James A. Palmer
@jamespqr77.bsky.social
Historian of medieval Italy; dad; cook; hockey fan, Michigander living in Iowa
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0656-9110
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0656-9110
Reposted by James A. Palmer
My employer, Univ. Colorado will pay OpenAI $2M/year under the banner of “equity”. That’s 54 full scholarships / year. Plus, our IT will be able to read our chatGPT logs, and our chats can be requested under public records law. No thanks. Surveillance is not equity
www.axios.com/local/boulde...
www.axios.com/local/boulde...
CU signs $2M OpenAI deal for ChatGPT access
Students and faculty will gain access to ChatGPT Edu starting in March under a three-year deal.
www.axios.com
February 13, 2026 at 11:36 PM
My employer, Univ. Colorado will pay OpenAI $2M/year under the banner of “equity”. That’s 54 full scholarships / year. Plus, our IT will be able to read our chatGPT logs, and our chats can be requested under public records law. No thanks. Surveillance is not equity
www.axios.com/local/boulde...
www.axios.com/local/boulde...
Reposted by James A. Palmer
Lu Ann Homza and collaborators have put out the Cambridge Companion to the Spanish Inquisition! emspanishhistorynotes.wordpress.com/2026/02/13/t...
The Cambridge Companion to the Spanish Inquisition, ed. Homza
The Cambridge Companion to the Spanish Inquisition, Lu Ann Homza, ed. (Cambridge, 2025). 1.Procedures and Goals 2. Inquisitorial Careers, Kimberly Lynn 3. Pursuing Life Stories: Inquisitors and Sus…
emspanishhistorynotes.wordpress.com
February 13, 2026 at 5:49 PM
Lu Ann Homza and collaborators have put out the Cambridge Companion to the Spanish Inquisition! emspanishhistorynotes.wordpress.com/2026/02/13/t...
Reposted by James A. Palmer
This!!!
(3) But the Democrat view is also bad: while it's fine for people at Princeton and Harvard to study Latin and Sanskrit, public higher education is about job training and $ ROI. There is no room for the idea that curiosity-driven inquiry is a good that should be supported by the public.
February 13, 2026 at 6:16 PM
This!!!
We first met up because we had to co-lead a grad seminar discussion on Foucault's Discipline and Punish (we argued and it was awesome). Our first non-class related date was to walking the grounds of a seminary together. Are we weird? Don't care, it's been great for nearly 20 years now!
This is an unapologetically sappy feel-good subject (at least, I guess, for people in a happy relationship”). So, to prepare for Valentine’s Day, what did you and your partner do for a first date?
My wife and I went to tea at Huntington Gardens and walked around.
My wife and I went to tea at Huntington Gardens and walked around.
On our first date, my spouse and I spent like an hour talking about footnotes.
February 13, 2026 at 4:58 PM
We first met up because we had to co-lead a grad seminar discussion on Foucault's Discipline and Punish (we argued and it was awesome). Our first non-class related date was to walking the grounds of a seminary together. Are we weird? Don't care, it's been great for nearly 20 years now!
Reposted by James A. Palmer
Also, the entire vocational case for <not> majoring in the humanities/liberal arts rests on approximately no data at all:
👇🎯 Periodic reminder that the right-wing career/salary talking points about the liberal arts are belied by huge piles of data (e.g., news.wisc.edu/new-data-on-...), & the complicity of Democrats & university administrators in repeating those right-wing talking points is a major part of then problem.
February 13, 2026 at 4:40 PM
Also, the entire vocational case for <not> majoring in the humanities/liberal arts rests on approximately no data at all:
Reposted by James A. Palmer
This elitist view that only rich/Ivy/private school kids should study/have access the liberal arts is so deeply ingrained in so many highly educated Democrats’ views (including tons who majored in the lib arts themselves) that they don’t even realize they hold it, let alone how ugly & elitist it is
(3) But the Democrat view is also bad: while it's fine for people at Princeton and Harvard to study Latin and Sanskrit, public higher education is about job training and $ ROI. There is no room for the idea that curiosity-driven inquiry is a good that should be supported by the public.
February 13, 2026 at 3:54 PM
This elitist view that only rich/Ivy/private school kids should study/have access the liberal arts is so deeply ingrained in so many highly educated Democrats’ views (including tons who majored in the lib arts themselves) that they don’t even realize they hold it, let alone how ugly & elitist it is
Reposted by James A. Palmer
I'd like at add a few things to this. (1) humanists have not been able to convince any political party that curiosity-driven humanities research is a public good that should be funded using tax dollars. Republicans don't believe this, but neither do Democrats.
It's possible to do a non-reactionary critique of the current landscape of humanities research funding: www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...
Does humanities research matter anymore? (opinion)
The rapid collapse in available research funding is one crisis in the humanities we aren’t talking enough about, Asheesh Kapur Siddique writes.
www.insidehighered.com
February 13, 2026 at 2:57 PM
I'd like at add a few things to this. (1) humanists have not been able to convince any political party that curiosity-driven humanities research is a public good that should be funded using tax dollars. Republicans don't believe this, but neither do Democrats.
He can't figure out how to explain the erasure because it isn't happening. What bothers him is the loss of total domination. This is precisely the same nonsense that lies behind the equally absurd Christian persecution anxiety. No wonder the racists and the Christian Nationalists are so friendly.
Trump nominated a legit white nationalist to a top post at the State Department. I asked him some basic questions about his belief in the “erasure of white culture”. Watch this embarrassing, fumbling answer. Like he has never before been asked to explain his views.
February 13, 2026 at 3:10 PM
He can't figure out how to explain the erasure because it isn't happening. What bothers him is the loss of total domination. This is precisely the same nonsense that lies behind the equally absurd Christian persecution anxiety. No wonder the racists and the Christian Nationalists are so friendly.
Reposted by James A. Palmer
So they're creating a Department of 'We' Studies (Europe) and a Department of 'Other' Studies where the latter includes Africa, the (Central, South and Indigenous) Americas, and Women.
Like...pardon me...but come the fuck on.
Like...pardon me...but come the fuck on.
Reorganizing the College of Liberal Arts at UT Austin. Announced today by the president.,
February 12, 2026 at 6:35 PM
So they're creating a Department of 'We' Studies (Europe) and a Department of 'Other' Studies where the latter includes Africa, the (Central, South and Indigenous) Americas, and Women.
Like...pardon me...but come the fuck on.
Like...pardon me...but come the fuck on.
Reposted by James A. Palmer
You know that creative struggle you have in your head when figuring something out and trying to write it out? That’s called thinking!
Nothing to see here other than a university telling its research community that AI can appropriately be used to "generate first drafts."
unbcloud.sharepoint.com/sites/AI-at-...
unbcloud.sharepoint.com/sites/AI-at-...
February 12, 2026 at 4:26 PM
You know that creative struggle you have in your head when figuring something out and trying to write it out? That’s called thinking!
Reposted by James A. Palmer
AI is not inevitable. If we had sane people in government that were not in thrall to billionaire tech CEOs, LLMs could be regulated, forced to obey existing copyright laws, and banned from places where their use is inappropriate, such as college classes. This should be a moderate position.
February 12, 2026 at 4:14 PM
AI is not inevitable. If we had sane people in government that were not in thrall to billionaire tech CEOs, LLMs could be regulated, forced to obey existing copyright laws, and banned from places where their use is inappropriate, such as college classes. This should be a moderate position.
Reposted by James A. Palmer
Guy who doesn’t know anything thinks you shouldn’t either.
Ex-Google exec says degrees in law and medicine are a waste of time because they take so long to complete that AI will catch up by graduation | Fortune
“Higher education as we know it is on the verge of becoming obsolete,” the former Google AI leader told Fortune.
fortune.com
February 11, 2026 at 5:15 PM
Guy who doesn’t know anything thinks you shouldn’t either.
Reposted by James A. Palmer
Over on threads someone just use ai;dr and we all need to adopt that right quick
February 11, 2026 at 7:56 PM
Over on threads someone just use ai;dr and we all need to adopt that right quick
Imagine if we invested in education, of children and adults, like we do military power, surveillance, and various forms of internal coercion. Imagine if we were enlightened enough to not make education and the cultivation of humanity require crushing debt for students and penury for educators.
Good. Student loans should never be repaid. That money is much better spent going to housing, health care, child care, groceries and saving for retirement.
Millions of student loan borrowers aren't repaying their loans — and defaults are up
www.npr.org/2026/02/10/n...
Millions of student loan borrowers aren't repaying their loans — and defaults are up
www.npr.org/2026/02/10/n...
Millions of student loan borrowers aren't repaying their loans — and defaults are up
New data offers further confirmation of a crisis in the U.S. student loan portfolio, in which too many borrowers are not repaying their student loans.
www.npr.org
February 11, 2026 at 3:16 PM
Imagine if we invested in education, of children and adults, like we do military power, surveillance, and various forms of internal coercion. Imagine if we were enlightened enough to not make education and the cultivation of humanity require crushing debt for students and penury for educators.
Reposted by James A. Palmer
Reposted by James A. Palmer
I got my Masters in Latin Literature from UT in 2002 and I knew EXACTLY which professor this would be. Exactly. JFC
February 11, 2026 at 12:44 AM
I got my Masters in Latin Literature from UT in 2002 and I knew EXACTLY which professor this would be. Exactly. JFC
Reposted by James A. Palmer
Again, these state policies were sparked and fueled by the idea that the taboo against racism was *so* strong it represented an existential and chilling threat to free inquiry.
UNC is close to finalizing its policy which outlines permissible circumstances to *SECRETLY RECORD FACULTY IN THE CLASSROOM.*
UNC-Chapel Hill Preps Policy on Recording Professors
The school aims to clarify guidelines after a secret recording controversy and growing fear of surveillance.
www.theassemblync.com
February 10, 2026 at 5:06 PM
Again, these state policies were sparked and fueled by the idea that the taboo against racism was *so* strong it represented an existential and chilling threat to free inquiry.
Reposted by James A. Palmer
R1: No we're not hiring on the tenure track because our peers aren't hiring on the tenure track
R1: Our peers aren't hiring on the tenure track because we aren't hiring on the tenure track
R1: wtf our grad students aren't getting hired on the tenure track
R1: No one could know how this happened
R1: Our peers aren't hiring on the tenure track because we aren't hiring on the tenure track
R1: wtf our grad students aren't getting hired on the tenure track
R1: No one could know how this happened
"Warren stated that job outcomes were a 'key factor' in the decision-making process—within the previous decade, only a 'tiny percentage' of PhD students who graduated from the LCS program went on to receive tenure track at an R1 institution." An absurd metric & sign of the conservatism of higher ed.
February 10, 2026 at 2:32 PM
R1: No we're not hiring on the tenure track because our peers aren't hiring on the tenure track
R1: Our peers aren't hiring on the tenure track because we aren't hiring on the tenure track
R1: wtf our grad students aren't getting hired on the tenure track
R1: No one could know how this happened
R1: Our peers aren't hiring on the tenure track because we aren't hiring on the tenure track
R1: wtf our grad students aren't getting hired on the tenure track
R1: No one could know how this happened
Reposted by James A. Palmer
🔥 🔥 🔥 article that shows how valuable historical context is to understanding current debates. Aka, why, when we’re arguing about whether Texas universities are woke, why have to look back to Reconstruction…
For two years, I've been investigating claims that Texas A&M University has been overtaken by the forces of gay race communism. The truth is a little more complicated: www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...
What’s the Matter With Texas A&M?
Five presidents in five years. Firings of “woke” professors. Crackdowns on Plato. Inside state leaders’ efforts to remake a great university.
www.texasmonthly.com
February 10, 2026 at 5:19 PM
🔥 🔥 🔥 article that shows how valuable historical context is to understanding current debates. Aka, why, when we’re arguing about whether Texas universities are woke, why have to look back to Reconstruction…
Reposted by James A. Palmer
What else would we expect from someone with DEUS VULT tattooed on him but crusader rhetoric.
Last week, the Secretary of Defense called the US a "Christian nation" & said a soldier "finds eternal life" by dying for country. But, sure, some people want to debate if #ChristianNationalism is even a thing.
publicwitness.wordandway.org/p/at-nationa...
publicwitness.wordandway.org/p/at-nationa...
At National Prayer Breakfast, Hegseth Says US Soldiers Gain Salvation by Dying for ‘Christian Nation’
While Trump's remarks dominate the headlines about the event, more concerning Christian Nationalist comments came a few minutes later.
publicwitness.wordandway.org
February 9, 2026 at 9:58 PM
What else would we expect from someone with DEUS VULT tattooed on him but crusader rhetoric.
Good! There is power in a union!
BREAKING: San Francisco public school teachers, counselors, and nurses have walked out on strike.
6,000 members of the United Educators of San Francisco are striking to fight for fully funded health care for their families and a raise to keep up with the Bay Area cost of living.
6,000 members of the United Educators of San Francisco are striking to fight for fully funded health care for their families and a raise to keep up with the Bay Area cost of living.
February 9, 2026 at 5:44 PM
Good! There is power in a union!
Reposted by James A. Palmer
Bad Bunny’s performance began in the plantation, featured broken electric poles, and ended by centering a hemispheric understanding of “América”—among many other things—and some Anglo journalists are like “his performance wasn’t political.”
This is why we need to be telling our stories.
This is why we need to be telling our stories.
February 9, 2026 at 2:00 PM
Bad Bunny’s performance began in the plantation, featured broken electric poles, and ended by centering a hemispheric understanding of “América”—among many other things—and some Anglo journalists are like “his performance wasn’t political.”
This is why we need to be telling our stories.
This is why we need to be telling our stories.
Reposted by James A. Palmer
Did You Know: More than 90% of hotels in the United States refused to take reservations from Black guests? The Green Book Project tells the story Black travel during Jim Crow. Share your story and contribute to the Community Map: greenbookproject.osu.edu
#GreenBookProject #CommunityMap #EconSky
#GreenBookProject #CommunityMap #EconSky
February 9, 2026 at 1:47 PM
Did You Know: More than 90% of hotels in the United States refused to take reservations from Black guests? The Green Book Project tells the story Black travel during Jim Crow. Share your story and contribute to the Community Map: greenbookproject.osu.edu
#GreenBookProject #CommunityMap #EconSky
#GreenBookProject #CommunityMap #EconSky
Which academic muppet are you?
I’m either of these guys, trying to control my need to snark loudly and openly about everything.
I’m either of these guys, trying to control my need to snark loudly and openly about everything.
February 7, 2026 at 3:54 PM
Which academic muppet are you?
I’m either of these guys, trying to control my need to snark loudly and openly about everything.
I’m either of these guys, trying to control my need to snark loudly and openly about everything.
Reposted by James A. Palmer
What a piece of shit
Yale prof David Gelernter defends his letter urging Epstein to hire "v small goodlooking blonde" student by saying that he was "keep[ing] the potential boss's habits in mind."
This creep shouldn't be allowed anywhere near students.
yaledailynews.com/articles/gel...
This creep shouldn't be allowed anywhere near students.
yaledailynews.com/articles/gel...
February 6, 2026 at 10:41 PM
What a piece of shit