Eric D. de Roulet (should be writing)
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ericderoulet.bsky.social
Eric D. de Roulet (should be writing)
@ericderoulet.bsky.social
280 followers 400 following 230 posts
Interdisciplinary PhD candidate. Hopefully not a permanent condition.

I research migration, international higher edu., Qing/modern Chinese/Taiwanese intellectual history, and more. Keeper of cats.

https://ericderoulet.scholar.st/

無論什麼時代都在心裡喊叫。
Posts Replies Media Videos
ericderoulet.bsky.social
Once again,
Screenshot of a Bluesky post by user Pumpkin spice horchata: "Upsetting ProPublica article" is a Homeric epithet, like "swift-footed Achilles" or "wine-dark sea" or "assless chaps"
November 18, 2025 at 7:39 PM
ericderoulet.bsky.social
I mean it's all upsetting, but:
Screenshot of a Bluesky post saying: "Upsetting ProPublica article" is a Homeric epithet, like "swift-footed Achilles" or "wine-dark sea' or "assless chaps"
October 16, 2025 at 5:54 PM
ericderoulet.bsky.social
Nicely stated:
Opener from Timothy Snider's piece "Gaza and Protest: Why freedom of speech matters": Today the president is taking credit for a cease-fire in Gaza. But who, in America, was first in calling for that exact thing? Students on campuses. And what happened to them? They were banned from their own public spaces, all over the country. So the president should be thanking them for their foresight. And he and all of his supporters should naturally be calling for campus bans on public assembly to be lifted. I would be very happy to hear such voices! But I fear we won’t.
October 14, 2025 at 12:14 AM
ericderoulet.bsky.social
One of my favorite comedic forms, as seen in @zeteo.com

zeteo.com/p/trump-hegs...
Excerpt from the linked article: So far, the effort to intimidate leakers is not going well. Inside the government, staffers and leakers have responded to the crackdown with defiance, three Defense Department staffers and two other sources familiar with the situation tell Zeteo. Put another way, those staffers and sources were immediately compelled to leak their thoughts and other details to a media outlet.
October 8, 2025 at 2:23 AM
ericderoulet.bsky.social
Oh, and they're seeking a PhD student for the Sinofantasy project as well.
A PhD candidate posting for the same research project (see previous post): PhD Candidate (m/f/d) <2 Wochen Teilzeit Ausbildung The Department of Chinese Studies is looking for a PhD Candidate (m/f/d) Bewerbungsfrist: 21. Oktober 2025 Veröffentlichungsdatum: 5. September 2025 Eintrittstermin: 1. Januar 2026 Arbeitsumfang: Part-time position (60 %) Kennziffer: 00004514 Beschreibung Subproject: “SINOFANTASY – Escapism in contemporary Chinese fantasy fiction” The ERC-funded project SINOFANTASY (Starting Grant #101220119, PI Jun.-Prof. Dr. Jessica Imbach) investigates the rise and impact of contemporary Chinese fantasy fiction,
October 3, 2025 at 4:05 AM
ericderoulet.bsky.social
This is easily the coolest postdoc posting I've seen in a while, but it's a bit outside my wheelhouse and my dissertation timeline. The University ot Freiburg (universität-freiburg) is seeking a researcher on contemporary Chinese fantasy fiction and then some.

uni-freiburg.de/stellenangeb...
Screencap of a post-doc job ad (for a German university, but they're taking applications in English): Postdoctoral Researcher (m/f/d) The Department of Chinese Studies is looking for a Postdoctoral Researcher (m/f/d) Bewerbungsfrist: 21 October 2025 Eintrittstermin: 01. Januar 2026 Arbeitsumfang: Part-time position (70 %) Subproject: “SINOFANTASY – Fantasy fiction across the Chinese mediasphere (platforms, creative labor, fandom, participatory culture, transmediality)”
October 3, 2025 at 4:00 AM
ericderoulet.bsky.social
Presented without further comment.
Article headline and briefer in SCMP, above images of a person cooking and of a bag of cat food: Frugal China PhD student in Switzerland lives on cheap meals, gets protein from cat food Thrifty student bemoans high cost of living in country of study, claims eating pet food mixed with peanuts has left him with luscious locks
September 27, 2025 at 4:28 PM
ericderoulet.bsky.social
I must say this bit feels a bit rich, given all the ink spilled by State-side nat-sec institutes over technology transfers and such.
Excerpt from the article quoted in the original post: Beijing had expressed concern about a U.S.-controlled entity using technology that TikTok’s parent developed in China, in particular the algorithm that decides which videos to recommend.
September 16, 2025 at 7:26 PM
ericderoulet.bsky.social
Encountered in Vancouver: brand new (well, to me) way to describe gulab jamun.
Dessert section of a Nepali restaurant's menu, featuring gulab jamun described as a "Nepali Timbit"
September 13, 2025 at 11:33 PM
ericderoulet.bsky.social
Going from a PhD (and possibly one or two post-docs) to tenure-track is still treated as the default, as I've seen and heard, yet the odds were stacked against us before many of us ever got started.
Excerpt from the article linked in the original post: Reality and the Data to Back It Up Over the last few decades, the landscape of career options for Ph.D.s—no matter the discipline—has changed quite dramatically. For much of the 20th century, most Ph.D. recipients both expected and went mainly into tenure-track faculty roles in academia. In the latter half of the century, though, for a variety of complex reasons spanning better economic prospects, globalization and more, the numbers of doctoral recipients increased greatly; from 1958 to 1998, the number of doctoral recipients in the States quintupled.
August 27, 2025 at 5:20 PM
ericderoulet.bsky.social
The US leadership's contempt for the humanities drips into everything, unceasingly.
MEC: Thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions, Matt. Can you tell #AsiaNow readers what you’re working on, or thinking about, next? MHS: Thank you, it has been a pleasure! I have been on sabbatical this past year (2024-25), funded in part by an NEH grant that was terminated on April 3rd by the Trump administration. I’ve been trying to finish a book that I’ve been working on in the background for the past 30 years: its working title is Male Same-Sex Relations and Masculinity in Qing Dynasty China.
August 27, 2025 at 4:59 PM
ericderoulet.bsky.social
The more things change, the more they etc., etc.
Another excerpt: Broadly speaking, there are two main ways that societies have approached the phenomenon of transgender: demonization and sacralization. We find both paradigms in Qing dynasty China. Demonization is exemplified by the approach of Qing law, which could imagine only one plausible reason “for a male to masquerade in female attire”: namely, to insinuate himself into female space in order to seduce or rape the “chaste wives and daughters” cloistered therein. This scenario bears close resemblance to the paranoid fantasy so common in transphobic circles today, that transwomen in particular are dangerous male predators in disguise who seek to penetrate female space (women’s restrooms, sports teams, etc.) for some nefarious purpose.
August 27, 2025 at 4:55 PM
ericderoulet.bsky.social
I especially liked this reminder that there's a distinction to be made between a country's governance model (democratic republic, absolute monarchy, whatever) and the reach of its governance.
Excerpt from the interview: As readers of my other books know, I am deeply skeptical about the reach of the imperial state and about the extent to which elite ideology and lifestyle had any purchase on ordinary people. The vast majority of people in Qing dynasty China were illiterate peasants engaged in subsistence family farming who rarely if ever encountered officials or any other members of the elite.
August 27, 2025 at 4:53 PM
ericderoulet.bsky.social
It's pretty incredible to me that the AHA's statement on using generative AI in education rather decisively notes this fundamental problem with the technology, but nonetheless goes on to say that generative AI "can be a valuable partner in the classroom."
An excerpted subheading from the AHA statement on the use of generative AI in education: II. Generative AI and Its Limitations AI produces texts, images, audio, and video, not truths.
August 6, 2025 at 4:15 PM
ericderoulet.bsky.social
A little louder for those in the back:
A few list items from the AAUP's statement on AI™ deployment at universities: 2. Implementing Shared Governance Policies to Promote Oversight AI integration initiatives are spearheaded by administrations with little input from faculty members and other campus community members, including staff and students. High levels of concern arose around AI and technology procurement, deployment, and use; dehumanized relations; and poor working and learning conditions. 3. Improving Working and Learning Conditions Preexisting work intensification and devaluation are the main reasons respondents give for using AI to assist with academic tasks. Implementing AI in higher education adds to faculty and staff workloads and exacerbates long-standing inequities. List items not pictured here include uncritical adoption of the technology, underappreciated biases built into LLMs, and a lack of professional development opportunities for those who need to understand AI™ for their work.
July 22, 2025 at 3:37 PM
ericderoulet.bsky.social
The Siege of Gondor, Part I: Professionals Talk Logistics
Title page of the blog post "The Siege of Gondor, Part I: Professionals Talk Logistics" by Bret Devereaux (@bretdevereaux.bsky.social) on his blog A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry (ACOUP).
July 4, 2025 at 1:09 AM
ericderoulet.bsky.social
Screencap from The Good Place in which Jianyu (i.e., Jason Mendoza) is leaning against an Ariana Grande poster saying "Oh Ariana, we're really in it now," but 'Ariana' has been swapped with 'Edward' and a photo of Edward Said has been shopped over the original poster.
June 25, 2025 at 2:58 PM
ericderoulet.bsky.social
Had already caught a whiff of back-of-the-cigarette-packet anti-smoking ad aesthetics from the first poster, and yes, those aesthetics are very much being mobilized against AI™ here.
Another poster in the style of the first (see original post), but this emphasizes the colonially exploitative features of the "AI" industry. A third poster of the same sort, but depicting a diseased-looking brain and warning that "AI" causes brain rot.
June 5, 2025 at 11:55 PM
ericderoulet.bsky.social
Found on campus on convocation day.
A poster taped to a brick wall: WARNING: Artificial-Intelligence worsens wildfires You CAN Quit. We Can Help. internetashes.ca/gopromptfree Background picture is a photo of the wildfire that broke out in West Kelowna, BC, Canada in 2023. [There's also a QR code in the image for interested parties.]
June 5, 2025 at 10:37 PM
ericderoulet.bsky.social
Again, he packed well for his travels. I also kinda dig the robe. (Sorry, picture quality not great due to glare.)

@dieworkwear.bsky.social Rate Hu Shih's fit if you want
May 22, 2025 at 10:30 AM
ericderoulet.bsky.social
This was basically the same thing as a baby Aspirin, right
A half-full glass flask of brandy leaned against its leather carrying pouch, all of this inside a museum display case. The placard notes that this was Hu Shih's remedy in case of a heart attack.
May 22, 2025 at 10:28 AM
ericderoulet.bsky.social
Looking forward to translating/finding a translation of this letter and seeing what sorts of advice people offered for a trip from China to the UK in the 1920s.
Dated January 8, 1920, a letter (in Chinese) from student Fu Ssu-nien to Professor Hu Shih offering travel advice for a trip to England.
May 22, 2025 at 10:26 AM
ericderoulet.bsky.social
The man was well-traveled and well-equipped for travel.
A museum glass box display of Hu Shih's toiletries, including a very large brush(?) with a circular head, in a large suitcase.
May 22, 2025 at 10:22 AM
ericderoulet.bsky.social
Got to visit the Hu Shih Memorial Hall 胡適紀念館 and the nearby memorial park today.
The Hu Shih Memorial Hall, asingle-story complex of buildings with two-sloped roofs, orange-ish brick and white and blue facades, half-hodden behind trees. One building elsewhere in the complex (not pictured) was Hu Shih's residence in Taipei for four or so years (as I recall from my visit today). A memorial bust statue of Hu Shih 胡適 at the top of a flight of stone stairs, surrounded by subtropical trees and other plants.
May 22, 2025 at 10:20 AM
ericderoulet.bsky.social
Coffee lab. A crucial find.
The storefront, seen from the outside, of Academia Sinica 中央研究院's local coffee shop—or rather, coffee institute (咖t啡所).
May 20, 2025 at 8:17 AM