Mark Thakkar
@brunellus.com
Medieval Latinist · Postdoc in the History of Maths, Logic and Philosophy, working on Cardano, the impossible and the medievals: https://i2erc.wordpress.com
Pinned
Mark Thakkar
@brunellus.com
· Aug 27
New Wyclif polemic discovered! Only 250 words long, but not obviously detached from a larger work. It isn’t ascribed to him in the manuscript (no titulus or colophon) but the style is recognizably his. I’m posting it here because the content is eerily topical. #medievalLatin #medievalSky #genAI
Reposted by Mark Thakkar
This is horrific. Docking all pay for refusing to reschedule teaching due to strike action (for which pay has already been docked).
Well that’s me locked out. No pay for the foreseeable future, all because I refuse to reschedule lost teaching, for which I have already lost pay as part of the strike. Please donate to support @sheffielducu.bsky.social members like me at www.gofundme.com/f/heubvb-sup...
January 19, 2026 at 8:50 PM
This is horrific. Docking all pay for refusing to reschedule teaching due to strike action (for which pay has already been docked).
Reposted by Mark Thakkar
This map is a thing of beauty and explains so much about why norther rail is a thorny issue.
January 14, 2026 at 7:55 PM
This map is a thing of beauty and explains so much about why norther rail is a thorny issue.
Reposted by Mark Thakkar
The German Research Foundation, possibly the most important funding body for academic research in Germany, is now not only allowing the use of AI to write applications, they‘ll also allow it to evaluate said applications. Only prerequisite is that one makes this transparent. It‘s a farce.
January 11, 2026 at 7:19 PM
The German Research Foundation, possibly the most important funding body for academic research in Germany, is now not only allowing the use of AI to write applications, they‘ll also allow it to evaluate said applications. Only prerequisite is that one makes this transparent. It‘s a farce.
Reposted by Mark Thakkar
🎓Latin Job Alert!🎓
UGent's Department of Literary Studies is hiring a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Latin Literature, with a focus on a late period (medieval and/or early modern), starting 1 September 2026.
Applications are due by 28 January 2026 at midnight (Brussels time).
See link below⬇️
UGent's Department of Literary Studies is hiring a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Latin Literature, with a focus on a late period (medieval and/or early modern), starting 1 September 2026.
Applications are due by 28 January 2026 at midnight (Brussels time).
See link below⬇️
January 12, 2026 at 1:53 PM
🎓Latin Job Alert!🎓
UGent's Department of Literary Studies is hiring a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Latin Literature, with a focus on a late period (medieval and/or early modern), starting 1 September 2026.
Applications are due by 28 January 2026 at midnight (Brussels time).
See link below⬇️
UGent's Department of Literary Studies is hiring a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Latin Literature, with a focus on a late period (medieval and/or early modern), starting 1 September 2026.
Applications are due by 28 January 2026 at midnight (Brussels time).
See link below⬇️
Reposted by Mark Thakkar
Martin Peterson's creative response to being banned from teaching Plato (shared with his permission).
January 8, 2026 at 5:38 PM
Martin Peterson's creative response to being banned from teaching Plato (shared with his permission).
Reposted by Mark Thakkar
Just love how the same university that shamelessly promotes gen AI gives me a sanctimonious instruction upon requesting a hard copy of a thesis for examination to 'Please consider the environmental impact, and whether a printed copy of the thesis is necessary, before doing so.'
January 7, 2026 at 9:09 AM
Just love how the same university that shamelessly promotes gen AI gives me a sanctimonious instruction upon requesting a hard copy of a thesis for examination to 'Please consider the environmental impact, and whether a printed copy of the thesis is necessary, before doing so.'
Excellent exposé of a 20th-century Chortlemuffin (talk by Holly Ordway, 7 Sept 2024): www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSC6...
What did J.R.R. Tolkien REALLY think of C.S. Lewis's Narnia?
YouTube video by C.S. Lewis UNDISCOVERED
www.youtube.com
January 6, 2026 at 5:39 PM
Excellent exposé of a 20th-century Chortlemuffin (talk by Holly Ordway, 7 Sept 2024): www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSC6...
I’ve got used to having to wade through “AI” slop when doing online research – in the way that you can get used to a terminal diagnosis, that is – but this was a new low: clicking through to a few search results in quick succession, only to be temporarily banned as a potential scraper bot 😠
January 6, 2026 at 10:47 AM
I’ve got used to having to wade through “AI” slop when doing online research – in the way that you can get used to a terminal diagnosis, that is – but this was a new low: clicking through to a few search results in quick succession, only to be temporarily banned as a potential scraper bot 😠
Reposted by Mark Thakkar
Bookings are open for Textual Criticism and the Transmission of Texts.
Learn how to build a critical edition and a stemma codicum, step by step, with Dr Anna Somfai.
Thursdays 2-4pm, 16 April-7 May 2026.
Book: warburg.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...
#TextualCriticism #MedievalStudies
Learn how to build a critical edition and a stemma codicum, step by step, with Dr Anna Somfai.
Thursdays 2-4pm, 16 April-7 May 2026.
Book: warburg.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...
#TextualCriticism #MedievalStudies
Textual Criticism and the Transmission of Texts - 2026
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warburg.sas.ac.uk
December 22, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Bookings are open for Textual Criticism and the Transmission of Texts.
Learn how to build a critical edition and a stemma codicum, step by step, with Dr Anna Somfai.
Thursdays 2-4pm, 16 April-7 May 2026.
Book: warburg.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...
#TextualCriticism #MedievalStudies
Learn how to build a critical edition and a stemma codicum, step by step, with Dr Anna Somfai.
Thursdays 2-4pm, 16 April-7 May 2026.
Book: warburg.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...
#TextualCriticism #MedievalStudies
Reposted by Mark Thakkar
I posted this👇 to a claim that genAI is better than Ctl+F to search historical docs. @tristanpalmgren.bsky.social replied with a genAI summary of my document and @bookllyfr.bsky.social asked if it was accurate.
It turns out that it did exactly what genAI does: made stuff up & got stuff wrong.🧵
It turns out that it did exactly what genAI does: made stuff up & got stuff wrong.🧵
Ctl+F this
December 22, 2025 at 3:00 PM
I posted this👇 to a claim that genAI is better than Ctl+F to search historical docs. @tristanpalmgren.bsky.social replied with a genAI summary of my document and @bookllyfr.bsky.social asked if it was accurate.
It turns out that it did exactly what genAI does: made stuff up & got stuff wrong.🧵
It turns out that it did exactly what genAI does: made stuff up & got stuff wrong.🧵
Reposted by Mark Thakkar
Right, that’s it. We need bounty hunters to track down the fake academics who are publishing LLM-generated bullshit and “retire” them, by which I mean mercilessly expose them until they’re ostracized by their genuine academic colleagues and ultimately kicked out of the jobs they don’t deserve. 🕵️♂️
December 16, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Right, that’s it. We need bounty hunters to track down the fake academics who are publishing LLM-generated bullshit and “retire” them, by which I mean mercilessly expose them until they’re ostracized by their genuine academic colleagues and ultimately kicked out of the jobs they don’t deserve. 🕵️♂️
Reposted by Mark Thakkar
New volume of Methodos Vol. 25 (2025) journals.openedition.org/methodos/10599 @openedition.bsky.social Les mathématiques médiévales dans le monde latin @medphiljournals.bsky.social
25 | 2025 Les mathématiques médiévales dans le monde latin
Revue interdisciplinaire croisant autour d’un thème les méthodes et analyses de philosophes, philologues et historiens des sciences Multidisciplinary journal of research on philosophy, philogy and...
journals.openedition.org
December 14, 2025 at 10:30 PM
New volume of Methodos Vol. 25 (2025) journals.openedition.org/methodos/10599 @openedition.bsky.social Les mathématiques médiévales dans le monde latin @medphiljournals.bsky.social
British medievalists! With perfect Christmas timing, Bennett & Kerr are selling 30-odd second-hand OMTs (from the library of John Maddicott, nisi fallor). Their website has been practically dead for ages and doesn’t include the books listed here, but you can order them by email. www.benkerrbooks.com
December 12, 2025 at 7:36 PM
British medievalists! With perfect Christmas timing, Bennett & Kerr are selling 30-odd second-hand OMTs (from the library of John Maddicott, nisi fallor). Their website has been practically dead for ages and doesn’t include the books listed here, but you can order them by email. www.benkerrbooks.com
Reposted by Mark Thakkar
Abstracts are due 15th Dec for the next European Symposium on Medieval Logic & Semantics, to be held in the Netherlands on 23–25 June 2026. The topic is LOGIC & THE SCIENCES, and ‘medieval’ is taken to cover 200–1700 in the broadly Western philosophical tradition. i2erc.wordpress.com/call-for-abs...
Call for Abstracts
Here is the call for abstracts. Please note that the deadline has been extended to the 15th of December, 2025. The abstracts should be sent to esmls25@proton.me. You can find additional information…
i2erc.wordpress.com
December 3, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Abstracts are due 15th Dec for the next European Symposium on Medieval Logic & Semantics, to be held in the Netherlands on 23–25 June 2026. The topic is LOGIC & THE SCIENCES, and ‘medieval’ is taken to cover 200–1700 in the broadly Western philosophical tradition. i2erc.wordpress.com/call-for-abs...
Reposted by Mark Thakkar
Is there a Humanities-specific interest group pushing back against AI at University level? I think it’s important that this organisation exists to call out the permissible culture around AI and how in a generation that might absolutely destroy the soul of learning.
Seriously. Or I’m gonna start it.
Seriously. Or I’m gonna start it.
December 9, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Is there a Humanities-specific interest group pushing back against AI at University level? I think it’s important that this organisation exists to call out the permissible culture around AI and how in a generation that might absolutely destroy the soul of learning.
Seriously. Or I’m gonna start it.
Seriously. Or I’m gonna start it.
Reposted by Mark Thakkar
Note taking more effective than AI for learning
But AI can enrich student learning experience.
www.cambridge.org
December 8, 2025 at 8:20 AM
Abstracts are due 15th Dec for the next European Symposium on Medieval Logic & Semantics, to be held in the Netherlands on 23–25 June 2026. The topic is LOGIC & THE SCIENCES, and ‘medieval’ is taken to cover 200–1700 in the broadly Western philosophical tradition. i2erc.wordpress.com/call-for-abs...
Call for Abstracts
Here is the call for abstracts. Please note that the deadline has been extended to the 15th of December, 2025. The abstracts should be sent to esmls25@proton.me. You can find additional information…
i2erc.wordpress.com
December 3, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Abstracts are due 15th Dec for the next European Symposium on Medieval Logic & Semantics, to be held in the Netherlands on 23–25 June 2026. The topic is LOGIC & THE SCIENCES, and ‘medieval’ is taken to cover 200–1700 in the broadly Western philosophical tradition. i2erc.wordpress.com/call-for-abs...
Reposted by Mark Thakkar
'I am less inclined to call on the Government for a solution to the British Library’s ongoing issues since, despite repeated calls for action, the UK Government has largely ignored the similar crisis within UK Higher Education.' 1/3
Don’t rely on government to save the British Library - Impact of Social Sciences
Following a catastrophic hack British Library remains in crisis. Can it recover by refocusing on the people, skills and systems that enable it to function?
blogs.lse.ac.uk
December 3, 2025 at 9:34 AM
'I am less inclined to call on the Government for a solution to the British Library’s ongoing issues since, despite repeated calls for action, the UK Government has largely ignored the similar crisis within UK Higher Education.' 1/3
Reposted by Mark Thakkar
When asked just what do I do, I often utter darkly, “I rescue manuscripts before they become someone’s découpage project.” I never truly believed that anyone selling a fragment would encourage such a practice — then I saw this on eBay. Perfect entry for “10 Word Horror Story” contest. #fragmentology
November 29, 2025 at 11:38 PM
When asked just what do I do, I often utter darkly, “I rescue manuscripts before they become someone’s découpage project.” I never truly believed that anyone selling a fragment would encourage such a practice — then I saw this on eBay. Perfect entry for “10 Word Horror Story” contest. #fragmentology
“their bewildering outputs should serve as productive reminders that underneath the carefully engineered workarounds of the chatbot interface, LLMs are unremittingly indifferent to knowledge and truth claims.” Indeed. Not cited here is “ChatGPT is Bullshit” (2024): link.springer.com/article/10.1...
In "Rethinking Error," historian Johan Fredrikzon goes to the very heart of a large language model's incapacity to "know": a problem the industry likes to call hallucinations, but which Fredrikzon calls "epistemological indifference."
Link: read.dukeupress.edu/critical-ai/...
Link: read.dukeupress.edu/critical-ai/...
Rethinking Error: “Hallucinations” and Epistemological Indifference | Critical AI | Duke University Press
read.dukeupress.edu
November 28, 2025 at 6:17 PM
“their bewildering outputs should serve as productive reminders that underneath the carefully engineered workarounds of the chatbot interface, LLMs are unremittingly indifferent to knowledge and truth claims.” Indeed. Not cited here is “ChatGPT is Bullshit” (2024): link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Reposted by Mark Thakkar
Don't call it a "bubble."
OpenAI, Microsoft, & Alphabet are just fine with that term because they get to tell you that all the dot-com bubble or the railroad bubble or the whatever bubble was, was a shaking out the greats after an intense period of mania. This isn't a bubble. This is a time bomb.
OpenAI, Microsoft, & Alphabet are just fine with that term because they get to tell you that all the dot-com bubble or the railroad bubble or the whatever bubble was, was a shaking out the greats after an intense period of mania. This isn't a bubble. This is a time bomb.
Opinion from Alphaville: OpenAI is a money pit with a website on top. That much we know already, but since OpenAI is a private company, there’s a lot of guesswork required when estimating the depth of the pit. on.ft.com/44xy39L
November 26, 2025 at 12:09 AM
Don't call it a "bubble."
OpenAI, Microsoft, & Alphabet are just fine with that term because they get to tell you that all the dot-com bubble or the railroad bubble or the whatever bubble was, was a shaking out the greats after an intense period of mania. This isn't a bubble. This is a time bomb.
OpenAI, Microsoft, & Alphabet are just fine with that term because they get to tell you that all the dot-com bubble or the railroad bubble or the whatever bubble was, was a shaking out the greats after an intense period of mania. This isn't a bubble. This is a time bomb.
Reposted by Mark Thakkar
'More universities use AI tools to teach students, generate course materials & give personalised feedback. A Dept of Education policy paper hailed this development, saying generative AI “has the power to transform education.”'
Into an accreditational dystopia.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Into an accreditational dystopia.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
‘We could have asked ChatGPT’: students fight back over course taught by AI
Staffordshire students say signs material was AI-generated included suspicious file names and rogue voiceover accent
www.theguardian.com
November 20, 2025 at 1:53 PM
'More universities use AI tools to teach students, generate course materials & give personalised feedback. A Dept of Education policy paper hailed this development, saying generative AI “has the power to transform education.”'
Into an accreditational dystopia.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Into an accreditational dystopia.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Reposted by Mark Thakkar
I am by no means a prominent public intellectual, but my inbox is increasingly filled with messages from people who have been convinced by sycophantic chatbots that they have discovered revolutionary theories that entirely upend our scientific understanding of the universe.
November 21, 2025 at 2:49 AM
I am by no means a prominent public intellectual, but my inbox is increasingly filled with messages from people who have been convinced by sycophantic chatbots that they have discovered revolutionary theories that entirely upend our scientific understanding of the universe.
Reposted by Mark Thakkar
🚨Job Klaxon: The ERC project COALA (Computational Corpus Annotation for Quantitative Analysis of Latin Lexical Semantics) is hiring a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Latin Linguistics.
📍 King’s College London, UK
⌛ Duration: 3 years
⏰ Deadline: 2 December 2025
➡️ To apply: tinyurl.com/rme6rczh
📍 King’s College London, UK
⌛ Duration: 3 years
⏰ Deadline: 2 December 2025
➡️ To apply: tinyurl.com/rme6rczh
Post-doctoral Research Associate in Latin Linguistics | King's College London
www.kcl.ac.uk
November 18, 2025 at 11:54 AM
🚨Job Klaxon: The ERC project COALA (Computational Corpus Annotation for Quantitative Analysis of Latin Lexical Semantics) is hiring a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Latin Linguistics.
📍 King’s College London, UK
⌛ Duration: 3 years
⏰ Deadline: 2 December 2025
➡️ To apply: tinyurl.com/rme6rczh
📍 King’s College London, UK
⌛ Duration: 3 years
⏰ Deadline: 2 December 2025
➡️ To apply: tinyurl.com/rme6rczh