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
"Portraying the monstrous drunkard as a human-animal hybrid suggested that the drunkard’s characteristics had become unchangeable . . ."
Our latest, from @davidkphd.bsky.social
Our latest, from @davidkphd.bsky.social
Beastly Metamorphosis
The drunkard’s transformation could become permanent.
contingentmagazine.org
December 30, 2025 at 1:54 AM
"Portraying the monstrous drunkard as a human-animal hybrid suggested that the drunkard’s characteristics had become unchangeable . . ."
Our latest, from @davidkphd.bsky.social
Our latest, from @davidkphd.bsky.social
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
Find me a piece of ed tech from the past thirty years that's genuinely more about student learning than it is about extracting more labor from fewer teachers. Can't be done!
Every pedagogical argument I see is essentially "You could use it to do something you already do but you will also have to do a lot of setup and double check everything it does."
December 27, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Find me a piece of ed tech from the past thirty years that's genuinely more about student learning than it is about extracting more labor from fewer teachers. Can't be done!
Reposted by Erin Grievances
This is an incredibly illuminating video on what we're up against.
She thinks I'm with ICE
YouTube video by Ben Palmer
www.youtube.com
December 27, 2025 at 8:47 PM
This is an incredibly illuminating video on what we're up against.
Since they have all deleted their original posts, I want to make clear that this was said in response to some AI enthusiasts arguing that existing AI could do the job of a historian in part because all existing information you would need to do history research was already on the Internet.
When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.
Seems like it's worth posting this one again.
December 27, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Since they have all deleted their original posts, I want to make clear that this was said in response to some AI enthusiasts arguing that existing AI could do the job of a historian in part because all existing information you would need to do history research was already on the Internet.
Reposted by Erin Grievances
Supporters will soon get a great new benefit: podcast versions of some of our most beloved pieces, beginning with the complete Monster series.
December 27, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Supporters will soon get a great new benefit: podcast versions of some of our most beloved pieces, beginning with the complete Monster series.
Reposted by Erin Grievances
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 27, 2025 at 5:41 PM
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.
I find national (and even regional) recipe conventions endlessly fascinating. In the US, you'd be told what size loaf pan to use by length/width, maybe with the addition of how many cups of batter this makes so you could use alternates. Here, I'm just told use two 450 g or one 1kg pans.
Malt loaf
There's something very satisfying about a cup of tea with a slice of sticky buttered malt loaf - this simple, good-for-you version makes two and improves on keeping
www.bbcgoodfood.com
December 27, 2025 at 4:41 PM
I find national (and even regional) recipe conventions endlessly fascinating. In the US, you'd be told what size loaf pan to use by length/width, maybe with the addition of how many cups of batter this makes so you could use alternates. Here, I'm just told use two 450 g or one 1kg pans.