Chris Hanlon

I’m listening in this coffee shop to two guys in their 60s wax on about A.I.—they actually believe it is a better source of medical information than their doctors; one believes it when it tells him he can get rich developing NFTs. So many boomers have lost their minds in their phones and its apps.

University Administrations: Reject Trump's "Loyalty Oath" Compacts The Trump administration is trying to blackmail schools to let him and his unqualified bureaucrats run our schools. They want to dictate what schools teach, who they admit and hire, what researchers s...

actionnetwork.org/petitions/un...

If you’re in Phoenix, call David Schweikert (House R) and blame him for shutting down the government: (480) 946-2411, (202) 225-2190. Call him a radical.

I can’t wait for the reporting to come informing us of the actual costs of firing all these coders to outsource their work to AI, as if it won’t hallucinate just as often as it does when a student uses it to write an essay on Whitman

I can’t wait for the reporting to come informing us of the actual costs of firing all these coders to outsource their work to AI, as if it won’t hallucinate just as often as it does when a student uses it to write an essay on Whitman

A staircase in a small, decorative arts museum tells a harrowing story of terror, abuse and enslavement The staircase was originally acquired due to its craftsmanship. Only later did scholars realize that it was where Harriet Jacobs suffered abuse at the hands of her enslaver.

The staircase Harriet Jacobs was pushed down (producing injuries so extensive that she “was unable to turn myself in bed for days”) is in the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Winston-Salem and examined now by @molliebarnes.bsky.net and Susanna Ashton:

theconversation.com/a-staircase-...

Guy I know passing me at the line at the coffee shop: “Hi Chris; how are you?” Me: “Reeling, thanks, how about you?” Him: “Good, thanks, see you later.”

Against the Environment But what if 'the environment' is actually the problem?

@jeffreyinsko.bsky.social just this afternoon took home an award the @sierraclub.org named for another Michigan environmentalist, Burton V. Barnes. If you haven’t read Insko’ relentless work on pipelines and especially @enbridge.bsky.social here’s your daily quota:
open.substack.com/pub/thecurre...

“A foreigner of any nation, not in open war with us, becomes naturalized by removing to the state to reside, and taking an oath of fidelity: and thereupon acquires every right of a native citizen […]”

Thomas Jefferson, Query 14, Notes in the State of Virginia

Thanks! I’ve taught Folsom and Bushyhead but didn’t know they wrote about sectionalism or national division so much as they addressed settler colonialism.

I was thinking of Prophet Song by Paul Lynch even though it’s Irish

I haven’t read it, Rachel. I’ll take a look for sure.

Eternally grateful for recommendations on texts to include!

From “The Times” forum on higher ed now in the current issue of The Dial, @jennifergreiman.bsky.social ‘s statement on the criminalization of student activism: muse.jhu.edu/pub/562/arti...

Now they’re going to get the sixties they wanted

Luminous, urgent issue of @thedial2024.bsky.social. Thinking this am about Stephanie Foote's challenge to us:

"Now is the time for the unglamorous daily work of collective meaning-making, as difficult as that is for universities under threat."

muse.jhu.edu/pub/562/arti...

@emersonsociety.bsky.social
@c19americanists.bsky.social
@the-ala.bsky.social
@modernlanguage.bsky.social
@officialbaas.bsky.social

I decided to write about the backlash against Emerson’s Divinity School Address as a controversy over college students receptive to radical moral independence.

muse.jhu.edu/pub/562/arti...

SAAP2026 Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy53rd Annual MeetingMarch 12–14, 2026University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV Fantasy, Reality, and Ideals SAAP2026 CFPDownload Submit Here!

The Ralph Waldo Emerson Society invites participants in a panel on "Emerson and Power" at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy from March 12-14, 2026 at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

More info:
american-philosophy.org/saap2026/

The first query I made just over a year ago; the second, just this morning.

Two new very C19-oriented journals, _The Dial_ and _American Gothic Studies_, covering all things between the sunlight and the darkness.

Woman next to me on the train just asked if I’d watch her pockabook while she finds the toilet and I know I’m in Massachusetts

No Kings On June 14—Flag Day—Donald Trump wants tanks in the street and a made-for-TV display of dominance for his birthday. A spectacle meant to look like strength. But real power isn’t staged in Washington. ...

www.nokings.org

We were all just so hungry for more Star Wars and into that vacuum rushed all these B movies

Like it says on the facade of the Boston Public Library: “THE COMMONWEALTH REQUIRES THE EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE AS THE SAFEGUARD OF ORDER AND LIBERTY”. 2003 all over again, it’s a Massachusetts court that says enough.

U.S. Department of Education rescinds record fine, with prejudice, against GCU - GCU News ED states unequivocally that there are no findings against GCU (May 16, 2025) – The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has rescinded a $37.7 million […]

“Cleared of any wrongdoing “ my ass.

news.gcu.edu/gcu-news/u-s...

I think I’m going to start penalizing student essays that exhibit perfect grammar.

Reading these papers makes me wonder how many lit faculty are reconsidering our long-standing commitment to essay writing as a primary means of assessment.