Amy Woodson-Boulton
LightNews LightNews
banner
amywb.bsky.social
Amy Woodson-Boulton
@amywb.bsky.social
2.1K followers 1.9K following 540 posts
History prof at LMU in LA, CA: author of Transformative Beauty, working on museums, anthropology, art, & empire. I teach about these & global environmental history. Activist for reality + democracy—& against climate change + single-use plastics. LFG
Posts Replies Media Videos
amywb.bsky.social
GenAI is a disaster for academia—profs & students both. Come learn about why & how to resist!

FOLKS! Join us!
REGISTER HERE: bit.ly/4qE27dB
sting GenAI and Big Tech in Higher Education November 25 8-9am PST, 11-12 am EST, 4-5pm GMT, 5-6 CET Virtual on ZOOM REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/4qE27dB Generative AI is permeating higher education in many different ways—it is all around us and increasingly embedded in university work and life, even if we don’t want to use it. But people are also sounding the alarm: Gen AI is disrupting learning and undermining trust in the integrity of academic work, while its energy consumption, use of water, and rapid expansion of data centers are exacerbating ecological crises. What can we do? How do we resist? Come learn about the environmental, social, economic, and political threats that AI poses and how we can individually and collectively resist and refuse. Come learn about how some are challenging the narrative of inevitability. Join an interactive discussion with international scholars and activists on resisting GenAI and big tech in higher education. Inputs from multiple scholar-activists including Christoph Becker (U of Toronto, CA), Mary Finley-Brook (U of Richmond, USA), Dan McQuillan (Goldsmiths U of London, UK), Sinéad Sheehan (University of Galway, Ireland) Jennie Stephens (National University of Ireland Maynooth, IE), and Paul Lachapelle (U of Montana, USA). Co-sponsored by: Climate Justice Universities Union Climate Campus Network
October 30, 2025 at 1:22 PM
amywb.bsky.social
FOLKS! Join us!
REGISTER HERE: bit.ly/4qE27dB

@scientistrebellion.bsky.social
@beyondfossilfuels.bsky.social
@fossilfreeca.org
@climatejusticeuk.bsky.social
@coveringclimatenow.org
@amywestervelt.bsky.social
@climatejusticeuni.bsky.social
@volts.wtf

#ClimateEmergency
#AcademicSky
#ResistAI
Online event: Resisting GenAI and Big Tech in Higher Education November 25, 2025, 8 a.m. PST | 11 a.m. EST | 4 p.m. GMT | 5 p.m. CET Virtual on Zoom / Duration 90 min. REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/4qE27dB Generative AI is permeating higher education in many different ways—it is all around us and increasingly embedded in university work and life, even if we don’t want to use it. What can we do? How do we resist? Join an interactive discussion with international scholars and activists on resisting GenAI and big tech, including: Christoph Becker, University of Toronto, Canada / Mary Finley-Brook, University of Richmond, USA / Dan McQuillan, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK / Sinéad Sheehan, University of Galway, Ireland / Jennie Stephens, National University of Ireland Maynooth, Ireland / Paul Lachapelle, Montana State University, USA. Amy Woodson-Boulton (HIST) has helped to organize. Co-sponsored by the Campus Climate Network and the Climate Justice Universities Union.
October 30, 2025 at 2:59 AM
amywb.bsky.social
Cancelled #Disney #Hulu #ESPN bundle with message: “For your cowardly suspension of Jimmy Kimmel. We’ll come back when he does.”

#JimmyKimmel
#FreeSpeech
#1MillionRising
#NoKings
Screenshot of cancellation confirmation for Disney Hulu ESPN bundle: CREDO Mobile LTE 12:04PM Amy Ok, your subscription has been cancelled We've sent a confirmation to your email on file. You may continue to watch Hulu until September 24, 2025. Changed your mind? No problem. No problem. Resume your subscription to continue access and resume billing of $35.99/month after your next billing date. 回 000
September 19, 2025 at 7:10 PM
amywb.bsky.social
Sound UP :)
August 21, 2025 at 6:08 PM
amywb.bsky.social
The West LA Freeway Brigade is my favorite way to start the morning!

ICE OUT OF LA
LA STANDS WITH DC
#VisibilityBrigade
#Indivisible
#OneMillionRising
LA STANDS WITH DC MELT ICE
August 21, 2025 at 4:49 PM
amywb.bsky.social
Deeply moved by an event just now that we put on for the NACBS DEI Committee on the current crises hitting higher ed.

A panelist said this and it struck me as being so profound and in fact so practical.

Kindness is free. Organizing can start with making people feel less alone.
No one can legislate or order me to be unkind. No one can stop me from having an office or classroom that is a safe space. No one can silence students in art galleries or musical performances. We are being bombarded by negativity but we do not have to embrace it! Know your allies. ….. The worst thing is to feel alone. Make sure no one feels alone.
April 9, 2025 at 5:43 PM
amywb.bsky.social
Hey! You need a break. I can tell! Consider joining the super kind, fun, and interesting folks at VISWAUS!

Meet me in St. Louis for VISAWUS 2025: Gateways
October 3-5, 2025
Saint Louis University
Keynote Speaker: Kristin Mahoney, Michigan State University

Proposal deadline extended to March 31!
The Gwalior Gate, the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, 1886, RIBA Collections. SOURCE: Builder, vol. LI (1886 July 3), 16. An image in B&W of ornate Indian gate with women in Victorian dresses and a child wandering through.
March 4, 2025 at 11:17 PM
amywb.bsky.social
Hey #academicbsky, HOW DO WE TURN OFF COPILOT FOR MAC? This is driving me crazy after a recent update to 16.93.

There is an unchecked option box that says "Collapse Copilot summary automatically"—but nothing to tell Copilot to STOP DOING THE DAMN SUMMARY AT ALL!

#DisableCopilot
Copilot box in Preferences: there is an unchecked option box that says "Collapse Copilot summary automatically"—but nothing to tell Copilot to STOP DOING THE DAMN SUMMARY AT ALL!
February 10, 2025 at 8:09 PM
amywb.bsky.social
Reposting with alt text :)
When I was in college they taught me that capitalism means that there are capitalists, who own productive resources, like say factories, and they hire people to make stuff and then sell it. They can't pay their workers so much that they don't make a profit, but they have to pay them at least enough that they can afford to buy the stuff the factory produces. Feudalism, in contrast, is when you just take your profits directly by charging rent, fees and dues, turning people into debt peons, or otherwise shaking them down. Nowadays the vast majority of corporate profits don't come from making or selling things but from "finance," which is a euphemism for other peoples' debts-charging rents, fees, interest and whatnot. It's feudalism in the classic definition: "direct juro-political extraction" as they sometimes put it. - David Graeber
November 20, 2024 at 2:03 PM
amywb.bsky.social
Yay Billy Bragg is here! And yes yes yes re this piece by @roxanegay.bsky.social.

Sharing with alt text.
Mr. Trump's voters are granted a level of care and coddling that defies credulity and that is afforded to no other voting bloc. Many of them believe the most ludicrous things: babies being aborted after birth and children going to school as one gender and returning home surgically altered as another gender even though these things simply do not happen. Time and again, we hear the wild lies these voters believe and we act as if they are sharing the same reality as ours, as if they are making informed decisions about legitimate issues. We act as if they get to dictate the terms of political engagement on a foundation of fevered mendacity. We must refuse to participate in a mass delusion. We must refuse to accept that the ignorance on display is a congenital condition rather than a choice. All of us should refuse to pretend that any of this is normal and that these voters are just woefully misunderstood and that if only the Democrats addressed their economic anxiety, they might vote differently. While they are numerous, that does not make them right.
November 18, 2024 at 3:47 PM
amywb.bsky.social
OMG it happened…I texted myself
Screenshot of Democratic National Committee texting platform showing the BlueSky user sent a text…to herself
November 4, 2024 at 1:03 AM
amywb.bsky.social
If you’re wondering what the single best thing YOU can do to combat climate change…in the US *right now* you get to have an INCREDIBLE (as in *history-changing*) impact by VOTING for candidates who will address climate change (& acknowledge it’s real!)! So easy!! 😃
Imagine if hourglass that says “the clock is ticking” on the top and “vote for climate 2024” on the bottom. The image comes from youth4climate350.org
October 31, 2024 at 3:44 PM
amywb.bsky.social
It is incredible that the headlines in The NY Times and Washington Post are not that Trump praised Hitler or that his staff called him “fascist,” but that Harris did. How do you explain this?
Image of Trump at taller sigh Eric Hovde. (Headline above refers to Trump education policy.) Headline below image: “At CNN town hall, Harris concurs with assessment that Trump is a fascist.” Next headline: “Harris to hold star-studded rally in Georgia; Trump in Arizona, Nevada” Headlines from NY Times, Oct 24, 2024: “Harris calls Trump a Fascist: 6 Takeaways from her CNN Town Hall”; “Elon Musk Plots His Final Moves for Trump”; “12 Days to Go: Fries and Fascism”
October 24, 2024 at 12:53 PM
amywb.bsky.social
I just had the privilege of watching #Origin followed by a Q&A with Ava duVernay herself. It dramatizes the writing and argument of Isabel Wilkerson’s _Caste_. It is EXTRAORDINARY. Go see it! And all streaming services: you need to get this movie!
Marquee of Aero movie theater showing a double feature of Origin and Selma and a Q&A with writer/director Ava duVernay.
January 16, 2024 at 5:53 AM