Chris Riedel
@medievalhistory.bsky.social
2.7K followers 510 following 640 posts
Teaching medieval & ancient history at a SLAC in Michigan. Researches nostalgia. Lots of nerdy things. A greyhound named Malibu. Still mostly on Twitter, old handle @medievalhistory
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Reposted by Chris Riedel
Looking forward to the inevitable bombshell report exposing exactly how many university administrators took bribes from edtech AI companies
"Key priorities include embedding artificial intelligence (AI) learning opportunities into the curriculum, cultivating strategic partnerships, strengthening ties with external stakeholders...."

the call still coming from inside the house.
If you own a smartphone you already do. This is an escalation, not a beginning.
Reposted by Chris Riedel
These are all sourced from “A People’s History of the United States,” and I struggle to think of a more prescient page from a history book that I have read than this one:
useless scholarly exercise in morality. But the easy acceptance of atrocities as a deplorable but necessary price to pay for progress (Hiro-shima and Vietnam, to save Western civiliza-tion; Kronstadt and Hungary, to save social-ism; nuclear proliferation, to save us all-that is still with us. One reason these atrocities are still with us is that we have learned to bury them in a mass of other facts, as radioactive wastes are buried in containers in the earth.
We have learned to give them exactly the same proportion of attention that teachers and writers often give them in the most respectable of classrooms and textbooks. This learned sense of moral proportion, coming from the apparent objectivity of the scholar, is accepted more easily than when it comes from politicians at press conferences. It is therefore more deadly.
The treatment of heroes (Columbus) and their victims (the Arawaks)-the quiet acceptance of conquest and murder in the name of progress—is only one aspect of a certain approach to history, in which the past is told from the point of view of governments, conquerors, diplomats, leaders. It is as it they, like Columbus, deserve universal acceptance, as if they—the Founding Fathers, Jackson, Lin-
Not the immediate sense of presence, that was only while I stood in front of the paintings. Though for some considerable time I was unable to control myself fully. And later that day the emotion remained just below the surface and easily recalled.
It was a blessing. Not the most ideal location for such feelings, but I was grateful to have them.
I stood in front of this Monet at the DIA yesterday, & had a profound sense that my departed mother, who adored Impressionists, was standing beside me. I felt almost as if I could see her there & reach out to her. I had to move on before I completely broke down. Art has such power to move the soul.
Reposted by Chris Riedel
The Long Neolithic lives as a sense of wonder. It sits in distant fields and summons us to not only witness its stone persistence, but to engage with its slow release of mystery. Its power bends not only the landscape, but our sense of story. – Dr. K. Brophy #StandingStoneSunday
Wait, do we put quotation marks inside punctuation? If so I'm just going to move to Europe. There are lines I won't blur!
Apparently I can instead blame Europe.
That's why I'm confused! Thank you. Thought I was going crazy
I'm going to blame my tenth-grade humanities teachers.
Why did I think in-text citations went after the period all this time? Did that used to be a thing?
I have made some, I just end up writing a bunch of specific comments anyway. They didn't end up saving me time. But I might pull one out to give to them.
I don't personally use rubrics but that probably would help here.
I went old school and asked for every student to bring in paper copies to share - partly so they have to comment without AI.
This is very helpful, thank you! I was only doing two each so as not to overload them, but I am also checking to see that they did the commenting.
That's very helpful, thank you!
I decided to add a peer-editing assignment to my first year seminar, but I've never done such an assignment before. Anyone here have experience and advice or tips to offer?
The eternal problem with satire is that many people, perhaps most people, will not understand it is satire. Sometimes including the author.
I feel like this could be applied to our political moment as well as our literature.
Meanwhile I don't think anyone has yet done Philip K Dick justice on film and I'm willing to accept it's just not possible to translate media with his work.
I mean I actually nostalgically love Starship Troopers because I read it at exactly the right (re:wrong) age and it recalls a really important time in my life, but I would never share it with a teenager myself. That shit warped me for a long time.
And bless his heart, subtlety is not Verhoeven's forte.