Alan Liu
@alanyliu.bsky.social
I'm a professor in digital humanities & English at UC Santa Barbara. For public humanities, I founded http://4Humanities.org & co-founded https://center-humanities-communication.org/. My website: https://liu.english.ucsb.edu/
Fan letter I wrote to journalist Alina Tugend for her “Building a Thriving Humanities Program,” Chronicle of Higher Education, Sept. 25, 2025, www.chronicle.com/report/licen.... (A non-paywalled PDF here: www.cla.purdue.edu/academic/cor... )
November 7, 2025 at 6:46 AM
Fan letter I wrote to journalist Alina Tugend for her “Building a Thriving Humanities Program,” Chronicle of Higher Education, Sept. 25, 2025, www.chronicle.com/report/licen.... (A non-paywalled PDF here: www.cla.purdue.edu/academic/cor... )
Reposted by Alan Liu
Like many DH colleagues, I've been testing the vibe coding waters. As a case study, I ended up re-engineering Andrew Goldstone's dfr-browser for exploring topic models. github.com/scottkleinma... It has a bright new look, a lot of new features, and it's hopefully easier to use. +
November 7, 2025 at 5:01 AM
Like many DH colleagues, I've been testing the vibe coding waters. As a case study, I ended up re-engineering Andrew Goldstone's dfr-browser for exploring topic models. github.com/scottkleinma... It has a bright new look, a lot of new features, and it's hopefully easier to use. +
I agree with this from your blog post: "In the end, I might have benefited more from watching the Browser work and "think" than from the actual output it produced." Just seeing how Fellou.ai structured and staged its research gave me great ideas on how to improve my research strategy.
October 20, 2025 at 8:03 PM
I agree with this from your blog post: "In the end, I might have benefited more from watching the Browser work and "think" than from the actual output it produced." Just seeing how Fellou.ai structured and staged its research gave me great ideas on how to improve my research strategy.
A portrait of influence: my ridiculously over-annotated copy of John Guillory’s _Cultural Capital: The Problem of Literary Canon Formation_. I hadn’t looked at my physical copy for years but pulled it off the shelf today to recommend to a grad student a line of thought that John develops.
October 19, 2025 at 10:13 PM
A portrait of influence: my ridiculously over-annotated copy of John Guillory’s _Cultural Capital: The Problem of Literary Canon Formation_. I hadn’t looked at my physical copy for years but pulled it off the shelf today to recommend to a grad student a line of thought that John develops.
Reposted by Alan Liu
Very excited about this forthcoming volume in the Debates in the Digital Humanities series! @uminnpress.bsky.social @alanyliu.bsky.social @laurenfklein.bsky.social
Exciting book out early next year! It will be open access 6 months after print publication. I have a chapter in there on shadow libraries as infrastructure.
Edited by @alanyliu.bsky.social, Urszula Pawlicka-Deger, and James Smithies
www.upress.umn.edu/978151791608...
Edited by @alanyliu.bsky.social, Urszula Pawlicka-Deger, and James Smithies
www.upress.umn.edu/978151791608...
Critical Infrastructure Studies and Digital Humanities
How digital humanities can shape and be shaped by the infrastructures that sustain our worldCritical Infrastructure Studies and Digital Humanities reimagines...
www.upress.umn.edu
October 16, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Very excited about this forthcoming volume in the Debates in the Digital Humanities series! @uminnpress.bsky.social @alanyliu.bsky.social @laurenfklein.bsky.social
Reposted by Alan Liu
Exciting book out early next year! It will be open access 6 months after print publication. I have a chapter in there on shadow libraries as infrastructure.
Edited by @alanyliu.bsky.social, Urszula Pawlicka-Deger, and James Smithies
www.upress.umn.edu/978151791608...
Edited by @alanyliu.bsky.social, Urszula Pawlicka-Deger, and James Smithies
www.upress.umn.edu/978151791608...
Critical Infrastructure Studies and Digital Humanities
How digital humanities can shape and be shaped by the infrastructures that sustain our worldCritical Infrastructure Studies and Digital Humanities reimagines...
www.upress.umn.edu
October 16, 2025 at 9:34 AM
Exciting book out early next year! It will be open access 6 months after print publication. I have a chapter in there on shadow libraries as infrastructure.
Edited by @alanyliu.bsky.social, Urszula Pawlicka-Deger, and James Smithies
www.upress.umn.edu/978151791608...
Edited by @alanyliu.bsky.social, Urszula Pawlicka-Deger, and James Smithies
www.upress.umn.edu/978151791608...
I'm getting great benefit from what might be called "adversarial generative prompting." For complex research (e.g., see my post on using Fellou.ai agentic AI: bsky.app/profile/alan...), I ask several LLMs to critique & improve my prompt in detailed ways before burning credits in running the prompt.
October 10, 2025 at 9:51 PM
I'm getting great benefit from what might be called "adversarial generative prompting." For complex research (e.g., see my post on using Fellou.ai agentic AI: bsky.app/profile/alan...), I ask several LLMs to critique & improve my prompt in detailed ways before burning credits in running the prompt.
My blog post reporting on testing the use of agentic AI (the Fellou.ai browser) to start a research project on gathering definitions of the humanities: “Humanities Definitions Research Project: An Experiment with Agentic AI” (liu.english.ucsb.edu/humanities-d...).
October 6, 2025 at 12:07 AM
My blog post reporting on testing the use of agentic AI (the Fellou.ai browser) to start a research project on gathering definitions of the humanities: “Humanities Definitions Research Project: An Experiment with Agentic AI” (liu.english.ucsb.edu/humanities-d...).
Reposted by Alan Liu
Gave this a closer look today and wow it really benefits from the many hands that touched it. Every point -- every sub-point -- is thoughtfully substantiated by connecting it to multiple discourses in CS and humanities. The rigorous thought at scale, so to speak, is truly impressive.
New preprint on "Computational Hermeneutics," co-authored by too many people to list in one post. TL;DR: GenAI is a cultural technology, and needs to be evaluated in ways that recognize situatedness, plurality, and ambiguity as the conditions of meaning — not noise to be minimized.
Computational Hermeneutics: Evaluating Generative AI as a Cultural Technology
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<p>Generative AI (GenAI) systems are increasingly recognized as cultural technologies, yet current evaluation frameworks often treat cul
papers.ssrn.com
September 30, 2025 at 1:42 AM
Gave this a closer look today and wow it really benefits from the many hands that touched it. Every point -- every sub-point -- is thoughtfully substantiated by connecting it to multiple discourses in CS and humanities. The rigorous thought at scale, so to speak, is truly impressive.
Reposted by Alan Liu
Thrilled to announce “The Humanities Laboratory: From Design to Archaeology”, which I co-edited with Jacek Małczyński and the late, dearly remembered Dorota Wolska. www.peterlang.com/document/161...
Peter Lang Verlag - The Humanities Laboratory
This book explores the epistemic status and potential of humanities laboratories. It investigates the history of such laboratories, while contributing ...
www.peterlang.com
September 23, 2025 at 9:19 AM
Thrilled to announce “The Humanities Laboratory: From Design to Archaeology”, which I co-edited with Jacek Małczyński and the late, dearly remembered Dorota Wolska. www.peterlang.com/document/161...
Putting on my infrastructure studies hat to boost this just-published book: The Humanities Laboratory: From Design to Archaeology, edited by Aleksandra Kil-Matlak, Jacek Małczyński, & Dorota Wolska. www.peterlang.com/document/161...
September 25, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Putting on my infrastructure studies hat to boost this just-published book: The Humanities Laboratory: From Design to Archaeology, edited by Aleksandra Kil-Matlak, Jacek Małczyński, & Dorota Wolska. www.peterlang.com/document/161...
I made a short 3-page essay from part of my “Data Science & the Post-Liberal Arts University” in Critical Inquiry that had to be cut due to length: Liu, Alan. “Liberal Arts Pantocrator.” KCWorks, 24 Sept 2025, doi.org/10.17613/y9e...
September 24, 2025 at 7:56 PM
I made a short 3-page essay from part of my “Data Science & the Post-Liberal Arts University” in Critical Inquiry that had to be cut due to length: Liu, Alan. “Liberal Arts Pantocrator.” KCWorks, 24 Sept 2025, doi.org/10.17613/y9e...
Reposted by Alan Liu
"In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limits."
www.computerworld.com/article/4059...
www.computerworld.com/article/4059...
OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws
In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limi...
www.computerworld.com
September 21, 2025 at 12:50 PM
"In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limits."
www.computerworld.com/article/4059...
www.computerworld.com/article/4059...
Just back from week as member of Santa Fe Institute’s working group on “The New New Science” with a group of mathematicians, computer scientists & (digital) humanists (www.santafe.edu/events/the-n...). Impressed by the quality of the conversations we had on math, humanities, modeling, and much else.
September 22, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Just back from week as member of Santa Fe Institute’s working group on “The New New Science” with a group of mathematicians, computer scientists & (digital) humanists (www.santafe.edu/events/the-n...). Impressed by the quality of the conversations we had on math, humanities, modeling, and much else.
CFP & flyer for 2026 Texas Tech U symposium on “AI & the Futures of the Human” where I will be a keynoter www.depts.ttu.edu/english/prog.... “How does the need to reconceive the humanities in the face of the rise of AI clarify, challenge, or transform our understanding of what it means to be human?”
September 22, 2025 at 8:40 PM
CFP & flyer for 2026 Texas Tech U symposium on “AI & the Futures of the Human” where I will be a keynoter www.depts.ttu.edu/english/prog.... “How does the need to reconceive the humanities in the face of the rise of AI clarify, challenge, or transform our understanding of what it means to be human?”
How research used to be! Pages from British newspapers during the French Revolution I once laboriously gathered from microfilm for my Wordsworth book by printing page parts to a photocopier & taping them together.
September 5, 2025 at 11:18 PM
How research used to be! Pages from British newspapers during the French Revolution I once laboriously gathered from microfilm for my Wordsworth book by printing page parts to a photocopier & taping them together.
Reposted by Alan Liu
This looks like a really interesting CFP: University as Infrastructure. culturemachine.net/vol25-cfp-un...
CM Vol 25 CfP University as Infrastructure
Culture Machine Vol. 25 Call for Papers: University as Infrastructure Guest-edited by: Alexandra Anikina, Johannes Bruder, Megen de Bruin-Molé, Stephen Cornford, Kwame Phillips & Geoff Cox …
culturemachine.net
July 15, 2025 at 2:28 PM
This looks like a really interesting CFP: University as Infrastructure. culturemachine.net/vol25-cfp-un...
I've admired Tim Sherratt's work for 2 of the 3 decades he mentions (didn't know about his work previously). This was inspiring & direction-setting exploration in the areas of digital humanities, digital archives, algorithmic experimentation, & cultural criticsm. Glad I had chance to meet Tim once.
For 30 years I've been experimenting with ways to see & use the online collections of libraries, archives & museums. I've made useful things, playful things, & weird things. Here's a big list of them for you to explore! https://wraggelabs.com #glam #histodons #digitalhumanities
Wragge Labs
A compilation of things I've built over the last 30 years to help people see and use the online collections of libraries, archives, and museums.
wraggelabs.com
July 4, 2025 at 7:06 AM
I've admired Tim Sherratt's work for 2 of the 3 decades he mentions (didn't know about his work previously). This was inspiring & direction-setting exploration in the areas of digital humanities, digital archives, algorithmic experimentation, & cultural criticsm. Glad I had chance to meet Tim once.
The Academic Senate of UC Santa Barbara recognized me as its 2024-25 Faculty Research Lecturer, “the highest honor the UC Santa Barbara faculty can bestow on one of its members.” I was asked for language in response. This came pouring out of me: liu.english.ucsb.edu/alans-respon...
![Screenshot of my email responding to my campus's Humanities & Fine Arts communications director asking for a response to being named Faculty Research Lecturer. The text of the response begins:
~~~~~~~~~~
Dear [communications director], here is some language about receiving the Research Faculty Lecturer award. This is too much for your purpose, I realize. Perhaps you can extract something from this?
It’s a distinct honor to be recognized by my colleagues as the annual Faculty Research Lecturer for 2024-25, especially when I look back on the history of the award and realize what company I stand in. Just reviewing who the past Faculty Research Lecturers were from my own English Department makes me humble.† They include some of the most illustrious scholars in literary studies and — most moving to me and others — recently some of the dearest in the hearts of their colleagues for nurturing students and younger colleagues.
Being recognized for research is especially meaningful to me now, given the direction my work has taken toward addressing the erosion in the public status of research expertise. My own research continues apace. Recently, I’ve focused on how data science, machine learning, and AI extend, but alter, the knowledges and practices that are foundational for a liberal arts education, which in the American educational system spans the sciences, social sciences, and humanities and arts.†† But my own research aside, the reason I say that recognition for research is so meaningful now is that the public perception of the value of research expertise has perhaps never been more challenged than today.
That’s why, as I come to the end of my career, I’ve thrown myself into co-founding a new national organization called the Center for Humanities Communication....](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:focvijs2anjmlfqlrxcumphd/bafkreifwwnawhwgyjkr5xcn2x4cp23u5c6btqinbtxiuc6w3hpbcehmpxu@jpeg)
July 2, 2025 at 9:27 PM
The Academic Senate of UC Santa Barbara recognized me as its 2024-25 Faculty Research Lecturer, “the highest honor the UC Santa Barbara faculty can bestow on one of its members.” I was asked for language in response. This came pouring out of me: liu.english.ucsb.edu/alans-respon...
My personal 5-min. video: vimeo.com/84252711 on why humanities matter. I can’t improve on the message. But my passion now is the Center for Humanities Communication, which I cofounded to assist the humanities in methods, resources, tools for telling its _why_, center-humanities-communication.org
Why the Humanities Matter -- A Story About Borders
A story and statement about the importance of the humanities in today's world by Alan Liu, an English professor who started out a chemistry major. Video created…
vimeo.com
June 28, 2025 at 8:06 AM
My personal 5-min. video: vimeo.com/84252711 on why humanities matter. I can’t improve on the message. But my passion now is the Center for Humanities Communication, which I cofounded to assist the humanities in methods, resources, tools for telling its _why_, center-humanities-communication.org
A very smart, interesting piece on large language model prose from the perspective of a distinguished Shakespeare scholar: Robert N. Watson, “The Odd Over the Obvious.” Slate, June 26, 2025. slate.com/life/2025/06....
We’re Finding Out More About What Using A.I. for Writing Does to Your Thinking. The Timing Couldn’t Be Worse.
Writers, teachers, and anti-fascists can tell you: Originality is the point.
slate.com
June 28, 2025 at 6:29 AM
A very smart, interesting piece on large language model prose from the perspective of a distinguished Shakespeare scholar: Robert N. Watson, “The Odd Over the Obvious.” Slate, June 26, 2025. slate.com/life/2025/06....
My “Data Science and the Post-Liberal Arts University” is just out in Critical Inquiry, www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/.... Thanks to the CI editors for acute feedback pushing me to enrichen the argument of this essay significantly.
June 26, 2025 at 7:47 PM
My “Data Science and the Post-Liberal Arts University” is just out in Critical Inquiry, www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/.... Thanks to the CI editors for acute feedback pushing me to enrichen the argument of this essay significantly.
My article on “Data Science and the Post-Liberal Arts University” just came out in the summer 2025 issue of Critical Inquiry, criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/current_issue/
June 25, 2025 at 10:49 PM
My article on “Data Science and the Post-Liberal Arts University” just came out in the summer 2025 issue of Critical Inquiry, criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/current_issue/
New interview/post by Christine Henseler on our Center for Humanities Communication’s blog: “Johanna Drucker on Identification, Imagination, and Problem-solving to Communicate the Humanities.” center-humanities-communication.org/humcomm-talk...
June 19, 2025 at 10:34 PM
New interview/post by Christine Henseler on our Center for Humanities Communication’s blog: “Johanna Drucker on Identification, Imagination, and Problem-solving to Communicate the Humanities.” center-humanities-communication.org/humcomm-talk...