I’ve seen some academic presentations over the last few weeks that I was surprised to find myself genuinely moved by. I don’t know, there’s something beautiful about people thinking hard and honestly about things they care about, and trying to explain why, in a world that manifestly DGAF. - ThreadSky

miriamposner.com • 23 days ago

I’ve seen some academic presentations over the last few weeks that I was surprised to find myself genuinely moved by. I don’t know, there’s something beautiful about people thinking hard and honestly about things they care about, and trying to explain why, in a world that manifestly DGAF.

Comments

cynthiaheider.com•19 days ago

Vulnerability in this time is so hard and also the most important thing 🧡

miriamposner.com•23 days ago

If this all helps us appreciate each other without our usual carapace of cynicism, well, I guess that’s something, isn’t it.

flavorfree.bsky.social•23 days ago

I needed to read these words today!

miriamposner.com•23 days ago

May we never ever ever ever stop.

miriamposner.com•23 days ago

There’s an advantage we in the humanities have, which never before struck me as an advantage: it’s a lot harder to stop us when we don’t need labs.

katrinagrant.bsky.social•23 days ago

Yes ❤️ I keep thinking about this as I am meant to be writing something about humanities infrastructure and instead I keep writing paragraphs about how our infrastructure is actually people.

miriamposner.com•23 days ago

I hope you, personally, never ever ever ever ever stop, because it matters and I will read it.

walshbr.bsky.social•23 days ago

Needed this thread rn - thank you.

miriamposner.com•23 days ago

Sorry to be earnest on main, but what you do matters so much, Brandon.

walshbr.bsky.social•23 days ago

*Me, cutting onions*

I’ll allow it ONCE

andrewpopp.bsky.social•23 days ago

Loving this sentiment.

bskwitter.bsky.social•23 days ago

In Humanities, the world might be your lab. In sciences, the lab might be our world.

benwurgaft.bsky.social•23 days ago

This latter point struck me, too, the other day - there really is no natural sciences equivalent for humanities work done outside of academic employment, for this reason. I mean, there is "outsider physics" as Margaret Wertheim documented, but that is sort of its own thing.

miriamposner.com•23 days ago

Yes, and I don’t mean to minimize the degree to which some of us benefit from an infrastructure—time! space! money!—but the amount of capital seems to matter now in a way it didn’t before.

benwurgaft.bsky.social•23 days ago

I was also thinking of the way social media's rise and the 2008-9 collapse in humanities hiring drove many people into micro-blogging careers on twitter. The technical and temporal affordances were there, to build new publics - and some people were suddenly cut off from their expected career ladders

miriamposner.com•23 days ago

Yeah. Infrastructure giveth and infrastructure taketh away. An excruciating lesson.

benwurgaft.bsky.social•23 days ago

That's right. I certainly wouldn't expect a pendular swing away from our culture's STEM obsession because of budget cuts - the money will come back faster than culture changes - but for the moment, this is really conspicuous.

miriamposner.com•23 days ago

Right. And some of the enthusiasm for labs outside of the sciences—it hits a little differently now, doesn’t it?

dkompare.bsky.social•23 days ago

All I need for my work is library access, something to write with, and lots of time to be left alone to do it. Way cheaper than labs, though not a given either (especially time).

amwilson.bsky.social•21 days ago

That's all I needed too but unfortunately I worked in a music department and the students needed practice rooms, our university didn't invest in facilities, students went elsewhere, we got closed down.

dkompare.bsky.social•21 days ago

As an Arts school administrator, this is one of my constant fears. Art, Art History, Dance, Film, Music, Theatre all need specialized facilities and resources beyond other fields across campus, and without them, they can’t function. I’m sorry your university didn’t support your department.

amwilson.bsky.social•21 days ago

Thank you. Of course the suggestion was we, the academics, just weren't doing enough to recruit students but it was so clear that our poor facilities were putting off prospective applicants.