I will advertise as I can!
December 7, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Sadly I don't have grad students (I teach at a SLAC), but I will advertise as I can!
I'm all the way over in A2, so we never get full Lake Effect, thankfully! Good luck shoveling out 😝
December 7, 2025 at 2:19 PM
I'm all the way over in A2, so we never get full Lake Effect, thankfully! Good luck shoveling out 😝
We're getting our third shovel-needing snowfall today, and after the last two pretty easy winters in the lower mitten I had been lulled into a false sense of security... 🥶
December 7, 2025 at 2:15 PM
We're getting our third shovel-needing snowfall today, and after the last two pretty easy winters in the lower mitten I had been lulled into a false sense of security... 🥶
But also how theists can perhaps better understand the value of other creeds than their own. As Symmachus said, the heart of so great a mystery cannot be reached by one road only.
December 6, 2025 at 3:33 PM
But also how theists can perhaps better understand the value of other creeds than their own. As Symmachus said, the heart of so great a mystery cannot be reached by one road only.
Just so - the higher purpose of great speculative fiction, to my mind, and a means that religion can provide meaning even to the irreligious such as myself.
December 6, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Just so - the higher purpose of great speculative fiction, to my mind, and a means that religion can provide meaning even to the irreligious such as myself.
So I suppose it would be better to say that while I do not believe in the reality of any supernatural cosmology, other cosmologies, religious and imagined, have long helped me to process the experience of living in reality.
December 6, 2025 at 1:13 PM
So I suppose it would be better to say that while I do not believe in the reality of any supernatural cosmology, other cosmologies, religious and imagined, have long helped me to process the experience of living in reality.
It occurs to me now that my fascination with religion stems from the same source as my love of genre fiction. I appreciate how human imagination looks beyond the limitations of the natural world to try and articulate its experiences and desires.
December 6, 2025 at 1:05 PM
It occurs to me now that my fascination with religion stems from the same source as my love of genre fiction. I appreciate how human imagination looks beyond the limitations of the natural world to try and articulate its experiences and desires.
I am still an atheist, and I do not think of myself as spiritual in the slightest. Humanity and the world are sufficient for my cosmology. But as I have aged and experienced loss, I understand the pain of absence so much more viscerally than when I first fell in love with Dante's opus as a teenager.
December 6, 2025 at 1:01 PM
I am still an atheist, and I do not think of myself as spiritual in the slightest. Humanity and the world are sufficient for my cosmology. But as I have aged and experienced loss, I understand the pain of absence so much more viscerally than when I first fell in love with Dante's opus as a teenager.
It's a good class, great idea, just didn't exist until 2000, so not appropriate to the 80s, which I also remember.
December 5, 2025 at 6:09 PM
It's a good class, great idea, just didn't exist until 2000, so not appropriate to the 80s, which I also remember.
Reposted by Chris Riedel
Framing GenAI as a battle between teachers and students is a red herring. Students and educators are on the same side. The real opposition are the data extraction firms and brokerages and their allies among the managerial class.
December 4, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Framing GenAI as a battle between teachers and students is a red herring. Students and educators are on the same side. The real opposition are the data extraction firms and brokerages and their allies among the managerial class.
Sure but the idea of sorcerers as a spontaneous caster starts with 3rd ed, there was no such mechanic in the 80s. Indeed there was no class called sorcerer in the 80s.
Loving the season, just deeply annoyed by the anachronism when the show is otherwise so careful.
Loving the season, just deeply annoyed by the anachronism when the show is otherwise so careful.
December 5, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Sure but the idea of sorcerers as a spontaneous caster starts with 3rd ed, there was no such mechanic in the 80s. Indeed there was no class called sorcerer in the 80s.
Loving the season, just deeply annoyed by the anachronism when the show is otherwise so careful.
Loving the season, just deeply annoyed by the anachronism when the show is otherwise so careful.
I completely understand! I have a new course starting in January that doesn't have a syllabus yet 😬
December 4, 2025 at 2:37 PM
I completely understand! I have a new course starting in January that doesn't have a syllabus yet 😬
Honestly kind of an insult to 18th c French monarchs. Some of them were moderately effective, and at least they had taste in architecture.
December 4, 2025 at 2:43 AM
Honestly kind of an insult to 18th c French monarchs. Some of them were moderately effective, and at least they had taste in architecture.
This looks fantastic! I'll see if I can get a grant to cover some of the costs. I would love to learn how to do some of this with my students. Do you have a syllabus I could share with a grant committee?
December 3, 2025 at 3:40 PM
This looks fantastic! I'll see if I can get a grant to cover some of the costs. I would love to learn how to do some of this with my students. Do you have a syllabus I could share with a grant committee?
That and I really don't think very many people are gaming the system. And if there are, then I'm pretty sure they're the kind of people who will always find a way to game the system. You know, like rich people.
December 3, 2025 at 1:01 AM
That and I really don't think very many people are gaming the system. And if there are, then I'm pretty sure they're the kind of people who will always find a way to game the system. You know, like rich people.
I feel the same way about this as I do about welfare: I'd rather some people "get away with it" than that a single person not get what they need and deserve. The latter is vastly more immoral than the former.
December 3, 2025 at 12:59 AM
I feel the same way about this as I do about welfare: I'd rather some people "get away with it" than that a single person not get what they need and deserve. The latter is vastly more immoral than the former.