Mel Stanfill

there are lots of shaky IP claims around LLMs, but in this one it seems like there's a legit right of publicity issue. tagging @rtushnet.bsky.social

2024-2025 Literacy Statistics | National Literacy Institute Literacy Statisitics

Fun fact: 54% of US adults read below a 6th grade level.

You have to actively remember literally over half the US adult population is *unable to perceive subtext*

www.thenationalliteracyinstitute.com/2024-2025-li...

🌟 "Professor Superstar: Fandom and Anti-Fandom of Academia🌟

Mel Stanfill explores how academia acts like a fan culture, with admiration, critique, and microcelebrity shaping how higher education is seen...
@melstanfill.bsky.social
@uofmpress.bsky.social
Discover here: bit.ly/4qzdLVw

TWC Updates Its Editorial Board
journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/tw...

cant.stop.laughing

and that's that on that. this is a moral suasion problem.

also, is "kid rock impersonator" what passes for "hot young men" these days?

Image of a French Venn diagram: chat (cat) on left, eau (water) on right, chateau (castle) in the middle. C'est ci ne pas un meme.

Hon hon hon 🚬🥖🇫🇷

Wow.

Last week I mentioned at a talk my concerns about faculty AI illiteracy. How can faculty teach literacy skills to students when they don't have those skills themselves? An easy example: Folks, please do NOT generate a book proposal and ask your colleagues to waste their time peer reviewing it.

We Need to Talk About the Toxic Fans Ruining TV’s Breakout Hit Heated Rivalry psychosis is real, and it’s been glorious—except for one glaring issue.

one journalist did ask me, though not the one from Wired, obvs. slate.com/culture/2026...

Please settle this important debate: What is the plural of "syllabus": syllabi or syllabuses?

they are relegating ethics to the end AT THE ETHICS CONFERENCE?!

Still time to sign up! THIS FRIDAY.

Yay congrats!

If Bad Bunny can cover the history of Puerto Rico, colonialism, transatlantic slavery, hemispheric consciousness, as well as contemporary life and politics in under 14 minutes, you can do your 15- or 20-minute conference presentation with time to spare.

the suggestion that the libertarian movement has always been anti trump is infuriating, but also a sign that people may have a sense of which way the wind is blowing

Exact copies can be transformative, politician edition

Pale blue flyer in the style of retro video game that reads "Calling all gamers! Do you have big feelings, positive or negative, about generative AI? Now is your chance to participate in a research study to share your thoughts." The link to the survey is tinyurl.com/videogameAIsurvey. The image has two trees on the bottom in each corner.

I'm conducting a research study to learn more about video game players' attitudes toward generative AI. The survey will take approximately 10 minutes of your time. tinyurl.com/videogameAIs...
#gaming #videogames #videogame

Delighted to talk about what the arts and humanities bring to the AI moment at UCF's Center for Humanities and Digital Research today, with @melstanfill.bsky.social. Our roadshow continues next week for @scmspedagogy.bsky.social, when we'll highlight AI's intersections with media industries.

Transformative work of the day:

dig if you will this picture

"Criminality is so rampant inside CBP that it has seen one of its own agents or officers arrested every 24 to 36 hours since 2005...

"Over the 20 years from 2005 to 2024 — the last year numbers are available — at least 4,913 CBP officers and Border Patrol agents have been arrested themselves"

honorable mention to the two-semester honors thesis class that destroyed my GPA and prevented me from ever getting into a PhD in English. i'm definitely not still mad about it, ok?

Never mind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took in college:

1. Survey of Protest Movements
2. Intro to Oceans
3. Bible as Literature
4. World of the Celts
5. Existentialism

We Need to Talk About the Toxic Fans Ruining TV’s Breakout Hit Heated Rivalry psychosis is real, and it’s been glorious—except for one glaring issue.

i was interviewed for this piece about bad fan behavior around Heated Rivalry slate.com/culture/2026...

Still time left to register for this! And if you HATE AI and don't want to talk about it, you'll be surprised how you'll enjoy and get out of this ;)

Waving the cancelling wand: Harry Potter fans and the cancellation of J.K. Rowling The “cancelling” of celebrities is typically understood as a stark, immediate withdrawal of support. However, what happens when cancellation intersects with fandom, known to endure long after artis...

excited to see my article, "Waving the cancelling wand: Harry Potter fans and the cancellation of J.K. Rowling," with Guilherme Giolo and Simone Driessen, out in the world. and it's open access! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The biggest risk in this moment is something sociologists call “symbolic compliance.”

That’s when an institution that is violating civil rights gives the public just enough symbolic victories that accountability efforts lose steam before there has been any meaningful change.