Mercedes Durham
@drswissmiss.bsky.social
Multilingual, multicultural, multilovely.
Professor of Sociolinguistics at Cardiff University 🇨🇭🏴🇺🇸
Currently studying varieties of Welsh English
She/her
Professor of Sociolinguistics at Cardiff University 🇨🇭🏴🇺🇸
Currently studying varieties of Welsh English
She/her
Reposted by Mercedes Durham
Got a mini-op-ed published in the campus newspaper today, in case you're wondering how I feel about generative AI. (With the compulsory shout-out to @emilymbender.bsky.social, of course)
swarthmorephoenix.com/2025/11/20/o...
swarthmorephoenix.com/2025/11/20/o...
Office Hours: Faculty on the Implications of Generative AI for Higher Education - The Phoenix
Swarthmore professors share their thoughts on the growing prevalence of generative artificial intelligence and its implications for higher education and the liberal arts.
swarthmorephoenix.com
November 20, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Got a mini-op-ed published in the campus newspaper today, in case you're wondering how I feel about generative AI. (With the compulsory shout-out to @emilymbender.bsky.social, of course)
swarthmorephoenix.com/2025/11/20/o...
swarthmorephoenix.com/2025/11/20/o...
To everyone I follow who warns/complains/worries about genAI, thank you! You make me feel less alone each time I present an anti-AI view to mostly bemused colleagues. It's not just me who thinks it's a concern in many, many ways.
November 20, 2025 at 10:09 AM
To everyone I follow who warns/complains/worries about genAI, thank you! You make me feel less alone each time I present an anti-AI view to mostly bemused colleagues. It's not just me who thinks it's a concern in many, many ways.
Reposted by Mercedes Durham
I came to this country as a child refugee. No English, no certainty, no idea what my life could become. Britain gave me refuge.
Not on a timer, not with conditions attached, but with a chance to grow roots.
A thread 🧵 1/8
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Not on a timer, not with conditions attached, but with a chance to grow roots.
A thread 🧵 1/8
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays
Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 10:29 AM
I came to this country as a child refugee. No English, no certainty, no idea what my life could become. Britain gave me refuge.
Not on a timer, not with conditions attached, but with a chance to grow roots.
A thread 🧵 1/8
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Not on a timer, not with conditions attached, but with a chance to grow roots.
A thread 🧵 1/8
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Still a better acronym than what’s being suggested for our new super school 😬
combining the humanities, social sciences, and climate science into our new School of AAAARRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH
November 15, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Still a better acronym than what’s being suggested for our new super school 😬
Reposted by Mercedes Durham
MAJOR UPDATE: apnews.com/article/louv...
November 9, 2025 at 2:29 PM
MAJOR UPDATE: apnews.com/article/louv...
Reposted by Mercedes Durham
Modern Languages students at the University of Nottingham have started a petition to save languages degrees. Please sign and share www.change.org/p/stop-the-r...
Sign the Petition
Stop the removal of Modern Languages courses at the University of Nottingham!
www.change.org
November 7, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Modern Languages students at the University of Nottingham have started a petition to save languages degrees. Please sign and share www.change.org/p/stop-the-r...
Reposted by Mercedes Durham
Edinburgh University is closing the Institute for Academic Development. Download these student resources while you can. Making notes, reading strategies, time management, dissertations and so on.
CC licenses. Pdf and text only versions. #HE 🗃️
institute-academic-development.ed.ac.uk/study-hub/le...
CC licenses. Pdf and text only versions. #HE 🗃️
institute-academic-development.ed.ac.uk/study-hub/le...
November 7, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Edinburgh University is closing the Institute for Academic Development. Download these student resources while you can. Making notes, reading strategies, time management, dissertations and so on.
CC licenses. Pdf and text only versions. #HE 🗃️
institute-academic-development.ed.ac.uk/study-hub/le...
CC licenses. Pdf and text only versions. #HE 🗃️
institute-academic-development.ed.ac.uk/study-hub/le...
#linguistics of food
We’re still waiting for the judge to figure out the jury instructions. Definitions can take time! Thankfully, he need not rule on the distinction among hoagie, sub and grinder.
November 5, 2025 at 7:23 PM
#linguistics of food
I'm not at #NWAV53 but the South Wales Speech project is. Check out our poster today and chat to Ianto (my co-author) about /t/ in Welsh English. We have glottals, we have taps, we have [ɹ], we have [h], we have zero (but not as t/d deletion) and more.
November 5, 2025 at 4:41 PM
I'm not at #NWAV53 but the South Wales Speech project is. Check out our poster today and chat to Ianto (my co-author) about /t/ in Welsh English. We have glottals, we have taps, we have [ɹ], we have [h], we have zero (but not as t/d deletion) and more.
If you’re going to wake up stupidly early and scroll your timeline instead of going back to sleep, today’s not such a terrible day to do it #HopeScrolling #NYC
November 5, 2025 at 6:04 AM
If you’re going to wake up stupidly early and scroll your timeline instead of going back to sleep, today’s not such a terrible day to do it #HopeScrolling #NYC
Glad to know it's not just me submitting last minute conference abstracts... between this morning and this evening over 40 abstracts have been submitted for ICLaVE13 (I submitted two)
November 1, 2025 at 9:32 PM
Glad to know it's not just me submitting last minute conference abstracts... between this morning and this evening over 40 abstracts have been submitted for ICLaVE13 (I submitted two)
Reposted by Mercedes Durham
We have progressed from data collection to data analysis.
November 1, 2025 at 12:31 AM
We have progressed from data collection to data analysis.
Reposted by Mercedes Durham
On further reflection, handing operation of our Universities over to a professional administrative class with no personal investment in the educational mission of the university or the creation and maintenance of knowledge might have been somewhat in error.
October 31, 2025 at 4:42 PM
On further reflection, handing operation of our Universities over to a professional administrative class with no personal investment in the educational mission of the university or the creation and maintenance of knowledge might have been somewhat in error.
Reposted by Mercedes Durham
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
June 19, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
It’s already nearly dark 😭 (currently 17.15)
October 26, 2025 at 5:15 PM
It’s already nearly dark 😭 (currently 17.15)
What pieces of fiction help you make sense of genAI's place in the world? (or just make you worry about it)
For me, it’s Hans Christian Anderson’s The Nightingale. The fake bejewelled automated nightingale is a poor replacement for the real thing even if everyone prefers it. Not sure we’ll get the real nightingale back when the fake AI one stops working in real life though.
October 24, 2025 at 1:50 PM
What pieces of fiction help you make sense of genAI's place in the world? (or just make you worry about it)
Reposted by Mercedes Durham
Happy Friday to everyone but especially to Caerphilly.
Caerphilly, Senedd constituency by-election result:
PC: 47.4% (+19.0)
REF: 36.0% (+34.2)
LAB: 11.0% (-34.9)
CON: 2.0% (-15.3)
GRN: 1.5% (+1.5)
LDEM: 1.5% (-1.2)
GWL: 0.3% (+0.3)
UKIP: 0.2% (+0.2)
Plaid Cymru GAIN from Labour.
PC: 47.4% (+19.0)
REF: 36.0% (+34.2)
LAB: 11.0% (-34.9)
CON: 2.0% (-15.3)
GRN: 1.5% (+1.5)
LDEM: 1.5% (-1.2)
GWL: 0.3% (+0.3)
UKIP: 0.2% (+0.2)
Plaid Cymru GAIN from Labour.
October 24, 2025 at 5:36 AM
Happy Friday to everyone but especially to Caerphilly.
Discovering that our uni online learning platform (Blackboard) uses Amazon Web Services this morning because I can't access half the things I need to teach shortly because AWS is down. Joy!
October 20, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Discovering that our uni online learning platform (Blackboard) uses Amazon Web Services this morning because I can't access half the things I need to teach shortly because AWS is down. Joy!
Reposted by Mercedes Durham
New scam post (reposted with ALT text)
October 19, 2025 at 9:04 AM
New scam post (reposted with ALT text)
Reposted by Mercedes Durham
Happening now: Here’s a view of the “No Kings” protest in Washington, DC
October 18, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Happening now: Here’s a view of the “No Kings” protest in Washington, DC
Reposted by Mercedes Durham
The outcome of organisational reviews captured:“Everything was over-organised and so failed to work properly. The new bureaucracy, which was supposed to impose order, was still enjoying itself writing memos and making out permits, and everything was delayed” (Stefan Zweig, The World of Yesterday)
October 18, 2025 at 10:16 AM
The outcome of organisational reviews captured:“Everything was over-organised and so failed to work properly. The new bureaucracy, which was supposed to impose order, was still enjoying itself writing memos and making out permits, and everything was delayed” (Stefan Zweig, The World of Yesterday)
Reposted by Mercedes Durham
The thing is, if you genuinely believed that preteen girls are old enough to be mothers while males in their thirties are too young to comprehend fascism, then you logically wouldn't trust men to be responsible for anything more consequential than a balloon animal, let alone a government
October 16, 2025 at 9:06 PM
The thing is, if you genuinely believed that preteen girls are old enough to be mothers while males in their thirties are too young to comprehend fascism, then you logically wouldn't trust men to be responsible for anything more consequential than a balloon animal, let alone a government
Reposted by Mercedes Durham
If you're a Labour, Green or Lib Dem voter in Caerffili it's morally incumbent on you to vote Plaid. That's the long and the short of it. We're out of excuses or arguments now, either we stand up to fascism or we give in.
A… remarkable @survation.bsky.social poll out today of voting intentions in Caerphilly ahead of next week’s Senedd by-election
Reform 42%
Plaid 38%
Labour 12%
Conservatives 4%
Greens 3%
LibDem 1%
#senedd #devolution
Reform 42%
Plaid 38%
Labour 12%
Conservatives 4%
Greens 3%
LibDem 1%
#senedd #devolution
October 16, 2025 at 9:11 AM
If you're a Labour, Green or Lib Dem voter in Caerffili it's morally incumbent on you to vote Plaid. That's the long and the short of it. We're out of excuses or arguments now, either we stand up to fascism or we give in.
Reposted by Mercedes Durham
Using ChatGPT
What's something that isn't considered embarrassing but you think it should be?
August 23, 2025 at 7:01 AM
Using ChatGPT