Jim McGrath

Élika Ortega on Binding Media: Hybrid Print-Digital Literature from across the Americas Podcast Episode · Conversations in Atlantic Theory · 11/11/2025 · 53m

I had a great conversation with Fatima Seck for this episode of Conversations in Atlantic Theory where I discuss Binding Media.
I have aversion to listening to my recorded voice but hopefully you won’t 🥸

an Ancient Aliens meme from the Our Marathon project’s meme collection is the most viewed file in Northeastern’s Digital Repository Service. Appreciate my old coworker Sarah Sweeney sharing this data point and others! librarynews.northeastern.edu?p=276987&fbc...

Congrats Jim! Project sounds great!

I am beyond thrilled to share some good news:

1. I've moved to a new job at UC Santa Barbara.

2. We have been selected for a 2025 Humanities and AI Virtual
Institute award from @schmidtsciences.bsky.social!

Both, we hope, will allow us to continue building the work! +
hfa.ucsb.edu/news/schmidt...

cover to Tom Stoppard’s The Invention of Love

i know i am extremely late to the party but this play is great. particularly enjoyable if you are a lapsed literary scholar like me I suppose

It’s that time of year: what was the piece of writing about AI that stuck with you the most this year, pop press or academic? A few of mine in the thread. ⬇️

Some great books and articles on archives and libraries that came out in 2025.

In no specific order.

🧵

Digital Processes, Not Products: Embracing Digital Ephemerality and Iteration Hi! Below you’ll find the text of a “PODTalk” I gave at the 2025 POD Network Conference in San Diego. This was my first time attending and presenting at POD and I really enjoyed m…

I was trying to get at this in a recent conference talk. we should be thinking about digital literacy writ large and folks in digital humanities are well equipped to help universities if we are brought in (and compensated!) jimmcgrath.us/teaching/dig...

CFP: USIH-IU Community Scholars Program | Society for US Intellectual History In partnership with the Institute for American Thought at Indiana University, the Society for U.S. Intellectual History is pleased to announce the continuation of a new opportunity to support continge...

🔔 We’re honored to open a new round in the @susih.bsky.social -IU Community Scholars Program, which unlocks onsite + remote library access for 3 years for contingent scholars + historians working beyond the academy. Please apply + share! CFP due 2/1. Onward! 🗃️ s-usih.org/2025/12/cfp-...

welcome to my life

The Writing Is on the Wall for Handwriting Recognition One of the hardest problems in digital humanities has finally been solved

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-...

And maybe one day we may even realize that "language" and "text" or even "writing" are not the same thing either; and definitely not synonymous of "intelligence"

ELO (un)supervised logo designed by PD Edgar

We're excited to be hosting the next fully-online #ELO2026 @eliterature.bsky.social conference at UCF. As before, we're committed to a low-cost event with an open access archive of recordings and a virtual exhibition open to all. CFP up now: projects.cah.ucf.edu/elo2026/ #dhmakes

Digital Processes, Not Products: Embracing Digital Ephemerality and Iteration Hi! Below you’ll find the text of a “PODTalk” I gave at the 2025 POD Network Conference in San Diego. This was my first time attending and presenting at POD and I really enjoyed m…

"Digital humanities methodologies might serve as useful counters and correctives to desires to prioritize AI outsourcing and integrations at the expense of pedagogy." New blog post from me on digital pedagogy in the age of AI: jimmcgrath.us/teaching/dig...

Feeling inspired by this talk from instructional designer Jim McGrath about use of AI in higher education ❤️

thanks Cathy!!

Digital Processes, Not Products: Embracing Digital Ephemerality and Iteration Hi! Below you’ll find the text of a “PODTalk” I gave at the 2025 POD Network Conference in San Diego. This was my first time attending and presenting at POD and I really enjoyed m…

I posted the talk I gave at the annual POD Network conference last week: "Digital Processes, Not Products: Embracing Digital Ephemerality and Iteration." Topics include AI, digital pedagogy, hypertext, and more! jimmcgrath.us/teaching/dig...

Inside an ICE Defense Training on Fortnite A group of immigrant rights organizers are helping people use Fortnite to practice what to do if they encounter ICE agents in the wild.

Players are roleplaying in Fortnite to teach each other their rights when encountering ICE officials

“I would slip [the warrant] under the door, but there’s no space under the door,” the agent says.

The civilian pauses. “Well. Sounds like a personal problem.”
www.404media.co/ice-defense-...

Very sad to hear that poet Charles Coe has passed away. I was lucky enough to have dinner with him and some mutual friends a few years ago and he was so lovely. www.charlescoe.org/about

you’re gonna be great! those students are lucky to have you!

that brief span of time where it seemed like there was a Ranch 1 on every block of Manhattan

oh Netflix: not sure if you like anime but i am enjoying the new Ranma 1/2 show. the AMC Interview With The Vampire show gets fun. oh it looks like 28 Years Later is on there now, very intense but I enjoyed it. oh and Detroiters if you haven’t seen it!

oh and Crimson Peak if you liked Frankenstein and have not seen it!

if you have Hulu, The Lowdown is good! It is set in Tulsa so I am biased lol but still. M3gan 2.0 is also underrated. also the Phantasm movies (especially Phantasm II and Phantasm III but you kind of need to see the first one)

Salem State University's Center for Teaching Innovation (where I work) has done a light website refresh with some more information about our faculty support work. A first step in raising CTI's profile a bit beyond SSU campus! www.salemstate.edu/cti

If anyone I know is heading to POD in San Diego next week (provided air travel doesn't get worse by then), let me know! I'll be giving a talk on digital pedagogy in the age of AI, iteration, and third-party tools. Also looking for San Diego recs: pinball, book/comic shops, and museums/exhibits.

screenshot of the current Boston Celtics 6-7 record

i feel like we could be making a bigger deal out of this, fellow Celtics fans

“The Post has a content partnership with OpenAI.”

Check our article instead, which uses conversations not individually chosen for public sharing, actually describes our methods and data, and finds quite different distributions for how people use ChatGPT and personal info disclosed in their chats.

photo of The Onion newspaper front page story with the headline “Oprah Pursues Dr. Phil on Ship Through Arctic”

another new Frankenstein adaptation has dropped this year, courtesy of The Onion

I support this plan!