Mel Stanfill

That’s Columbo.

Columbus is an Ivy League University in Upper Manhattan.

Image: A variation on Benjamin Franklin’s “Join, or Die” engraving, originally published in the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1754. Each segment of the snake has the name of a university sent Trump’s “compact”: Texas, AZ, Vanderbilt, USC, Dartmouth, UVA, Brown, Penn, MIT.

Shared courtesy of my Penn History colleague, Ben Nathans

Soldiers at the Bass Pro Shops pyramid in Memphis, TN.

> It is 2025 BC. I am a soldier from one of the outlying provinces called to defend the pyramid in Memphis

> It is 2025 AD. I am a soldier from one of the outlying provinces called to defend the pyramid in Memphis

“Who was president in 2020?” remains one of the most pertinent questions in American politics—absurd, yes, but here we are—and that extends to “who was president January 1 - 19, 2021?”

Replay book: Undertale - Can a Game Give Hope? with some absolutely fantastic University of Chicago Press wrapping paper.

My new book Undertale: Can a Game Give Hope? is out today from the @uchicagopress.bsky.social Replay series, which is dedicated to short, personal takes on games. I hope it invites readers to visit (or revisit) the Underground and befriend some fabulous monsters. press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

i am reminded of the "new gender neutral bathroom just dropped" meme.

Yay congrats!

Two fan studies scholars winning bar trivia with an answer about Supernatural feels a little too on the nose but here we are.

The plausible deniability playbook: how white victimhood narratives evade moderation In this paper, we examine how victimhood discourses are used to circulate white nationalism and how this interfaces with social media moderation. In particular, we investigate how white nationalist...

my article with Rachel Marks, "The plausible deniability playbook: how white victimhood narratives evade moderation," is now out. we look at the interplay of what doesn't violate TOS and what doesn't make people feel like they are being racist. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Our first information session for the T&T PhD is in ONE WEEK on Wednesday, October 15. Be sure to sign up to learn more about our program!

yay, congrats!

Earlier this year, Dr. Jane Goodall sat down for an interview for Brad Falchuk’s new Netflix series, Famous Last Words.

The premise of the series is to interview people on the condition that the interview not air until the subject has passed away.

on one hand, i feel like it's reasonable to do as many reviews as i receive, which does vary per year. on the other hand, i had to add them up recently and i am averaging doing 10 per year but not getting 10 per year, so i don't know.

oh so judges recuse themselves based on their wives' political activities now. interesting

We are losing something by having newsrooms where everyone who has more than a few years’ experience has gotten fired. I don’t fault a young writer for not knowing about things that happened before she was born. But now there are no editors to help give context to these stories, either.

Hey authors, the official list of Anthropic works is available for searching.

secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup

People think they’re taking down a rich intellectual sinecure but they’re mostly terrorizing committed public servants who make $58,000 a year after 15 years of experience at a school that has to budget creatively so students can access textbooks.

that's my student!

(solemnly) You've had mail.

Want to study the intersection of humanities and technology at a smaller scale than a PhD? T&T also offers an interdisciplinary graduate certificate, Digital Humanities in the Age of AI. We'll be holding an information session Wednesday, November 5 at 6pm applynow.graduate.ucf.edu/register/?id...

if you're thinking about coming to do a #fanstudies PhD with me, here's your chance to learn more.

@archiveofourown.org

A lot of people think that every international student admitted means one fewer spot for domestic students, when the opposite is more likely true - the tuition revenue international students bring allows public universities to provide substantial discounts to domestic students, improving access.

i want to see the @theonion.com parody about 1902 that's just all Upton Sinclair-style "no food inspections, no problem!"

added to my slides for this AI and copyright talk on Thursday, which is definitely not running short right now, ok.

and if that doesn't work, most academics are highly googleable and will email you a pdf of our work because what we care about is getting read.

"one officer smiled for a selfie with her as she cried."

strong candidate for Transformative Work of the Day #3