Erin Grievances
@erinbartram.bsky.social
Historian of religion & gender in the 19th c US, drinker of tea in the 21st c US. Museum educator at MTH&M. Wrote some quit lit you may have read. Founder & editor at contingentmagazine.org. Former academic. Sings with Voices of Concinnity. She/her.
Reposted by Erin Grievances
What does the so-called zombie apocalypse of drug addiction in Kensington, a neighborhood in Philadelphia, have to do with early-modern drunkenness? Check out my latest short piece about the monstrous drunkard's "Beastly Transformations" in @contingent-mag.bsky.social.
Beastly Transformations
as gluttonous as a pig, as angry as a lion, as quarrelsome as a dog
contingentmagazine.org
December 30, 2025 at 6:48 PM
What does the so-called zombie apocalypse of drug addiction in Kensington, a neighborhood in Philadelphia, have to do with early-modern drunkenness? Check out my latest short piece about the monstrous drunkard's "Beastly Transformations" in @contingent-mag.bsky.social.
Someone quote tweeted me saying they were tired of seeing posts from academics who didn't understand/respect contingent labor.
What’s the funniest reason someone got mad at you on Bluesky this year?
December 30, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Someone quote tweeted me saying they were tired of seeing posts from academics who didn't understand/respect contingent labor.
It is a small dumb side issue on top of a nightmare one but this is sort of the flip side of not understanding that land doesn't vote. The population density of this part of the country is extremely high!
December 30, 2025 at 9:05 PM
It is a small dumb side issue on top of a nightmare one but this is sort of the flip side of not understanding that land doesn't vote. The population density of this part of the country is extremely high!
A question for folks who will know why: how much genAI use do you think is happening among early program history PhD students these days?
December 30, 2025 at 8:47 PM
A question for folks who will know why: how much genAI use do you think is happening among early program history PhD students these days?
Nice to see this in my feed after hearing Rachel Portman's new setting of it for L&C!
Thomas Hardy’s great end of year lyric poem, 'The Darkling Thrush', first published in The Graphic on 29 Dec. 1900, and then in The Times on 1 Jan. 1901 – though a deleted ‘1899’ on the manuscript suggests he may have written it earlier.
December 30, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Nice to see this in my feed after hearing Rachel Portman's new setting of it for L&C!
Reposted by Erin Grievances
i don’t see why the fed couldn’t be reformed to add an additional mandate to manage the viability of the Star Wars franchise. keep inflation and employment, just add the additional metric of “how do fans feel about Star Wars canon and the direction of the franchise”
December 30, 2025 at 6:04 PM
i don’t see why the fed couldn’t be reformed to add an additional mandate to manage the viability of the Star Wars franchise. keep inflation and employment, just add the additional metric of “how do fans feel about Star Wars canon and the direction of the franchise”
Reposted by Erin Grievances
Y'all I need some help. I'm trying to locate a quote, I think by Donna Haraway, that says something to the effect of "I will only critique that which implicates me". Is that familiar to anyone?
December 30, 2025 at 5:53 AM
Y'all I need some help. I'm trying to locate a quote, I think by Donna Haraway, that says something to the effect of "I will only critique that which implicates me". Is that familiar to anyone?
If you haven't yet read "'Why one small American town won’t stop stoning its residents to death' by Isaac Chotiner," you should.
Why one small American town won’t stop stoning its residents to death - Anonymous - The Lottery - Shirley Jackson [Archive of Our Own]
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
archiveofourown.org
December 30, 2025 at 3:01 AM
If you haven't yet read "'Why one small American town won’t stop stoning its residents to death' by Isaac Chotiner," you should.
Reposted by Erin Grievances
If you enjoyed a piece by us or assigned a Contingent essay to your students or told a friend about us, PLEASE consider donating. We're looking for one-time donations AND folks willing to give $3 or $5 a month. Whatever you can give to pay historians for doing the work of history.
We don't do fundraising pushes very often, but that's because we're fortunate enough to have a loyal group of monthly givers. Almost everything you read this year was paid for by 161 people.
If you like what we do and want to see more, become a supporter today.
If you like what we do and want to see more, become a supporter today.
Donate
Contingent is supported by its readers, not by any university or think tank. We think that makes it possible for us to do this magazine right.
contingentmagazine.org
December 29, 2025 at 3:20 PM
If you enjoyed a piece by us or assigned a Contingent essay to your students or told a friend about us, PLEASE consider donating. We're looking for one-time donations AND folks willing to give $3 or $5 a month. Whatever you can give to pay historians for doing the work of history.
The value of a robust and well-funded humanities sector is never more visible than in a used bookstore.
December 29, 2025 at 5:35 PM
The value of a robust and well-funded humanities sector is never more visible than in a used bookstore.
He knows Ghostbusters II is a superior New Years film.
if I were elected mayor of a city I too would insist that every ceremony took place in an abandoned tunnel or secret passage of some kind
EXCLUSIVE: Mamdani Will Be Sworn In At Abandoned Original City Hall Subway Station - Streetsblog New York City
Zohran Mamdani will be sworn in as mayor of New York City at midnight on Jan. 1 inside the old abandoned City Hall subway station.
nyc.streetsblog.org
December 29, 2025 at 3:02 PM
He knows Ghostbusters II is a superior New Years film.
Reposted by Erin Grievances
I'm a firm believer that this liminal period between the holidays and New Year's is how we're supposed to live. It's peak existence.
May the word "efficiency" die in 2026 and all its horrible relatives "innovating" to solve the perceived problems of rest, joy, creativity, and humanity.
May the word "efficiency" die in 2026 and all its horrible relatives "innovating" to solve the perceived problems of rest, joy, creativity, and humanity.
December 29, 2025 at 2:16 PM
I'm a firm believer that this liminal period between the holidays and New Year's is how we're supposed to live. It's peak existence.
May the word "efficiency" die in 2026 and all its horrible relatives "innovating" to solve the perceived problems of rest, joy, creativity, and humanity.
May the word "efficiency" die in 2026 and all its horrible relatives "innovating" to solve the perceived problems of rest, joy, creativity, and humanity.
We are all part of an endless string of canaries, it seems.
Share this with the people in your life who need to know.
Share this with the people in your life who need to know.
I wasn’t sure they were going to publish this. So good for them.
The ‘Crisis of the Humanities’ Is Over. That’s Not a Good Thing.
All of higher ed now suffers the attacks of politics and technology.
www.chronicle.com
December 29, 2025 at 2:50 PM
We are all part of an endless string of canaries, it seems.
Share this with the people in your life who need to know.
Share this with the people in your life who need to know.
Got shown Dead Presidents at a sleepover and some scenes are still seared in my mind.
Name 1 movie from your childhood you were way too young to watch.
December 29, 2025 at 1:40 AM
Got shown Dead Presidents at a sleepover and some scenes are still seared in my mind.
Even people opposed to widespread AI use keep telling me "well, it can't match human thinking now, but it's going to soon, and we need to be prepared."
Given how its supporters talk about thinking and the human mind on here, I don't think that's true. Worse, though, I'm not sure that matters.
Given how its supporters talk about thinking and the human mind on here, I don't think that's true. Worse, though, I'm not sure that matters.
December 28, 2025 at 5:01 AM
Even people opposed to widespread AI use keep telling me "well, it can't match human thinking now, but it's going to soon, and we need to be prepared."
Given how its supporters talk about thinking and the human mind on here, I don't think that's true. Worse, though, I'm not sure that matters.
Given how its supporters talk about thinking and the human mind on here, I don't think that's true. Worse, though, I'm not sure that matters.
Reposted by Erin Grievances
Before AI, there was simply no way to be guided at a museum. You just had to stare at the thing in front of you with zero information about when it was made or who made it
December 28, 2025 at 3:11 AM
Before AI, there was simply no way to be guided at a museum. You just had to stare at the thing in front of you with zero information about when it was made or who made it
post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't nirvana, pearl jam, soundgarden, or alice in chains
December 28, 2025 at 1:36 AM
post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't nirvana, pearl jam, soundgarden, or alice in chains
Reposted by Erin Grievances
As someone who taught for a while at a university where this kind of community just wasn't possible in person, you might think I was the optimal AI use case for the source of this conversation.
But in reality, my intellectual lifeline from 2015-2018 was academic Twitter, connecting me to people.
But in reality, my intellectual lifeline from 2015-2018 was academic Twitter, connecting me to people.
I mean this in the kindest way: this could be solved by creating meaningful connections with your peers/colleagues. I have a writing group and a thinking group and plenty of people to text or call with questions, and it doesn’t require draining the earth of resources or stealing work.
If you use it as a dialogic thinking space where you externalities thought and use it to hold, reshape, question, extent, perturb your thinking. Just like a good teacher or mentor could, except you need to set and guide the interaction style.
December 28, 2025 at 12:19 AM
As someone who taught for a while at a university where this kind of community just wasn't possible in person, you might think I was the optimal AI use case for the source of this conversation.
But in reality, my intellectual lifeline from 2015-2018 was academic Twitter, connecting me to people.
But in reality, my intellectual lifeline from 2015-2018 was academic Twitter, connecting me to people.
If nothing else, maybe it's good we're all having this discussion about what thinking is.
December 28, 2025 at 12:08 AM
If nothing else, maybe it's good we're all having this discussion about what thinking is.
Reposted by Erin Grievances
I mean this in the kindest way: this could be solved by creating meaningful connections with your peers/colleagues. I have a writing group and a thinking group and plenty of people to text or call with questions, and it doesn’t require draining the earth of resources or stealing work.
If you use it as a dialogic thinking space where you externalities thought and use it to hold, reshape, question, extent, perturb your thinking. Just like a good teacher or mentor could, except you need to set and guide the interaction style.
December 27, 2025 at 11:43 PM
I mean this in the kindest way: this could be solved by creating meaningful connections with your peers/colleagues. I have a writing group and a thinking group and plenty of people to text or call with questions, and it doesn’t require draining the earth of resources or stealing work.
Reposted by Erin Grievances
educators know both the labor of education (our working conditions) & the labor of learning (the process we work to facilitate) better than any AI booster. We know what is being sold to us & why. We have been on the ed tech merry-go-round before
December 27, 2025 at 9:35 PM
educators know both the labor of education (our working conditions) & the labor of learning (the process we work to facilitate) better than any AI booster. We know what is being sold to us & why. We have been on the ed tech merry-go-round before
Reposted by Erin Grievances
We’re just going to produce entire generations unable to write or read aren’t we
If you use it as a dialogic thinking space where you externalities thought and use it to hold, reshape, question, extent, perturb your thinking. Just like a good teacher or mentor could, except you need to set and guide the interaction style.
December 27, 2025 at 9:08 PM
We’re just going to produce entire generations unable to write or read aren’t we
Reposted by Erin Grievances
I was thinking about AI bullshit in college then randomly remembered all the 'learning loss' moral panic when some schooling shifted to online and got a bit of psychic whiplash
December 27, 2025 at 6:11 AM
I was thinking about AI bullshit in college then randomly remembered all the 'learning loss' moral panic when some schooling shifted to online and got a bit of psychic whiplash