Matt Barlow
@materialbarlow.bsky.social
Postdoc at the Technical University of Munich. Undisciplined anthropologist interested in the intersection of art / ecology / politics.
He/him.
mattbarlow.me
He/him.
mattbarlow.me
Reposted by Matt Barlow
'New research coordinated by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and led by the BBC has found that AI assistants – already a daily information gateway for millions of people – routinely misrepresent news content no matter which language, territory, or AI platform is tested.' 1/2
Largest study of its kind shows AI assistants misrepresent news content 45% of the time – regardless of language or territory
An intensive international study was coordinated by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and led by the BBC
www.bbc.co.uk
October 23, 2025 at 1:47 PM
'New research coordinated by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and led by the BBC has found that AI assistants – already a daily information gateway for millions of people – routinely misrepresent news content no matter which language, territory, or AI platform is tested.' 1/2
Reposted by Matt Barlow
The journal Environmental Humanities is still looking for midcareer/senior #envhum scholars interested in becoming a co-editor-in-chief from January 2026. You can apply as an individual and we'll find an appropriate co-editor match for you.
See environmentalhumanities.org
See environmentalhumanities.org
Environmental Humanities – A journal published by Duke University Press
environmentalhumanities.org
October 21, 2025 at 6:34 AM
The journal Environmental Humanities is still looking for midcareer/senior #envhum scholars interested in becoming a co-editor-in-chief from January 2026. You can apply as an individual and we'll find an appropriate co-editor match for you.
See environmentalhumanities.org
See environmentalhumanities.org
Reposted by Matt Barlow
I have spent the last few days installing this wonderful exhibition Ecologies of the Machine, curated by Tania Tovar and researched by Kim Förster. Reminded of how exhausting install labour is, and how rewarding it is. Exhib is up for the next few days at Pavillon 333, Munich.
October 15, 2025 at 6:49 PM
I have spent the last few days installing this wonderful exhibition Ecologies of the Machine, curated by Tania Tovar and researched by Kim Förster. Reminded of how exhausting install labour is, and how rewarding it is. Exhib is up for the next few days at Pavillon 333, Munich.
Excited to be part of the team to help realise this exhibition in Munich next week, our first public event/exhibition as part of the new Chair of Sustainable Urban Environments here at TUM
October 9, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Excited to be part of the team to help realise this exhibition in Munich next week, our first public event/exhibition as part of the new Chair of Sustainable Urban Environments here at TUM
Inspired by David Bond's provocation that the future of toxicity is replacing the history of empire as a vehicle for addressing the blind spots of liberalism, highlighting that theories of toxicity have paid such little attention to the political economy of petrochemical industries. #DGSKA2025
September 30, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Inspired by David Bond's provocation that the future of toxicity is replacing the history of empire as a vehicle for addressing the blind spots of liberalism, highlighting that theories of toxicity have paid such little attention to the political economy of petrochemical industries. #DGSKA2025
Really enjoyed my last couple of days at the @infranortherc.bsky.social conference 'Beyond Infrastructure: Un-built environments of the anthropocene' in Vienna. My first time presenting research from my PhD in Europe 💫
September 25, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Really enjoyed my last couple of days at the @infranortherc.bsky.social conference 'Beyond Infrastructure: Un-built environments of the anthropocene' in Vienna. My first time presenting research from my PhD in Europe 💫
Wrapping up my time at Penn in preparation for my move to Munich... Reflecting on the books that have kept me company (and been staring at me!) over the last 10 months...
May 1, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Wrapping up my time at Penn in preparation for my move to Munich... Reflecting on the books that have kept me company (and been staring at me!) over the last 10 months...
Reposted by Matt Barlow
#WomensHistoryMonth: The City of Women Map is a fascinating visualization of women’s history and urban transportation. Created by Molly Roy, Rebecca Solnit, and Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, the map renames subway stops after notable women with links to that area, offering an entirely new way to view #NYC.
March 21, 2025 at 4:00 PM
#WomensHistoryMonth: The City of Women Map is a fascinating visualization of women’s history and urban transportation. Created by Molly Roy, Rebecca Solnit, and Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, the map renames subway stops after notable women with links to that area, offering an entirely new way to view #NYC.
Reposted by Matt Barlow
BREAKING: DOGE is starting to put together a team to migrate the SSA's computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.
DOGE Plans to Rebuild SSA Codebase In Months, Risking Benefits and System Collapse
Social Security systems contain tens of millions of lines of code written in COBOL, an archaic programming language. Safely rewriting that code would take years—DOGE wants it done in months.
www.wired.com
March 28, 2025 at 2:09 PM
BREAKING: DOGE is starting to put together a team to migrate the SSA's computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.
Reposted by Matt Barlow
The Tufts graduate student detained by federal authorities in Somerville has been sent to a Louisiana detention facility, despite a federal judge’s order telling US Immigration and Customs Enforcement not to remove her from Massachusetts without notice.
Tufts graduate student detained by federal authorities sent to Louisiana - The Boston Globe
Masked plainclothes officers arrested Rumeysa Ozturk outside a Somerville home Tuesday evening.
www.bostonglobe.com
March 26, 2025 at 9:31 PM
The Tufts graduate student detained by federal authorities in Somerville has been sent to a Louisiana detention facility, despite a federal judge’s order telling US Immigration and Customs Enforcement not to remove her from Massachusetts without notice.
Reposted by Matt Barlow
Harvard AAUP's Vincent Brown on the lawsuit filed yesterday
against the Trump administration's ideological-deportation policy.
against the Trump administration's ideological-deportation policy.
March 27, 2025 at 12:38 AM
Harvard AAUP's Vincent Brown on the lawsuit filed yesterday
against the Trump administration's ideological-deportation policy.
against the Trump administration's ideological-deportation policy.
Reposted by Matt Barlow
OnlineFirst - "‘Mine the volume’: Excess and the voluminous ecological politics of capitalist frontiers" by @yolandaariadne.bsky.social, @theoreevesevison.bsky.social, @materialbarlow.bsky.social, and @lydcole.bsky.social:
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
‘Mine the volume’: Excess and the voluminous ecological politics of capitalist frontiers - Yolanda Ariadne Collins, Theo Reeves-Evison, Matt Barlow, Lydia E.S. Cole, 2025
Mining frontiers are moving ever further beyond Earth's surface, as new subterranean realms, the seafloor, the atmosphere and outer space increasingly come...
journals.sagepub.com
March 19, 2025 at 11:04 PM
OnlineFirst - "‘Mine the volume’: Excess and the voluminous ecological politics of capitalist frontiers" by @yolandaariadne.bsky.social, @theoreevesevison.bsky.social, @materialbarlow.bsky.social, and @lydcole.bsky.social:
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Excited to see this out in the world! This article is a result from my year of working alongside Ari, Theo, and Lydia. Here we attempted to grapple with the ways that capitalist frontiers have always been voluminous, and are increasingly moving more explicitly into "non-terrestrial realms".
As the search for #criticalminerals ramps up, mining is expanding further beyond the Earth's surface. Read about how mining builds on colonial governance strategies and reshapes Amazon, deep-sea, and outer space environments in our latest paper: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... #MineTheVolume
March 18, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Excited to see this out in the world! This article is a result from my year of working alongside Ari, Theo, and Lydia. Here we attempted to grapple with the ways that capitalist frontiers have always been voluminous, and are increasingly moving more explicitly into "non-terrestrial realms".
Reposted by Matt Barlow
Chilling report from Brown University.
Administration advises all foreign students, staff, and faculty to postpone or reconsider (ie cancel) international travel, due to federal government's crackdown on universities.
Brown also warns against *domestic travel* -since it's unclear what ICE will do.
Administration advises all foreign students, staff, and faculty to postpone or reconsider (ie cancel) international travel, due to federal government's crackdown on universities.
Brown also warns against *domestic travel* -since it's unclear what ICE will do.
Brown University advises all international community members to postpone, reconsider travel
One week before spring break, Brown advised international community members, including green card holders and permanent residents, to postpone international travel in a campus-wide email sent on Sunda...
www.browndailyherald.com
March 17, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Chilling report from Brown University.
Administration advises all foreign students, staff, and faculty to postpone or reconsider (ie cancel) international travel, due to federal government's crackdown on universities.
Brown also warns against *domestic travel* -since it's unclear what ICE will do.
Administration advises all foreign students, staff, and faculty to postpone or reconsider (ie cancel) international travel, due to federal government's crackdown on universities.
Brown also warns against *domestic travel* -since it's unclear what ICE will do.
Reposted by Matt Barlow
Thousands of protesters rallied in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday against President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration and his aggressive deportation policies.
Thousands of protesters rally in downtown Los Angeles against Trump's immigration policies
Draped in Mexican and Salvadoran and flags, roughly 1,000 demonstrators gathered near City Hall shortly before noon, blocking traffic at Spring and Temple streets
www.latimes.com
February 3, 2025 at 12:12 AM
Thousands of protesters rallied in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday against President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration and his aggressive deportation policies.
Reposted by Matt Barlow
This is a concentration camp.
Trump announces an executive order authorizing a 30,000 capacity migrant detention center in Guantanamo.
"Some of them are so bad we don't even trust the countries to hold them because we don't want them coming back, so we're going to send them out to Guatanamo Bay."
"Some of them are so bad we don't even trust the countries to hold them because we don't want them coming back, so we're going to send them out to Guatanamo Bay."
January 29, 2025 at 8:20 PM
This is a concentration camp.
Reposted by Matt Barlow
Ok, here's what you need to know about Trump's anti-trans executive order targeting trans youth. Teamed up with @leximcmenamin.bsky.social to explain what it means for trans youth right now, with legal input from @aclu.org attorney @harperseldin.bsky.social
www.teenvogue.com/story/trumps...
www.teenvogue.com/story/trumps...
Everything We Know About Trump's Executive Order on Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Youth
From what it says to what it means for you.
www.teenvogue.com
January 29, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Ok, here's what you need to know about Trump's anti-trans executive order targeting trans youth. Teamed up with @leximcmenamin.bsky.social to explain what it means for trans youth right now, with legal input from @aclu.org attorney @harperseldin.bsky.social
www.teenvogue.com/story/trumps...
www.teenvogue.com/story/trumps...
Reposted by Matt Barlow
BREAKING: Acting @EPA Administrator James Payne has fired the agency's science advisors.
They will be replaced in order to, he says, "ensure that the agency receives scientific advice consistent with its legal obligations to advance our core mission," whatever that means.
They will be replaced in order to, he says, "ensure that the agency receives scientific advice consistent with its legal obligations to advance our core mission," whatever that means.
January 29, 2025 at 2:03 AM
BREAKING: Acting @EPA Administrator James Payne has fired the agency's science advisors.
They will be replaced in order to, he says, "ensure that the agency receives scientific advice consistent with its legal obligations to advance our core mission," whatever that means.
They will be replaced in order to, he says, "ensure that the agency receives scientific advice consistent with its legal obligations to advance our core mission," whatever that means.
Reposted by Matt Barlow
Durham University has become the latest Russell Group institution to announce plans to cut jobs, stating it needs to reduce staff costs by £20 million over the next two academic years
#highered #EduSky
#highered #EduSky
Durham expects 200 jobs to go as it seeks to save £20 million
University becomes latest to announce staff cuts, saying it cannot rule out compulsory redundancies
www.timeshighereducation.com
January 28, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Reposted by Matt Barlow
Really looking forward to working with someone on Indigenizing quantitative methods! The position is very flexible (FT or part time, remote or in person, can be made a postdoc) anticipating a range of researchers. #IndigeousSTEM
civiclaboratory.nl/2025/01/18/p...
civiclaboratory.nl/2025/01/18/p...
Position: Research Associate in Indigenous approaches to quantitative research
We are looking for two experienced researchers who are fluent in Indigenous approaches to quantitative methods. Experience can come from community research, graduate degrees, and/or research positi…
civiclaboratory.nl
January 21, 2025 at 11:19 AM
Really looking forward to working with someone on Indigenizing quantitative methods! The position is very flexible (FT or part time, remote or in person, can be made a postdoc) anticipating a range of researchers. #IndigeousSTEM
civiclaboratory.nl/2025/01/18/p...
civiclaboratory.nl/2025/01/18/p...
Reposted by Matt Barlow
You can track the unfolding disaster at Cardiff University here LIVE, as one of the UK's constituent nations actually chooses to gut parts of its flagship HEI: www.walesonline.co.uk/news/educati...
Cardiff University job cuts as 400 roles go and courses axed – live
Staff say they are in shock as nursing, modern languages, and music are among degrees being axed with 400 jobs academic jobs at risk
www.walesonline.co.uk
January 28, 2025 at 3:14 PM
You can track the unfolding disaster at Cardiff University here LIVE, as one of the UK's constituent nations actually chooses to gut parts of its flagship HEI: www.walesonline.co.uk/news/educati...
Reposted by Matt Barlow
Hello, so, I'm an anthropologist who has studied wildfires for over a decade and, just recently, handed in a book manuscript for peer review on the pathologies of wildfire management in Australia and, to a lesser extent, Canada and the US. It's called "How to Control Fire" (TBC).
January 11, 2025 at 3:39 AM
Hello, so, I'm an anthropologist who has studied wildfires for over a decade and, just recently, handed in a book manuscript for peer review on the pathologies of wildfire management in Australia and, to a lesser extent, Canada and the US. It's called "How to Control Fire" (TBC).
Reposted by Matt Barlow
The uneven extraction of wealth and resources from South to North never ended, and the funds the South now demands for climate are a mere token of the kind of reparations that would actually be just (not to mention effective towards creating an actually-sustainable global society)
World Bank: Poor nations spend more money paying off debts to the countries that impoverished them ($1.4tn) than the amount of money they've asked for to combat climate change ($1.3tn).
And remember: the paltry $300bn in finance announced at COP29 comes with strings attached.
And remember: the paltry $300bn in finance announced at COP29 comes with strings attached.
World Bank: "Developing countries spent a record $1.4tn to service their foreign debt…in 2023…squeezing budgets of many…in critical areas such as health, education, & envt"
Perspective on developing countries' unmet request at #COP29 for $1.3tn in annual climate finance…
Perspective on developing countries' unmet request at #COP29 for $1.3tn in annual climate finance…
December 9, 2024 at 11:43 AM
The uneven extraction of wealth and resources from South to North never ended, and the funds the South now demands for climate are a mere token of the kind of reparations that would actually be just (not to mention effective towards creating an actually-sustainable global society)