Maura Doherty, Ph.D.
@molowell.bsky.social
Historian. Textile industry. History of capitalism. Women and work. Time. Teleology. Epistemology. Knowledge. Misinformation. Ai. Microhistory. Heritage. Memory. Expert on the city of Lowell Massachusetts. Writing a 3 volume work on its history.
Pinned
Sharon Osbourne finds an ancestral connection to America!
YouTube video by Who Do You Think You Are?
youtube.com
I did some research for the WDYTYA team and appeared as a guest historian when Sharon Osbourne's roots brought her to the textile mills of Fall River, Massachusetts. She was a pleasure to work with. This is part 1 of our 2 segments.
Of interest to my fellow colleagues in the history of knowledge. #pseudohistory and #historiography
New academic research: Asher Shallah offers a case study in literary forgery and historiography around a fictitious medieval poet invented by Italian humanists, later recast as Jewish by 19th‑century scholars, and eventually dismantled.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Giustina Levi-Perotti: The Nineteenth-Century Afterlife of a Fourteenth-Century Jewish Poet Who Never Existed
This article explores the literary fabrication of Giustina Levi-Perotti, a fictitious fourteenth-century poetess, and her mistaken inclusion among the canon of Jewish writers. Originally invented d...
www.tandfonline.com
February 13, 2026 at 10:13 PM
Of interest to my fellow colleagues in the history of knowledge. #pseudohistory and #historiography
Ai is underdeveloped, underperforming, and supresses students from acquiring the very skills they are in school to develop. Speak out at your schools.
Further proof that this is the worst MLM in history
“Young people are quickly becoming so dependent on A.I. that they are losing the ability to think for themselves. And rather than rallying resistance, academic administrators are aiding and abetting a hostile takeover of higher education.”
February 13, 2026 at 12:15 AM
Ai is underdeveloped, underperforming, and supresses students from acquiring the very skills they are in school to develop. Speak out at your schools.
Reposted by Maura Doherty, Ph.D.
To protect our freedoms, we must look past the public-private binary and confront the state-private alliance head-on.
Read more: rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/from-ca...
Read more: rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/from-ca...
From Campuses to Newsrooms, Corporate Oligarchy and State Repression Converge to Stifle Free Expression
A look at how corporate oligarchy and state power converge to erode academic freedom, press independence, and democracy itself.
rooseveltinstitute.org
February 12, 2026 at 9:41 PM
To protect our freedoms, we must look past the public-private binary and confront the state-private alliance head-on.
Read more: rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/from-ca...
Read more: rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/from-ca...
I only listened to the first seven words. IF "they came with pockets full of nothing" then they were ILLEGAL immigrants. The immigration law of 1892 required immigrants have $25 when they arrived at Ellis Island. #pseudohistory #historiography
Beck says they will use Ellis Island -and your tax dollars- for an event celebrating "legal immigration" (ie to support Trump's anti-immigrant policies) with a performance of this awful song Beck says he wrote. (As it happens almost everyone in the video is white.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhch...
They LIED to you about immigration. The TRUE story...
YouTube video by Glenn Beck
www.youtube.com
February 12, 2026 at 7:57 PM
I only listened to the first seven words. IF "they came with pockets full of nothing" then they were ILLEGAL immigrants. The immigration law of 1892 required immigrants have $25 when they arrived at Ellis Island. #pseudohistory #historiography
Of interest to urban and deindustrialization scholars.
Happy #NationalGreenWeek to two new #environment titles!
1️⃣DOWNRIVER DETROIT: The Working Class, the Environment, and the Bonds of Place by Lisa M. Fine
www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=c0...
2️⃣JENS JENSEN: Nature's Artist by William H. Tishler
www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p0...
1️⃣DOWNRIVER DETROIT: The Working Class, the Environment, and the Bonds of Place by Lisa M. Fine
www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=c0...
2️⃣JENS JENSEN: Nature's Artist by William H. Tishler
www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p0...
February 11, 2026 at 6:57 PM
Of interest to urban and deindustrialization scholars.
CFP for those working in pseudoscience and pseudohistory
Here’s a working link! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
February 11, 2026 at 1:07 PM
CFP for those working in pseudoscience and pseudohistory
The descientificization of America targetting Democratic regions is a deliberate measure to sabotage the local and state economies will have longlasting negative effects on employment, and ripple effects on housing, schools, tax revenue, and satellite businesses, including mom and pop shops.
Big @bostonglobe.com / MassINC Polling survey out this morning. "They came to Massachusetts to cure disease. Now they’re packing up their labs." We surveyed NIH funded scientists in Massachusetts about federal funding cuts & policies. Here's what they told us. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/09/m...
They came to Massachusetts to cure disease. Now they’re packing up their labs. - The Boston Globe
In a first-of-its-kind survey, the Globe asked hundreds of scientists about the impact of federal funding cuts.
www.bostonglobe.com
February 11, 2026 at 1:02 PM
The descientificization of America targetting Democratic regions is a deliberate measure to sabotage the local and state economies will have longlasting negative effects on employment, and ripple effects on housing, schools, tax revenue, and satellite businesses, including mom and pop shops.
This disinvestment in education, also occuring in the U.S., is similar to deindustrialization. The mass layoffs, the unemployment, the job mismatch, the local impact on housing, and the ripple effect on businesses are what I call (deliberate) deemployment and deeducation.
Damage is being done to our University by management, with the livelihoods of precarious workers most at risk. This must stop. #anticas #UCU #StopStaffCuts
www.heraldscotland.com/news/2582884...
www.heraldscotland.com/news/2582884...
800 staff leave Edinburgh University amid £140m cuts drive
Bosses at the institution want to cut £90m from their annual salary bill, which unions say could result in as many as 1,400 jobs being lost.
www.heraldscotland.com
February 9, 2026 at 3:22 PM
This disinvestment in education, also occuring in the U.S., is similar to deindustrialization. The mass layoffs, the unemployment, the job mismatch, the local impact on housing, and the ripple effect on businesses are what I call (deliberate) deemployment and deeducation.
The American war on history and historians is concerning to the entire profession. Other countries have suffered similar attacks and the supression of their histories.
Trump's war on history
As America's 250th anniversary approaches, the president wants to control the country's future by bulldozing its past.
www.motherjones.com
February 8, 2026 at 7:02 PM
The American war on history and historians is concerning to the entire profession. Other countries have suffered similar attacks and the supression of their histories.
The loss of a free & independent press is occurring because players have bought up newspapers NOT to be in the business of journalism but to use outlets to influence policies which make profits for their OTHER businesses. Strengthening former ownership laws is the only way to guarantee a free press.
NEW: Trump's coup is almost complete. And the attack on the press is a central piece of it. Bezos's gutting of the Washington Post cannot be allowed to be just another blip in the news cycle.
We are all going to have to fight for a free and independent press.
open.substack.com/pub/broligar...
We are all going to have to fight for a free and independent press.
open.substack.com/pub/broligar...
Fight!
Fuck Bezos. The Washington Post can and must rise again.
open.substack.com
February 6, 2026 at 11:42 AM
The loss of a free & independent press is occurring because players have bought up newspapers NOT to be in the business of journalism but to use outlets to influence policies which make profits for their OTHER businesses. Strengthening former ownership laws is the only way to guarantee a free press.
Attention fellow historians. 500,000 books are included in the settlement. YOUR book might be on the list. Deadline for claims is March 30th. copyrightalliance.org/participatin...
What to Know About the $1.5 Billion Bartz v. Anthropic Settlement | Copyright Alliance
At the end of August 2025, Anthropic agreed to a historic $1.5 billion settlement in the major class-action AI copyright lawsuit, Bartz v. Anthropic. The settlement brings the case to a close with Ant...
copyrightalliance.org
February 4, 2026 at 2:19 PM
Attention fellow historians. 500,000 books are included in the settlement. YOUR book might be on the list. Deadline for claims is March 30th. copyrightalliance.org/participatin...
Reposted by Maura Doherty, Ph.D.
'to treat peer review as a throughput problem is to misunderstand what is at stake. Review is not simply a production stage in the research pipeline; it is one of the few remaining spaces where the scientific community talks to itself.' 1/3
AI is not a peer, so it can’t do peer review
If we still believe that science is a vocation grounded in argument, curiosity and care, we can’t delegate judgement to machines, says Akhil Bhardwaj
www.timeshighereducation.com
February 3, 2026 at 8:17 AM
'to treat peer review as a throughput problem is to misunderstand what is at stake. Review is not simply a production stage in the research pipeline; it is one of the few remaining spaces where the scientific community talks to itself.' 1/3
We will write diversity back into history. This will help.
Please circulate and share this important resource: thepanorama.shear.org/2025/04/09/t...
The Early Republic Tracker
The Early Republic Tracker documents instances where the federal government is removing facts and stories essential to the public’s understanding American history from public historical sites, muse…
thepanorama.shear.org
February 3, 2026 at 10:36 PM
We will write diversity back into history. This will help.
Black lung is adorable. So is coal's history of worker exploitation, accidents, and child labour.
The US government is trying to make coal seem cute.
The US government is trying to make coal seem cute. It isn't.
Trump complained that coal needed better PR. Then "Coalie" showed up.
www.motherjones.com
February 3, 2026 at 1:57 PM
Black lung is adorable. So is coal's history of worker exploitation, accidents, and child labour.
I am currently reading philosophers and ethicists analyzing 'bullshit' (as distinct from lies/lying). It is relevant to my work on pseudohistory and "AI."
February 3, 2026 at 12:00 PM
I am currently reading philosophers and ethicists analyzing 'bullshit' (as distinct from lies/lying). It is relevant to my work on pseudohistory and "AI."
Academics - check if your book is on the list of the Anthropic AI $1.5 billion settlement. 7 of my friends were. They will get at least $3,000. Claims must be made by March 30th. Repost to help authors whose works were illegally appropriated.
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup?cultu...
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup?cultu...
Submit a Claim
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com
February 3, 2026 at 9:09 AM
Academics - check if your book is on the list of the Anthropic AI $1.5 billion settlement. 7 of my friends were. They will get at least $3,000. Claims must be made by March 30th. Repost to help authors whose works were illegally appropriated.
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup?cultu...
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup?cultu...
Reposted by Maura Doherty, Ph.D.
Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia:
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n
September 6, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia:
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n
Reposted by Maura Doherty, Ph.D.
CAIL = prerequisite knowledge for a critical perspective, such as to tell apart nonsense hype from true theoretical computer scientific claims. For example, the idea that human-like systems are a sensible or possible goal is the result of circular reasoning and anthropomorphism. olivia.science/ai
🧵
🧵
October 23, 2025 at 12:03 PM
CAIL = prerequisite knowledge for a critical perspective, such as to tell apart nonsense hype from true theoretical computer scientific claims. For example, the idea that human-like systems are a sensible or possible goal is the result of circular reasoning and anthropomorphism. olivia.science/ai
🧵
🧵
Reposted by Maura Doherty, Ph.D.
OpenAI just released Prism, a LaTeX editor with embedded ChatGPT for free.
Writing a paper has never been easier.
Clogging the scientific publishing pipeline has never been easier.
It took me 54 seconds to write up an experiment I did not actually conduct.
prism.openai.com
Writing a paper has never been easier.
Clogging the scientific publishing pipeline has never been easier.
It took me 54 seconds to write up an experiment I did not actually conduct.
prism.openai.com
January 27, 2026 at 11:01 PM
OpenAI just released Prism, a LaTeX editor with embedded ChatGPT for free.
Writing a paper has never been easier.
Clogging the scientific publishing pipeline has never been easier.
It took me 54 seconds to write up an experiment I did not actually conduct.
prism.openai.com
Writing a paper has never been easier.
Clogging the scientific publishing pipeline has never been easier.
It took me 54 seconds to write up an experiment I did not actually conduct.
prism.openai.com
Reposted by Maura Doherty, Ph.D.
🎓From Erasmus to the European University Institute: education as a pillar of EU integration
Ahead of the #InternationalDayofEducation, explore how mobility, knowledge exchange, and academic cooperation have shaped Europe through the research guide by @eui-euarchives.bsky.social.
📖 loom.ly/9oN_F_s
Ahead of the #InternationalDayofEducation, explore how mobility, knowledge exchange, and academic cooperation have shaped Europe through the research guide by @eui-euarchives.bsky.social.
📖 loom.ly/9oN_F_s
![[A good start: choose the European Circuit. Student mobility with transferable credits – Erasmus]. Source: European Commission / HAEU, NDG-101](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:mem2lt2tjqwmqhlrnrufyr7n/bafkreiejrmayr2ahmrwqhoylyv3hqqvohkwkpo4jhfdid5bac3oqmtqygi@jpeg)
January 23, 2026 at 10:44 AM
🎓From Erasmus to the European University Institute: education as a pillar of EU integration
Ahead of the #InternationalDayofEducation, explore how mobility, knowledge exchange, and academic cooperation have shaped Europe through the research guide by @eui-euarchives.bsky.social.
📖 loom.ly/9oN_F_s
Ahead of the #InternationalDayofEducation, explore how mobility, knowledge exchange, and academic cooperation have shaped Europe through the research guide by @eui-euarchives.bsky.social.
📖 loom.ly/9oN_F_s
Reposted by Maura Doherty, Ph.D.
Hopefully of interest for the business history/history of capitalism community including @entandsoc.bsky.social @businesshistoryc.bsky.social @hagleycenter.bsky.social @businesshistory.bsky.social
resolve.cambridge.org/core/books/c...
resolve.cambridge.org/core/books/c...
The Cambridge Companion to the History of Multinationals and Society
Cambridge Core - International Business - The Cambridge Companion to the History of Multinationals and Society
resolve.cambridge.org
January 20, 2026 at 10:06 AM
Hopefully of interest for the business history/history of capitalism community including @entandsoc.bsky.social @businesshistoryc.bsky.social @hagleycenter.bsky.social @businesshistory.bsky.social
resolve.cambridge.org/core/books/c...
resolve.cambridge.org/core/books/c...
Reposted by Maura Doherty, Ph.D.
The climatologist told me
historians
will wonder
why we didn’t do more.
The epidemiologist told me
historians
will wonder
why we didn’t do more.
The activist told me
historians
will wonder
why we didn’t do more.
The historian told me
that nobody
listens to historians.
historians
will wonder
why we didn’t do more.
The epidemiologist told me
historians
will wonder
why we didn’t do more.
The activist told me
historians
will wonder
why we didn’t do more.
The historian told me
that nobody
listens to historians.
January 28, 2026 at 7:13 PM
The climatologist told me
historians
will wonder
why we didn’t do more.
The epidemiologist told me
historians
will wonder
why we didn’t do more.
The activist told me
historians
will wonder
why we didn’t do more.
The historian told me
that nobody
listens to historians.
historians
will wonder
why we didn’t do more.
The epidemiologist told me
historians
will wonder
why we didn’t do more.
The activist told me
historians
will wonder
why we didn’t do more.
The historian told me
that nobody
listens to historians.
Facebook is censoring posts about the General Strike on January 30th. Fascism has clearly come to Amerikkka when private companies conspire with a dictator to gag free speech, to prevent freedom of assembly, and to silence critics.
January 28, 2026 at 11:11 PM
Facebook is censoring posts about the General Strike on January 30th. Fascism has clearly come to Amerikkka when private companies conspire with a dictator to gag free speech, to prevent freedom of assembly, and to silence critics.
Reposted by Maura Doherty, Ph.D.
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
Stay free
Stay free
Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)
YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen
youtu.be
January 28, 2026 at 5:02 PM
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
Stay free
Stay free
Reposted by Maura Doherty, Ph.D.
Why isn't corporate media pressing Trump regime officials on why ICE agents were assaulting a woman in the street before Alex Pretti intervened to protect her? Ask the question even if it means loss of access! Below is footage of Alex stepping to protect the woman-I ended footage before shooting
January 25, 2026 at 12:13 PM
Why isn't corporate media pressing Trump regime officials on why ICE agents were assaulting a woman in the street before Alex Pretti intervened to protect her? Ask the question even if it means loss of access! Below is footage of Alex stepping to protect the woman-I ended footage before shooting