Sonja Drimmer

And the library infrastructure for print books continues to crumble. No more binderies, no more distributors. Getting pretty bleak!

Indeed!

That’s very amusing. Coincidentally, on the phone with my mom yesterday who couldn’t remember “squirrel” and kept saying “ardilla,” but I’d forgotten “ardilla.” Brains…they’re bastards.

I kept losing the word I needed today in a fac meeting and wanting to say “amargura” before locating “bitterness” in the cavern of my brain.

I have been researching and writing about for enough years that I have now gone through all twelve steps of Feelings about these conversations. If you feel like it will be of use the article I published that’s pinned in my profile might move the needle with them?

I get an email about “ai advocate hackathon” every couple days. We are being offered a chance to train our replacements.*

*they can’t actually do the work
**but an admin thinks they can and then fire half of us to monitor the bots

Pleased to shout out my comrade Annie Sollinger on this! bsky.app/profile/sonj...

There are so few people actually asking, “is this any good for what we do?” Instead people give lip service to “responsible use” while plowing ahead with punching “AI” into everything. This isn’t just about selling a product; it’s about co-opting humanities researchers to train “AI” models.

Artificial Intelligence in Cultural Institutions: a two-day conference in Gorizia on 6th and 7th October

Here’s another example of how the tech industry is infiltrating cultural institutions, mining historical artifacts & historical expertise. The rhetoric here of “advantages & limitations” is common, but the conclusion is foregone that AI has a role in this sphere. portale.units.it/en/news/arti...

When I first started working at UMass, I decided that I needed to learn more about what it is, what it means to work for a public university in the 21st-century. Newfield's _Unmaking the Public University_ was my entry into critical university studies, & I have so much admiration for his work.

Academics Must Seize the Means of Knowledge Production - Public Books Trumpism has canceled the knowledge society.

I wanted to excerpt something from this piece, grab a pull-quote to post. But, as always, Newfield demands to be read in full. Just read it.

www.publicbooks.org/academics-mu...

Overheard at the UMass bus stop: one undergrad interrupts another who’s reading. “I love that book!” Brief but energetic conversation about it ensues. Legitmately made my day.

We stan Gramsci in this house.

There are so few people actually asking, “is this any good for what we do?” Instead people give lip service to “responsible use” while plowing ahead with punching “AI” into everything. This isn’t just about selling a product; it’s about co-opting humanities researchers to train “AI” models.

Artificial Intelligence in Cultural Institutions: a two-day conference in Gorizia on 6th and 7th October

Here’s another example of how the tech industry is infiltrating cultural institutions, mining historical artifacts & historical expertise. The rhetoric here of “advantages & limitations” is common, but the conclusion is foregone that AI has a role in this sphere. portale.units.it/en/news/arti...

A large fluffy labradoodle lying down on a camping chair at a campsite with his paws elegantly hanging over the front of the chair, while he turns his head to look at the right

Talbot just sees camping as an opportunity to be perfect in a new location.

Ed, don’t make me do this again.

Literally I will repost this every time Bless His Heart Zitron tells us his word count.

I genuinely don’t know what it is about newsletter writers but they are obsessed with telling us their word counts.

Universities considering capitulating to the Trump “conditions” should use this real world example to understand they will simply be destroying their own institution. bsky.app/profile/nich...

A living room with a fire going. Photo taken from the couch facing the fire, showing my legs stretched out with a book resting on them and a big fluffy dog curled up by my side.

Happy sweater weather to all who celebrate.

If you want to chat about the AI Winter and AI as Subprime, I am here for the convo!

Someone asked for a thread of my medieval story times (twist my arm!), so here they are. I’ll pin and add as I go!

A poster for an event at T HE RIFKIND CENTER The City College of New York Title: Stripmining History: How the 'Al' Industry Extracts the Past & What Scholars in the Humanities Can Do to Stop It" IN-PERSON & VIA ZOOM OCTOBER 16 | 5:00PM - 6:30PM | NAC 6/316 Sonja Drimmer, Associate Professor, UMass Amherst more details in the link in the post

In two weeks!

rifkindcenter.org/rifkind-cent...

I deleted after I noticed a skipped word and then lost the will to post. It was a good joke, though.

He eats a weetabix
He eats some luncheon meat
He eats some sausages
He eats enough to eat

Had to sing a little “We Didn’t Start the Fire” in my head to figure out which Sally was the astronaut and which one was Norma Rae.

Relevant to re-post in the context of conversations about so-called technopessimism. The accusation of being a “technopessimist” is often accompanied by the allegation that one is “anxious.”

"I don't object to technology, I object to tech lords"

I am just old enough to never know whether this phrase is sarcastic or sincere and I sincerely love this for me.