Robert Dale Parker

Today is pub day for my new book, The Literature of Extreme Poverty in the Great Depression. Available for free at many academic libraries. Until Feb 6 the 1st chapter is free here academic.oup.com/book/59025/c... For more abt the book, see global.oup.com/academic/pro... #Booksky #litcult 1/2

Let's get this party started. #DefendHigherEd Starter Pack:

"Why I Resist Generative 'AI'" by Esther Weidauer. And we might add to Weidauer's list the theft of other people's writing and art and the frequent use of outsourced, underpaid labor. estherweidauer.com/articles/why... #AI @criticalai-journal.bsky.social

Fox News keeps trying to make Michigan congressional candidate Abdul El-Sayed sound scary, but everything he says just keeps making sense.

turns out these AI email scams directed at writers are ubiquitous because...they work www.thedial.world/articles/new...

Nicolas Reusens captures a Kingfisher diving underwater to snag fish at 600fps. #AGoodPlace

A new, AI-free search engine called Marginalia Search marginalia-search.com prioritizes text-centered, non-commercial content, filters out tracking, and says that it shares no data with third parties. I'm still exploring it. If you give it a try, what do you think?

A delusional wannabe autocrat who believes he is an autocrat.

Trump administration tramples over Native sovereignty to build its border wall: www.propublica.org/article/toho...

“This pilfered property, images taken without dignity or consent and used to promote a racist pseudoscience will now be repatriated to a home where their stories can be told and their humanity can be restored.”

Trump administration tramples over Native sovereignty to build its border wall: www.propublica.org/article/toho...

Note the Trump position: Ukraine must stop bombing refineries and pipelines, even though they are legitimate military targets (suggested, as it turns out, by the US). But Russia is perfectly free to bomb apartment buildings, hospitals, churches and libraries, because that's what "real warriors" do.

my main comment is, do they remember who won the battle of the alamo bsky.app/profile/dber...

Anne Carson has got me thinking about editing. I think most people understand why "old" authors need editors: obsolete words need explaining, the text may be obscure or may vary in different versions. But with modern authors, I think most people take for granted that the text is what it is.

Canada is refusing to issue ISBNs to books primarily generated with AI. This illustrates both the urgency of the problem of the growing flood of slop books, and also the toothlessness of addressing it on the honor system without there also being consequences for lying

"We Can't Eat Road Salt" should be a whole ad.

"By using AI, tasks like essays that used to take hours can be completed in minutes!" Sure, like how if I arrive at the gym and immediately go for a shower, my workout is done in record time. And if I throw my sandwiches straight in the bin, I can finish my lunch in under 10 seconds.

Send Stephen Miller to The Hague.

“Hegseth thinks the problem w/military education is too much education. Ending new tenured appointments will make it harder to recruit outstanding scholars & easier to pressure professors to tell political leaders what they want to hear.” — AAUP President Todd Wolfson

I voted today, & here's my sticker. I cd hear an elderly voter get upset bec she cdn't color in the bubbles, so a Dem judge & a Rep judge teamed up. One filled the bubbles & the other watched to make sure it went right, & as I overheard, I teared up w admiration for democracy in action. #Voting

Louise Erdrich has spent more than four decades reshaping how American literature represents Indigenous lives and stories. Now, the acclaimed Anishinaabe writer is being honored with one of the country’s major arts prizes. redpopnews.com/louise-erdri...

How Those Personalized Generative AI Scam Emails Are Built writerbeware.blog/2026/09/25/h... via @victoriastrauss

Read our Chapter's letter to University of Illinois & UIUC administrators in response to Sec of Ed Linda McMahon's "National Call to Action to University Presidents and Governing Boards."

I don't normally post bird photos, but you gotta see these: www.theguardian.com/artanddesign... #Nature #Photography #Birds

Meta bans ads for Virginia Woolf play because, uh, feminism?! www.theguardian.com/technology/2... #VirginiaWoolf #Feminism #Facebook #Instagram

Hey, Illinois - mail ballots get sent, and early voting begins, on Thursday. Midterm season is bringing cool weather with it!

Wow, what a great assignment. This should be a transformational and unforgettable learning experience for your students!

A new AI abomination in journalism, giving new meaning to the damning term "Pretendian": www.cbc.ca/news/canada/... @criticalai-journal.bsky.social #AI #Journalism #Indigenous

WONDEROUSNESS has taken place and my gratitude is sky-wide!!!!! McKnight Names Heid E. Erdrich 2026 Distinguished Artist - McKnight Foundation share.google/9EAQV9wYePzR...

The journals include American Journal of Public Health Cancer Family Medicine JAMA New England Journal of Medicine Science Scientific American

Delighted to see this new review of The Literature of Extreme Poverty in the Great Depression from Dan Colson (in the Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association), who thoroughly gets what the book tries to do. global.oup.com/academic/pro... (The book is online at many academic libraries.)

From “End Times Fascism” by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor. Featuring Jeff Bezos, William Shatner, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Zohran Mamdani, Venice, New York City, Minneapolis—and all the world. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

After reading some of the recent pubs and discourse around US higher ed.… I should just stop right here. But here are the three major fallacies of much of what’s out there, three contexts that are missing, and the one big thing that is driving me around the bend (actually already there, but). 1/

"If U.S. News Also Ranked Courage" "One might wonder how it is that academic freedom is not already a criterion for Best Colleges. Perhaps it is because, in the United States, it has always been taken as a given. No more." www.aaup.org/if-us-news-a... #Education @aaup.org @aaup-uiuc.bsky.social

Literary fiction is coming. It is going to revolutionize the economy. We know that China has already got a start on literary fiction. We can’t afford to be left out of the literary fiction economy. Think of your kids. They might already be engaging with literary fiction.

"The AAUP is not going to stand by & watch President Trump once again attempt to destroy the greatest system of higher education in the world that gives opportunity to a diverse set of students for a diverse country. Yes, emphatically, yes. We are going to fight this." – Todd Wolfson, AAUP President

How will money from the Anthropic settlement help out small publishers? Will big publishers do something special with it or just take the profit? It's a lot of money. #Anthropic #Publishing #Booksky

Indigenous Scholars Establish Guidelines for Governance of Indigenous Data in Scholarly Publishing. nativenewsonline.net/sovereignty/...

We are delighted to share the Call for Papers for our Tenth colloquium, "The Time Has Come: William Faulkner, James Baldwin, and American Modernity"! The event takes place May 1 and 2, 2027, online via Zoom. Abstracts are due March 1st, 2027. For more info, see the images below or message us here!

It's like a parody, but it's deadly serious; the Commerce Department (which includes Census, NOAA, and others) has outright deleted "don't alter or suppress scientific findings for political reasons" from its scientific integrity rules. Seriously.

variety.com/2026/film/gl...

Remains of 12 children who died at Carlisle Indian School to be returned to their tribes. The disinterment is set to begin Sept. 1 and is expected to continue through mid-October. www.witf.org/2026/08/31/r...

Now Russia is trying to destroy Ukrainian books by bombing printing presses and publishers, as well as museums, art galleries, film studios, libraries, and opera houses. www.bbc.com/news/article... #Booksky #Ukraine #Reading

The gig is up in the very first sentence of the Supreme Court's per curiam opinion on the Trump ballroom (emphasis added): "In October 2025, the *federal government* started a project to replace the East Wing of the White House." They've collapsed the legislative branch into the unitary executive.