Kjell Ericson
@kjelldericson.bsky.social
Historian teaching and researching at intersections of environment, technology, and Japan @ Kyoto University.
Reposted by Kjell Ericson
Some good news for a change: At the 2025 HSS awards ceremony tonight, one of our Insect Histories Focus authors Jeannie Shinozuka received the Phil Pauly Prize for the best first book on the history of science in the Americas. Check out Biotic Borders if y'all have a chance! 🪲🪲🪲🪲🪲🪲
November 16, 2025 at 7:28 AM
Some good news for a change: At the 2025 HSS awards ceremony tonight, one of our Insect Histories Focus authors Jeannie Shinozuka received the Phil Pauly Prize for the best first book on the history of science in the Americas. Check out Biotic Borders if y'all have a chance! 🪲🪲🪲🪲🪲🪲
Reposted by Kjell Ericson
🔔 Admissions are open for the M.Phil in Environmental History at Trinity College Dublin. Come and join us - or recommend our course to your students! #envhist #skystorians
More info here 👇
www.tcd.ie/courses/post...
More info here 👇
www.tcd.ie/courses/post...
November 13, 2025 at 9:23 AM
🔔 Admissions are open for the M.Phil in Environmental History at Trinity College Dublin. Come and join us - or recommend our course to your students! #envhist #skystorians
More info here 👇
www.tcd.ie/courses/post...
More info here 👇
www.tcd.ie/courses/post...
Reposted by Kjell Ericson
"The thing that's unique about the Holocene is us, that's why we made a special geologic period for the last 10000 years."
Nope! Has to do with mollusks and biostratigraphy defined by their shells. Holocene was first defined as sediments in which all the mollusks were extant species.
Nope! Has to do with mollusks and biostratigraphy defined by their shells. Holocene was first defined as sediments in which all the mollusks were extant species.
November 12, 2025 at 8:30 AM
"The thing that's unique about the Holocene is us, that's why we made a special geologic period for the last 10000 years."
Nope! Has to do with mollusks and biostratigraphy defined by their shells. Holocene was first defined as sediments in which all the mollusks were extant species.
Nope! Has to do with mollusks and biostratigraphy defined by their shells. Holocene was first defined as sediments in which all the mollusks were extant species.
I always enjoy The Guardian's coverage of photography and photographers.
This feature on the Japanese-American photographer Jun Fujita (1888-1963, born Fujita Junnosuke 藤田準之助 in Hiroshima) is another fantastic piece.
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
This feature on the Japanese-American photographer Jun Fujita (1888-1963, born Fujita Junnosuke 藤田準之助 in Hiroshima) is another fantastic piece.
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
The man who shot Al Capone: Jun Fujita’s Chicago – in pictures
Disasters, riots, gangsters and construction … early 20th-century Chicago is seen here through the lens of the pioneering Japanese-American photojournalist, poet and artist Jun Fujita
www.theguardian.com
November 9, 2025 at 8:36 AM
I always enjoy The Guardian's coverage of photography and photographers.
This feature on the Japanese-American photographer Jun Fujita (1888-1963, born Fujita Junnosuke 藤田準之助 in Hiroshima) is another fantastic piece.
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
This feature on the Japanese-American photographer Jun Fujita (1888-1963, born Fujita Junnosuke 藤田準之助 in Hiroshima) is another fantastic piece.
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Reposted by Kjell Ericson
TT job posting at UW Madison: History of Science with focus on water & sustainability 💧💧💧
We're hiring in history of science at UW Madison! TT Assistant Professorship with a focus on water. Joint appointment between the History and Integrated Liberal Studies depts, and part of a university-wide hiring cluster on earth/sustainability science. jobs.wisc.edu/jobs/profess... #STS #HSMT
Professor of History - Madison, Wisconsin, United States
Current Employees: If you are currently employed at any of the Universities of Wisconsin, log in to Workday to apply through the internal application process.Job Category:FacultyEmployment Type:Regula...
jobs.wisc.edu
November 7, 2025 at 4:41 PM
TT job posting at UW Madison: History of Science with focus on water & sustainability 💧💧💧
Reposted by Kjell Ericson
*Globalizing Wildlife*, a book edited by @vbateman.bsky.social, Tom Quick, and myself, is now available for pre-order with @uncpress.bsky.social!
Using code 01SOCIAL30 at checkout, you can save 30%
www.uncpress.org/book/9781469...
Using code 01SOCIAL30 at checkout, you can save 30%
www.uncpress.org/book/9781469...
Globalizing Wildlife
Humans have always incorporated wildlife into processes of work, capture, and exchange. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, globalization became t...
www.uncpress.org
November 7, 2025 at 8:43 AM
*Globalizing Wildlife*, a book edited by @vbateman.bsky.social, Tom Quick, and myself, is now available for pre-order with @uncpress.bsky.social!
Using code 01SOCIAL30 at checkout, you can save 30%
www.uncpress.org/book/9781469...
Using code 01SOCIAL30 at checkout, you can save 30%
www.uncpress.org/book/9781469...
Reposted by Kjell Ericson
Reposted by Kjell Ericson
To expand on this further, I've been thinking a lot about the relevance of #libraries, #archives, #museums & other collections-based institutions in the age of #AI.
As more people outsource their thinking to machines, primary sources documenting the creative process become increasingly valuable. 🗃️📜
As more people outsource their thinking to machines, primary sources documenting the creative process become increasingly valuable. 🗃️📜
"Assignments are AI-generated w/the help of a learning-management system; AI-generated content is submitted by an agentic browser on behalf of the student; & AI-driven metrics then evaluate work on behalf of the instructor."
Can the #humanities help higher ed avoid becoming an #AI fueled ouroboros?
Can the #humanities help higher ed avoid becoming an #AI fueled ouroboros?
November 6, 2025 at 10:38 PM
To expand on this further, I've been thinking a lot about the relevance of #libraries, #archives, #museums & other collections-based institutions in the age of #AI.
As more people outsource their thinking to machines, primary sources documenting the creative process become increasingly valuable. 🗃️📜
As more people outsource their thinking to machines, primary sources documenting the creative process become increasingly valuable. 🗃️📜
Reposted by Kjell Ericson
Grateful to spend two days on the Klamath watching chinook, liberated by dam removal, return to streams from which they’d been precluded since the Titanic sank. Fish are everywhere, in numbers that stagger the mind & locations that biologists figured would take years to repopulate. Too beautiful.
November 5, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Grateful to spend two days on the Klamath watching chinook, liberated by dam removal, return to streams from which they’d been precluded since the Titanic sank. Fish are everywhere, in numbers that stagger the mind & locations that biologists figured would take years to repopulate. Too beautiful.
Nice cotton candy sunset 🌆 outside Kyoto University this evening.
November 5, 2025 at 8:51 AM
Nice cotton candy sunset 🌆 outside Kyoto University this evening.
My first trip to Ōmi Hachiman today. Nice to get a rain-soaked glimpse of some of the sites and modes of commemoration mentioned in Jun Uchida's fascinating recent book on Ōmi merchants, too.
October 26, 2025 at 11:15 AM
My first trip to Ōmi Hachiman today. Nice to get a rain-soaked glimpse of some of the sites and modes of commemoration mentioned in Jun Uchida's fascinating recent book on Ōmi merchants, too.
Reposted by Kjell Ericson
www.kth.se/anthropocene... I am looking forward to the new journal #AnthropoceneHistory starting with a double issue to be launched in October 2026
@iceho.bsky.social @eseh.bsky.social
@carsoncenter.bsky.social
@austhistassoc.bsky.social
@aehhub.bsky.social @nichecanada.bsky.social
@iceho.bsky.social @eseh.bsky.social
@carsoncenter.bsky.social
@austhistassoc.bsky.social
@aehhub.bsky.social @nichecanada.bsky.social
New journal: Anthropocene History | KTH
www.kth.se
October 22, 2025 at 7:39 PM
www.kth.se/anthropocene... I am looking forward to the new journal #AnthropoceneHistory starting with a double issue to be launched in October 2026
@iceho.bsky.social @eseh.bsky.social
@carsoncenter.bsky.social
@austhistassoc.bsky.social
@aehhub.bsky.social @nichecanada.bsky.social
@iceho.bsky.social @eseh.bsky.social
@carsoncenter.bsky.social
@austhistassoc.bsky.social
@aehhub.bsky.social @nichecanada.bsky.social
Reposted by Kjell Ericson
Thrilled to announce the publication of my article "The Invention of the Kamikaze: Dissent and Resistance in the Japanese Military" in the October issue of the Journal of Military History!
October 20, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Thrilled to announce the publication of my article "The Invention of the Kamikaze: Dissent and Resistance in the Japanese Military" in the October issue of the Journal of Military History!
Reposted by Kjell Ericson
Can AI simulations of human research participants advance cognitive science? In @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social, @lmesseri.bsky.social & I analyze this vision. We show how “AI Surrogates” entrench practices that limit the generalizability of cognitive science while aspiring to do the opposite. 1/
AI Surrogates and illusions of generalizability in cognitive science
Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have generated enthusiasm for using AI simulations of human research participants to generate new know…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 21, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Can AI simulations of human research participants advance cognitive science? In @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social, @lmesseri.bsky.social & I analyze this vision. We show how “AI Surrogates” entrench practices that limit the generalizability of cognitive science while aspiring to do the opposite. 1/
Reposted by Kjell Ericson
This is happening!!!! December 2: just in time for Christmas present season. I am still in the anxiety stage, not yet in the Saoirse Ronan as Jo March watching her book get published scene-stage, but I'm glad other people are excited already!
Excited to dig into Hannah Shepherd's new book, out in December from UC Press:
www.ucpress.edu/books/the-na...
www.ucpress.edu/books/the-na...
October 17, 2025 at 7:51 AM
This is happening!!!! December 2: just in time for Christmas present season. I am still in the anxiety stage, not yet in the Saoirse Ronan as Jo March watching her book get published scene-stage, but I'm glad other people are excited already!
Reposted by Kjell Ericson
New open access article! In "The Contradictions of Dam Building in the People's Republic of China," the authors examine tensions between the PRC's limited capacities and promethean visions of taming China's rivers in the mid-20th century. Read it here: www.doi.org/10.3828/whpe... #envhist 🗃️
October 13, 2025 at 4:31 PM
New open access article! In "The Contradictions of Dam Building in the People's Republic of China," the authors examine tensions between the PRC's limited capacities and promethean visions of taming China's rivers in the mid-20th century. Read it here: www.doi.org/10.3828/whpe... #envhist 🗃️
Reposted by Kjell Ericson
From the current issue: “Dams and the Deep Earth: The 1967 Koyna Earthquake and Human Agency in the Anthropocene”
by Elizabeth Chatterjee and Sachaet Pandey-Geeta Mantraraj (University of Chicago)
doi.org/10.1093/past...
by Elizabeth Chatterjee and Sachaet Pandey-Geeta Mantraraj (University of Chicago)
doi.org/10.1093/past...
Dams and the Deep Earth: The 1967 Koyna Earthquake and Human Agency in the Anthropocene*
Abstract. On 11 December 1967, a large earthquake devastated the village of Koynanagar in Maharashtra, western India. Many blamed the new Koyna hydroelectr
doi.org
October 8, 2025 at 7:07 AM
From the current issue: “Dams and the Deep Earth: The 1967 Koyna Earthquake and Human Agency in the Anthropocene”
by Elizabeth Chatterjee and Sachaet Pandey-Geeta Mantraraj (University of Chicago)
doi.org/10.1093/past...
by Elizabeth Chatterjee and Sachaet Pandey-Geeta Mantraraj (University of Chicago)
doi.org/10.1093/past...
Reposted by Kjell Ericson
How did Korean firms like Hanjin carry containerization from Vietnam’s Cam Ranh & Qui Nhon to Busan, transforming ports & unsettling U.S. contractors like Lusteveco? 🚢
John DiMoia @ Harvard #STinAsia, Tue Oct 14, 10:30 ET
Zoom registration: seow.scholars.harvard.edu/STinAsia
#histstm #histtech 🧪
John DiMoia @ Harvard #STinAsia, Tue Oct 14, 10:30 ET
Zoom registration: seow.scholars.harvard.edu/STinAsia
#histstm #histtech 🧪
October 4, 2025 at 11:56 PM
How did Korean firms like Hanjin carry containerization from Vietnam’s Cam Ranh & Qui Nhon to Busan, transforming ports & unsettling U.S. contractors like Lusteveco? 🚢
John DiMoia @ Harvard #STinAsia, Tue Oct 14, 10:30 ET
Zoom registration: seow.scholars.harvard.edu/STinAsia
#histstm #histtech 🧪
John DiMoia @ Harvard #STinAsia, Tue Oct 14, 10:30 ET
Zoom registration: seow.scholars.harvard.edu/STinAsia
#histstm #histtech 🧪
Reposted by Kjell Ericson
Our librarian Mårten Söderblom Saarela will give three online talks for the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia, on November 8, 2025, 9:00am-1:30pm Eastern time. The theme of the talks is "The Jesuit Mission to China." For details and registration, see ncta.princeton.edu.
October 8, 2025 at 11:12 AM
Our librarian Mårten Söderblom Saarela will give three online talks for the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia, on November 8, 2025, 9:00am-1:30pm Eastern time. The theme of the talks is "The Jesuit Mission to China." For details and registration, see ncta.princeton.edu.
Reposted by Kjell Ericson
In food history, we notice how super-refined foods--gelatin, vienna sausage, white bread--lose class and become horrifying once they become industrialized. Suddenly, fingermarks in bread dough demonstrate skill, not clumsiness.
Post-chatGPT, I'm feeling this about writing. Smoothness feels gross.
Post-chatGPT, I'm feeling this about writing. Smoothness feels gross.
October 1, 2025 at 3:05 AM
In food history, we notice how super-refined foods--gelatin, vienna sausage, white bread--lose class and become horrifying once they become industrialized. Suddenly, fingermarks in bread dough demonstrate skill, not clumsiness.
Post-chatGPT, I'm feeling this about writing. Smoothness feels gross.
Post-chatGPT, I'm feeling this about writing. Smoothness feels gross.
Reposted by Kjell Ericson
Announcing the new Animal History Group seminar series for the 2025-26 academic year! - All seminars held online at 8pm UK time. 🎉 The details are here: animalhistorygroup.org/seminar-seri...
And here is a list for your calendar! 🧵💚
And here is a list for your calendar! 🧵💚
Seminar Series
Term One Our Seminar Series is back for 2025/2026. Seminars will be held at 8pm (GMT). Please sign up using the links below. Joining information will be sent shortly before the event. 15 October 20…
animalhistorygroup.org
September 25, 2025 at 7:44 AM
Announcing the new Animal History Group seminar series for the 2025-26 academic year! - All seminars held online at 8pm UK time. 🎉 The details are here: animalhistorygroup.org/seminar-seri...
And here is a list for your calendar! 🧵💚
And here is a list for your calendar! 🧵💚
Reposted by Kjell Ericson
A new essay from me synthesizing the rich body of media criticism in Japanese focused on the practice of "August journalism" (八月ジャーナリズム): the tendency for rehearsed, compressed, and hollowed-out coverage of war memory each August.
apjjf.org/2025/9/fedman
apjjf.org/2025/9/fedman
“August Journalism” Studies: Lessons in World War II Reporting from Japan’s Season of Remembrance - Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus
[…]
apjjf.org
September 2, 2025 at 4:40 PM
A new essay from me synthesizing the rich body of media criticism in Japanese focused on the practice of "August journalism" (八月ジャーナリズム): the tendency for rehearsed, compressed, and hollowed-out coverage of war memory each August.
apjjf.org/2025/9/fedman
apjjf.org/2025/9/fedman
Reposted by Kjell Ericson
Congratulations to @clarewatson.bsky.social, whose Hakai Magazine story on an inventive scheme to cleaning up ghost fishing gear is going to be included in this year's anthology of Best Australian Science Writing:
hakaimagazine.com/news/using-t...
www.linkedin.com/posts/clare-...
hakaimagazine.com/news/using-t...
www.linkedin.com/posts/clare-...
Using Trash to Track Other Trash | Hakai Magazine
An Australian organization is taking “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” to heart with its ghost net clean-up program.
hakaimagazine.com
September 1, 2025 at 12:11 AM
Congratulations to @clarewatson.bsky.social, whose Hakai Magazine story on an inventive scheme to cleaning up ghost fishing gear is going to be included in this year's anthology of Best Australian Science Writing:
hakaimagazine.com/news/using-t...
www.linkedin.com/posts/clare-...
hakaimagazine.com/news/using-t...
www.linkedin.com/posts/clare-...
Sad intersections with my current research.
The US and Canada began shared shellfish sanitation regulations in 1948, with one US observer noting in the 50s that "cooperative efforts with Canada have been built on a long history of parallel development in the two countries."
Perhaps no longer.
The US and Canada began shared shellfish sanitation regulations in 1948, with one US observer noting in the 50s that "cooperative efforts with Canada have been built on a long history of parallel development in the two countries."
Perhaps no longer.
Not sure if I’d be eating raw oysters in the U.S. these days. Even so, even in Canada, which still generally follows science-based health protocols, we get noravirus contamination in oysters when boats dump their black water close to the oyster beds.
Both deaths are linked to oysters harvested in Louisiana, but the oysters were eaten at separate restaurants in Louisiana and Florida.
August 29, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Sad intersections with my current research.
The US and Canada began shared shellfish sanitation regulations in 1948, with one US observer noting in the 50s that "cooperative efforts with Canada have been built on a long history of parallel development in the two countries."
Perhaps no longer.
The US and Canada began shared shellfish sanitation regulations in 1948, with one US observer noting in the 50s that "cooperative efforts with Canada have been built on a long history of parallel development in the two countries."
Perhaps no longer.
Reposted by Kjell Ericson
I finally read computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum’s 1976 classic “Computer Power and Human Reason.”
This book deserves a massive revival in our current age of grotesque and largely thoughtless AI creep into everything:
This book deserves a massive revival in our current age of grotesque and largely thoughtless AI creep into everything:
August 28, 2025 at 10:34 PM
I finally read computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum’s 1976 classic “Computer Power and Human Reason.”
This book deserves a massive revival in our current age of grotesque and largely thoughtless AI creep into everything:
This book deserves a massive revival in our current age of grotesque and largely thoughtless AI creep into everything: