Shirley Wajda

When DOGE Unleashed ChatGPT on the Humanities

How DOGE determined which NEH grants to cancel is a case study in the Rainbow Panic. This evidence illustrates unequivocally how anti-LGBTQ (specifically anti-Trans) animus drives the decisions of the Trump administration and is a defining feature of MAGA.
🗃️ 🏳️‍🌈

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/a...

YES! And I increasingly think ANY time somebody learns something and thinks "that's cool, I didn't know that, I want to know more" in a structured manner about any domain of human action, it's "public humanities."

There has to be a way to distinguish this from "fell down a rabbit hole online"...

What is crazy about this spreadsheet is that DEI is defined nowhere (much like the Executive Order on which it is based). Also, notable, none of the actual statutory terms that regulate the National Endowment for the Humanities. Also notable, no search term based on the term, humanities.

This is literally cooler than anything I've seen in any baseball movie

Abolish ICE is the moderate position.

A good overview of the incompetent and nonsensical (but not unexpected) way DOGE ripped apart the NEH last spring, leading to hundreds of cancelled grants for petty reasons. I'm grateful to @historians.org and co-plantiffs for challenging these actions in federal court.

YouTube video by American Historical Association Nathan Cavanaugh Deposition in ACLS-AHA-MLA Lawsuit About the NEH, Part 1 of 6

Didn't think I would be watching a deposition on Saturday evening.

youtu.be/qkCz-Sw4kLY?...

I’m sorry, doing this in a baseball cap sold by your campaign store is deliberately disrespecting the dead.

Seeing ppl circulate projects whose NEH grants were canceled by DOGE reaffirms my argument about AI as a permission structure. Some grants were canceled w/o a “no” from the generated summary. DOGE had a mandate to slash humanities funding & AI gave them the veneer of a rationale for their actions.

MLA, ACLS, and AHA lawsuit reveals use of ChatGPT in illegal termination of grants by DOGE. Motion for summary judgment asserts violations of the First Amendment; violations of the Equal Protection Clause; and violation of the separation of powers. mla.org/NEH-Lawsuit

The MLA, @acls1919.bsky.social, and @historians.org have filed a motion for summary judgment in our lawsuit to restore the NEH. Discovery documents reveal that DOGE rather than the acting chair led grant terminations and targeted grants using ChatGPT. More at mla.org/NEH-Lawsuit

Major Update in our NEH Lawsuit - AHA On March 6, 2026, the American Historical Association and our co-plaintiffs filed a motion for summary judgment. Depositions and records obtained through the discovery process detail the role of DOGE ...

Discovery in this lawsuit has uncovered egregious and illegal actions that affect organizations and residents in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
www.historians.org/news/major-u...

Wait some two fuckwit DOGE bros with no background in the humanities just fed a bunch of words like "equality" and "tribal" into ChatGPT, based on their fuckwit tech bro prejudices and MAGA fantasies, and used the results to cancel a whole boatload NEH grants-- did I get that right

This is why AI will never truly replace human judgment. AI is an excuse for lack of judgment. AI has not empathy, no conscience. Why do you think this Administration is all in on AI? Humans push advancements, push humanity.

We were the recipient of one of the terminated grants, doing extraordinary digital collections work w/colleagues in Mexico. We have continued the work with support from donors but the damage done to the infrastructure for teaching, scholarship, & engagement with the humanities is unprecedented

The article also points to the corruption of the selection process for new NEH grants.

This is so unbelievably infuriating and depressing. In this reckless, biased, and ChatGPT-based mockery of a process, they cut $450,000 for National History Day, a program in which 500,000 middle- and high-school students participate.

My article on Queen Anne’s wardrobe has just been published OA.

I provide a qualitative & quantitative overview of her extensive wardrobe accounts (incl makers & suppliers) & show how fashion influenced her representation!

#18thc #17thc #earlymodern

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Thank you! Truth be told, I was more upset about another museum's cancelled NEH grant. Its director had reached out to me for advice. First-time NEH grant award! NEH fostered more than research; it helped to create, clarify, model, and strengthen the humanities community in ways beyond funding.

My employer Canterbury Shaker Village lost a small NEH grant. I wrote it. I used words such as "equality" and "citizenship." The same words were used in CHATGPT to cancel grants.

The same words are in the nation's founding documents.

The first issue of The Book Supplement is coming tomorrow, March 8th! www.awritersnotebook.org/subscribe

Thu, Mar 26, 10AM-6PM "Material Histories of Italian Colonialism"
Scholars from many disciplines exploring objects from museums and private homes. On Zoom or register for in-person here: tinyurl.com/p553ttpz

In this era of Silicon Valley brainrot, I think the best way to save the humanities & liberal arts is just a really good acronym, so I propose to you:

SHWARMA PLLATE: sociology, history, writing, anthropology, rhetoric, media, art, philosophy, literature, languages, and technology & economics

In every Republican presidency of my lifetime there's been a recession and a new war in the Middle East.

Yup!

OMG.

The Statues Were Mostly Men or Nude Women. So These Knitters Got to Work.

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/a...

For funsies, my comps were in

1) cultural theory and methodology (several disciplines)
2) American material culture studies
3) history of photography/visual culture

BONUS: A previous student bombed a curator job interview (didn't know American art canon) so I also had to pass a 50-slide ID exam.

This is what Rumsfeld would call an Unnoem Unnoem

The most famous line from Lincoln's second inaugural address is also probably the most misunderstood: "with malice toward none, with charity for all."

I'm a fan of Frederick Douglass's gloss on it.

Yankee Vandal Vintage - Customer Survey Hey there! 👋 I'm Jen Woronow, Co-founder of Yankee Vandal Vintage, and I need YOUR help. I'm conducting research to understand what vintage shoppers actually want (vs. what I think you want 😅). This...

My wife is conducting research for a workshop about those of you who like to thrift/shop for vintage clothing. She needs to get 100 people in her dataset, and I would appreciate it if you would take 5 minutes to fill our her survey! Pass it on to your friends who love vintage!
tinyurl.com/22vczxe6