Scott Selisker
@sselisker.bsky.social
literature prof at U of Arizona. books: HUMAN PROGRAMMING (on metaphors for ideology), CHARACTER NETWORKS (on social networks in recent US fiction and history, forthcoming 2026ish). he, suh-LISK-er, views mine, sporadically present here.
Pinned
New book going to press: *Character Networks in Contemporary U.S. Fiction.* It’s about social networks as context for—and formal element of—the novel. For contemporary lit, novel/narrative theory, DH, lit and sociology, network analysis crowds. Here’s what it’s about: (1/n)
Reposted by Scott Selisker
Page proofs arrived today (!) and actual book coming August 2026!!!
January 29, 2026 at 9:57 PM
Page proofs arrived today (!) and actual book coming August 2026!!!
Reposted by Scott Selisker
Me on LLMs, Grok especially, as epistemic weapons:
January 14, 2026 at 2:56 PM
Me on LLMs, Grok especially, as epistemic weapons:
Reposted by Scott Selisker
Another turn on the Genre Turn (and a review of Jeremy Rosen’s excellent Genre Bending). www.chronicle.com/article/is-l...
Opinion | Is ‘Literary Fiction’ Just Another Genre Now?
There is no real middlebrow any more.
www.chronicle.com
January 28, 2026 at 6:08 PM
Another turn on the Genre Turn (and a review of Jeremy Rosen’s excellent Genre Bending). www.chronicle.com/article/is-l...
Reposted by Scott Selisker
This was great on current “crisis of knowledge” and the situation of the humanities
Required viewing: Newfield on the present crisis.
FHI Short Residency | Christopher Newfield on the University System in the Knowledge Crisis
YouTube video by John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke U.
www.youtube.com
January 23, 2026 at 10:52 PM
This was great on current “crisis of knowledge” and the situation of the humanities
This looks great, and I'm shocked I didn't realize these Oxford Bibliographies of American Lit were out there, will definitely be consulting them and recommending to graduate students...
Happy to see my co-written bibliography of Ralph Ellison debut on Oxford Bibliographies Online. Paul Devlin and Diana Filar were ideal collaborators: working across subfields in literary studies brought a unique set of resources together for this project. www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/docu...
www.oxfordbibliographies.com
January 15, 2026 at 5:00 PM
This looks great, and I'm shocked I didn't realize these Oxford Bibliographies of American Lit were out there, will definitely be consulting them and recommending to graduate students...
The cool new thing in Tucson recently has been these reading-together and writing-together events at the neighborhood bar...
Details on tonight's @tucsonessayclub.bsky.social club member write-together / social hour on the substack. Meet at Slow Body at 6:30 for writing, 7:30 for social: open.substack.com/pub/tucsones...
Write Together / Social Tonight!
Congregating at Slow Body Brewing at 6:30-8:30 Thurs 1/8/26
open.substack.com
January 8, 2026 at 4:18 PM
The cool new thing in Tucson recently has been these reading-together and writing-together events at the neighborhood bar...
Reposted by Scott Selisker
Being able to see surveillance as something that art has been responding to in explicitly political terms for 100+ years feels useful to me in a moment when so much focus is on technology and people are asking questions about what kinds of policy enable, and are enabled by, surveillance tech. 4/
January 6, 2026 at 7:45 PM
Being able to see surveillance as something that art has been responding to in explicitly political terms for 100+ years feels useful to me in a moment when so much focus is on technology and people are asking questions about what kinds of policy enable, and are enabled by, surveillance tech. 4/
New book going to press: *Character Networks in Contemporary U.S. Fiction.* It’s about social networks as context for—and formal element of—the novel. For contemporary lit, novel/narrative theory, DH, lit and sociology, network analysis crowds. Here’s what it’s about: (1/n)
January 6, 2026 at 4:30 PM
New book going to press: *Character Networks in Contemporary U.S. Fiction.* It’s about social networks as context for—and formal element of—the novel. For contemporary lit, novel/narrative theory, DH, lit and sociology, network analysis crowds. Here’s what it’s about: (1/n)
Current reading: Boltanski and Thévenot, On Justification. Finding the opening accounts of Econ v Soc and the development of market individualism in Smith revelatory.
December 29, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Current reading: Boltanski and Thévenot, On Justification. Finding the opening accounts of Econ v Soc and the development of market individualism in Smith revelatory.
"It is a mistake to expect those who have taken for granted that colleges should not only be run like businesses, but for the benefit of business owners, will ever defend education’s public mission."
I wasn’t sure they were going to publish this. So good for them.
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 3:34 PM
"It is a mistake to expect those who have taken for granted that colleges should not only be run like businesses, but for the benefit of business owners, will ever defend education’s public mission."
This was esp. good on how different kinds of cognitive activities (grammar, inference, judgment) get classed as “next-word” problems in AI; Lit studies as especially attuned to the consequences of incorrect inferences…
"literary-critical inferences cannot be identical, but cannot be an interpretive free-for-all or just statistically approximated hearsay. AI cannot suffer the downstream consequences of faked comprehension+wrongful inferences in its body."
Nan Z Da
newleftreview.org/issues/ii155...
Nan Z Da
newleftreview.org/issues/ii155...
Nan Z. Da, Literary Criticism in the Age of AI, NLR 155, September–October 2025
Critical analyses of AI usually adopt a stance of defensive humanism. Instead, Nan Da interrogates its mode of reasoning. How do LLMs make the step from data to inference—and what does it mean when th...
newleftreview.org
December 27, 2025 at 5:02 PM
This was esp. good on how different kinds of cognitive activities (grammar, inference, judgment) get classed as “next-word” problems in AI; Lit studies as especially attuned to the consequences of incorrect inferences…
“Through our displays we are also saying no to taste and restraint, & yes to erections and spectacle. We are saying no to self-control and decorum, & yes to demonstration. These are the ways in which, we say, we are not bound. The longer I live in this neighborhood, the more I’m starting to get it.”
Reposting my Christmas / Big Rudolph epic, "My Monument," on account of it being Christmas eve: creativenonfiction.org/writing/my-m...
My Monument - Creative Nonfiction
Surrounded by his neighbors’ maximalist holiday displays—104 inflatable Christmas decorations in all, with not a repetition among them—Ander Monson ponders the history of spectacle and considers the m...
creativenonfiction.org
December 24, 2025 at 4:51 PM
“Through our displays we are also saying no to taste and restraint, & yes to erections and spectacle. We are saying no to self-control and decorum, & yes to demonstration. These are the ways in which, we say, we are not bound. The longer I live in this neighborhood, the more I’m starting to get it.”
Reposted by Scott Selisker
"literary-critical inferences cannot be identical, but cannot be an interpretive free-for-all or just statistically approximated hearsay. AI cannot suffer the downstream consequences of faked comprehension+wrongful inferences in its body."
Nan Z Da
newleftreview.org/issues/ii155...
Nan Z Da
newleftreview.org/issues/ii155...
Nan Z. Da, Literary Criticism in the Age of AI, NLR 155, September–October 2025
Critical analyses of AI usually adopt a stance of defensive humanism. Instead, Nan Da interrogates its mode of reasoning. How do LLMs make the step from data to inference—and what does it mean when th...
newleftreview.org
December 22, 2025 at 2:25 PM
"literary-critical inferences cannot be identical, but cannot be an interpretive free-for-all or just statistically approximated hearsay. AI cannot suffer the downstream consequences of faked comprehension+wrongful inferences in its body."
Nan Z Da
newleftreview.org/issues/ii155...
Nan Z Da
newleftreview.org/issues/ii155...
Reposted by Scott Selisker
Hi all: reupping my perennial call for indexing and editing clients for Spring / Summer 2026. It might be my last year doing this work, so get it while it's hot! Email at sosment@uchicago.edu for rate and availability. Feel free to share!
December 22, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Hi all: reupping my perennial call for indexing and editing clients for Spring / Summer 2026. It might be my last year doing this work, so get it while it's hot! Email at sosment@uchicago.edu for rate and availability. Feel free to share!
The 3rd grader’s classroom is doing *double-blind* Secret Santa, an early start on the joys of academia
December 18, 2025 at 4:39 PM
The 3rd grader’s classroom is doing *double-blind* Secret Santa, an early start on the joys of academia
Terrific news for Americanist literary studies…
Sarah Wasserman, assistant dean for faculty affairs, was named co-editor of the eminent Oxford Studies in American Literary History book series. The scholar of 20th- and 21st-century American literature will lead the series alongside @ericafretwell.bsky.social of the University of Albany.
Wasserman Appointed Co-Editor of Oxford’s American Literary History Series | Faculty of Arts and Sciences
The prestigious book series offers an expansive approach to American literary and cultural history.
fas.dartmouth.edu
December 17, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Terrific news for Americanist literary studies…
My friend Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan in IHE articulating a non-doom feeling I’ve shared this fall after a semester with outstanding, motivated students and a refreshed sense of purpose behind the lectern… www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...
Actually, It’s a Good Time to Be an English Prof (opinion)
No, really.
www.insidehighered.com
December 14, 2025 at 8:09 PM
My friend Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan in IHE articulating a non-doom feeling I’ve shared this fall after a semester with outstanding, motivated students and a refreshed sense of purpose behind the lectern… www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...
Cool data project on Seattle Public Library checkouts, generously shared exploratory tool and data…
Which canonical American authors are the public reading, and why?
To find out, we analyzed library borrowing patterns for every author in the Norton Anthology of American Literature (1945 to the Present).
Excited to share this new CHR paper & data!
anthology.ach.org/volumes/vol0...
#CHR2025
To find out, we analyzed library borrowing patterns for every author in the Norton Anthology of American Literature (1945 to the Present).
Excited to share this new CHR paper & data!
anthology.ach.org/volumes/vol0...
#CHR2025
Excited to be in Luxembourg at CHR 2025 to hear about everyone’s amazing work and to share my project with @mellymeldubs.bsky.social and our team. We tracked canonical authors and texts in Seattle Public Library circulation data.
December 14, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Cool data project on Seattle Public Library checkouts, generously shared exploratory tool and data…
Reposted by Scott Selisker
not clear if the loneliness becomes visible to the chatbot user, though it certainly becomes visible to tech companies, who have incentive to perpetuate it
datasociety.net/points/all-t...
datasociety.net/points/all-t...
December 3, 2025 at 10:10 PM
not clear if the loneliness becomes visible to the chatbot user, though it certainly becomes visible to tech companies, who have incentive to perpetuate it
datasociety.net/points/all-t...
datasociety.net/points/all-t...
I’ve likewise been finding this semester that the kids are alright. Inspiring, even.
My colleague Carlo Rotella wrote this as a response to doom-and-gloom reporting on genAI's impact on the humanities and as a framework for thinking about what works. I think it's pretty good.
Gift link.
Gift link.
I’m a Professor. A.I. Has Changed My Classroom, but Not for the Worse.
www.nytimes.com
December 2, 2025 at 1:27 AM
I’ve likewise been finding this semester that the kids are alright. Inspiring, even.
*Hejira*! The Joni Mitchell album. I wasn’t ready for it before, but now is the time.
December 2, 2025 at 12:04 AM
*Hejira*! The Joni Mitchell album. I wasn’t ready for it before, but now is the time.
Reposted by Scott Selisker
“One person is an autocratic president of the university for decades” certainly wasn’t a flawless system but it’s clear that “admins hop from job to job scaling the career ladder by filling their CV with ‘accomplishments’ that are expensive burdens to the schools they leave behind” is even worse.
The worst thing to happen to academia was the emergence of a nomadic administrative class like the one in corporations who just move from institution to institution setting fires and walking away.
Say what you will about the flaws of faculty governance, but at least they believe in the mission.
Say what you will about the flaws of faculty governance, but at least they believe in the mission.
December 1, 2025 at 4:28 PM
“One person is an autocratic president of the university for decades” certainly wasn’t a flawless system but it’s clear that “admins hop from job to job scaling the career ladder by filling their CV with ‘accomplishments’ that are expensive burdens to the schools they leave behind” is even worse.
Around 11am someone in my neighborhood summoned a truck that says Arizona Margarita Rental on the side, happy Thanksgiving,
November 27, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Around 11am someone in my neighborhood summoned a truck that says Arizona Margarita Rental on the side, happy Thanksgiving,
A truly gorgeous essay here, and now that, mysteriously, two copies of Close Reading for the 21st Century have made their way into my household, I’ll take this chance to also warmly recommend it, the opening gambit on Red Wheelbarrow alone is a marvel. They are making “glazed” happen!
I wrote an essay for @bostonreview.bsky.social about what I learned about close reading when I taught at West Virginia University
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
The Claims of Close Reading - Boston Review
Literary studies have been starved by austerity, but their core methodology remains radical.
www.bostonreview.net
November 26, 2025 at 6:18 PM
A truly gorgeous essay here, and now that, mysteriously, two copies of Close Reading for the 21st Century have made their way into my household, I’ll take this chance to also warmly recommend it, the opening gambit on Red Wheelbarrow alone is a marvel. They are making “glazed” happen!