Cameron Blevins
@cblevins.bsky.social
Digital History | US History
Professor at CU Denver
📖 Paper Trails: The US Post and the Making of the American West 📖
cblevins.github.io
Professor at CU Denver
📖 Paper Trails: The US Post and the Making of the American West 📖
cblevins.github.io
Pinned
Cameron Blevins
@cblevins.bsky.social
· Jul 16
The prize for "Article in the Fields of the History of Women/Gender/Sexualities" is awarded to Dr. Annelise Heinz and Dr. Cameron Blevins for their article:
“Separated, but far from alone”: Forging Lesbian Networks in the 1970s–1980s.” Pacific Historical Review 1 August 2024; 93 (3): 417–444.
“Separated, but far from alone”: Forging Lesbian Networks in the 1970s–1980s.” Pacific Historical Review 1 August 2024; 93 (3): 417–444.
Thrilled our article won the Berkshire Conference Article Prize for best article in the fields of the history of women, gender, and/or sexuality! Annelise and I mapped thousands of locations from the magazine Lesbian Connection to study how women built a shared community in the 1970s and 1980s 🧵
Reposted by Cameron Blevins
Really pleased to announce the launch of the all-new, all-dancing, London Lives website - www.londonlives.org It has been thoroughly re-engineered to facilitate more types of search, and redesigned for phones and tablets. The team very much hopes peope like it. 1/
London Lives
www.londonlives.org
November 5, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Really pleased to announce the launch of the all-new, all-dancing, London Lives website - www.londonlives.org It has been thoroughly re-engineered to facilitate more types of search, and redesigned for phones and tablets. The team very much hopes peope like it. 1/
Great to see a new issue of Current Research in Digital History!
CRDH Vol. 8: New research from Fabio Gigone, Natacha Klein Käfer, Natália da Silva Perez, Nadav Borenstein, Miara Fraikin, Sanne Maekelberg, and Anna McGee explores topics from royal iconography to AI-powered print analysis, midwifery education to palace networks.
Read here: https://crdh.rrchnm.org
Read here: https://crdh.rrchnm.org
Current Research in Digital History
Hosted by the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, Current Research in Digital History is an open-access, peer-reviewed, online publication. Its primary aim is to encourage and publish scholarship in digital history that offers discipline-specific arguments and interpretations.
crdh.rrchnm.org
November 5, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Great to see a new issue of Current Research in Digital History!
Reposted by Cameron Blevins
Congratulations to the winners of the Roy Rosenzweig Prize for Creativity in Digital History, Gergely Baics, Meredith Linn, Leah Meisterlin, and Myles Zhang, for their project Envisioning Seneca Village!
Explore the project: envisioningsenecavillage.github.io
Explore the project: envisioningsenecavillage.github.io
October 15, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Congratulations to the winners of the Roy Rosenzweig Prize for Creativity in Digital History, Gergely Baics, Meredith Linn, Leah Meisterlin, and Myles Zhang, for their project Envisioning Seneca Village!
Explore the project: envisioningsenecavillage.github.io
Explore the project: envisioningsenecavillage.github.io
Reposted by Cameron Blevins
As DH grows, it’s increasingly important to publish conference papers, but there hasn’t been a clear venue for that.
So I’m thrilled to share this new home for DH proceedings, which will include CHR papers & more.
Thanks to @taylor-arnold.bsky.social for leading this effort!
bit.ly/ach-anthology
So I’m thrilled to share this new home for DH proceedings, which will include CHR papers & more.
Thanks to @taylor-arnold.bsky.social for leading this effort!
bit.ly/ach-anthology
October 29, 2025 at 3:39 PM
As DH grows, it’s increasingly important to publish conference papers, but there hasn’t been a clear venue for that.
So I’m thrilled to share this new home for DH proceedings, which will include CHR papers & more.
Thanks to @taylor-arnold.bsky.social for leading this effort!
bit.ly/ach-anthology
So I’m thrilled to share this new home for DH proceedings, which will include CHR papers & more.
Thanks to @taylor-arnold.bsky.social for leading this effort!
bit.ly/ach-anthology
Kick off your morning at #WHA2025 with some spicy takes on Generative AI and history from Sean Fraga, Rachel Birch, @jasonheppler.org, @regan008.bsky.social, and myself (8:15-9:45am, Santo Domingo Room)
October 17, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Kick off your morning at #WHA2025 with some spicy takes on Generative AI and history from Sean Fraga, Rachel Birch, @jasonheppler.org, @regan008.bsky.social, and myself (8:15-9:45am, Santo Domingo Room)
Reposted by Cameron Blevins
If you're at #WHA2025 I hope you'll join @cblevins.bsky.social, @regan008.bsky.social, Rachel Birch, Sean Fraga and myself on Friday at 8:15 to talk with us about generative AI and History. I have a strong feeling I might be quite curmudgeonly, so come join us!
October 16, 2025 at 1:19 PM
If you're at #WHA2025 I hope you'll join @cblevins.bsky.social, @regan008.bsky.social, Rachel Birch, Sean Fraga and myself on Friday at 8:15 to talk with us about generative AI and History. I have a strong feeling I might be quite curmudgeonly, so come join us!
Reposted by Cameron Blevins
Excited to share my latest publication, "Generative Aesthetics: On formal stuckness in AI verse." It's published in a special issue in the Journal of Cultural Analytics, expertly edited by Tess McNulty and Laura Chapot, on "Computation and Form, Reconsidered."
culturalanalytics.org/article/1448...
culturalanalytics.org/article/1448...
Generative Aesthetics: On formal stuckness in AI verse | Published in Journal of Cultural Analytics
By Ryan Heuser. This paper examines the formal and aesthetic patterns of AI-generated poems through a series of computational experiments.
culturalanalytics.org
October 13, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Excited to share my latest publication, "Generative Aesthetics: On formal stuckness in AI verse." It's published in a special issue in the Journal of Cultural Analytics, expertly edited by Tess McNulty and Laura Chapot, on "Computation and Form, Reconsidered."
culturalanalytics.org/article/1448...
culturalanalytics.org/article/1448...
Reposted by Cameron Blevins
New issue of my newsletter: “The Library’s New Entryway” — An interface that combines the advantages of the traditional index with the power of LLMs is the path forward newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...
The Library’s New Entryway
An interface that combines the advantages of the traditional index with the power of LLMs is the path forward
newsletter.dancohen.org
October 10, 2025 at 7:32 PM
New issue of my newsletter: “The Library’s New Entryway” — An interface that combines the advantages of the traditional index with the power of LLMs is the path forward newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...
Reposted by Cameron Blevins
Having sat with it for a bit, I'm still struggling with this document.
The document is at once very cautious, and effusive. The text of the guidance itself is pretty good--in fact, I think they point out a lot of ways in which generative AI is a terrible thing for doing history.
The document is at once very cautious, and effusive. The text of the guidance itself is pretty good--in fact, I think they point out a lot of ways in which generative AI is a terrible thing for doing history.
The AHA has published Guiding Principles for Artificial Intelligence in History Education, offering a disciplinary approach to AI that focuses on the specific needs and challenges of history educators. 🗃️
Guiding Principles for Artificial Intelligence in History Education
These 14 foundational principles are meant to assist educators and administrators in crafting AI policies suited to local circumstances and the specific needs of students.
www.historians.org
August 6, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Having sat with it for a bit, I'm still struggling with this document.
The document is at once very cautious, and effusive. The text of the guidance itself is pretty good--in fact, I think they point out a lot of ways in which generative AI is a terrible thing for doing history.
The document is at once very cautious, and effusive. The text of the guidance itself is pretty good--in fact, I think they point out a lot of ways in which generative AI is a terrible thing for doing history.
Reposted by Cameron Blevins
Many of the places that loom largest in queer history—NYC’s Stonewall Inn, San Francisco’s Castro district—tend to focus on gay men & urban spaces. A fuller history is told by Cameron Blevins and Annelise Heinz.
@pcb-aha.bsky.social www.ucpress.edu/blog-posts/m...
@pcb-aha.bsky.social www.ucpress.edu/blog-posts/m...
Mapping Lesbian History: Q&A with Cameron Blevins and Annelise Heinz
Historians Cameron Blevins and Annelise Heinz use digital mapping technology to uncover a hidden geography of lesbian life in the 1970s and 1980s, tracing patterns of connection among lesbian women in...
www.ucpress.edu
July 30, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Many of the places that loom largest in queer history—NYC’s Stonewall Inn, San Francisco’s Castro district—tend to focus on gay men & urban spaces. A fuller history is told by Cameron Blevins and Annelise Heinz.
@pcb-aha.bsky.social www.ucpress.edu/blog-posts/m...
@pcb-aha.bsky.social www.ucpress.edu/blog-posts/m...
Reposted by Cameron Blevins
Historian Friends! @shgape.bsky.social is holding a conference next June in that great GA/PE city, Chicago!
See link to CFP below!
See link to CFP below!
July 18, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Historian Friends! @shgape.bsky.social is holding a conference next June in that great GA/PE city, Chicago!
See link to CFP below!
See link to CFP below!
Reposted by Cameron Blevins
For the @puddingviz.bsky.social, I explored which animals we gender, and why.
Come for the extremely cute interactive viz of animals, stay for the extremely nerdy etymology of the ladybug.
Story: pudding.cool/2025/07/kids...
Come for the extremely cute interactive viz of animals, stay for the extremely nerdy etymology of the ladybug.
Story: pudding.cool/2025/07/kids...
July 7, 2025 at 6:36 PM
For the @puddingviz.bsky.social, I explored which animals we gender, and why.
Come for the extremely cute interactive viz of animals, stay for the extremely nerdy etymology of the ladybug.
Story: pudding.cool/2025/07/kids...
Come for the extremely cute interactive viz of animals, stay for the extremely nerdy etymology of the ladybug.
Story: pudding.cool/2025/07/kids...
Wish I could be in Lisbon for #DH2025, but I'm glad to be able to present remotely! I'm about to share the work we've done to produce the Data Advocacy for All project - a toolkit of resources to help teach data advocacy: da4all.github.io
July 17, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Wish I could be in Lisbon for #DH2025, but I'm glad to be able to present remotely! I'm about to share the work we've done to produce the Data Advocacy for All project - a toolkit of resources to help teach data advocacy: da4all.github.io
Thrilled our article won the Berkshire Conference Article Prize for best article in the fields of the history of women, gender, and/or sexuality! Annelise and I mapped thousands of locations from the magazine Lesbian Connection to study how women built a shared community in the 1970s and 1980s 🧵
The prize for "Article in the Fields of the History of Women/Gender/Sexualities" is awarded to Dr. Annelise Heinz and Dr. Cameron Blevins for their article:
“Separated, but far from alone”: Forging Lesbian Networks in the 1970s–1980s.” Pacific Historical Review 1 August 2024; 93 (3): 417–444.
“Separated, but far from alone”: Forging Lesbian Networks in the 1970s–1980s.” Pacific Historical Review 1 August 2024; 93 (3): 417–444.
July 16, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Thrilled our article won the Berkshire Conference Article Prize for best article in the fields of the history of women, gender, and/or sexuality! Annelise and I mapped thousands of locations from the magazine Lesbian Connection to study how women built a shared community in the 1970s and 1980s 🧵
Reposted by Cameron Blevins
New preprint from @lauraknelson.bsky.social, @mattwilkens.bsky.social, and myself tests different ways of simulating the past with LLMs. We don't fully answer the title question here—just show that simple strategies based on prompting and fine-tuning are insufficient. +
Can Language Models Represent the Past without Anachronism?
Before researchers can use language models to simulate the past, they need to understand the risk of anachronism. We find that prompting a contemporary model with examples of period prose does not pro...
arxiv.org
May 2, 2025 at 12:47 PM
New preprint from @lauraknelson.bsky.social, @mattwilkens.bsky.social, and myself tests different ways of simulating the past with LLMs. We don't fully answer the title question here—just show that simple strategies based on prompting and fine-tuning are insufficient. +
Reposted by Cameron Blevins
Appreciated the opportunity to speak with @npr.org about the devastating cuts to the incredible @neh-odh.bsky.social. Why is our govt canceling grants to start an AI Center that supports our national priorities? Cutting the arts and culture programs that are fundamental to a flourishing democracy?
Where did U.S. humanities grants go? To projects from a baseball film to AI research
From AI research to historical preservation, programs funded by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities reach every corner of the U.S. Now the government has terminated those grants.
www.npr.org
April 10, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Appreciated the opportunity to speak with @npr.org about the devastating cuts to the incredible @neh-odh.bsky.social. Why is our govt canceling grants to start an AI Center that supports our national priorities? Cutting the arts and culture programs that are fundamental to a flourishing democracy?
Reposted by Cameron Blevins
New issue of my newsletter: newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/aski...
Asking Good Questions Is Harder Than Giving Great Answers
The tests we are using to assess the intelligence of AI are missing an essential aspect of human inquiry — the query itself
newsletter.dancohen.org
March 18, 2025 at 2:00 PM
New issue of my newsletter: newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/aski...
@mellymeldubs.bsky.social kicking off our Working With Data for Social Change one-day symposium with a discussion of Responsible Datasets in Context (www.responsible-datasets-in-context.com), or as they informally call "the anti-Kaggle"
March 14, 2025 at 4:28 PM
@mellymeldubs.bsky.social kicking off our Working With Data for Social Change one-day symposium with a discussion of Responsible Datasets in Context (www.responsible-datasets-in-context.com), or as they informally call "the anti-Kaggle"
📣 Join the Data Advocacy For All team for a one-day symposium "Working with Data for Social Change" this Friday, March 14th, in person (CU Boulder) and over Zoom. For more information and a link to register: da4all.github.io/symposium-20...
Symposium | Data Advocacy for All
A One Day Symposium
da4all.github.io
March 12, 2025 at 1:58 PM
📣 Join the Data Advocacy For All team for a one-day symposium "Working with Data for Social Change" this Friday, March 14th, in person (CU Boulder) and over Zoom. For more information and a link to register: da4all.github.io/symposium-20...
Reposted by Cameron Blevins
We’ve posted a job ad to join our team at LC Labs.
I am very proud and excited about the work we have planned. Please share.
I’ll also mention that we are part of the legislative branch and this is a partner-supported project.
www.usajobs.gov/job/832669800
I am very proud and excited about the work we have planned. Please share.
I’ll also mention that we are part of the legislative branch and this is a partner-supported project.
www.usajobs.gov/job/832669800
Sr. Innovation Specialist
<p>This position is located in the Digital Innovation Division, Digital Strategy Directorate, Office of the Chief Information Officer.</p>
<p>The position description number for this position is 35903...
www.usajobs.gov
February 26, 2025 at 11:33 PM
We’ve posted a job ad to join our team at LC Labs.
I am very proud and excited about the work we have planned. Please share.
I’ll also mention that we are part of the legislative branch and this is a partner-supported project.
www.usajobs.gov/job/832669800
I am very proud and excited about the work we have planned. Please share.
I’ll also mention that we are part of the legislative branch and this is a partner-supported project.
www.usajobs.gov/job/832669800
Reposted by Cameron Blevins
You know this historian with a thing for things loved talking about vast early American history and material culture in the latest issue of the WMQ!
Grateful to the Early Modern Studies Institute at the Huntington-USC and the WMQ for the forum. Available now on Project Muse (DM for copy)
Grateful to the Early Modern Studies Institute at the Huntington-USC and the WMQ for the forum. Available now on Project Muse (DM for copy)
February 5, 2025 at 9:04 PM
You know this historian with a thing for things loved talking about vast early American history and material culture in the latest issue of the WMQ!
Grateful to the Early Modern Studies Institute at the Huntington-USC and the WMQ for the forum. Available now on Project Muse (DM for copy)
Grateful to the Early Modern Studies Institute at the Huntington-USC and the WMQ for the forum. Available now on Project Muse (DM for copy)
The realm of "ChatGPT-proof" assignments continues to shrink. Your typical student isn't going to be using this for awhile, but we're not that far away from a first year undergrad being able to produce a graduate-level research paper with minimal understanding of the topic or material
A note for instructors assigning research projects (a very effective assignment & key to academia in many ways). You need to understand how far Google & OpenAI's Deep Research tools compromise this work.
You cannot just let learners use AI and assume they will need to fix flaws. It is very good now
You cannot just let learners use AI and assume they will need to fix flaws. It is very good now
February 3, 2025 at 3:23 PM
The realm of "ChatGPT-proof" assignments continues to shrink. Your typical student isn't going to be using this for awhile, but we're not that far away from a first year undergrad being able to produce a graduate-level research paper with minimal understanding of the topic or material
Reposted by Cameron Blevins
Since folks asked for it, a reflection on week two of my "Data for the Rest of Us" course. This week was on data identification—a working definition, and then an activity putting it into practice called "Is It Data?"
Is It Data? · Brandon Walsh
Head of Student Programs at the Scholars' Lab in the UVA Library
buff.ly
January 22, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Since folks asked for it, a reflection on week two of my "Data for the Rest of Us" course. This week was on data identification—a working definition, and then an activity putting it into practice called "Is It Data?"
Reposted by Cameron Blevins
Just published!
A new @proghist.bsky.social lesson by @jaschaschmitz.bsky.social, Malte Vogl, Aleksandra Kaye & Raphael Schlattmann.
doi.org/10.46430/phe...
Thanks to Luling Huang and Leif Scheuermann for their reviews, and to @cosovschi.bsky.social for editing.
A new @proghist.bsky.social lesson by @jaschaschmitz.bsky.social, Malte Vogl, Aleksandra Kaye & Raphael Schlattmann.
doi.org/10.46430/phe...
Thanks to Luling Huang and Leif Scheuermann for their reviews, and to @cosovschi.bsky.social for editing.
Simulating Historical Communication Networks in Python
This lesson will introduce the core concepts, methodologies and discussions surrounding simulation methods for historical inquiry. You will learn the basics of programming a simulation model by ...
doi.org
January 22, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Just published!
A new @proghist.bsky.social lesson by @jaschaschmitz.bsky.social, Malte Vogl, Aleksandra Kaye & Raphael Schlattmann.
doi.org/10.46430/phe...
Thanks to Luling Huang and Leif Scheuermann for their reviews, and to @cosovschi.bsky.social for editing.
A new @proghist.bsky.social lesson by @jaschaschmitz.bsky.social, Malte Vogl, Aleksandra Kaye & Raphael Schlattmann.
doi.org/10.46430/phe...
Thanks to Luling Huang and Leif Scheuermann for their reviews, and to @cosovschi.bsky.social for editing.