Adam Grener
@adamgrener.bsky.social
English Literatures and Creative Communication Programme, Te Herenga Waka; curious about c19 and nonhuman worlds; co-director of dickensnotes.com
Reposted by Adam Grener
When I went to college a hundred years ago (2000-4), my school was actively recruiting humanities majors, w scholarships etc. Institutions incentivize areas of study in order to grow them. And they underfund them intentionally to strangle them. It’s not a random natural phenomenon.
one of the great, pernicious myths perpetrated about higher ed—which media, higher ed administrators, politicians, and a number of faculty are complicit in spreading—is that humanities departments close due to some combination of cratering student demand and unjustifiable cost. It’s not true
My humanities dept was relevant. Majors were up. Courses were 100% enrolled. Revenue positive, GE serving, etc etc. We were still eliminated.
The problem is ideological administrative destruction. Couldn’t write a report, a self study, or a spreadsheet against that.
The problem is ideological administrative destruction. Couldn’t write a report, a self study, or a spreadsheet against that.
December 16, 2025 at 12:56 AM
When I went to college a hundred years ago (2000-4), my school was actively recruiting humanities majors, w scholarships etc. Institutions incentivize areas of study in order to grow them. And they underfund them intentionally to strangle them. It’s not a random natural phenomenon.
Reposted by Adam Grener
My love for em dashes is as old as the hills and as mighty as my inability to make a transition between thoughts literally any other way and I will be damned if I let the clankers take that from me
December 10, 2025 at 3:00 AM
My love for em dashes is as old as the hills and as mighty as my inability to make a transition between thoughts literally any other way and I will be damned if I let the clankers take that from me
Reposted by Adam Grener
In the Great Expectations country last Sunday, how’s this for a Dickensian scene @dickensfellowhq.bsky.social
December 9, 2025 at 8:32 AM
In the Great Expectations country last Sunday, how’s this for a Dickensian scene @dickensfellowhq.bsky.social
Reposted by Adam Grener
For my book I thought a lot about this position, which really does rest on a presumption, nurtured by first world, usually male perspectives that have been shaped by habituation to empowerment, that for something to count as victory it has to be total & complete; anything else is “failure.” +
And the most important aspect of that study is: WHY DID THEY FAIL? If we lose sight of the overwhelming fact that *everything the Luddites did FAILED* we are missing the most important lessons we can learn. Anyone calling for a "neo-Luddite" movement may as well want a "neo-phlogiston" movement.
Luddites, frame-breakers, Captain Swing rioters, women amassing in Manchester streets to demand potatoes (e.g. 1812)— all these were organized countermovements to a gathering universal commodification, c. 1750-1840. For that reason they call out now for our closest & most sympathetic form of study
December 7, 2025 at 7:03 PM
For my book I thought a lot about this position, which really does rest on a presumption, nurtured by first world, usually male perspectives that have been shaped by habituation to empowerment, that for something to count as victory it has to be total & complete; anything else is “failure.” +
Reposted by Adam Grener
some days you just feel so lucky — this was one of them — i can’t believe i got the chance to share new work with such a generous, thoughtful audience — the very best version of academia — the whole conference was warm and sincere, a testament the kind of community-building nikki does 🤎
It’s the last day of Living / Building, our 2025 joint RSAA/DNS conference. Lots to come today, including @profchander.bsky.social’s keynote. but I’m taking a moment of calm & peace before all that
November 28, 2025 at 2:37 AM
some days you just feel so lucky — this was one of them — i can’t believe i got the chance to share new work with such a generous, thoughtful audience — the very best version of academia — the whole conference was warm and sincere, a testament the kind of community-building nikki does 🤎
Reposted by Adam Grener
“But the most absurd & preposterous of all… was one started by an unknown adventurer, entitled ‘A company for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is’”
—Charles Mackay (1814–1889) on the South Sea Bubble, in Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds
—Charles Mackay (1814–1889) on the South Sea Bubble, in Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds
What if the A.I. bubble “is an inevitable part of developing and adopting a revolutionary tool that will fundamentally improve productivity and growth?” Mohamed El-Erian writes.
Opinion | A.I. Is a Bubble. Maybe That’s OK.
Investors’ excitement rightly reflects the potential transformation of the entire economy.
nyti.ms
November 20, 2025 at 8:23 PM
“But the most absurd & preposterous of all… was one started by an unknown adventurer, entitled ‘A company for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is’”
—Charles Mackay (1814–1889) on the South Sea Bubble, in Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds
—Charles Mackay (1814–1889) on the South Sea Bubble, in Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds
Reposted by Adam Grener
Adjuncts, indie scholars, publishers, journal eds: please spread the word about this and help me do recon! It's so hard w/ social media being so fragmented to learn about all the great lit studies articles and books pub'd this year by contingent/indie folx. I know there's lots! Deadline: end of Nov.
It’s that time of year friends! Thanks to @erinbartram.bsky.social and our friends at @contingent-mag.bsky.social, Laura and I are putting together a list of 2025 articles & books by contingent & indie lit critters. DM, reply, email me @ suny press. And spread the word!!
We are at it again! Myself & the wonderful @rcolesworthy.bsky.social😍
Seeking pubs -- articles, book chapters, monographs -- by contingent lit scholars for the 2025 list 👇👇 please spread the word!!!
contingentmagazine.org/2024/12/08/2...
Seeking pubs -- articles, book chapters, monographs -- by contingent lit scholars for the 2025 list 👇👇 please spread the word!!!
contingentmagazine.org/2024/12/08/2...
November 19, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Adjuncts, indie scholars, publishers, journal eds: please spread the word about this and help me do recon! It's so hard w/ social media being so fragmented to learn about all the great lit studies articles and books pub'd this year by contingent/indie folx. I know there's lots! Deadline: end of Nov.
Reposted by Adam Grener
This - the Wheatley Census - has been at the center of my research life for the last year (and a half, honestly)! Proud to finally share the first iteration of it publicly. Take a look. Poke around. And send me your info about copies you work with!
Pleased to announce the Wheatley Census is ready for 1.0 public release! As detailed a census as possible (right now) of the first six editions - those printed in the 18th century - of Phillis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, is available here: www.wheatleycensus.org.
Wheatley Census
www.wheatleycensus.org
November 17, 2025 at 4:47 PM
This - the Wheatley Census - has been at the center of my research life for the last year (and a half, honestly)! Proud to finally share the first iteration of it publicly. Take a look. Poke around. And send me your info about copies you work with!
Reposted by Adam Grener
One of the biggest issues with the synthetic text extruding machines is that we have well-formed linguistic output with no accountability. Solution: OpenAI should be accountable for everything that comes out of ChatGPT, period. (And likewise for Google with Gemini, etc.)
New on the Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 newsletter: @deccamuldowney.bsky.social and I write about OpenAI's transparent attempt to shift accountability.
buttondown.com/maiht3k/arch...
buttondown.com/maiht3k/arch...
OpenAI Tries to Shift Responsibility to Users
OpenAI is trying to shift the blame for bad legal and medical advice from its chatbot away from the company and onto users. We agree that no chatbot should be used for medical or legal advice.
buttondown.com
November 13, 2025 at 4:36 PM
One of the biggest issues with the synthetic text extruding machines is that we have well-formed linguistic output with no accountability. Solution: OpenAI should be accountable for everything that comes out of ChatGPT, period. (And likewise for Google with Gemini, etc.)
Reposted by Adam Grener
Scholarship opportunity for MA with the wonderful @nikkihessell.bsky.social
We have MA scholarships available for theses on 18th-century/Romantic poetry and/or settler colonialism and Indigenous sovereignty in poetry and other literary forms ... details here!
www.wgtn.ac.nz/scholarships...
www.wgtn.ac.nz/scholarships...
MA scholarship in English | Scholarships | Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington
www.wgtn.ac.nz
November 12, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Scholarship opportunity for MA with the wonderful @nikkihessell.bsky.social
Reposted by Adam Grener
We have MA scholarships available for theses on 18th-century/Romantic poetry and/or settler colonialism and Indigenous sovereignty in poetry and other literary forms ... details here!
www.wgtn.ac.nz/scholarships...
www.wgtn.ac.nz/scholarships...
MA scholarship in English | Scholarships | Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington
www.wgtn.ac.nz
November 11, 2025 at 10:46 PM
We have MA scholarships available for theses on 18th-century/Romantic poetry and/or settler colonialism and Indigenous sovereignty in poetry and other literary forms ... details here!
www.wgtn.ac.nz/scholarships...
www.wgtn.ac.nz/scholarships...
Reposted by Adam Grener
Reposted by Adam Grener
I loved writing this for The Spinoff about Jane Austen’s terrible parents thespinoff.co.nz/books/25-10-...
Jane Austen’s terrible parents
'Would you want General Tilney to be your daddy?'
thespinoff.co.nz
October 24, 2025 at 6:39 PM
I loved writing this for The Spinoff about Jane Austen’s terrible parents thespinoff.co.nz/books/25-10-...
Reposted by Adam Grener
Okay, for the folks who asked: here's the majority AI view, writing up the reasonable, thoughtful view on AI that the vast majority of people in tech hold, that gets overshadowed by the bluster and hype of the tycoons trying to shill their nonsense. anildash.com/2025/10/17/t... Please share!
The Majority AI View - Anil Dash
A blog about making culture. Since 1999.
anildash.com
October 17, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Okay, for the folks who asked: here's the majority AI view, writing up the reasonable, thoughtful view on AI that the vast majority of people in tech hold, that gets overshadowed by the bluster and hype of the tycoons trying to shill their nonsense. anildash.com/2025/10/17/t... Please share!
Reposted by Adam Grener
cornell alums sign and share and fight and then some docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Alumni in Support of Cornell’s Independence, Democracy, and Academic Freedom
Please add your name below if you agree to be a signatory of the following message to be delivered to the Cornell Board of Trustees:
Dear Members of the Cornell Board of Trustees,
Ongoing attacks on A...
docs.google.com
October 7, 2025 at 9:56 PM
cornell alums sign and share and fight and then some docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Reposted by Adam Grener
We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.
October 1, 2025 at 2:38 PM
We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.
Reposted by Adam Grener
Luxon himself handed me the Prime Minister's science prize last year. Let me say this in plain English: he's an idiot for running a govt who budgeted more for AI than for the Marsden fund. any journo reading this can quote me on it #nzpol
September 18, 2025 at 7:03 AM
Luxon himself handed me the Prime Minister's science prize last year. Let me say this in plain English: he's an idiot for running a govt who budgeted more for AI than for the Marsden fund. any journo reading this can quote me on it #nzpol
Collaborate, share & organize
Today I spend 90 min. chatting with four fellow scholars who I feel strong solidarity with about an amorphous project.
I did not record this conversation.
While I know none of us have enough time to really do this on the regular, this whole HigherEd thing can’t survive if we don’t.
I did not record this conversation.
While I know none of us have enough time to really do this on the regular, this whole HigherEd thing can’t survive if we don’t.
September 5, 2025 at 9:57 AM
Collaborate, share & organize
Reposted by Adam Grener
Did you publish a book in 2025/2024? Are you attending NAVSA this November? Do you want to celebrate your book? If so, fill out this form: docs.google.com/forms/d/1tJH...
NAVSA Book Party!!
To celebrate books published in 2025/2024 at the 2025 NAVSA conference. If you are an author who published a book and want to celebrate it, fill out this form. Please share with other authors attendin...
docs.google.com
September 4, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Did you publish a book in 2025/2024? Are you attending NAVSA this November? Do you want to celebrate your book? If so, fill out this form: docs.google.com/forms/d/1tJH...
Reposted by Adam Grener
There’s an enormous amount of stuff in this book I’d like to highlight, but start with:
“What emerges as the most elementary insight is that, since we do not now have any ways of making computers wise, we ought not now to give computers tasks that demand wisdom.”
“What emerges as the most elementary insight is that, since we do not now have any ways of making computers wise, we ought not now to give computers tasks that demand wisdom.”
August 28, 2025 at 10:34 PM
There’s an enormous amount of stuff in this book I’d like to highlight, but start with:
“What emerges as the most elementary insight is that, since we do not now have any ways of making computers wise, we ought not now to give computers tasks that demand wisdom.”
“What emerges as the most elementary insight is that, since we do not now have any ways of making computers wise, we ought not now to give computers tasks that demand wisdom.”
Reposted by Adam Grener
for real and for true, the RISE OF CELEBRITY AUTHORSHIP is out!! The code CUP20 will get you 20% through the Columbia University Press website; let me know if you are dying to read it but need a presentation copy from the author, who is very excited about it------!!
cup.columbia.edu/book/the-ris...
cup.columbia.edu/book/the-ris...
The Rise of Celebrity Authorship | Columbia University Press
Literary celebrity in the nineteenth century emerged from a miscellaneous array of trending print forms, including antislavery writing, which was a popular, ... | CUP
cup.columbia.edu
August 28, 2025 at 8:59 PM
for real and for true, the RISE OF CELEBRITY AUTHORSHIP is out!! The code CUP20 will get you 20% through the Columbia University Press website; let me know if you are dying to read it but need a presentation copy from the author, who is very excited about it------!!
cup.columbia.edu/book/the-ris...
cup.columbia.edu/book/the-ris...
Reposted by Adam Grener
