Cathy Davidson
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cathyndavidson.bsky.social
Cathy Davidson
@cathyndavidson.bsky.social

CathyDavidson.com. Advocate for active learning, student success. Author “The New Education” etc. Cofounder HASTAC.org ("world's first academic social network"--NSF). Science fiction fan. Lover of oceans. Opinions and typos my own. #SeaScrolling #Breathe .. more

Cathy N. Davidson is an American scholar and university professor. She is a Distinguished Professor of English, Digital Humanities, and Data Analysis and Visualization at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York where she founded the Futures Initiative. .. more

Political science 21%
Art 21%
Pinned
Here's the press release of 2025 #McGraw Prize including videos of our careers and our acceptance speeches. It was such an honor to share the evening with the inspiring recipients of K-12 and Lifelong Learning. Thank you, #McGraw and @PennGSE. mcgrawprize.com/news-events/...

Reposted by Cathy N. Davidson

I'm thrilled to be presenting @arsavium.bsky.social & @pepepierce.bsky.social in conversation about their new books at @intellpublics.bsky.social with Audra Simpson!! Monday, Feb 23 at 6:30pm EST via Zoom webinar. @thegraduatecenter.bsky.social @dukepress.bsky.social register: bit.ly/gc-cuny-regi...

Ah, will they also subject Kid Rock's lyrics to this test? Cool, Daddy, cool . . .
Democratic donors have spent a year frozen, largely out of justified anger at the consultant class, the spammy texts, and lack of leadership from some elected leaders.

That anger, however, is also hurting outside groups doing critical work — and that could hurt us in November.

THREAD 🧵

I recently wrote a blog post about this: cathydavidson.com/blog/artific...
“Artificial Ignorance” and Data Sycophancy – Cathy N. Davidson
cathydavidson.com

I'm becoming increasingly obsessed about the "nature of manipulation." The parameters of so-called AI "training" are set by the developers. As an AI tool "evolvles," the trainers give it positive feedback on how well it's doing. It's a form of sycophancy coming and going, all the way down.
To me the chatbots pose zero interesting questions about the ‘nature of selfhood’ but dozens about the nature of manipulation. Here the Claude team pretends they are programming the robot for ethical responses but they land on one that is false and disingenuous.

And to be clear: Haitians are heavily represented as care givers not recipients.

Reposted by Cathy N. Davidson

Anyone doing serious, rigorous research is probably de facto someone they put in the "woke liberal intellectuals" category, I suspect. That is certainly what cancelling millions in ongoing research grrants, on things like, oh, cancer and vaccines and dementia...

Happy Birthday, Ms. Price. A moment a beauty is greatly appreciated today.

Reposted by Cathy N. Davidson

Leontyne Price is 99 years old today! My favorite soprano and (in my opinion) the best Spinto soprano in opera history.

Here is Ms. Price singing “Tu, Tu Piccolo Idio” from Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. She is so exceptional the audience breaks onto applause during the aria. youtu.be/YL-delzX4QI?...
Leontyne Price-Death of Butterfly. Rare private film.
YouTube video by Uncle Louie
youtu.be

So they were business partners?

It seems getting rid of top American researchers might be as much a goal of this administration as getting rid of hard-working, peaceful immigrants.

Reposted by Cathy N. Davidson

Life for formerly incarcerated people, especially incarcerated children, does not magically become safe or liveable after being released from the cages the adults in the rooms making policy keep building to lock human beings inside of instead of meeting and exceeding our material & societal needs
Mortality After Youth Incarceration
Young people incarcerated in adult prisons and jails were 60% more likely to die before age 39 compared to those with placements in youth facilities.
publichealthpost.org
(🚨) MAJOR BREAKING NEWS: Trump Personal Lawyers Bondi, Blanche, and Patel Hid From American Voters a *Minimum* of *95%* of All References to Donald Trump in the Epstein Files (950,000 of 1M+), Establishing the Largest Political Coverup in American History
Trump is in the unredacted Epstein files "more than a million times," Raskin alleges
One document recounts that Trump said he "never" asked Epstein to leave Mar-a-Lago.
www.axios.com
Dozens of researchers will move to France from US following high-profile bid to lure talent. Large proportion worked at Columbia University, which had its grants cut and frozen by the administration of US President Donald Trump. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Dozens of researchers will move to France from US following high-profile bid to lure talent
Large proportion worked at Columbia University, which had its grants cut and frozen by the administration of US President Donald Trump.
www.nature.com

Reposted by Cathy N. Davidson

🧵 1/3. Are you curious about anyone in your state taking donations from CORECIVIC, one of the private prison operators who is making money hand over fist with their private concentration camps? You can look up by state to see who took how much in 2022 and 2024.
ICE-Cold Cash: Private Prison Companies and Executives Have Donated Millions to Members of Congress
Find out if your representatives have taken cash from the companies fueling ICE’s mass deportation efforts.
theappeal.org

Oh, so we're deporting immigrants who are not criminals after all, not welfare fraud sponges, but, uh, gainfully employed and helping to sustain our workplaces and our economy?

"Artificial Ignorance and Data Sycophancy": technology-networks-sciences.hastac.hcommons.org/2026/02/10/a... I reposted this blog on @hastac.bsky.social and especially invite our new cohort of nearly 50 HASTAC Scholars from the US and abroad to comment! WELCOME!! @hastacscholars.bsky.social
“Artificial Ignorance” and Data Sycophancy – Technology, Networks, and Sciences
technology-networks-sciences.hastac.hcommons.org

Reposted by Cathy N. Davidson

A former ICE employee has spoken out against the grotesque and inhumane conditions at an ICE detention center in Baltimore, Maryland.
www.jezebel.com/former-ice-w...
Former ICE Worker Says Women Detainees Were Given Diapers Instead of Sanitary Products
A former ICE employee has spoken out against the grotesque and inhumane conditions at an ICE detention center in Baltimore, Maryland.
www.jezebel.com
Oh
Peter Navarro: "The jobs report comes out tomorrow. We have to revise our expectations down significantly for what a monthly job number should look like ... Wall Street has to adjust for the fact that we're deporting millions of illegals out of the job market."

Exactly.

Nice to think about tropical climate when it's freezing and freezing and freezing. Way too much ICE. #SeaScrolling. #Breathe
AOC on DHS Warehouses: I think every American should be alarmed. They are building—and have built—a black box system that disappears people, both immigrants and U.S. citizens alike.
Heads I win, tails you lose. "Utah voter roll review finds no evidence of noncitizens casting a ballot, Lt. Gov. says. A review of 2.1 million voter registrations turned up few anomalies, but Utah’s House speaker says ID law is needed so citizens trust elections." www.sltrib.com/news/politic...
Utah voter roll review finds no evidence of noncitizens casting a ballot, Lt. Gov. says
An ongoing Utah review of 2.1 million voter registration records has found one noncitizen who registered to vote and zero examples of any noncitizens actually voting.
www.sltrib.com

Thank you. That is beautiful. Just so beautiful.

Reposted by Cathy N. Davidson

"this does not need a balm
this needs an ending"
--Dionne Brand, Nomenclature for the Time Being

Audio: milkweed.org/between-the-...
Dionne Brand : Nomenclature — New and Collected Poems | Milkweed Editions
Today’s guest Dionne Brand, to borrow the words of John Keene, “is without question one of the major living poets in the English language.” Kamau Brathwaite called Brand “our first major exile female ...
milkweed.org

Definitely!