Jonathan
@jsench.bsky.social
Assoc Prof of Book History UWMadison. Dir., Center for History of Print & Digital Culture. Author: Intimacy of Paper @UMassPress. Summers @CalRBS. Assoc Editor @ PBSA. 4:56 marathoner. Mediocre triathlete. Episcopal. Little League ⚾️ coach. #BillsMafia 🦬 ♾️
Pinned
Jonathan
@jsench.bsky.social
· Nov 11
Hello bluesky! I am a book historian trained in literature (early&c19 American) who’s worked in a library/info studies dept for 13 years. I wrote a book abt what rag paper makes present & how writers thought abt that from 1650-1900. Im an editor of PBSA, thinking abt what bibliography is in the C21.
Annual wreath made of stuff cut from yards on my block.
November 28, 2025 at 10:17 PM
Annual wreath made of stuff cut from yards on my block.
It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.
It turns out all the guardrails in the world won’t protect a chatbot from meter and rhyme. www.wired.com/story/poems-...
Poems Can Trick AI Into Helping You Make a Nuclear Weapon
It turns out all the guardrails in the world won’t protect a chatbot from meter and rhyme.
www.wired.com
November 28, 2025 at 9:21 PM
It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.
Reposted by Jonathan
Dying at the first time Swedish Chef sees Big Bird
December 25, 2024 at 5:45 PM
Dying at the first time Swedish Chef sees Big Bird
Reposted by Jonathan
Nothing says happy Thanksgiving like seeing Shaggy sing “It Wasn’t Me” from atop a huge turkey.
November 27, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Nothing says happy Thanksgiving like seeing Shaggy sing “It Wasn’t Me” from atop a huge turkey.
Reposted by Jonathan
“Research doesn't have to be exploitative.”
If you are interested in the methodology behind the Data Workers' Inquiry Project (@dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social), this is the paper for you.
Research doesn't have to be exploitative.👇🏽
Research doesn't have to be exploitative.👇🏽
📣New paper!
Thrilled to share the methodological recipe for @dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social in this article co-authored with @adiod.bsky.social @krystalkauffman.bsky.social Camilla Salim Wagner, Laurenz Sachenbacher @alexhanna.bsky.social & @timnitgebru.bsky.social
👉 ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AI...
Thrilled to share the methodological recipe for @dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social in this article co-authored with @adiod.bsky.social @krystalkauffman.bsky.social Camilla Salim Wagner, Laurenz Sachenbacher @alexhanna.bsky.social & @timnitgebru.bsky.social
👉 ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AI...
November 26, 2025 at 1:38 AM
“Research doesn't have to be exploitative.”
Reposted by Jonathan
I think @brendannyhan.bsky.social is exactly right in this piece, but I’d go one step further here. Elites very explicitly told young people to sit down and shut up. Society punished them for standing up for their beliefs, and targeted and vilified the organizers. Now we need need them.
November 24, 2025 at 2:27 PM
I think @brendannyhan.bsky.social is exactly right in this piece, but I’d go one step further here. Elites very explicitly told young people to sit down and shut up. Society punished them for standing up for their beliefs, and targeted and vilified the organizers. Now we need need them.
Reposted by Jonathan
“Authoritarian governments view culture as a threat because in the writing+ music +acting, you can sometimes glimpse alternatives to the current reality. We live in a timeline that says AI domination is inevitable, there will be no future except constant war.”
www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/art-...
www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/art-...
The Artist Who Reminds Us that Another Way Is Possible
The late artist Abigail McGrath cultivated a creative life for herself filled with freedom, joy, and a commitment to beauty. In an age of authoritarianism and algorithms, it’s a kind of life worth pro...
www.harpersbazaar.com
November 23, 2025 at 6:16 PM
“Authoritarian governments view culture as a threat because in the writing+ music +acting, you can sometimes glimpse alternatives to the current reality. We live in a timeline that says AI domination is inevitable, there will be no future except constant war.”
www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/art-...
www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/art-...
There is a thread of philosophy/theory of media that never seems to get translated into English, but does get translated into Portuguese and thus the two years of grad school Portuguese I took thinking I might write a dissertation about the US and Brasil in the C19 pays off in unexpected ways.
November 24, 2025 at 4:34 PM
There is a thread of philosophy/theory of media that never seems to get translated into English, but does get translated into Portuguese and thus the two years of grad school Portuguese I took thinking I might write a dissertation about the US and Brasil in the C19 pays off in unexpected ways.
Reposted by Jonathan
Billionaires, who quite often do not see education as a common good, should not be guiding higher education policy.
“I kind of yearn,” Mr. Nassirian said, “for the gilded age when billionaires satisfied their extracurricular interests by collecting Fabergé eggs and prized ponies.”
#DefendHigherEd
“I kind of yearn,” Mr. Nassirian said, “for the gilded age when billionaires satisfied their extracurricular interests by collecting Fabergé eggs and prized ponies.”
#DefendHigherEd
Wealthy People Have Always Shaped Universities. This Time Is Different.
www.nytimes.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Billionaires, who quite often do not see education as a common good, should not be guiding higher education policy.
“I kind of yearn,” Mr. Nassirian said, “for the gilded age when billionaires satisfied their extracurricular interests by collecting Fabergé eggs and prized ponies.”
#DefendHigherEd
“I kind of yearn,” Mr. Nassirian said, “for the gilded age when billionaires satisfied their extracurricular interests by collecting Fabergé eggs and prized ponies.”
#DefendHigherEd
Do you (or does someone in your network) want to tour New York City's book world with me on a "study abroad - at home!" trip next May? We'll be going to the Morgan Library, Grolier Club, Christie's book department, and the NYPL (the one with the lions) and a few other places I'm still looking into!
Librarians’ Tour of New York City
Tour Dates: May 17-23, 2026 Location: New York City, see tour highlights Cost per person: $2,725* for a double room, $3,980* for a single room *Air fare not included, see cost details below for more ...
ischool.wisc.edu
November 20, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Do you (or does someone in your network) want to tour New York City's book world with me on a "study abroad - at home!" trip next May? We'll be going to the Morgan Library, Grolier Club, Christie's book department, and the NYPL (the one with the lions) and a few other places I'm still looking into!
Reposted by Jonathan
An important factor here is administrative bloat that creates a whole tranche of staff who need to justify their jobs by creating rafts of busywork for faculty that we (rightly) resent, and exacerbates their sense that we are a bunch of obstreperous heel-draggers
November 19, 2025 at 2:43 PM
An important factor here is administrative bloat that creates a whole tranche of staff who need to justify their jobs by creating rafts of busywork for faculty that we (rightly) resent, and exacerbates their sense that we are a bunch of obstreperous heel-draggers
Reposted by Jonathan
Another thing this reveals is the seemingly universal attitude among Higher Ed admins that faculty are inimical or irrelevant to the achievement of the mission. The bunker mentality that leaves the faculty as the disloyal opposition is beyond me.
Few things bug me more than higher ed leaders saying that we lost our mission and lost the trust of the public, when we have actually been the target of a decades-long smear campaign by the right wing that worked. The moment we’re losing our mission is right now, in capitulation.
November 19, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Another thing this reveals is the seemingly universal attitude among Higher Ed admins that faculty are inimical or irrelevant to the achievement of the mission. The bunker mentality that leaves the faculty as the disloyal opposition is beyond me.
Reposted by Jonathan
Today’s Wheatley Census mystery: are there really no copies of the 1773 first edition in France? Published in London in 1773 and distributed, in part, through Methodist networks of Selina Hastings, there are copies all over the UK. But none in France?
November 19, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Today’s Wheatley Census mystery: are there really no copies of the 1773 first edition in France? Published in London in 1773 and distributed, in part, through Methodist networks of Selina Hastings, there are copies all over the UK. But none in France?
Are there really no 1773 first editions of Poems on Various Subjects in France? And if so, why? ⬇️
Today’s Wheatley Census mystery: are there really no copies of the 1773 first edition in France? Published in London in 1773 and distributed, in part, through Methodist networks of Selina Hastings, there are copies all over the UK. But none in France?
November 19, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Are there really no 1773 first editions of Poems on Various Subjects in France? And if so, why? ⬇️
Reposted by Jonathan
1) An administrative burden party is a brilliant idea.
2) This mundane crap is the stuff AI *should* be helping us with for a happier and more productive society, but capital prefers to weaponize it against us, including to make bureaucratic mazes more confusing and impenetrable.
2) This mundane crap is the stuff AI *should* be helping us with for a happier and more productive society, but capital prefers to weaponize it against us, including to make bureaucratic mazes more confusing and impenetrable.
November 19, 2025 at 1:02 PM
1) An administrative burden party is a brilliant idea.
2) This mundane crap is the stuff AI *should* be helping us with for a happier and more productive society, but capital prefers to weaponize it against us, including to make bureaucratic mazes more confusing and impenetrable.
2) This mundane crap is the stuff AI *should* be helping us with for a happier and more productive society, but capital prefers to weaponize it against us, including to make bureaucratic mazes more confusing and impenetrable.
Reposted by Jonathan
What is the Wheatley Census number and how can you use them? ⬇️
The Wheatley Census Number (WC #) is a unique and durable identifier assigned to each book (or fragment) recorded in the census. This enables *copy-specific citation* in scholarship, bookselling/provenance research, and anywhere identifying and citing at the individual copy level is needed.
November 18, 2025 at 10:09 PM
What is the Wheatley Census number and how can you use them? ⬇️
Reposted by Jonathan
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!
Gonna be a huge day of class solidarity for plutocrats.
November 19, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Gonna be a huge day of class solidarity for plutocrats.
Reposted by Jonathan
WE JUST KEEP WINNING. (UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program RESTORED!!!!)
![On official UC letterhead:
UNIVERSITY
OF
CALIFORNIA
James B. Milliken President
Office of the President
1111 Franklin Street Oakland, CA 94607
universityofcalifornia.edu
CAMPUSES Berkeley
Davis
Irvine
UCLA
Merced
Riverside San Diego San Francisco
Santa Barbara Santa Cruz
MEDICAL CENTERS
Davis
Irvine
UCLA
San Diego
San Francisco
NATIONAL LABORATORIES Lawrence Berkeley Lawrence Livermore Los Alamos
DIVISION OF AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES
November 18, 2025
Dear Chancellors:
I'm writing with regard to the President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (PPFP) and the program's associated faculty hiring incentive.
As you know, for more than 40 years, PPFP has provided postdoctoral research fellowships, professional development, and faculty mentoring to scholars in all fields whose research, teaching, and service advance the academic and research missions of the University of California.
Since 2003, UC campuses that hire current and former PPFP fellows into ladder-rank positions have been eligible for a hiring incentive funded by the University that provides support for newly hired fellows for five years. Since the creation of the incentive, more than $162 million has been invested by the University to support PPFP faculty hires. This commitment has enabled our campuses to successfully recruit and retain outstanding faculty across a range of disciplines.
Given the myriad challenges currently facing UC - including disruptions to billions of dollars in annual federal support, as well as uncertainty around the state budget- reasonable questions were raised in recent months about whether the University could maintain the commitment to current levels of incentive funding. After considering a recommendation to sunset the incentive program due to these significant fiscal constraints, I consulted with all of you as well as faculty and campus academic administrators and systemwide Academic Senate leadership.
[continued on next image]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:rzn6yramffebefeitqifiqqz/bafkreigiwq5ongzwpj4wqmgjam3yfvhyjnv5e3dbq6cnrrbwblqvs624gq@jpeg)
November 18, 2025 at 10:34 PM
WE JUST KEEP WINNING. (UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program RESTORED!!!!)
What is the Wheatley Census number and how can you use them? ⬇️
The Wheatley Census Number (WC #) is a unique and durable identifier assigned to each book (or fragment) recorded in the census. This enables *copy-specific citation* in scholarship, bookselling/provenance research, and anywhere identifying and citing at the individual copy level is needed.
November 18, 2025 at 10:09 PM
What is the Wheatley Census number and how can you use them? ⬇️
Reposted by Jonathan
The vast body of research that Ken Burns relied upon to make his new documentary on the American Revolution would be practically impossible to be produced today, what with the defunding of humanistic scholarship, the collapse of stable academic jobs, the attack on public history & academic freedom.🗃️
November 17, 2025 at 9:43 PM
The vast body of research that Ken Burns relied upon to make his new documentary on the American Revolution would be practically impossible to be produced today, what with the defunding of humanistic scholarship, the collapse of stable academic jobs, the attack on public history & academic freedom.🗃️
Reposted by Jonathan
i'd say it did. the public put a group of thieves, vandals and extremists in office last november and they promptly went about destroying everything that might work to limit their ability to loot, steal and inflicting pain on the people they hate
This whole NYT account about the weaponization of DOJ is beyond disturbing. Kinda feels like the US government fell in January.
Gift link: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Gift link: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
November 17, 2025 at 2:19 PM
i'd say it did. the public put a group of thieves, vandals and extremists in office last november and they promptly went about destroying everything that might work to limit their ability to loot, steal and inflicting pain on the people they hate
In a few months I hope to have things to share about the bibliography of the 1st edition. Stoddard described 2 states of the text and two of the engraving, and some local records indicate what they have. We could re-shape the data structure & get community info to discern what ppl have & show that.
The census of the 1773 first edition currently lists 196 copies, and we believe this to be the first attempt to systematically locate and describe all surviving copies of this edition. www.wheatleycensus.org/issue/2/
Wheatley Census
www.wheatleycensus.org
November 17, 2025 at 6:16 PM
In a few months I hope to have things to share about the bibliography of the 1st edition. Stoddard described 2 states of the text and two of the engraving, and some local records indicate what they have. We could re-shape the data structure & get community info to discern what ppl have & show that.
I have LOTS of stories to tell about individual copies that I learned/put together from tracking down copies and figuring out what's up with them. Also things I could only know by structuring data about them. I plan to share those stories on here every now and again!
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 5:01 PM
I have LOTS of stories to tell about individual copies that I learned/put together from tracking down copies and figuring out what's up with them. Also things I could only know by structuring data about them. I plan to share those stories on here every now and again!