Konrad Lawson
@kml.muninn.net
Historian of modern East Asia he/him; Lecturer at University of St Andrews; From Stavanger, Norway
Live in Edinburgh, Scotland. 林蜀道 https://muninn.net
Live in Edinburgh, Scotland. 林蜀道 https://muninn.net
Not sure if this is real but certainly a scene to represent our times.
another robot highlight for 2025: man wearing humanoid mocap suit kicks himself in the balls
December 27, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Not sure if this is real but certainly a scene to represent our times.
Reposted by Konrad Lawson
Approximately five years ago, I weighed in on an academic controversy. Chaos ensued. At the height of the insanity, very angry people kept on sending me a US military document from 1944. I wrote an article about the infamous document, its context, and its afterlife. academic.oup.com/ahr/article-...
Revisiting the “Comfort Girls” of Report 49: Race, Sex, and Information in Asia’s War for Empire
Abstract. In 1944, a Japanese American intelligence officer stationed in Ledo, India, unwittingly composed a famous historical document: “Japanese Prisoner
academic.oup.com
December 27, 2025 at 1:44 AM
Approximately five years ago, I weighed in on an academic controversy. Chaos ensued. At the height of the insanity, very angry people kept on sending me a US military document from 1944. I wrote an article about the infamous document, its context, and its afterlife. academic.oup.com/ahr/article-...
Reposted by Konrad Lawson
Just added the newly created @studiesonasia.bsky.social to @jppinfo.bsky.social's starter pack of Japan & Asian Studies Institutions/Organizations! go.bsky.app/H54gyeg
December 27, 2025 at 3:38 AM
Just added the newly created @studiesonasia.bsky.social to @jppinfo.bsky.social's starter pack of Japan & Asian Studies Institutions/Organizations! go.bsky.app/H54gyeg
Reposted by Konrad Lawson
We love publicly accessible collections!
「那覇市歴史博物館」の完売・在庫なしの過去の展覧会図録が一部ホームページ上でダウンロード出来るようになりました！との告知を受けて。
ダウンロードできる図録は、サイトの「刊行物一覧」↓で、「在庫なし」となっている企画展図録の表紙→図録のページの「ダウンロード」→「資料一括／高精細画像ダウンロード」→「写真資料のご利用について」同意・ダウンロード→pdf表示（でオンラインで読めます）の右上に「ダウンロード」、でダウンロードできます。
rekishi-archive.city.naha.okinawa.jp/publication
ダウンロードできる図録は、サイトの「刊行物一覧」↓で、「在庫なし」となっている企画展図録の表紙→図録のページの「ダウンロード」→「資料一括／高精細画像ダウンロード」→「写真資料のご利用について」同意・ダウンロード→pdf表示（でオンラインで読めます）の右上に「ダウンロード」、でダウンロードできます。
rekishi-archive.city.naha.okinawa.jp/publication
刊行物案内 | 那覇市歴史博物館
rekishi-archive.city.naha.okinawa.jp
December 24, 2025 at 6:50 PM
We love publicly accessible collections!
Interesting mixed medium approach to this Asahi feature on opium and Japanese occupied Manchuria: www.asahi.com/special/manc...
Manchuria: a “utopia” created by opium [Premium A special] : The Asahi Shimbun
This is the dark history of Manchukuo based on fact. In Manchukuo, which was a puppet state of Japan, opium was rampant, and the sales of opium supported the national finances and were used as funding...
www.asahi.com
December 27, 2025 at 3:31 AM
Interesting mixed medium approach to this Asahi feature on opium and Japanese occupied Manchuria: www.asahi.com/special/manc...
Some of the fun digital projects worked on this year:
Chinese Literature Magazine Index
froginawell.net/chinese-lite...
Re-design of Sino-Japanese Studies website:
chinajapan.org
Chinese Periodical Translation Project
baokan.pages.dev
Five Korean Colonial Period Periodicals
yeoksayeou.github.io
Chinese Literature Magazine Index
froginawell.net/chinese-lite...
Re-design of Sino-Japanese Studies website:
chinajapan.org
Chinese Periodical Translation Project
baokan.pages.dev
Five Korean Colonial Period Periodicals
yeoksayeou.github.io
December 27, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Some of the fun digital projects worked on this year:
Chinese Literature Magazine Index
froginawell.net/chinese-lite...
Re-design of Sino-Japanese Studies website:
chinajapan.org
Chinese Periodical Translation Project
baokan.pages.dev
Five Korean Colonial Period Periodicals
yeoksayeou.github.io
Chinese Literature Magazine Index
froginawell.net/chinese-lite...
Re-design of Sino-Japanese Studies website:
chinajapan.org
Chinese Periodical Translation Project
baokan.pages.dev
Five Korean Colonial Period Periodicals
yeoksayeou.github.io
Reposted by Konrad Lawson
My department is hiring an associate professor in contemporary Chinese politics. Come and join me in Oslo! www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...
Associate Professor of Chinese politics (290742) | University of Oslo
Job title: Associate Professor of Chinese politics (290742), Employer: University of Oslo, Deadline: Tuesday, February 3, 2026
www.jobbnorge.no
December 8, 2025 at 8:48 AM
My department is hiring an associate professor in contemporary Chinese politics. Come and join me in Oslo! www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...
Reposted by Konrad Lawson
NEW! Open access co-authored essay on the Corpus of Early #Medieval Latin #Medicine and some things we have learned. Enjoy!
#medievalsky
brill.com/view/journal...
#medievalsky
brill.com/view/journal...
brill.com
December 18, 2025 at 9:05 AM
NEW! Open access co-authored essay on the Corpus of Early #Medieval Latin #Medicine and some things we have learned. Enjoy!
#medievalsky
brill.com/view/journal...
#medievalsky
brill.com/view/journal...
Reposted by Konrad Lawson
Reposted by Konrad Lawson
As UKRI explores using LLMs to review grants, it's a good time to revisit Bryan Wilder's excellent blog post.
There are a lot of naive reasons to oppose AI review ("you'll never automate human intuition!"). But there are also good reasons, including the *load-bearing role of human disagreement.*
There are a lot of naive reasons to oppose AI review ("you'll never automate human intuition!"). But there are also good reasons, including the *load-bearing role of human disagreement.*
Should LLMs be used to review papers? AAAI is piloting LLM-generated reviews this year. I wrote a blog post arguing that using LLMs as reviewers can have bad downstream consequences for science by centralizing judgments about what constitutes good research.
bryanwilder.github.io/files/llmrev...
bryanwilder.github.io/files/llmrev...
Equilibrium effects of LLM reviewing
Equilibrium effects of LLM reviewing
bryanwilder.github.io
December 5, 2025 at 3:25 PM
As UKRI explores using LLMs to review grants, it's a good time to revisit Bryan Wilder's excellent blog post.
There are a lot of naive reasons to oppose AI review ("you'll never automate human intuition!"). But there are also good reasons, including the *load-bearing role of human disagreement.*
There are a lot of naive reasons to oppose AI review ("you'll never automate human intuition!"). But there are also good reasons, including the *load-bearing role of human disagreement.*
Lot of interesting sources on NDL online collections are embedded in scanned US occupation period files. Example: the 日満支 工業年鑑 for 昭和15 is only available as part of evidence for war crimes trials here: dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/12922208... while elsewhere only up to 昭和13 (dl.ndl.go.jp/ja/pid/1115528)
国立国会図書館デジタルコレクション
dl.ndl.go.jp
December 3, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Lot of interesting sources on NDL online collections are embedded in scanned US occupation period files. Example: the 日満支 工業年鑑 for 昭和15 is only available as part of evidence for war crimes trials here: dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/12922208... while elsewhere only up to 昭和13 (dl.ndl.go.jp/ja/pid/1115528)
Reposted by Konrad Lawson
This is so problematic. Creating big-money grants (7m EUR!) is such a travesty. Instead of funding 1 researcher, why not fund 25 with smaller grants? It would create more ideas, secure more careers, and create so much more innovative knowledge. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-euro...
ERC’s new €7m Plus Grants open to researchers at any career stage - Research Professional News
European Research Council president describes scheme as part attempt to lure US talent
www.researchprofessionalnews.com
November 29, 2025 at 3:29 PM
This is so problematic. Creating big-money grants (7m EUR!) is such a travesty. Instead of funding 1 researcher, why not fund 25 with smaller grants? It would create more ideas, secure more careers, and create so much more innovative knowledge. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-euro...
Reposted by Konrad Lawson
Pretty sick font on this title page.
< 1926 朝鮮満洲旅行案内 @ resolver.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/SBB000399A00...
< 1926 朝鮮満洲旅行案内 @ resolver.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/SBB000399A00...
November 27, 2025 at 11:26 PM
Pretty sick font on this title page.
< 1926 朝鮮満洲旅行案内 @ resolver.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/SBB000399A00...
< 1926 朝鮮満洲旅行案内 @ resolver.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/SBB000399A00...
Reposted by Konrad Lawson
Ich präsentiere Figure 1 aus einem Paper mit dem Titel "Bridging the gap: explainable ai (sic) for autism diagnosis and parental support with TabPFNMix and SHAP".
Veröffentlicht in Nature (!)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Die Welt steht echt nimma lang. Alles wird zu Slop.
Veröffentlicht in Nature (!)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Die Welt steht echt nimma lang. Alles wird zu Slop.
November 29, 2025 at 9:20 AM
Ich präsentiere Figure 1 aus einem Paper mit dem Titel "Bridging the gap: explainable ai (sic) for autism diagnosis and parental support with TabPFNMix and SHAP".
Veröffentlicht in Nature (!)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Die Welt steht echt nimma lang. Alles wird zu Slop.
Veröffentlicht in Nature (!)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Die Welt steht echt nimma lang. Alles wird zu Slop.
Senior permanent position has opened up in Chinese studies here at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. It is a very nice place. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPN980/rea...
Reader or Professor in Chinese Studies - AC2219 at University of St Andrews
www.jobs.ac.uk
November 25, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Senior permanent position has opened up in Chinese studies here at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. It is a very nice place. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPN980/rea...
Reposted by Konrad Lawson
We're entering the last week of my Humanities in the Age of AI course, and I ended up completely revising the last five weeks of assignments to take advantage of Claude Code's new web version and emphasize the growing non-code uses of agents. Final version is here: anastasiasalter.net/HumanitiesAI/
November 24, 2025 at 7:00 PM
We're entering the last week of my Humanities in the Age of AI course, and I ended up completely revising the last five weeks of assignments to take advantage of Claude Code's new web version and emphasize the growing non-code uses of agents. Final version is here: anastasiasalter.net/HumanitiesAI/
Nice post on Online Teaching Resources on Shinto at @digitalorientalist.bsky.social digitalorientalist.com/2025/11/07/o...
Online Teaching Resources on Shinto
I have taught an introductory English-language course to religions in Japan for several years making use of available online resources . The course provides both home and exchange students with a c…
digitalorientalist.com
November 17, 2025 at 7:49 AM
Nice post on Online Teaching Resources on Shinto at @digitalorientalist.bsky.social digitalorientalist.com/2025/11/07/o...
Reposted by Konrad Lawson
In the grand scheme of things this particular consideration may be small beans, but: this is going to kill faculty recruitment and retention. Even if it is reversed, no one will want to teach at a place that does this. It does a permanent disservice to the students and people of Texas.
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 14, 2025 at 12:34 AM
In the grand scheme of things this particular consideration may be small beans, but: this is going to kill faculty recruitment and retention. Even if it is reversed, no one will want to teach at a place that does this. It does a permanent disservice to the students and people of Texas.
Reposted by Konrad Lawson
Our libraries are cutting staff so that Elsevier can have its 32% profit margin
A staggering statistic: "North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year." What are we doing?
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:
a 🧵 1/n
Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
a 🧵 1/n
Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
November 14, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Our libraries are cutting staff so that Elsevier can have its 32% profit margin
Lots of updates to this page dedicated to the old “Chinese Literature” journal thousands of English translations. Over 200 issues online 1950s-80s. Added “Search”, “Explore” and table with pinyin/hanzi versions of some the authors. froginawell.net/chinese-lite... #china #literature
November 13, 2025 at 9:55 AM
Lots of updates to this page dedicated to the old “Chinese Literature” journal thousands of English translations. Over 200 issues online 1950s-80s. Added “Search”, “Explore” and table with pinyin/hanzi versions of some the authors. froginawell.net/chinese-lite... #china #literature
Reposted by Konrad Lawson
"Technology is the active human interface with the material world".
I often think about this. but especially the cotton flower... like, computers and phones are cool. but, our ancestors who looked at a fluffy cotton flower and decided: you know what I'm going to turn this into a dress??
I often think about this. but especially the cotton flower... like, computers and phones are cool. but, our ancestors who looked at a fluffy cotton flower and decided: you know what I'm going to turn this into a dress??
The folks over at the Ursula K. Le Guin Foundation are awesome. They made a new website and as a result, some content was removed. I sent an email to see if they could restore Le Guin’s “A Rant About ‘Technology’” — and they did!
Go read it: www.ursulakleguin.com/a-rant-about...
Go read it: www.ursulakleguin.com/a-rant-about...
November 8, 2025 at 3:43 PM
"Technology is the active human interface with the material world".
I often think about this. but especially the cotton flower... like, computers and phones are cool. but, our ancestors who looked at a fluffy cotton flower and decided: you know what I'm going to turn this into a dress??
I often think about this. but especially the cotton flower... like, computers and phones are cool. but, our ancestors who looked at a fluffy cotton flower and decided: you know what I'm going to turn this into a dress??
Reposted by Konrad Lawson
This is an incredible project. Zooming in on my current home of Chester it shows how the current main streets run right overtop the route of the old Roman roads (I expect the offset is due to the map, not the terrain)
November 7, 2025 at 3:03 PM
This is an incredible project. Zooming in on my current home of Chester it shows how the current main streets run right overtop the route of the old Roman roads (I expect the offset is due to the map, not the terrain)