Gemma Sharpe
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gemmasharpe.bsky.social
Gemma Sharpe
@gemmasharpe.bsky.social
Assistant Prof in Art History, Cold War internationalism, Modernism in Pakistan and South Asia | GC-CUNY alum | Cleveland based | From across the pond
Reposted by Gemma Sharpe
when i review an article charitably
November 22, 2025 at 3:28 PM
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Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
November 3, 2025 at 10:04 AM
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The #1 lesson from yesterday’s blowout:
Humanities majors killed on the job market
1) Mamdani- Africana Studies
2) Spanberger -French
3) Sherill - Global History
Humanities where the cool jobs at
November 5, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Gemma Sharpe
One anthropomorphic evolutionary event I didn’t see coming was the rise of the public utility and service sector into metaphorical powerhouses on social media, and I’m here for it 💯%!
today, we will treat sewage.

we will manage the foul remnants of our past, the health of our present, the hope of our future.

days end, but the mission endures.

because there will be sewage to treat tomorrow. but this day is today.

and today, we will treat sewage.
November 5, 2025 at 1:34 PM
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by the end of this class students will gain insight into u.s. history while developing their skills as composers of rap interpretations of major historical events
October 11, 2025 at 9:10 PM
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It would be good if these kinds of retrospectives, as well as cultural coverage in general, included a look at the institutions' records in the political economy.

Lowry's tenure included multiple rounds of bitter union action, including a 134-day strike in 2000, over low wages and poor healthcare.
He’s Left MoMA Smarter, Richer and at a Crossroads
www.nytimes.com
September 17, 2025 at 4:53 PM
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I’m giving a talk at e-flux on Thursday 9/25, 7:30pm, “The Fluxhouse Cooperatives and the Future of the City.” The program will also include a performance of Maciunas’s “Solo for Violin” by Laura Ortman.
www.e-flux.com/events/67832...
George Maciunas: Lecture and Performance - Events - e-flux
An evening dedicated to George Maciunas, featuring a lecture by Colby Chamberlain and a performance by Laura Ortman of work by Maciunas.
www.e-flux.com
September 17, 2025 at 3:27 PM
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If you have any lingering questions about how @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social could be both African and Asian, I talked to four artists whose backgrounds echo his; and whose work involves telling such stories.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/22/a...
For South Asian Artists, Identity Doesn’t Fit in a Box
www.nytimes.com
August 22, 2025 at 11:55 AM
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it's related I think to how liberal funders and institutions are allergic to spending on progressive media (eg how CAP shuttered ThinkProgress). rather than invest in that kind of long-term project the money vanishes into the election consultant maw
August 21, 2025 at 2:06 PM
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Say it again for those in the back: HUMANITIES USUALLY SUBSIDIZE STEM at most R1s. Yes we have receipts.
What an absolutely pathological thing to say when the humanities subsidize the sciences and all the science funding is getting cut to the bone. Like just look at the vaccine stuff and the cancer research that’s disappearing. They hate science as much if not more than the humanities
In which a Yale prof calls for jettisoning humanities to make way for science-only universities.

“scientists… are being punished for the sins of [humanities scholars] because we all live under one roof. I cannot see a compelling reason for our continued cohabitation.”
August 13, 2025 at 7:28 PM
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If you work in higher ed, you need to get your folks together and end the use of course evals or at least bar their consideration in evaluation, promotion, and hiring. This needed to happen yesterday because they don't measure learning, they measure instructor gender, but now it's a snitch pool.
July 31, 2025 at 12:41 AM
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Second hand embarrassment causes me physical pain. Forgive my bluntness, but my pelvic floor sort of cramps when I see it. I watched 1/2 of Saved by the Bell with my eyes closed because Screech hurt my stomach.

I’m basically bleeding out watching this ad.
Cuomo announces his general election run by proving the Mamdani sauce ain't so easy to cook up on the spot with half the ingredients
July 14, 2025 at 9:05 PM
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We are in a weird space. Expertise has to yield to populism to preserve the institutions that confer expertise but the market is using fake populism to juice every bit of profitable expertise before it all goes boom.

Shorter: the managerial class, yo.
This kind of gels with @tressiemcphd.bsky.social's observation that ordinary non-economist types know the economy isn't doing Just Fine
Anyway, my point is, before telling people they don’t get things, consider that they get enough and just disagree about the relevant costs and benefits re: threats from executive versus judicial power
June 28, 2025 at 10:12 PM
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No one is “replacing” teachers with AI. People are redistributing money to tech companies for AI and replacing permanent salaried workers with contingent, poorly paid ones whose labor is to patch together the system that is being broken by AI.
June 25, 2025 at 1:29 PM
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oh no the bad guys can’t imagine doing anything societally responsible and ethically competent with one’s privilege

it’s almost as if the quiet part is loud

like the point of privilege is to hoard it and lord it over others

huh

weird
forbes.com Forbes @forbes.com · Jun 24
Despite his own privileged path to power, or perhaps because of it, the son of a Columbia University professor and a movie director is campaigning as a socialist intent on redistributing New York’s wealth.
Here’s How Much New York City Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani Is Worth
Despite his own privileged path to power, or perhaps because of it, the son of a Columbia University professor and a movie director is campaigning as a socialist intent on redistributing New York’s wealth.
www.forbes.com
June 25, 2025 at 1:35 PM
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crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their consultants
June 25, 2025 at 2:20 AM
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The average age of Apollo 11 Mission Control was 28 years old. The oldest was 36.
I dont really care about the rest of this but he's 2 years shy of being old enough to be president. Decades of being ruled by a gerontocracy means we've started seeing full on adults as children
June 24, 2025 at 11:56 PM
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If a colleague had the reliability rate of an LLM, they would be fired. If ordinary* software did, it would be uninstalled.

LLMs require the chat format, because chat makes us party to the conversation. We insert the meaning ourselves - and hold it to a different standard. It's the mirror effect.
If a human told you things that were correct 80% of the time but claimed, flat out, with absolute confidence, that they were correct 100% of the time, you would dislike them & never trust a word they say. All I'm really suggesting is for people to treat chatbots with that same distrust & antagonism.
June 20, 2025 at 7:30 AM
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Facts.
But instead of creating a narrative pitting faculty v. staff in terms of pay/ equity, the better narrative is faculty & staff on the same side v. administrators who are paid vastly better than both. Oh, & the exhausted assistant in this example works for & was hired by… administrators.
This is everywhere.

Every academic institution I know is held together by some exhausted woman in her early 40's who waits until the old white male professors have finished their vague rants and says, "alright, so concretely can I propose the following next steps..."

She makes half their salary.
A friend is getting involved in politics for the 1st time. Went to local mtg where guys in charge said: we want to have a concert in 6wks. She asked ?s They had no venue, no bands, etc. She made a PowerPoint on tasks needed & a realistic timeline. Them: You're too corporate, not progressive enough.
June 14, 2025 at 5:00 PM
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I was fine with the protests against the king until they threw the tea into the ocean.
June 11, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Got a first smile out of our newborn reading the Trump/Musk tweets out loud
June 5, 2025 at 10:20 PM
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63% of American adults had unfavorable views of Martin Luther King Jr in August 1966, per Gallup surveys

46% of Mississippi GOP voters said interracial marriage should be illegal in a 2011 PPP poll

to push w/e is popular instead of trying to popularize justice is to admit you lack moral leadership
EXCLUSIVE: A top Democratic strategist has launched new policy research and messaging hub, called Searchlight, with a goal of pushing the party toward the most effective, broadly popular positions.
Dems are quietly forming a think tank to help them win again
Searchlight, a name inspired by the birthplace of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, comes at a precarious moment for a Democratic Party.
www.politico.com
June 4, 2025 at 11:50 AM