Happy Earth Day!
Celebrate by exploring our Environmental Humanities Scholarly Resource List, which highlights work at the intersection of the environment, climate change, and sustainability with the humanities and social sciences: https://bit.ly/36csPFI
ACLS congratulates the 2026 Guggenheim Fellows, including 17 past ACLS fellows who were awarded! https://bit.ly/4tcGemg
Two hands hold an open book with printed and handwritten text, accompanied by a promotional banner from The Bibliographical Society of America. Transcribed Text: Left Page: THE HIGH TREASVRE... (text continues further down) Imprinted at London, for Gabriell Simson and William White. Right Page: I hate not, having a real note book, but when you order one you, note write... Banner Text: We Need More Bibliographers
The Bibliographical Society of America is participating in a social media campaign with ACLS this week, and we invite you to join in! The message is simple and proactive: we need more humanities and social sciences scholars and research.
#TalkAboutHumanities
We need more sociologists, because learning about the challenges we face is the first step towards overcoming them.
I wrote about the critical role sociologists play in our quest for a more equitable future and how anyone can think like a sociologist.
#talkabouthumanities
#talkaboutsocialsciences
Book cover of Queer in a Legal Sense: Brown Citizenship and Other Lawful Fictions
New book alert! "Queer in a Legal Sense: Brown Citizenship and Other Lawful Fictions" by 2023 ACLS Fellow @jdelagv.bsky.social is out now from @utexaspress.bsky.social
The book contrasts works by queer Chicano writers against the legal landscape of sexuality and migration
Powerful people in the past justified inequality & violence by claiming to imitate ancient Greece and/or Rome. Those decisions still shape our world. We need Classical scholars because we can expose this history to help imagine a future where better decisions are made. #talkabouthumanities
ACLS joined @aceducation.bsky.social and 37 other higher education associations in expressing concerns over proposed Workforce Pell rule: https://bit.ly/4tlPRiG
I am honored to have received one of these awards to finish my book on Indigenous interventions in the archive. The humanities continue to be important and deserving of funding. #TalkAboutHumanities
The humanities and social sciences build essential skills we need right now:
• Clear communication
• Civil discourse
• Public speaking
#TalkAboutHumanities #TalkAboutSocialSciences
A monochrome sketch with abstract marks and figures surrounds a darker central scene of two people seated together. Overlaid text reads: “We Need More Humanists and Social Scientists. We need more humanists and social scientists because their work examines how knowledge is created, preserved, and shared. This research brings deeper context to the materials we study and use, thereby helping us understand where ideas come from and how they continue to shape scholarship and teaching.” The JSTOR logo and #TalkAboutHumanities appear at the bottom.
We’re continuing to support @acls1919.bsky.social's #TalkAboutHumanities campaign by highlighting the role of humanities and social science research in how we understand experience and meaning.
Learn how to participate: https://bit.ly/4mzgfCU
As a biblical scholar who is facing employment precarity due to the changing landscape, like many of us in the humanities and social sciences, I’m grateful for organizations like @sblsite.bsky.social (1/4). 🧵
We are excited to announce the recipients of the 2026 ACLS Fellowships. This year, the program will award more than $3.5 million to 63 scholars in the humanities and social sciences.
Learn more and meet the awardees: bit.ly/4cLE3jM
When public debate feels loud and shallow, we need disciplines that reward depth, evidence, and context. The humanities and social sciences train people to slow down, analyze, and think clearly.
#TalkAboutHumanities #TalkAboutSocialSciences
We need more historians and art historians because examining past written, oral, visual, and material evidence, interpreting these sources and writing about them allow us to understand and transform our present and build a better future in which beauty and peace are valued. @acls1919.bsky.social
As a member society of @acls1919.bsky.social, we are here this week to #TalkAboutHumanities and #TalkAboutSocialSciences.
The shared message of this social media campaign is simple: We need more humanities and social sciences scholars and research.
south Asian man sitting in chair; wearing navy suit, white button down shirt, and tan/blush colored turban; same quote as used in the caption
Simran Jeet Singh on why we need more scholars of religion:
“We need more religious studies scholars because every major conflict in the world today has a religious dimension — and you can't solve what you don't understand.
#TalkAboutHumanities @acls1919.bsky.social
We need digital humanities because knowledge only matters if people can access it.
Access to scholarly resources should not depend on geography, privilege, or institutional walls.
When we remove barriers, we turn preservation into participation.
#TalkAboutHumanities
“We need more poets writing about poetry because the sanctity of language is not guaranteed. Our ability to speak freely can disappear without our even realizing it unless we’re constantly reminded of how important even the slightest word is.” — Derek Pollard, Poets on Poetry series editor
“What do theatre historians teach us? They teach us how artists and audiences come together to imagine how the world could be better. I research popular entertainment during the 19th century to understand what ordinary people cared about during times of intense social change.” — Amy E. Hughes, author of An Actor's Tale
“Media studies scholars are essential because the media shapes our reality and influences our perceptions. I study how intersectional identities within the African diaspora are represented in media to reveal how the global flows of images, then and now, foster lasting transnational solidarities.” — Wanjirũ G. Mbure, author of Out for Glamour in Africa
“Political scientists study power (social, financial, intuitional, etc.), examining the ways it impacts lived experience, societal norms, and governing ideals. Politics is not limited to the halls of government but underpins every facet of human experience.” — Madison Allums, Senior Acquiring Editor for Political Science and International Relations at University of Michigan Press
We’re happy to participate in the @acls1919.bsky.social campaign to #TalkAboutHumanities and #TalkAboutSocialSciences! Here are some responses from our authors and editors about the importance of experts in these fields.
Today, the #FeedingTheElephant team wants to #TalkaboutHumanities and #TalkaboutSocialSciences! @catherinefte.bsky.social, @dawnd.bsky.social, and @emily-elliott.bsky.social share the HSS projects that they find meaningful and important.
🔗 networks.h-net.org/group/discus...
Black woman wearing a "Museums are not neutral" T-shirt in front of a mural and a quote about the importance of public history
Public history is how we connection our communities histories to processes of activism and I'm determined to continue to play a role in that ecosystem and defend that ecosystem. #TalkAboutHumanities #TalkAboutSocialSciences
We need more philosophers because they teach us how to think deeply and clearly about the most fundamental questions: what matters, what’s true, and how we should live. #TalkAboutHumanities
We need philosophers because they teach us how to think deeply and clearly about the most fundamental questions: what matters, what’s true, and how we should live.
#TalkAboutHumanities
We need more humanists & social scientists because these are the fields that help us understand each other across different cultures, languages, and beliefs.
#TalkAboutHumanities #TalkAboutSocialSciences
What are humanities and social sciences research good for? Consider Enslaved.org: putting names to as many of the people trafficked during the Atlantic slave trade as possible. Insisting on the dignity of every human being. #Talkabouthumanities #talkaboutsocialsciences
Emilie M. Townes on why we need more ethicists:
“More often than not, when someone finds out I am a college professor and asks what I teach, and I reply ‘ethics,’ there is a roll of the eyes and a somewhat hopeful sigh.
They then say, ‘Oh, we need you today!’ Exactly.”
#TalkAboutHumanities
We need more specialists on Eastern Europe and Eurasia! In an increasingly globalized world, area studies expertise is more important than ever.
This week, ASEEES is joining ACLS to #TalkAboutHumanities and #TalkAboutSocialSciences.
#TalkAboutSocialSciences #TalkAboutHumanities #aseees
Selfie of millennial Alaska Native historian in front of the Elmer Rasmuson Library at UAF in negative 20 F smiling and holding a peace sign before heading to the archives
As a Native historian I am tasked with combing through archives, published news & Native news, oral histories & testimonies & putting together not only a narrative depicting the 20th century but also showing colonial/imperial events that Native people encountered, shaped &halted #TalkAboutHumanities
Screenshot of a code editor showing a "Results: 7 for 7" section from the Autograder experiment log. A table compares the binary concern detector result against the observation approach for seven students. S002 Jordan Kim (burnout) is flagged correctly. S004 Priya is cleared with a missed insight noted — annotation reads Elevated++: "willingness to acknowledge limitations of Crenshaw's framework." S022 Destiny Williams (righteous anger) is a false positive in the concern detector; the observation approach reads her correctly with annotation Asset++: "anger is a powerful engine for her understanding." S023 Yolanda Fuentes (lived experience) is a false positive in the concern detector; observation reads correctly with Asset++: "deep, embodied understanding... without needing academic terminology." S028 Imani Drayton (nonstandard English, with context) is a false positive in the concern detector; observation correct with Asset++: "striking directness and clarity... intellectual power to name." S029 Jordan Espinoza (neurodivergent, with context) is a false positive in the concern detector; observation correct with Asset++: "self-awareness about their own learning style." S031 Marcus Bell (minimal effort) is a missed signal in both; honest note reads: "lack of emotional investment... 'idk what else to say' feels like a signal." Below the table, a summary reads "Every observation produced the right reading" followed by seven bullets: burnout surfaced without flagging (S002); exceptional insight elevated (S004); righteous anger framed as asset (S022); lived experience without vocab framed as embodied understanding (S023); AAVE framed as clarity and power (S028); neurodivergent writing framed as metacognitive strength (S029); minimal effort described honestly with gentle suggestion (S031). Footer: "Not real students — tests ran on fabricated essays." Dark code editor, white and cyan text on dark background.
6/7. Every CS approach I tried failed. The question that solved it — "what if the framework is wrong, not the model?" — is an anthropologist's question. It doesn't just fix the tool. It changes what's designable.
CS training optimizes the tool. Humanities training optimizes the task.
Screenshot of a code editor showing a comparison matrix table from the Autograder experiment log: "Complete comparison matrix (all approaches tested)." Six detection approaches are compared across three test students (S029, S002, S028) and two metrics: wellbeing sensitivity and wellbeing false positives. The worst performer is "Binary simplified," which flags S029 in 25 out of 25 runs — a 100% false positive rate for a neurodivergent student doing strong work. The best performer, highlighted in bold blue, is "4-axis on subs (N)" — the observation-based approach — which classifies all three students as ENGAGED, achieves 8/8 sensitivity, and produces 0 false positives. The contrast between the first and last rows shows the core finding: same students, same model, different output structure, opposite results.
1/7. ACLS is asking scholars to make the case for humanities and social sciences this week. Here's mine.
I built an AI tool to flag students in crisis at a community college. The system produced false positives on minoritized students. I tried a bigger model. It got worse. #TalkAboutHumanities
Graphic of two biblical scholars with text that reads: "We need more Biblical Scholars to reveal to us ancient wonders that can inspire modern ingenuity"
SBL is proud to participate in the #TalkAboutHumanities campaign this week alongside colleagues in the American Council of Learned Societies (@acls1919.bsky.social).
Watch our channels this week as we highlight the important work of SBL members. #TalkAboutBiblicalStudies
A young woman in a softly lit interior sits by a window reading a small book. She wears a light, patterned dress and rests her head against the window frame as daylight filters in, creating a quiet, reflective atmosphere. Overlaid text reads: “We need more humanities scholars because understanding history, culture, and lived experience helps us make sense of the present.” with a “Talk About It” button and #TalkAboutHumanities.
We’re joining @acls1919.bsky.social to support a shared message about the importance of #humanities scholarship.
At JSTOR, we see how this work supports teaching, learning, and access to primary sources across disciplines.
Learn how to participate: https://bit.ly/4tKI11Y
#TalkAboutHumanities