Rifat Salam

This may sound strange, but many students either consciously or subconsciously do not see school (including college) as an opportunity to "learn." The transactional nature of the system is totalizing. Even students who don't want to outsource their learning to LLMs feel like maybe they should...

ASA President Shelley Correll has selected 2 Presidential Panels for the ASA 2026 Annual Meeting: “Bridging Scholarship and Struggle: The Long Arc of Community-Engaged Sociology” and “Putting Sociology to Work in Research Funding.” Get all the meeting details here: https://bit.ly/ASA2026.

This is hitting so hard right now.

I wish we had educational institutions that were robust enough to maintain a pedagogical mission. But the imbrications with carceral logics and deep investments in ed tech have made the path ahead very narrow.

I have to resist the tech determinist impulse to blame all of this on social media and LLMs, although that's incredibly tempting. The social contract around public education was already incredibly broken by the time the tech came around. >>

This thread is incredibly depressing, although I've heard much of the same from other instructors. >>

Too bad, companies are laying people off before they find out AI can’t replace them.

Can’t wait to see it. Love your blessings, especially.

More and more convinced that an unexpected effect of AI in education is changing evidentiary practices in edu policy. "Testbeds" and live pilot tests are replacing "evidence-based" policy. This means schools are treated as "wild" sites that are modified to produce evidence for policy. >>

Critical AI On this page are some resources for Critical AI Literacy (CAIL) from my perspective.

I have many papers here if you're interested in my views: olivia.science/ai

Dr. Lesley Rennis-African American woman professor behind a podium delivering keynote address.

BMCC Faculty Development Day-keynote speaker Dr. Lesley Rennis presenting “Teaching with Purpose: Creating Learning Spaces That Respect and Challenge Students.” Discussing the effects of trauma in higher education and sympathy versus empathy. #bmcc #cuny #communitycollege

This below is in the context of computer science but we all need to be having this conversation about whether "using AI" in classes prepares you for future jobs or whether actually doing the thing yourself prepares you for a world in which you may or may not use AI. The idea that using AI to write/1

CUNY Graduate Center's election map of NYC displaying the five boroughs with broad swaths of blue (majority Mamdani) and green (majority Cuomo). Info box on the side shows vote counts for 2025 and 2021, with optional filters to toggle by various measures like "registered voters with Irish or Italian surnames"

It really is the best election map. Thank you, Center for Urban Research @thegraduatecenter.bsky.social!

www.urbanresearchmaps.org/electioncomp...

A view from the college teaching trenches coping with AI. Writing loses while tech readiness sees no gains. A thread

What is the endgame here?

It would probably depressed me even more. I can’t wait for this Ouroboros to eat itself alive.

In an analog to tech executives sending their kids to Waldorf schools while pushing screens in K-12, it does feel like authentic learning experiences, developing critical thinking and writing skills in college will be a luxury only available to elites. 6/6

The thing my colleagues and I love most about teaching at #communitycollege is meeting students where they are and supporting their growth. WAC pedagogy emphasizes process, writing-to-learn and engagement over polished writing. GenAI and “hacking” college robs them of that growth. 5/x

And while we do care about academic integrity, my colleagues and I care less about cheating and more about what they are losing. Some of my students worry about AI making them “dumber” or lazy and the recent findings about cognitive offloading bear that out. 4/x

Here I should mention that I also co-facilitated an AI across the curriculum prof dev with colleagues in CS. I know students need AI literacy but what I’m seeing is that students are losing literacy and critical thinking skills while and not actually acquiring AI literacy. 3/x

A colleague who teaches history informed his students that they would be doing writing assignments in class and they freaked out, thinking him the worst type of villain. This is a writing intensive class, but they’d expected that they could have AI generate that writing. 2/x

I am a coordinator of the
Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) program and a sociologist teaching at a community college in NYC. The stories I’m hearing from faculty about students’ AI use, or rather, their inability and unwillingness to do assignments without AI is blowing my mind. 1/x

Normies absolutely have no idea that there are any of the concerns or negative externalities with the major AI platforms, because media absolutely refuse to cover the topic.

Wed, Oct 29, 10am on Zoom.
A monthly online workshop series on responding to urgency. Sessions will employ writing, deep listening and discussion, and somatic practices to facilitate meaningful relationships with each other and communities.
All are welcome. centerforthehumanities.org/event/compas...

My husband and son hate my use of “sporting event” in such instances. What? It applies regardless of category of sport.

Poster of the Open Letter: Stop the uncritical adoption of ‘AI’ technologies in academia, with QR code

Ran into this poster on our campus today 😊

Putin Has a New Tool to Monitor Russians Russia is pushing a “super app” for citizens. What could possibly go wrong?

“Russia has a new way to surveil its citizens: a ‘super app.’ Made by the Russian tech company VK, the app is called Max, and as of September 1, it’s required on every new phone sold in Russia.”

www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

I don’t even want to ask the question.

(1)🎙️ Faculty Spotlight: Jen Siaca Curry

Adjunct professor, social impact leader, and advocate for youth and the arts—Jen Siaca Curry joins MA in Youth Studies student and host Leonor Pereaus for a lively conversation on the latest Youth Studies podcast.

Definitely beats cold nights spent at outdoor fields and uncomfortable bleachers!