Hester Blum
@hesterblum.bsky.social
A patched professor in Queen Nature’s granite-founded College. Polar humanities, C19, oceanic studies. Ask me about Moby-Dick. I teach environmental and nineteenth-century American literature at WashU. Protect trans kids. She/her. hesterblum.com
Pinned
Hester Blum
@hesterblum.bsky.social
· May 16
Some personal news: I will be leaving Penn State and joining Washington University in St. Louis as the Lynne Cooper Harvey Distinguished Chair of English. My husband Jonathan Eburne will be J. H. Hexter Chair in Humanities at WashU. We are thrilled and energized by this new chapter in our lives. 1/3
Good morning St Louis
November 26, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Good morning St Louis
And the book is incredible
Seth Rockman: 'Experiential research as a method for IDing questions you didn’t know to ask, rather than providing answers you wouldn’t have had...an experiential research method lets us envision more things we want to know about the past' (experiential=do something the way it was done in the past)
November 22, 2025 at 4:10 PM
And the book is incredible
Reposted by Hester Blum
Holy f@$k!
“ChatGPT exhibits the highest level of anti-Black racism ever experimentally recorded.”
This whole video is jaw-dropping.
“ChatGPT exhibits the highest level of anti-Black racism ever experimentally recorded.”
This whole video is jaw-dropping.
I need everyone, esp anyone working in education or tech (but really everyone) to WATCH THIS CLIP of @drtanksley.bsky.social discussing the technologies infiltrating our schools & psyches and how she is addressing it with our young people. youtu.be/5mtcSL4S3HQ
Howard University AI Panel
YouTube video by Tiera Tanksley
youtu.be
November 22, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Holy f@$k!
“ChatGPT exhibits the highest level of anti-Black racism ever experimentally recorded.”
This whole video is jaw-dropping.
“ChatGPT exhibits the highest level of anti-Black racism ever experimentally recorded.”
This whole video is jaw-dropping.
Same, must-watch (and must-share with your a.i.-pushing administrators):
This video is so overwhelming I had to sit down & stare at the wall awhile. I was physically shaking.
I had heard some of these anecdotes before - Proctorio & Tubman bot - but Tanksley synthesizes them (with much much more), revealing undeniable regime of EdTech racialized surveillance & policing…
I had heard some of these anecdotes before - Proctorio & Tubman bot - but Tanksley synthesizes them (with much much more), revealing undeniable regime of EdTech racialized surveillance & policing…
I need everyone, esp anyone working in education or tech (but really everyone) to WATCH THIS CLIP of @drtanksley.bsky.social discussing the technologies infiltrating our schools & psyches and how she is addressing it with our young people. youtu.be/5mtcSL4S3HQ
November 22, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Same, must-watch (and must-share with your a.i.-pushing administrators):
A BLUE HUMANITIES job: jobs.uc.edu/job/Cincinna...
Assistant Professor, Blue Humanities, College of Arts and Sciences
Assistant Professor, Blue Humanities, College of Arts and Sciences
jobs.uc.edu
November 21, 2025 at 5:56 PM
A BLUE HUMANITIES job: jobs.uc.edu/job/Cincinna...
The Chair Company is the Twin Peaks of office shows, everyone watch now
November 16, 2025 at 6:20 PM
The Chair Company is the Twin Peaks of office shows, everyone watch now
My kid’s existence and thriving and free movement are all valid. These annihilating vile monsters
1. The Trump administration has just quietly updated the State Department website to indicate that it may invalidate transgender people's passports.
This comes a week after a SCOTUS ruling blocking lower rulings allowing trans people to update them.
Subscribe to support our journalism.
This comes a week after a SCOTUS ruling blocking lower rulings allowing trans people to update them.
Subscribe to support our journalism.
Trump Admin Quietly Changes State Department Page To Indicate It May Invalidate Trans Passports
The change comes after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the administration and lifted a temporary injunction.
www.erininthemorning.com
November 14, 2025 at 6:19 PM
My kid’s existence and thriving and free movement are all valid. These annihilating vile monsters
I've been doing a pretty good job remaining minimally functional in this terror regime but the last couple of days really got to me (my former advisor in the email tranches etc.) and now I can't imagine how I minimally functioned at all.
November 14, 2025 at 4:53 PM
I've been doing a pretty good job remaining minimally functional in this terror regime but the last couple of days really got to me (my former advisor in the email tranches etc.) and now I can't imagine how I minimally functioned at all.
How many university presidents/administrator/thought leaders will take away from this that maybe they should not be all in on whatever rich men in tech are selling to them? (Zero)
November 13, 2025 at 5:03 PM
How many university presidents/administrator/thought leaders will take away from this that maybe they should not be all in on whatever rich men in tech are selling to them? (Zero)
All of the time we spend defending higher ed and
November 12, 2025 at 7:54 PM
All of the time we spend defending higher ed and
Aurora visible in the middle of Chicago
November 12, 2025 at 3:34 AM
Aurora visible in the middle of Chicago
WashU will NOT sign the compact, as the dean of arts and sciences announced just now to faculty – the dean was told by the chancellor that he could share that information (and that moment was the closest I’ve ever seen a college-wide faculty meeting come to a standing ovation).
October 21, 2025 at 10:31 PM
WashU will NOT sign the compact, as the dean of arts and sciences announced just now to faculty – the dean was told by the chancellor that he could share that information (and that moment was the closest I’ve ever seen a college-wide faculty meeting come to a standing ovation).
St Louis says NO KINGS in thunder (and lightning)
October 18, 2025 at 8:45 PM
St Louis says NO KINGS in thunder (and lightning)
Reposted by Hester Blum
What Democratic candidates should be fighting for
I wrote a little about some of the little details you might have missed in this video and why it hit me so hard as a trans person this morning:
www.burnsnotice.com/you-have-to-...
www.burnsnotice.com/you-have-to-...
October 11, 2025 at 3:32 PM
What Democratic candidates should be fighting for
Reposted by Hester Blum
I wrote a little about some of the little details you might have missed in this video and why it hit me so hard as a trans person this morning:
www.burnsnotice.com/you-have-to-...
www.burnsnotice.com/you-have-to-...
October 11, 2025 at 2:53 PM
I wrote a little about some of the little details you might have missed in this video and why it hit me so hard as a trans person this morning:
www.burnsnotice.com/you-have-to-...
www.burnsnotice.com/you-have-to-...
Yesssssss @sunsetandecho.bsky.social !!
September 27, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Yesssssss @sunsetandecho.bsky.social !!
The Penn State BoT is killing the public radio station. WPSU serves a half million rural Pennsylvanians, and it was cut at the same time the Board gave the PSU president--whose greatest hits include closing 7 (seven!) PSU campuses--a 1.1 million dollar raise. Please sign
www.change.org/p/save-wpsu
www.change.org/p/save-wpsu
Sign the Petition
SAVE WPSU
www.change.org
September 14, 2025 at 3:15 PM
The Penn State BoT is killing the public radio station. WPSU serves a half million rural Pennsylvanians, and it was cut at the same time the Board gave the PSU president--whose greatest hits include closing 7 (seven!) PSU campuses--a 1.1 million dollar raise. Please sign
www.change.org/p/save-wpsu
www.change.org/p/save-wpsu
Freakonomics just re-aired its three-part series on the history of whaling – it was a joy and an honor to be part of that conversation: freakonomics.com/podcast/what...
What Can Whales Teach Us About Clean Energy, Workplace Harmony, and Living the Good Life? (Update) - Freakonomics
What Can Whales Teach Us About Clean Energy, Workplace Harmony, and Living the Good Life? (Update) - Freakonomics
freakonomics.com
August 25, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Freakonomics just re-aired its three-part series on the history of whaling – it was a joy and an honor to be part of that conversation: freakonomics.com/podcast/what...
If only the non-Lego Endurance were so well cradled
August 21, 2025 at 2:19 PM
If only the non-Lego Endurance were so well cradled
We are about to move, I finally opened the bottle of hard cider made from apples from Arrowhead, Melville's farm. It was dry and lovely and I drank it amid the packed-up broken pieces of marble that top Melville's commode, which I was even more wonderfully given a few years ago.
August 20, 2025 at 3:36 PM
We are about to move, I finally opened the bottle of hard cider made from apples from Arrowhead, Melville's farm. It was dry and lovely and I drank it amid the packed-up broken pieces of marble that top Melville's commode, which I was even more wonderfully given a few years ago.
Resharing my A.I. statement for the fall semester—I’ll be amending “hallucinatory” because hallucinations are actually interesting and original.
My draft of a syllabus statement on a.i. for my writing class, for what it is worth:
August 19, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Resharing my A.I. statement for the fall semester—I’ll be amending “hallucinatory” because hallucinations are actually interesting and original.
Excellent to see this resource, @annakornbluh.bsky.social—thank you. (I’ll be updating my syllabus statement from last spring: bsky.app/profile/hest...)
teachers!
excited to share a new website at this late date of Aug 15 to try to help us collectively prepare for back to school in the interpretative humanities classroom assaulted by the AI grift, so we don't have to go it alone.
take a look, share, + most importantly: CONTRIBUTE
against-a-i.com
excited to share a new website at this late date of Aug 15 to try to help us collectively prepare for back to school in the interpretative humanities classroom assaulted by the AI grift, so we don't have to go it alone.
take a look, share, + most importantly: CONTRIBUTE
against-a-i.com
AGAINST AI
against-a-i.com
August 16, 2025 at 12:22 AM
Excellent to see this resource, @annakornbluh.bsky.social—thank you. (I’ll be updating my syllabus statement from last spring: bsky.app/profile/hest...)
This is super excellent, Haaris!
We're launching a new Tidewater Initiative at JHU. Our research group on working waterfronts and coastal infrastructures includes a new student research lab, courses, programming partnerships with the Alexander Grass Humanities Institute, and more in the works. sites.krieger.jhu.edu/tidewater/
Home | The Tidewater Initiative
We are a multidisciplinary research group devoted to study, stewardship, and stories of working waterfronts, coastal infrastructures, and oceans under conditions of globalization and environmental ins...
sites.krieger.jhu.edu
August 9, 2025 at 7:24 PM
This is super excellent, Haaris!