Micah Bateman
@micahbateman.bsky.social
Asst Prof in LIS. Digital humanities, cultural heritage/analytics, libraries/archives, poetry, Whitman. Finishing Lyric Publics: The Uses of Poetry in American Social-Media Campaigns. Opinions do not reflect employer. bit.ly/MicahBateman
Reposted by Micah Bateman
The University of Arkansas's law school just withdrew the appointment of its new dean six days after hiring her because conservative politicians complained that she filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in support of transgender students
Culture warriors cancel new U of A law dean before she started - Arkansas Times
Culture warriors claim the scalp of Emily Suski, the would-be law school dean whose legal opinion on transgender athletes seems to have offended Arkansas officials.
arktimes.com
January 15, 2026 at 3:55 PM
The University of Arkansas's law school just withdrew the appointment of its new dean six days after hiring her because conservative politicians complained that she filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in support of transgender students
My spouse is cooking live lobster for our anniversary and all I've been able to think about all day is "Consider the Lobster" + Homer's lobster, Pinchy.
She's playing them Debussy.
She's playing them Debussy.
January 13, 2026 at 7:45 PM
My spouse is cooking live lobster for our anniversary and all I've been able to think about all day is "Consider the Lobster" + Homer's lobster, Pinchy.
She's playing them Debussy.
She's playing them Debussy.
Reposted by Micah Bateman
Northwestern University Libraries is helping their faculty understand the Anthropic copyright class action litigation. 📚 sites.northwestern.edu/northwestern...
University authors, don’t sleep on Anthropic AI settlement | LIBRARIES | Blog
By Liz Hamilton, Copyright Librarian If you are one of the many authors in the Northwestern community who has received an email titled “Court Notice:...
sites.northwestern.edu
January 12, 2026 at 9:15 PM
Northwestern University Libraries is helping their faculty understand the Anthropic copyright class action litigation. 📚 sites.northwestern.edu/northwestern...
RIP Whitman you would've loved all these Millennial men bulking their way through crises
January 12, 2026 at 4:00 PM
RIP Whitman you would've loved all these Millennial men bulking their way through crises
So far I am two hours down *per day* in phone use
I didn't really make any resolutions this year but today I took the last social off my phone
January 11, 2026 at 6:38 PM
So far I am two hours down *per day* in phone use
Deadline tomorrow!
CFPs here, deadline soon: americanliteratureassociation.org/wp-content/u...
January 11, 2026 at 6:36 PM
Deadline tomorrow!
I've been experimenting with how much scholarship it can write. And it's the same. As long as I, a trained scholar, granularly prompt it at every turn, to the point of spending as much energy in prompting as I would in just drafting it myself, it's pretty good!
Can AI write great poetry? If a prompt engineer is also a poet, it can come mighty close. hollisrobbinsanecdotal.substack.com/p/llm-poetry...
LLM poetry and the "greatness" question
Experiments by Gwern and Mercor
hollisrobbinsanecdotal.substack.com
January 8, 2026 at 5:40 PM
I've been experimenting with how much scholarship it can write. And it's the same. As long as I, a trained scholar, granularly prompt it at every turn, to the point of spending as much energy in prompting as I would in just drafting it myself, it's pretty good!
Reposted by Micah Bateman
An associate dean told English faculty “literature with major plot lines that concern gay, lesbian or transgender identities should not be taught in core-curriculum classes…faculty may assign textbooks with chapters that cover transgender identity, so long as they do not talk about the material.”🙃
Plato Censored as Texas A&M Carries Out Course Review
A&M officials have also instructed English faculty not to teach books in core classes that have major plotlines concerning gay, lesbian or transgender identities.
www.insidehighered.com
January 8, 2026 at 2:57 PM
An associate dean told English faculty “literature with major plot lines that concern gay, lesbian or transgender identities should not be taught in core-curriculum classes…faculty may assign textbooks with chapters that cover transgender identity, so long as they do not talk about the material.”🙃
Augustan anti-dueling dramatist Richard Steele is rolling in his grave
my most conservative take is we should bring back dueling but only with bare hands or melee weapons bsky.app/profile/vitu...
Bring back dueling
January 7, 2026 at 5:00 PM
Augustan anti-dueling dramatist Richard Steele is rolling in his grave
CFPs here, deadline soon: americanliteratureassociation.org/wp-content/u...
January 7, 2026 at 4:14 PM
CFPs here, deadline soon: americanliteratureassociation.org/wp-content/u...
Me earlier: Why tf is every writer in the NYT writing about Jan 6??
Me, hours later, having to check the date on something: Oh
Me, hours later, having to check the date on something: Oh
January 6, 2026 at 6:50 PM
Me earlier: Why tf is every writer in the NYT writing about Jan 6??
Me, hours later, having to check the date on something: Oh
Me, hours later, having to check the date on something: Oh
RIP MTV. You gave me the Real World and Beavis and Butthead and Daria and Celebrity Deathmatch and Mariah Carey videos and Election and Varsity Blues and Kurt Loder and the Jesse Camp saga. You introduced me to Nirvana and Radiohead and the Beastie Boys and Britney Spears. Pouring one out (a Dew)
January 3, 2026 at 1:42 AM
RIP MTV. You gave me the Real World and Beavis and Butthead and Daria and Celebrity Deathmatch and Mariah Carey videos and Election and Varsity Blues and Kurt Loder and the Jesse Camp saga. You introduced me to Nirvana and Radiohead and the Beastie Boys and Britney Spears. Pouring one out (a Dew)
Reposted by Micah Bateman
If you live in California, you can use the new DROP tool to request that more than 500 data brokers delete your data.
Opt-out tool will let Californians erase personal data held by brokers | StateScoop
The California Privacy Protection Agency announced a new digital tool that will allow residents to ask all registered data brokers to delete their information.
statescoop.com
January 2, 2026 at 7:12 PM
If you live in California, you can use the new DROP tool to request that more than 500 data brokers delete your data.
I didn't really make any resolutions this year but today I took the last social off my phone
January 2, 2026 at 3:41 PM
I didn't really make any resolutions this year but today I took the last social off my phone
Thinking about beginning a 24-year "phased retirement"
December 30, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Thinking about beginning a 24-year "phased retirement"
Reposted by Micah Bateman
I moved off Canvas this fall, and have set up spring using Box folders with some refinements from my students: organizing everything in weekly folders, & adding a shared calendar they can subscribe to in order to give them the deadline alerts they miss from Canvas.
THIS THIS THIS. ALL OF THIS
THIS is why faculty resist technological strategies for teaching. There is no engaging with Edtech without this context
THIS is why faculty resist technological strategies for teaching. There is no engaging with Edtech without this context
December 30, 2025 at 4:13 AM
I moved off Canvas this fall, and have set up spring using Box folders with some refinements from my students: organizing everything in weekly folders, & adding a shared calendar they can subscribe to in order to give them the deadline alerts they miss from Canvas.
jealous
I'm 30 pages from the end of MCTEAGUE and I've never been so stressed in my fucking life
December 29, 2025 at 8:49 PM
jealous
I'm a lit scholar. Studying poetry. Through digital methods. 🤔
I'm the head magic teacher at a British boarding school.
Emily Tesh, "The Incandescent"
Emily Tesh, "The Incandescent"
December 29, 2025 at 7:36 PM
I'm a lit scholar. Studying poetry. Through digital methods. 🤔
Notwithstanding One Battle After Another, and granted that I still haven't seen Hamnet nor Sentimental Value, my overall take is that this was a very meh year for film
December 29, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Notwithstanding One Battle After Another, and granted that I still haven't seen Hamnet nor Sentimental Value, my overall take is that this was a very meh year for film
"There is no condition in which the humanities are under attack in which the whole university is not under attack. There is no condition in which the university is under attack that the whole of U.S. educational infrastructure, public and private, from pre-K up, is not under attack."
Everybody's going to be reposting this. As they should.
"Privately funded educational technology is a threat to the very idea of public education."
"Privately funded educational technology is a threat to the very idea of public education."
The ‘Crisis of the Humanities’ Is Over. That’s Not a Good Thing.
All of higher ed now suffers the attacks of politics and technology.
www.chronicle.com
December 29, 2025 at 3:18 PM
"There is no condition in which the humanities are under attack in which the whole university is not under attack. There is no condition in which the university is under attack that the whole of U.S. educational infrastructure, public and private, from pre-K up, is not under attack."
Reposted by Micah Bateman
Did you miss our December 4th Community Call? No worries! The recording is now available on our website: omeka.org/news/2025/.... Our next Community Call will be February, 12th at 11 am EST and will focus on the theme of Archives. We hope you can join us: us06web.zoom.us/meet...
Omeka
- December 4th Community Call Recording Now Available
Omeka is a free, flexible, and open source web-publishing platform for the display of library, museum, archives, and scholarly collections and exhibitions. Its five-minute setup makes launching an online archive or exhibition as easy as launching a blog.
omeka.org
December 17, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Did you miss our December 4th Community Call? No worries! The recording is now available on our website: omeka.org/news/2025/.... Our next Community Call will be February, 12th at 11 am EST and will focus on the theme of Archives. We hope you can join us: us06web.zoom.us/meet...
Reposted by Micah Bateman
This Publishers Weekly article about protests at the Poetry Foundation, including layoffs & changes in PF programming, is so strange. Because this shift is so important to poets, to readers, & to the field, here's a 🧵 about how we got here:
tinyurl.com/326xy2tm
tinyurl.com/326xy2tm
Poetry Foundation Staff Protest Program Cuts, Job Loss
Employees at the foundation say the decision of senior leadership to eliminate public programs, announced earlier this month, goes against the organization’s mission, and are circulating a petition to...
www.publishersweekly.com
December 17, 2025 at 3:40 PM
This Publishers Weekly article about protests at the Poetry Foundation, including layoffs & changes in PF programming, is so strange. Because this shift is so important to poets, to readers, & to the field, here's a 🧵 about how we got here:
tinyurl.com/326xy2tm
tinyurl.com/326xy2tm
not me crushing a capri sun on camera in a zoom meeting
December 16, 2025 at 5:34 PM
not me crushing a capri sun on camera in a zoom meeting
Reposted by Micah Bateman
Today I remembered that there is a resource that is just a list of almost one hundred humanities PhDs who have transitioned to other careers and are available to talk about it.
You can schedule an informational interview or invite them to talk to your department!
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
You can schedule an informational interview or invite them to talk to your department!
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
Alt-Ac Support network
docs.google.com
December 16, 2025 at 2:26 AM
Today I remembered that there is a resource that is just a list of almost one hundred humanities PhDs who have transitioned to other careers and are available to talk about it.
You can schedule an informational interview or invite them to talk to your department!
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
You can schedule an informational interview or invite them to talk to your department!
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
also fitting that there is no safety mechanism
I guess it's fitting that it's a reimagined, worse version of someone else's artwork
December 12, 2025 at 7:09 PM
also fitting that there is no safety mechanism