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
Message to all faculty: your expertise is no longer trusted or valued at this so-called “university.”
November 14, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Message to all faculty: your expertise is no longer trusted or valued at this so-called “university.”
Reposted by James A. Palmer
I was a faculty member at IU in 2016, and after the election that year, I had to change the way I taught my 200+ student Intro Sociology class, because a handful of students started flooding the class whiteboard app by posting "MAGA" over and over again.
"The professor will no longer be able to teach a class on diversity after she showed students a diagram that included the 'Make America Great Again' slogan as an example of white supremacy."
Indiana Professor Removed From Class Over White Supremacy Lesson
www.nytimes.com
November 14, 2025 at 1:58 AM
I was a faculty member at IU in 2016, and after the election that year, I had to change the way I taught my 200+ student Intro Sociology class, because a handful of students started flooding the class whiteboard app by posting "MAGA" over and over again.
Reposted by James A. Palmer
If you have to get permission to teach in your area of expertise from people who are definitionally not qualified to adjudicate your expertise then you are no longer working at a university.
You’re working at a state propaganda factory.
You’re working at a state propaganda factory.
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Texas A&M adopts policy requiring professors to get OK from school president to discuss certain race and gender issues.
November 13, 2025 at 11:48 PM
If you have to get permission to teach in your area of expertise from people who are definitionally not qualified to adjudicate your expertise then you are no longer working at a university.
You’re working at a state propaganda factory.
You’re working at a state propaganda factory.
Reposted by James A. Palmer
"In 2025, 40% of women aged 15 to 44 say they would move abroad permanently if they had the opportunity. The current figure is four times higher than the 10% who shared this desire in 2014, when it was generally in line with other age and gender groups."
Record Numbers of Younger Women Want to Leave the U.S.
The percentage of younger women in the U.S. who express a desire to migrate permanently has surged in the past decade.
news.gallup.com
November 13, 2025 at 3:10 PM
"In 2025, 40% of women aged 15 to 44 say they would move abroad permanently if they had the opportunity. The current figure is four times higher than the 10% who shared this desire in 2014, when it was generally in line with other age and gender groups."
So Tylenol (acetaminophen) is bad. Ibuprofen is bad. For a guy who got his start talking about rural suffering and addiction (opioids), he sure seems hell bent on attacking all the non-addictive pain medications.
JD Vance calls ibuprofen "useless medication" and implies it's not "necessary, safe and effective."
November 13, 2025 at 4:12 PM
So Tylenol (acetaminophen) is bad. Ibuprofen is bad. For a guy who got his start talking about rural suffering and addiction (opioids), he sure seems hell bent on attacking all the non-addictive pain medications.
Reposted by James A. Palmer
i mean it's nonsense. the problem with all these poli sci/ IR dudes is that they don't know anything about history - how to actually understand its sources, how to think about context, etc.
they think it's just raw data that can by systemitized and that's just not how people work
they think it's just raw data that can by systemitized and that's just not how people work
November 13, 2025 at 3:29 PM
i mean it's nonsense. the problem with all these poli sci/ IR dudes is that they don't know anything about history - how to actually understand its sources, how to think about context, etc.
they think it's just raw data that can by systemitized and that's just not how people work
they think it's just raw data that can by systemitized and that's just not how people work
I sometimes wonder what it would be like to have party I could vote for that wouldn't be a near constant disappointment.
November 10, 2025 at 3:14 PM
I sometimes wonder what it would be like to have party I could vote for that wouldn't be a near constant disappointment.
Reposted by James A. Palmer
Our department is hiring! Assistant Professor and Ruby Heap Professorship in Women’s History universityaffairs.ca/search-job/?...
Search Jobs - University Affairs
universityaffairs.ca
September 26, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Our department is hiring! Assistant Professor and Ruby Heap Professorship in Women’s History universityaffairs.ca/search-job/?...
I have always wondered about this and this story is incredible.
I LEARNED THE ANSWER TO THIS
Chris's Steakhouse was a New Orleans landmark
Chris Matulich periodically got bored, sold it, waited for the new owner to fail, and bought it back cheap
The sale conditions: Can't move it, can't change the name
He did this six times
Then he sold it to Ruth Fertel
Chris's Steakhouse was a New Orleans landmark
Chris Matulich periodically got bored, sold it, waited for the new owner to fail, and bought it back cheap
The sale conditions: Can't move it, can't change the name
He did this six times
Then he sold it to Ruth Fertel
what did ruth mean when she said her steakhouse was "chris"
November 7, 2025 at 9:45 PM
I have always wondered about this and this story is incredible.
Reposted by James A. Palmer
“We’re losing billions of dollars a year, but at least we’re telling teens to kill themselves”
ICYMI: Microsoft’s charge “implies a more than $12 billion quarterly loss at OpenAI, said Firoz Valliji, an analyst at Bernstein.”
That “would mark one of the largest single-quarter losses for a tech company in history.”
@jessefelder.bsky.social $MSFT
www.wsj.com/livecoverage...
That “would mark one of the largest single-quarter losses for a tech company in history.”
@jessefelder.bsky.social $MSFT
www.wsj.com/livecoverage...
November 7, 2025 at 7:50 PM
“We’re losing billions of dollars a year, but at least we’re telling teens to kill themselves”
Reposted by James A. Palmer
I absolutely fucking refuse to allow this monstrosity into my classroom. And will not be changing my mind until it is not merrily aiding people into psychotic breaks and death by suicide, and is not administered by technofascists willing to let the world burn
Another person who started down this path from the most “innocuous” advertised uses of ChatGPT: homework help. I have been struck by the cases of people getting lost in delusions after using this product for work or school: ie the use cases we are supposed to encourage as faculty.
November 7, 2025 at 12:55 PM
I absolutely fucking refuse to allow this monstrosity into my classroom. And will not be changing my mind until it is not merrily aiding people into psychotic breaks and death by suicide, and is not administered by technofascists willing to let the world burn
Reposted by James A. Palmer
“Ignorance is Strength”
Cornell says its capitulation to Trump affirms the university's "commitment to the principles of academic freedom, independence, and institutional autonomy." Yeah, sure. Joining the regime's attacks on people of color and trans students is a sure sign of "independence."
Cornell University to pay $60M in deal with Trump administration to restore federal funding
Cornell University has agreed to pay $60 million and accept the Trump administration’s interpretation of civil rights laws in order to restore federal funding and end investigations into the Ivy Leagu...
apnews.com
November 7, 2025 at 7:01 PM
“Ignorance is Strength”
AP is garbage. It does not indicate a student's achievement of or preparedness for higher ed accomplishment. It is, in fact, inimical to higher ed because it serves only to reduce the time students spend in college, to their detriment. Only people served are selling the product or gaming rankings.
I am increasingly skeptical of the whole AP thing. In the past ~5 years, I've had a consistently growing number of first year students crash out in the science, math, and language classes they've placed into on the basis of their AP scores. Acing the exam ≠ the ability to apply that knowledge
November 7, 2025 at 5:43 PM
AP is garbage. It does not indicate a student's achievement of or preparedness for higher ed accomplishment. It is, in fact, inimical to higher ed because it serves only to reduce the time students spend in college, to their detriment. Only people served are selling the product or gaming rankings.
Someone should pitch: From Sleepy Joe to Drowsy Donny: A History of the Soporific Presidency
photos of Trump sleeping through yesterday's Oval Office event via Andrew Harnik of Getty
November 7, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Someone should pitch: From Sleepy Joe to Drowsy Donny: A History of the Soporific Presidency
Reposted by James A. Palmer
UT Austin is discussing eliminating or consolidating our departments of African American and African Diaspora Studies, Mexican/American and Latino/Latina Studies, and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Here is what AAADS alumni have to say. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
November 7, 2025 at 2:15 PM
UT Austin is discussing eliminating or consolidating our departments of African American and African Diaspora Studies, Mexican/American and Latino/Latina Studies, and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Here is what AAADS alumni have to say. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Grading papers on the penitential of Theodore, a fascinating text that I love putting in front of students. As often happens, reading several papers and thinking about them in the aggregate is leading to a lot of thoughts, this time relating to teaching about religion in a history class.
November 7, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Grading papers on the penitential of Theodore, a fascinating text that I love putting in front of students. As often happens, reading several papers and thinking about them in the aggregate is leading to a lot of thoughts, this time relating to teaching about religion in a history class.
Reposted by James A. Palmer
For those who are interested in intellectual history and early modern Ottoman world: Don't miss this extraordinary book by Marinos Sariyannis!
Published open access today!🎉
#OttomanHistory #EarlyModern
Published open access today!🎉
#OttomanHistory #EarlyModern
My latest book, on open access!
Ottomans and the Supernatural: Nature and the Limits of Knowledge in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire url: academic.oup.com/book/61617
Ottomans and the Supernatural: Nature and the Limits of Knowledge in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire url: academic.oup.com/book/61617
Ottomans and the Supernatural: Nature and the Limits of Knowledge in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire
Abstract. Man is part of nature, we say, and perhaps for most of us nature includes all that exists (at least in a tangible way—i.e. if we want to exclude
academic.oup.com
November 6, 2025 at 4:37 PM
For those who are interested in intellectual history and early modern Ottoman world: Don't miss this extraordinary book by Marinos Sariyannis!
Published open access today!🎉
#OttomanHistory #EarlyModern
Published open access today!🎉
#OttomanHistory #EarlyModern
Reposted by James A. Palmer
Thrilled to have this piece by Omar Muhammed & @fancynahyan.bsky.social out now. I'll be using it tomorrow in a talk at UC-Merced on "Where Do Pandemics Come From? Using Black Death Narratives to Rethink the Origin of Pandemics." Or the question we really need to ask: when are pandemics? A quick 🧵.
Thanks to Kerra for this write up on the Plague maqama article. @uniofexeternews.bsky.social news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-h...
Myths about rapid spread of the Black Death influenced by single “literary tale”, experts show
Myths about how the Black Death travelled quickly across Asia, ravaging Silk Route communities, date back to a single fourteenth-century source, experts have found. Modern portrayals of the plague qui...
news.exeter.ac.uk
November 5, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Thrilled to have this piece by Omar Muhammed & @fancynahyan.bsky.social out now. I'll be using it tomorrow in a talk at UC-Merced on "Where Do Pandemics Come From? Using Black Death Narratives to Rethink the Origin of Pandemics." Or the question we really need to ask: when are pandemics? A quick 🧵.
Reposted by James A. Palmer
Once you start thinking of AI as a war on humanity, on human thought, on human inquiry, on human labor, on nuance and critical thinking, it slots in pretty seamlessly with the right wing ideological project, oligarchical political projects, big tech's political projects, etc
November 6, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Once you start thinking of AI as a war on humanity, on human thought, on human inquiry, on human labor, on nuance and critical thinking, it slots in pretty seamlessly with the right wing ideological project, oligarchical political projects, big tech's political projects, etc
Reposted by James A. Palmer
I hope this pattern is becoming clearer:
Billionaires target & destroy assets that serve the public interest so that their profits & power go uncontested.
From news to tech to finance & space, billionaires are not interested in "innovation" or "job creation" or any of that bullshit. They plunder.
Billionaires target & destroy assets that serve the public interest so that their profits & power go uncontested.
From news to tech to finance & space, billionaires are not interested in "innovation" or "job creation" or any of that bullshit. They plunder.
Space X billionaire fanboy Jared Isaacman, back as Trump's NASA nominee, has a secret plan to demolish the agency and turn it into a slush fund for Space X and other private aerospace contractors:
A confidential manifesto lays out Isaacman's sweeping new vision for NASA
The former, and possibly future, nominee for the space agency said he did not intend for the document’s public release.
www.politico.com
November 6, 2025 at 4:36 PM
I hope this pattern is becoming clearer:
Billionaires target & destroy assets that serve the public interest so that their profits & power go uncontested.
From news to tech to finance & space, billionaires are not interested in "innovation" or "job creation" or any of that bullshit. They plunder.
Billionaires target & destroy assets that serve the public interest so that their profits & power go uncontested.
From news to tech to finance & space, billionaires are not interested in "innovation" or "job creation" or any of that bullshit. They plunder.
Reposted by James A. Palmer
Honestly of all the many many reasons we need incredibly strong guardrails around AI asap, I think it is going to be the engine that allows for perfect price discrimination should be close to the top of the list. The price-setting power of increasingly monopolistic companies is already gouging us.
November 6, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Honestly of all the many many reasons we need incredibly strong guardrails around AI asap, I think it is going to be the engine that allows for perfect price discrimination should be close to the top of the list. The price-setting power of increasingly monopolistic companies is already gouging us.
Reposted by James A. Palmer
1. So, Andrew Torba, head of the website Gab, has been a self-described Christian nationalist for years, and even co-wrote a book about it.
He's also a big AI booster.
Which I guess is how one ends up insisting that Christian…
:: zooms in on book ::
…"nationalsiam" is ascendant?
He's also a big AI booster.
Which I guess is how one ends up insisting that Christian…
:: zooms in on book ::
…"nationalsiam" is ascendant?
November 6, 2025 at 4:44 PM
1. So, Andrew Torba, head of the website Gab, has been a self-described Christian nationalist for years, and even co-wrote a book about it.
He's also a big AI booster.
Which I guess is how one ends up insisting that Christian…
:: zooms in on book ::
…"nationalsiam" is ascendant?
He's also a big AI booster.
Which I guess is how one ends up insisting that Christian…
:: zooms in on book ::
…"nationalsiam" is ascendant?
Reposted by James A. Palmer
Uninstall Grammarly NOW. They've partnered with an AI company and actively scrape your writing to train its models.
HEAD'S UP FELLOW #CREATIVES!
If you haven't heard, #Grammarly is changing...and one change that doesn't pass the smell test is the incorporation of the ocean-boiling plagiarism machine that is #AI. 😒
I'm ditching Grammarly TONIGHT. #Writing #Writers #NoAI
www.grammarly.com/blog/company...
If you haven't heard, #Grammarly is changing...and one change that doesn't pass the smell test is the incorporation of the ocean-boiling plagiarism machine that is #AI. 😒
I'm ditching Grammarly TONIGHT. #Writing #Writers #NoAI
www.grammarly.com/blog/company...
Grammarly Rebrands Company as Superhuman, Introduces Superhuman Suite and Superhuman Go
Superhuman Platform delivers proactive, context-aware AI agents that work in the flow of work, wherever people work Grammarly today announced it is changing its company…
www.grammarly.com
November 5, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Uninstall Grammarly NOW. They've partnered with an AI company and actively scrape your writing to train its models.
Reposted by James A. Palmer
“Trump’s higher education policies have been catastrophic for our communities & democracy...We’re excited to build a coalition of students & workers united in fighting back for a higher education system that is accessible & affordable for all & serves the common good.”
—Todd Wolfson, AAUP President
—Todd Wolfson, AAUP President
100+ US Campus Protests to Call Out Trump Attacks and Unaffordable Education | Common Dreams
Progressive organizers and labor unions aim "to disrupt business as usual and force our schools and our political system to finally work for us," with protests at over 100 US campuses on November 7.
www.commondreams.org
November 5, 2025 at 5:51 PM
“Trump’s higher education policies have been catastrophic for our communities & democracy...We’re excited to build a coalition of students & workers united in fighting back for a higher education system that is accessible & affordable for all & serves the common good.”
—Todd Wolfson, AAUP President
—Todd Wolfson, AAUP President
Reposted by James A. Palmer
I cannot recommend enough Michael Gorup's new book, The Counterrevolutionary Shadow: Race, Democracy, and the Making of the American People. Gorup was one of many pushed out of New College in Florida. The code COUNTERSHADOW gets you 30% off and free US shipping. kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700639748/
November 5, 2025 at 5:50 PM
I cannot recommend enough Michael Gorup's new book, The Counterrevolutionary Shadow: Race, Democracy, and the Making of the American People. Gorup was one of many pushed out of New College in Florida. The code COUNTERSHADOW gets you 30% off and free US shipping. kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700639748/