Roger Whitson
@rogerwhitson.bsky.social
lit and media prof @WSU — science fiction, buddhism, william blake, science & tech studies, polyamory.
Pinned
I'll be giving a talk at Jupiter's Eye Book Cafe with D.J. Lee on Oct. 3! Learn about: conversations with the dead about illuminated printing, seeing in the infinite in everything, englobing the vortices of spacetime, and why everyone is a prophet.
I'm teaching Lisa Nakamura's article "Indigineous Circuits" tomorrow in the DH class. Every time I read this piece, I'm reminded that it is such a tour de force of archival scholarship. It's just brilliant.
February 12, 2026 at 3:46 AM
I'm teaching Lisa Nakamura's article "Indigineous Circuits" tomorrow in the DH class. Every time I read this piece, I'm reminded that it is such a tour de force of archival scholarship. It's just brilliant.
Zielinski: I just love how much the writing insists on the anecdote, on the specific. Every time I try to fit him into a theoretical mode or a genre, he escapes my abstractions.
February 5, 2026 at 5:05 PM
Zielinski: I just love how much the writing insists on the anecdote, on the specific. Every time I try to fit him into a theoretical mode or a genre, he escapes my abstractions.
I'm teaching the first chapter of Zielinski's Deep Time of the Media, on Kircher and bioluminescence. His writing casts a strange spell on me and makes history seem like it dissolves and reforms and dissolves again. I can't think of another writer who does this to me in their writing.
February 5, 2026 at 5:04 PM
I'm teaching the first chapter of Zielinski's Deep Time of the Media, on Kircher and bioluminescence. His writing casts a strange spell on me and makes history seem like it dissolves and reforms and dissolves again. I can't think of another writer who does this to me in their writing.
still appreciating the insightfulness and relevance of this quote from MLK Jr, 1967: "When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."
February 5, 2026 at 4:59 PM
I really love reading Siegfried Zielinski. Something about his writing style is like comfort food to me.
February 4, 2026 at 6:12 PM
I really love reading Siegfried Zielinski. Something about his writing style is like comfort food to me.
E-Lit people! I'm teaching Walter Benjamin today in my DH class. I see that there are a few (alas old and not that interesting) hypertext versions of The Arcades Project. Do y'all know of a better version? It's odd to me that no one has a really flashy hypertext adaptation of this seminal work.
February 3, 2026 at 4:57 PM
E-Lit people! I'm teaching Walter Benjamin today in my DH class. I see that there are a few (alas old and not that interesting) hypertext versions of The Arcades Project. Do y'all know of a better version? It's odd to me that no one has a really flashy hypertext adaptation of this seminal work.
I'm rereading CODE to teach it in my DH class. Themes emerging for me now: refugee intellectuals, structuralism as technocratic response to fascism/Soviet communism, the role of immigrants as experimental subjects. Not sure how much of cybernetics is cold war nationalism, nor how ai fits in.
Love this review, and glad to see it also bring in @bernarddionysius.bsky.social, whose _Code_ deeply shaped my thinking about the history of cultural theory.
If you put these two books together, I think it makes a very coherent story about where theory came from and why we need it right now.
If you put these two books together, I think it makes a very coherent story about where theory came from and why we need it right now.
January 26, 2026 at 6:49 PM
I'm rereading CODE to teach it in my DH class. Themes emerging for me now: refugee intellectuals, structuralism as technocratic response to fascism/Soviet communism, the role of immigrants as experimental subjects. Not sure how much of cybernetics is cold war nationalism, nor how ai fits in.
i'm teaching @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social's "What's DH & What's It Doing in English Departments" tomorrow w/ Gold and Klein's "The Digital Humanities: Moment to Moment" and the Brown U Hypertext experiment from 1976. If there's a history of DH told through these texts, how would you characterize it?
January 19, 2026 at 6:52 PM
i'm teaching @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social's "What's DH & What's It Doing in English Departments" tomorrow w/ Gold and Klein's "The Digital Humanities: Moment to Moment" and the Brown U Hypertext experiment from 1976. If there's a history of DH told through these texts, how would you characterize it?
Today is publication day! The Open Access version is now online so you can read for free on @manifoldscholar.bsky.social With huge thanks to @uncpress.bsky.social @ecds-emory.bsky.social and @foxcenteremory.bsky.social Go to jimcrowintheasylum.com
Jim Crow in the Asylum | Emory Center for Digital Scholarship - Manifold Scholarship
<h3>Untangling the relationship between race and psychiatry in the American South</h3>
There is a complicated history of racism and psychiatric healthcare in the Deep South states of Georgia, Alabama...
jimcrowintheasylum.com
January 13, 2026 at 6:31 PM
srlsy Charlie? support women!
Darwin to Lyell, 25 Mar 1865 "I presume I may quote Miss Buckley about the roosting in trees (which is only new point) as “from information received through Sir C. Lyell”. If you think I ought to name Miss. B; please tell me, otherwise I will quote as above."
Darwin to Lyell, 25 Mar 1865 "I presume I may quote Miss Buckley about the roosting in trees (which is only new point) as “from information received through Sir C. Lyell”. If you think I ought to name Miss. B; please tell me, otherwise I will quote as above."
January 12, 2026 at 6:06 PM
srlsy Charlie? support women!
Darwin to Lyell, 25 Mar 1865 "I presume I may quote Miss Buckley about the roosting in trees (which is only new point) as “from information received through Sir C. Lyell”. If you think I ought to name Miss. B; please tell me, otherwise I will quote as above."
Darwin to Lyell, 25 Mar 1865 "I presume I may quote Miss Buckley about the roosting in trees (which is only new point) as “from information received through Sir C. Lyell”. If you think I ought to name Miss. B; please tell me, otherwise I will quote as above."
+1. Take care Bluesky. <3
Good afternoon, Bluesky.
This is your weekly reminder to take your HRT, medications, and vitamins anyway.
Bluesky still deserves better leadership.
Trans rights are human rights. 🏳️⚧️
Unban Link.
This is your weekly reminder to take your HRT, medications, and vitamins anyway.
Bluesky still deserves better leadership.
Trans rights are human rights. 🏳️⚧️
Unban Link.
January 12, 2026 at 5:56 PM
+1. Take care Bluesky. <3
Another Q for my DH audience: is there a good piece about why you wouldn't want to use Canvas? I know the reasons, I just need a few citations. Thanks!
January 11, 2026 at 9:50 PM
Another Q for my DH audience: is there a good piece about why you wouldn't want to use Canvas? I know the reasons, I just need a few citations. Thanks!
I like this a lot, although it would be absolute chaos from a sustainability and digital preservation perspective. Perhaps that's a good thing... 🔥
Trump may be the beginning of the end for ‘enshittification’ – this is our chance to make tech good again | Cory Doctorow
January 11, 2026 at 4:36 PM
DH-ers! Is there a good alternative to GoogleDocs for collaborative writing out there, i.e. something less corporate and more open?
January 11, 2026 at 4:35 PM
DH-ers! Is there a good alternative to GoogleDocs for collaborative writing out there, i.e. something less corporate and more open?
Reposted by Roger Whitson
A friend in Minneapolis just sent me this video. Looks like thousands have come together for a vigil after an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good. This was my neighborhood for several years before coming to Portland.
January 8, 2026 at 1:05 AM
A friend in Minneapolis just sent me this video. Looks like thousands have come together for a vigil after an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good. This was my neighborhood for several years before coming to Portland.
I'm working on a syllabus for my graduate intro to DH course in the Spring. @ryancordell.org's recent syllabi have proved useful. But I also noticed that we don't have a central clearing house for these kinds of syllabi - or do we?
January 8, 2026 at 12:39 AM
I'm working on a syllabus for my graduate intro to DH course in the Spring. @ryancordell.org's recent syllabi have proved useful. But I also noticed that we don't have a central clearing house for these kinds of syllabi - or do we?
Reposted by Roger Whitson
I encourage all of us to politically support prosecuting this regime after 2028. I know some of you are averse to carceral logics, others are afraid of prodding the right-wing beast. Reasonable concerns, but please consider what we risk if we don't. The US won't stop being a leviathan anytime soon.
January 7, 2026 at 10:14 PM
I encourage all of us to politically support prosecuting this regime after 2028. I know some of you are averse to carceral logics, others are afraid of prodding the right-wing beast. Reasonable concerns, but please consider what we risk if we don't. The US won't stop being a leviathan anytime soon.
67.3 of Victorian Studies features my article "Algorhythmics and Media Concepts: Ada Lovelace's "Notes to 'Sketch of the Analytical Engine,'" as part of the NAVSA Event 2024 issue. Thanks to the editors for helping this piece see the light of day!
January 1, 2026 at 1:14 AM
67.3 of Victorian Studies features my article "Algorhythmics and Media Concepts: Ada Lovelace's "Notes to 'Sketch of the Analytical Engine,'" as part of the NAVSA Event 2024 issue. Thanks to the editors for helping this piece see the light of day!
Victorianists and, specifically, Darwin scholars! Is there anything you'd recommend about Darwin's student Arabella Buckley? I've been reading her work as of late, and I'm eager to read more.
December 28, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Victorianists and, specifically, Darwin scholars! Is there anything you'd recommend about Darwin's student Arabella Buckley? I've been reading her work as of late, and I'm eager to read more.
I'm late to the party with @whitneytrettien.bsky.social's CUT/COPY/PASTE, but I'm absolutely loving her chapter on the women of Little Gidding and their makerspace harmonies of the gospels.
November 28, 2025 at 5:06 PM
I'm late to the party with @whitneytrettien.bsky.social's CUT/COPY/PASTE, but I'm absolutely loving her chapter on the women of Little Gidding and their makerspace harmonies of the gospels.
Reposted by Roger Whitson
This Thanksgiving—observe the National Day of Mourning.
From 1819 to 1969, US Govt stole tens of thousands of Indigenous kids—forcing them to convert to Christianity & stripping them of their identities. Resistance was met with violence. Sexual abuse was rampant.
www.qasimrashid.com/p/thanksgivi...
From 1819 to 1969, US Govt stole tens of thousands of Indigenous kids—forcing them to convert to Christianity & stripping them of their identities. Resistance was met with violence. Sexual abuse was rampant.
www.qasimrashid.com/p/thanksgivi...
Thanksgiving and the National Day of Mourning
As injustices upon Indigenous Americans perpetuate, we must act to counter that systemic oppression
www.qasimrashid.com
November 27, 2025 at 3:11 PM
This Thanksgiving—observe the National Day of Mourning.
From 1819 to 1969, US Govt stole tens of thousands of Indigenous kids—forcing them to convert to Christianity & stripping them of their identities. Resistance was met with violence. Sexual abuse was rampant.
www.qasimrashid.com/p/thanksgivi...
From 1819 to 1969, US Govt stole tens of thousands of Indigenous kids—forcing them to convert to Christianity & stripping them of their identities. Resistance was met with violence. Sexual abuse was rampant.
www.qasimrashid.com/p/thanksgivi...
Finally getting to this brilliant piece from @shannonmattern.bsky.social, which I'm teaching in my DH class next semester.
placesjournal.org/article/libr...
placesjournal.org/article/libr...
Library as Infrastructure
Reading room, social service center, innovation lab. How far can we stretch the public library?
placesjournal.org
November 22, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Finally getting to this brilliant piece from @shannonmattern.bsky.social, which I'm teaching in my DH class next semester.
placesjournal.org/article/libr...
placesjournal.org/article/libr...
"Machines deal with commands not according to their meaning but according to the assigned syntax, which follows the rules of logic and the orders of symbols." - Yuk Hui, Existence of Dig Ob
Does this still hold true w/ AI? I suspect so, but I'm wondering about any caveats to this binary.
Does this still hold true w/ AI? I suspect so, but I'm wondering about any caveats to this binary.
November 11, 2025 at 7:12 PM
"Machines deal with commands not according to their meaning but according to the assigned syntax, which follows the rules of logic and the orders of symbols." - Yuk Hui, Existence of Dig Ob
Does this still hold true w/ AI? I suspect so, but I'm wondering about any caveats to this binary.
Does this still hold true w/ AI? I suspect so, but I'm wondering about any caveats to this binary.
If [renting digital platforms sounds like a] medieval problem for society, that's probably because it really is an uncanny echo of that era in history. The only real difference is the digital form of the landscape. The nature of the lords taking tribute payments remain the same."
—Izabella Kaminska
—Izabella Kaminska
November 2, 2025 at 5:42 PM
If [renting digital platforms sounds like a] medieval problem for society, that's probably because it really is an uncanny echo of that era in history. The only real difference is the digital form of the landscape. The nature of the lords taking tribute payments remain the same."
—Izabella Kaminska
—Izabella Kaminska