Dr. Ben Mitchell

Honestly, writing about 19th century women scientists is never not a ride.

Oh man I just realized why I kept seeing the same AHA link shared every time I glanced at my feed today and I will say that @contingent-mag.bsky.social would be happy to read a pitch responding to that.

I’m truly so proud of this and the work the entire Draw Steel team did. It’s rare to be given both the opportunity and the freedom to take big swings like this, and @jamesintrocaso.bsky.social, @hellomcdm.bsky.social, and @mattcolville.bsky.social made it possible.

So, so proud of what we made.

My old friend Haje Jan Kamps interviewed me for his podcast, Autistic FM.

We had a great chat! Hadn't caught up in a few years, but we mostly talked about monotropism. #autisticFm
podcastaddict.com/autistic-fm/...

Four copies of a book titled "Network Analysis for Book Historians"

Author copies arrived today! 😍🥳
#dh #bookhistory #medievalsky

I really recommend Empire of Normality by @drrobertchapman.bsky.social, esp in view of the current UK ed crisis which is having an oppressive impact on children & families from the #SEND side of the tracks www.plutobooks.com/978074534866...

Chris Packham backs call to fix autism death review system The LeDeR programme analyses the care received by individuals with learning disabilities or autism who have died.

Chris Packham has supported a call for a major reform in a system designed to prevent deaths among autistic individuals and those with learning disabilities.
#LeDeR

Queer in Alberta Podcast S3 Ep 01 YouTube video by TELUS STORYHIVE

If you are more of a visual/auditory learner, you can also watch our episode with Queer in Alberta! youtu.be/wTXa0tGl6P4

"being absorbed in a flow state can make psychological phenomena outside of the flow states more difficult to monitor as attentional resources are depleted."

#Monotropism anyone...?

In time for Disability Pride Month, @drmbothapsych.bsky.social’s thread on our Q-sort paper on how neurodivergent researchers understood what the neurodiversity movement is and should be (I loaded onto it being a social justice movement and led factor that it should promote genuine social inclusion)

This just means the general public doesn't understand what "history" is as a field.

History isn't memorized dates and names.

History is interpretation and thoughtful analysis. It requires humans asking questions and innovating ways to answer them and combing through ghost stories for reality.

Call for Applications: Editorial Fellowships at History Workshop, 2025 History Workshop is advertising two part-time, paid Editorial Fellowships in 2025, open to early career historians.

Are you an early-career historian with a love for radical, public history?

We are currently looking for two part-time, paid Editorial Fellowships at History Workshop.

Deadline is at midnight on 15th August. See below for more details!

www.historyworkshop....

A collage of four Victorian circus performers standing in front of a circus tent, with flames rising up in the foreground.

The Toronto Circus Riot broke out on this day 170 years ago — sparked by a brawl between angry clowns and firefighters at a Victorian brothel.

Here's my annual thread about one of the strangest stories in Canadian history...

Have you listened to any audiobooks lately? I would love to hear your thoughts on audiobook narration via the link above.

Hi everyone,

As part of my dissertation, I am researching audiobook narration.

If you have listened to an audiobook within the last two years, or have previously been a frequent audiobook user, I would really appreciate your thoughts!

You can find the survey here:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Good gig alert! Great folks at UofG!

I'm here for annotation as counter-storytelling - and an annotation activity like this is something teachers and students can do together to analyze the rhetorical moves in Big Tech press releases about AI in education too.

The Future of Our Nation’s Past – AHA Eight years as an interpretive park ranger at Richmond National Battlefield Park put Ashley Whitehead Luskey on the frontlines of public history.

This is the history that we stand to lose if the Trump administration is allowed to continue to dismantle and gut the National Park Service. Thanks to Ashley Whitehead Luskey for writing this brutally honest and deeply personal op-ed. #NationalParks www.historians.org/perspectives...

"When students are meaningfully included in their school community and have access to the tools and support they need to thrive, their learning opportunities (i.e., their access to literacy, academic vocabulary, and conceptual knowledge) expand in unimaginable ways." TY @jordynbzim.bsky.social.

A final personal challenge described by participants involved feelings of discomfort around engaging students in potentially politically charged discussions. For some participants, the possibility of pushback from students was enough to deter them from attempting nuanced misinformation conversations. Rhylee is careful to choose examples for class that she deems neutral because “there’s always the chance that I have a student in the class who’s very sold on their opinion and wants to argue with me.” Several others echoed that they consciously choose apolitical examples that do not address controversial topics like vaccines or climate change. Additionally, some participants recounted actual experiences with student pushback, like Simone: In a class, I had a New York Times article, and an older male student started going on and on, very loudly and belligerently, about why would I use the New York Times? It’s fake news, what’s my agenda? And it was very uncomfortable. I was completely unprepared for that. Now I just don’t use the New York Times. I mean, they’ve scared me. My students have scared me into the things I use and the way I teach, to tell you the truth.

I never bought into the idea that "librarians can save the world," but when we can't even address misinformation because it requires us to talk about controversial or political topics... we can't even do our actual jobs.

We have to be able to talk about these things. 📚

crl.acrl.org/index.php/cr...

Submissions are coming in for NeuroGLAM 2025. Tomorrow's the last day (barring extenuating circumstances) if you would like to submit a proposal!

Grey textured background. In the bottom right corner, there is a red circle with a line through it. Inside there is blue text that reads AI. Black text reads: ASAN Says No Generative AI in Plain Language! Full plain language statement on our website. The ASAN logo is at the bottom.

Dark grey textured background. There’s a lighter grey box with text that reads: Artificial intelligence is when a computer program does things that normally need to be done by humans. We call artificial intelligence “AI” for short. There are lots of different kinds of AI. The way AI works is by using data from people. Data is information a computer can read. AI programs read data made by people to understand what to do. Generative AI is a specific kind of AI. Generative AI can use data to make new things. Generative AI can create many kinds of new things, like: text images music/movies and more People have already started using generative AI to write plain language.

Grey textured background. Text reads: In our statement, we explain the reasons why people should not use generative AI to write in plain language. Plain language is an important part of making things accessible for people with disabilities. Using generative AI makes “plain language” that is not actually accessible. We hope anyone who writes in plain language will not use generative AI. Here are the reasons we talk about in our statement: Generative AI changes what things mean Plain language is an idea that is too new for generative AI to understand Generative AI focuses on words, not ideas Generative AI has discrimination built-in Plain language is by and for disabled people Read our full statement to learn more about each of these reasons.

Dark grey textured background. There is a blue “AI” with a red circle and line over it. The ASAN logo is at the bottom. There’s a light grey box with the following text: ASAN does not use generative AI for plain language. We hope people writing in plain language understand why you shouldn’t use generative AI for plain language. People writing in plain language should always talk to disabled people first. People with disabilities can give feedback to make stronger plain language papers. We do not need AI to do this work when we already know disabled people can. Nothing about us without us!

Generative AI changes what things mean because it focuses on words, not the meaning. It adds words, changes meaning, and makes "plain language" that is not accessible. We know, because we tested it. Generative AI has no place in plain language. autisticadvocacy.org/2025/07/asan...

An AI-powered Library Search engine that filters controversial topics. Like "genocides" or "Tulsa race riot."
aarontay.substack.com/p/the-ai-pow...

The Losses: Of Archives and Arthropods Dead for centuries, the bees can help save their living descendants

"Without the work of curators and curatorial assistants like myself, the unknown will remain hidden for decades more, quietly disintegrating in the lonely darkness...even dead for centuries, the information they offer can help save their living descendants."

contingentmagazine.org/2025/07/28/t...

The latest addition to the FH multimedia universe: The podcast, where contents are discussed in an entertaining dialogue format.

Each episode can be streamed & downloaded in English & German. Here is the introduction (in English): forbiddenhistories.podbean.com/e/introducti...

Enjoy!

YouTube video by Allison Bernard Memorial High School Emma Stevens - Blackbird by The Beatles sung in Mi'kmaq

Emma Stevens - Blackbird by The Beatles sung in Mi'kmaq

youtu.be/99-LoEkAA3w?...

A really lovely review of COMIC BOOKS, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, AND THE ACADEMIC LIBRARY appears in the Canadian Journal of Academic Librarianship!

cjal.ca/index.php/ca...

Defunding Big Bird: The Politics and History of Public Broadcasting. A Conversation with Josh Shepperd. - Then & Now In this episode of then & now, guest host Dr. Ben Zdencanovic welcomes Professor Josh Shepperd, Associate Professor of Media Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and Director of the Libra...

I enjoyed talking to UCLA's Luskin Center for History and Policy podcast "Then and Now" about the origins and possible future of public media. Thanks to Ben Zdencanovic.

Three copies of Critical Neurodiversity Studies: Divergent Textualities in Literature and Culture edited by Jenny Bergenmar, Louise Creechan, and Anna Stenning with a colourful abstract cover

HUGE DAY

My editor copies of 'Critical Neurodiversity Studies: Divergent Textualities in Literature and Culture' arrived!! I'm so excited for this to be out in the world (officially 7th Aug)

The volume asks 'what would a neurodivergent framework for literary studies look like'?

Legible, visible, conspicuous: disabled ingenuity and “ability accommodations” in the disability memoir First-person accounts of disability and chronic illness have been foundational to the development of disability studies and disability activism. The production of the literary disability memoir places...

Callanan provides an overview of rhetorical strategies disabled memoirists use to make their narratives accessible, and surveys examples of literary memoir from authors writing from and through different mental, neurological, & physical conditions. More: cjds.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/cj...