Author | Lightnews

Whitney Trettien @whitneytrettien.bsky.social · 8h

the way all anniversaries should be celebrated in Philly

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Whitney Trettien @whitneytrettien.bsky.social · 9h

Congratulations, Laura!

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Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 1d

Really exciting book news out of Norway. And while the article focusses on the sealskin binding, I'm even more excited by the fact that these neumes are not square, which suggests a date well before 1200.

Judith Jesch @judithjesch.bsky.social · 1d

www.sciencenorway.no/cultural-his...

Eight pages bound in furry seal skin may be Norway's oldest book

The little book is so rare that the National Library of Norway is bringing in experts from around the world to learn more.

www.sciencenorway.no

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The Price Lab @pricelab.bsky.social · 1d

For Penn undergrads with a nascent interest in DH, J.D. Porter’s spring course offers a practical introduction to computational methods for humanities research. No prior programming knowledge is required! More info on Path@Penn.

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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 1d

Added this mind-boggling slide from Chris’s research to the episode homepage.

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Rare Book School @rarebookschool.bsky.social · 20d

Do you work at a small U.S. liberal arts college or at a university with 5,000 or fewer undergrads? If so, check out Rare Book School’s 𝗠. 𝗖. 𝗟𝗮𝗻𝗴 𝗙𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗶𝗻 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆, 𝗕𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝘆, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀!

Application deadline: 𝟳 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱

rarebookschool.org

A vertically oriented graphic shows a photo of a smiling woman in glasses and a blue RBS apron with her hands lifted high as she claps in celebration. A blue bar extending horizontally below her reads, in white text, “The M. C. Lang Fellowship in Book History, Bibliography & Humanities Teaching with Historical Sources.” This is flanked by white text against black reading: “Apply Now! Learn more about this and other RBS funding opportunities at rarebookschool.org.” The right third of the graphic has black and red text against a white background, reading, “A two-year program for faculty, librarians & curators at U.S. liberal arts colleges & small universities. Equips instructors with bibliographically informed teaching methods using original historical sources. Includes two Rare Book School courses, an annual stipend for travel & housing & matching funds for book-historical projects at fellows’ home institutions. Application Deadline: 7 December 2025.”

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Whitney Trettien @whitneytrettien.bsky.social · 4d

A spooky listen, full of higher ed ghosts ‘n’ ghouls.. but also rich with fresh ideas & possibility for the humanities. Thanks to @mattseybold.bsky.social for having me on & @cnewf.bsky.social for his vision!

Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 4d

The 100th episode of American Vandal. Launching the 12th season. Live at UPenn English Faculty Lounge with @cnewf.bsky.social, @whitneytrettien.bsky.social, & an incredible assembly of faculty, students, visiting scholars, & friends of the pod.

Criticism & The Chatbot Bubble (Vandal Live at UPenn English)

with Christopher Newfield & Whitney Trettien

theamericanvandal.substack.com

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Whitney Trettien @whitneytrettien.bsky.social · 6d

Good shout, will post on our class site!

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Whitney Trettien @whitneytrettien.bsky.social · 6d

Absolutely! Totally reveals the workings of the system.

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Whitney Trettien @whitneytrettien.bsky.social · 6d

My "Intro to DH" students are working through the various ways to model a book digitally. One student tried using GPT to HTR a manuscript from 1750. They discovered that many words in the output text were silently replaced with synonyms -- like "kid" for "child."

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Martine van Elk @martinevanelk.bsky.social · 8d

Today on the blog: a magnificent find by @franceswolfreston.bsky.social of a book that the poet Katherine Philips gave to Mary Jeffreys; a discussion with important scholarly implications for the study of Philips earlymodernfemalebookownership.wordpress.com/2025/10/27/h... #EarlyModern #HerBook

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Colleen [Redacted] @librarycolleen.bsky.social · 9d

These "Teaching the Codex" blog posts introducing collation formulas from Dr. Sian Witherden @sianwitherden.bsky.social
have particularly good illustrations that make it clear for students learning about it for the first time. 📜
teachingthecodex.com/author/teach...

Teaching the Codex

Teaching the Codex is an interdisciplinary project on the teaching of palaeography and codicology.

teachingthecodex.com

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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 10d

That very MUNDANE action that you don't take because you are too busy fantasizing about being a superhero instead would actually DO something for someone. Your fantasy does not.

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Yvonne Seale @yvonneseale.bsky.social · 11d

A neat tool I just came across: Viabundus, a digital road map of northern Europe 1350-1650, that lets you calculate contemporary travel routes/times. In 1500, going Amiens → Köln by horse took almost 7 days and 13 toll payments.

#medievalsky

www.landesgeschichte.uni-goettingen.de/handelsstras...

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The Price Lab @pricelab.bsky.social · 22d

History PhD candidate & Summer Mellon Fellow Eleanor Webb joined Prof Emily Steiner’s inter-disciplinary team to help bring a 15th-cent genealogical roll held by @freelibrary.bsky.social online. Created circa 1461-1464, the roll is 15 ft long and consists of 11 sewn parchment membranes.

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Whitney Trettien @whitneytrettien.bsky.social · 11d

because for decades the NAEL was the premier EdTech platform standardizing classroom content delivery and its control/power has been been supplanted (also being, only a little, facetious)

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Heather Froehlich @heatherfro.bsky.social · Oct 2

ITHAKA S&R has started a Generative AI Licensing Agreement Tracker sr.ithaka.org/our-work/gen...

Generative AI Licensing Agreement Tracker - Ithaka S+R

In recent months, several publishers have announced that they are licensing their scholarly content for use as training data for LLMs. These deals

sr.ithaka.org

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Whitney Trettien @whitneytrettien.bsky.social · 11d

No. No! We need to talk more about this.

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Amanda Wyatt! Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · 22d

I started the DH Slack 10 years ago today 🎉 3.8k legit DHer/DH-interested folks joined; we became a regular venue for asking questions & sharing opportunities+research; usually have several hundred folks active/week (more during DH conferences); 160k+ posts. Anyone curious about DH can join:

Digital Humanities Slack!

tinyurl.com

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Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · Dec 6

And round and round it goes, volvelle-style. This #earlymodern broadsheet is deeply engaged with contemporary topics of the #ThirtyYearsWar. Eight perspectives on one page, a complex story to enfold for the audiences. A volvelle does the trick.

A 🧵 for #bookhistory experts, and #skystorians 🗃️

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Whitney Trettien @whitneytrettien.bsky.social · 11d

I would be willing to put a lot of money on the fact that “AI” didn’t do this at all. Human error. Because microworkers do much of this “automated detection.”

Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 11d

“An artificial intelligence system apparently mistook a high school student’s bag of Doritos for a firearm and called local police to tell them the pupil was armed.”

US student handcuffed after AI system apparently mistook bag of chips for firearm

Baltimore county high schools have gun detection system that alerts police if it sees what it deems suspicious

www.theguardian.com

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Whitney Trettien @whitneytrettien.bsky.social · 12d

Ugh, I’m so sorry Amanda. Our institutions are cowardly and enraging.

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Ryan Heuser @heuser.bsky.social · 22d

Excited to share my latest publication, "Generative Aesthetics: On formal stuckness in AI verse." It's published in a special issue in the Journal of Cultural Analytics, expertly edited by Tess McNulty and Laura Chapot, on "Computation and Form, Reconsidered."
culturalanalytics.org/article/1448...

Generative Aesthetics: On formal stuckness in AI verse | Published in Journal of Cultural Analytics

By Ryan Heuser. This paper examines the formal and aesthetic patterns of AI-generated poems through a series of computational experiments.

culturalanalytics.org

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The Price Lab @pricelab.bsky.social · 18d

For those local to Philly: next Wed., 10/22, our faculty director @whitneytrettien.bsky.social will join @mattseybold.bsky.social and Christopher Newfield to tape an episode of The American Vandal podcast. Join the live audience! 5-7pm in UPenn's Fisher Bennett Hall, room 135.

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Melanie Walsh @mellymeldubs.bsky.social · Oct 2

I made a lil game inspired by the Wordle universe. It's called Versedle (pronounced Verse-a-dle). You guess who wrote famous lines of literature.

As my parents can attest, it's hard! I made them an Easy Mode, but it's still kinda hard. Maybe you'll like it!

▶️ 📚: melaniewalsh.github.io/versedle/

VERSEDLE

Test your literary knowledge with Versedle!

melaniewalsh.github.io

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