Teddy Roland
@teddyroland.bsky.social
Postdoc @ School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. American Literature, Media Theory, Data Science. I publish under "Edwin Roland" but don't tell anyone.
aaarg. I need an urgent deadline to distract me from these longstanding obligations on my desk
November 14, 2025 at 7:15 PM
aaarg. I need an urgent deadline to distract me from these longstanding obligations on my desk
Reposted by Teddy Roland
14 Nov 2025
November 14, 2025 at 6:19 PM
14 Nov 2025
a campus reading group is discussing a recent Dave Eggars novel. I'd say that his reputation is being rehabilitated, but it might be more accurate to say it's being "habilitated" at all??
November 14, 2025 at 4:16 PM
a campus reading group is discussing a recent Dave Eggars novel. I'd say that his reputation is being rehabilitated, but it might be more accurate to say it's being "habilitated" at all??
The twin pressures of federal cuts to research funds and reduced state appropriations for unis are ending the recent decline in tuition costs
The good news? College tuition has been going down. The bad news? It’s about to rise again
College students nationwide are facing increases in tuition this fall of as much as 10 percent, along with new fees and rising costs for dorms and dining plans, after a stretch when tuition had been f...
hechingerreport.org
November 12, 2025 at 5:10 PM
The twin pressures of federal cuts to research funds and reduced state appropriations for unis are ending the recent decline in tuition costs
Fast Fashion: We make disposable products for mindless consumption
AI Slop: Hold my beer
AI Slop: Hold my beer
Walmart: Women’s Off-Shoulder Mini-Dress
Designed from market trends by AI??
www.walmart.com/ip/No-Bounda...
Designed from market trends by AI??
www.walmart.com/ip/No-Bounda...
Robot or human?
www.walmart.com
November 12, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Fast Fashion: We make disposable products for mindless consumption
AI Slop: Hold my beer
AI Slop: Hold my beer
Walmart: Women’s Off-Shoulder Mini-Dress
Designed from market trends by AI??
www.walmart.com/ip/No-Bounda...
Designed from market trends by AI??
www.walmart.com/ip/No-Bounda...
Robot or human?
www.walmart.com
November 12, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Walmart: Women’s Off-Shoulder Mini-Dress
Designed from market trends by AI??
www.walmart.com/ip/No-Bounda...
Designed from market trends by AI??
www.walmart.com/ip/No-Bounda...
Reposted by Teddy Roland
Great news! This is out: Opening the black box of EEBO academic.oup.com/dsh/advance-...
Opening the black box of EEBO
Abstract. Digital archives that cover extended historical periods can create a misleading impression of comprehensiveness while in truth providing access t
academic.oup.com
November 9, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Great news! This is out: Opening the black box of EEBO academic.oup.com/dsh/advance-...
Reposted by Teddy Roland
It’s very much a prototype but I have to share a preview of the interface @djevans.bsky.social is working on for our Viral Texts data—it maps reprinting data back onto the newspaper page, allowing users to browse what reprints appeared together on each page—with links back to full reprint clusters
November 7, 2025 at 4:49 PM
It’s very much a prototype but I have to share a preview of the interface @djevans.bsky.social is working on for our Viral Texts data—it maps reprinting data back onto the newspaper page, allowing users to browse what reprints appeared together on each page—with links back to full reprint clusters
I have been encouraging students to use (and disclose) generative AI for their assignments. Those not using AI have produced stronger responses until this task: "Brainstorm two distinct titles for your project and describe the audiences they wld appeal to respectively."
It's what GPTs are made for!
It's what GPTs are made for!
November 6, 2025 at 9:46 PM
I have been encouraging students to use (and disclose) generative AI for their assignments. Those not using AI have produced stronger responses until this task: "Brainstorm two distinct titles for your project and describe the audiences they wld appeal to respectively."
It's what GPTs are made for!
It's what GPTs are made for!
Reposted by Teddy Roland
Job alert!
@ischoolui.bsky.social is hiring in 4 areas this year
Early literacies: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...
Information behavior/HCI/UX: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...
Information, Culture & Society: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...
Open IS: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...
@ischoolui.bsky.social is hiring in 4 areas this year
Early literacies: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...
Information behavior/HCI/UX: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...
Information, Culture & Society: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...
Open IS: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...
November 6, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Job alert!
@ischoolui.bsky.social is hiring in 4 areas this year
Early literacies: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...
Information behavior/HCI/UX: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...
Information, Culture & Society: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...
Open IS: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...
@ischoolui.bsky.social is hiring in 4 areas this year
Early literacies: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...
Information behavior/HCI/UX: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...
Information, Culture & Society: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...
Open IS: illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...
Reposted by Teddy Roland
What happens when we model the detective archetype at scale? 🕵️♂️📚
Our new paper, accepted for #CHR2025 combines literary history and computational modeling to trace how the figure of the detective evolves across 150 years of French fiction.
arxiv.org/pdf/2511.00627
Our new paper, accepted for #CHR2025 combines literary history and computational modeling to trace how the figure of the detective evolves across 150 years of French fiction.
arxiv.org/pdf/2511.00627
November 4, 2025 at 5:36 PM
What happens when we model the detective archetype at scale? 🕵️♂️📚
Our new paper, accepted for #CHR2025 combines literary history and computational modeling to trace how the figure of the detective evolves across 150 years of French fiction.
arxiv.org/pdf/2511.00627
Our new paper, accepted for #CHR2025 combines literary history and computational modeling to trace how the figure of the detective evolves across 150 years of French fiction.
arxiv.org/pdf/2511.00627
“But I do feel confident that the strategic move is not to hope AI never learns to solve our problems, but to demonstrate that we are the ones who can teach it how. And then to invent new, more difficult problems to solve together.”
An invigorating vision!
An invigorating vision!
Wrote a short piece arguing that higher ed must help steer AI. TLDR: If we outsource this to tech, we outsource our whole business. But rejectionism is basically stalling. If we want to survive, schools themselves must proactively shape AI for education & research. [1/6, unpaywalled at 5/6] +
Opinion | AI Is the Future. Higher Ed Should Shape It.
If we want to stay at the forefront of knowledge production, we must fit technology to our needs.
www.chronicle.com
November 5, 2025 at 4:09 PM
“But I do feel confident that the strategic move is not to hope AI never learns to solve our problems, but to demonstrate that we are the ones who can teach it how. And then to invent new, more difficult problems to solve together.”
An invigorating vision!
An invigorating vision!
Reposted by Teddy Roland
Job alert: the University of Illinois Library is hiring a Humanities Librarian to serve as liaison to African-American Studies and English Literatures. I’m sure someone here would be a great fit for this job—& we’ve got a pretty phenomenal community here
Please share!
Please share!
Humanities Librarian - (African American Studies and English Literature)
Duties & Responsibilities
illinois.csod.com
November 3, 2025 at 11:01 PM
Job alert: the University of Illinois Library is hiring a Humanities Librarian to serve as liaison to African-American Studies and English Literatures. I’m sure someone here would be a great fit for this job—& we’ve got a pretty phenomenal community here
Please share!
Please share!
Finished slides a full hour before class and am now wandering bewildered from room to room
October 30, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Finished slides a full hour before class and am now wandering bewildered from room to room
Reposted by Teddy Roland
As DH grows, it’s increasingly important to publish conference papers, but there hasn’t been a clear venue for that.
So I’m thrilled to share this new home for DH proceedings, which will include CHR papers & more.
Thanks to @taylor-arnold.bsky.social for leading this effort!
bit.ly/ach-anthology
So I’m thrilled to share this new home for DH proceedings, which will include CHR papers & more.
Thanks to @taylor-arnold.bsky.social for leading this effort!
bit.ly/ach-anthology
October 29, 2025 at 3:39 PM
As DH grows, it’s increasingly important to publish conference papers, but there hasn’t been a clear venue for that.
So I’m thrilled to share this new home for DH proceedings, which will include CHR papers & more.
Thanks to @taylor-arnold.bsky.social for leading this effort!
bit.ly/ach-anthology
So I’m thrilled to share this new home for DH proceedings, which will include CHR papers & more.
Thanks to @taylor-arnold.bsky.social for leading this effort!
bit.ly/ach-anthology
Reposted by Teddy Roland
A coalition of seven charitable organizations led by the Mellon Foundation plans to award at least $50 million to nonprofit literary organizations over the next five years through the Literary Arts Fund, a new initiative headed up by Jennifer Benka.
New Fund to Grant $50 Million to Literary Arts Orgs
A coalition of seven charitable organizations led by the Mellon Foundation plans to award at least $50 million to nonprofit literary organizations over the next five years through the Literary Arts…
buff.ly
October 28, 2025 at 7:01 PM
A coalition of seven charitable organizations led by the Mellon Foundation plans to award at least $50 million to nonprofit literary organizations over the next five years through the Literary Arts Fund, a new initiative headed up by Jennifer Benka.
Every clause in this (on AI science) !!! 👇👇
It’s also a resource allocation problem: deciding what matters, which hypotheses to test, and which results to trust.
Automation can produce knowledge, but meaning comes from human judgment.
Automation can produce knowledge, but meaning comes from human judgment.
October 23, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Every clause in this (on AI science) !!! 👇👇
Reposted by Teddy Roland
Wow. This is the paper I have been waiting for. Mobile apps are brain rot, with meaningfully bad economic consequences for those who overuse them.
Recently accepted by #QJE, “Digital Distractions with Peer Influence: The Impact of Mobile App Usage on Academic and Labor Market Outcomes,” by Barwick, Chen, Fu, and Li: doi.org/10.1093/qje/...
Digital Distractions with Peer Influence: The Impact of Mobile App Usage on Academic and Labor Market Outcomes*
Abstract. Concerns about excessive mobile phone use among youth are mounting. We present estimates of both behavioral and contextual peer effects, along wi
doi.org
October 17, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Wow. This is the paper I have been waiting for. Mobile apps are brain rot, with meaningfully bad economic consequences for those who overuse them.
Tonight only!! For the heavyweight title: Stylometry vs Topic Modeling.
Will style beat out content? Can they ever be delineated? Find out here and on pay-per-view.
Will style beat out content? Can they ever be delineated? Find out here and on pay-per-view.
Someone in computational humanities needs to write a paper about the premise of style/content separation. We've got whole subfields (like "stylometry") that seem to promise you can achieve it, and my sense is that there's a lot of quiet skepticism that hasn't crystallized in explicit statement. +
October 23, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Tonight only!! For the heavyweight title: Stylometry vs Topic Modeling.
Will style beat out content? Can they ever be delineated? Find out here and on pay-per-view.
Will style beat out content? Can they ever be delineated? Find out here and on pay-per-view.
Pleased to report that class was basically uninterrupted by the Canvas outage. That’s all.
October 21, 2025 at 8:39 PM
Pleased to report that class was basically uninterrupted by the Canvas outage. That’s all.
Every time you find a typo in your dissertation, take a drink!
October 20, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Every time you find a typo in your dissertation, take a drink!
Metadata is the ideological formation that happens when you conceive data relationally
October 16, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Metadata is the ideological formation that happens when you conceive data relationally
Reposted by Teddy Roland
In ways that we haven't fully internalized, LLM discourse is reanimating key features of 2004ish Wikipedia discourse.
Wow. Just wow.
"Students pay premium prices for information that AI now delivers instantly and for free. A business student can ask ChatGPT to explain supply chain optimization or generate market analysis in seconds. The traditional lecture-and-test model faces its Blockbuster moment."
"Students pay premium prices for information that AI now delivers instantly and for free. A business student can ask ChatGPT to explain supply chain optimization or generate market analysis in seconds. The traditional lecture-and-test model faces its Blockbuster moment."
When Knowledge is Free, What are Professors For?
Higher Education Must Stop Competing with AI on Information and Start Teaching What Machines Can’t Do
www.forbes.com
October 16, 2025 at 4:56 AM
In ways that we haven't fully internalized, LLM discourse is reanimating key features of 2004ish Wikipedia discourse.
More like Iowa Writers' Workslop amiright
October 14, 2025 at 5:40 PM
More like Iowa Writers' Workslop amiright
Reposted by Teddy Roland
DH as critical praxis and worldbuilding with @laurenfklein.bsky.social and @roopikarisam.bsky.social. An intellectual-pedagogical-feminist dream symposia come true through, hosted through my Critical Data Lab at UCLA Data X. datax.ucla.edu/news-events/...
October 13, 2025 at 10:14 PM
DH as critical praxis and worldbuilding with @laurenfklein.bsky.social and @roopikarisam.bsky.social. An intellectual-pedagogical-feminist dream symposia come true through, hosted through my Critical Data Lab at UCLA Data X. datax.ucla.edu/news-events/...