"Oysters . . . possess what Parker dubs a uniquely paranatural ontology: they live a 'double life,' existing as both discrete objects as well as agents of transformation."
In review, Lida Zeitlin-Wu on Thomas R. Parker's Paranatures in Culinary Culture: criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/lida_zeitlin...
Looks fascinating, as usual-- so sorry I won't be able to make it!
Here's the link to the free pdf of my new book The Inattention Economy: How Women of Color Built the Internet. Access is so important and I'm grateful that the press is platforming it as one file that is easy to download. www.upress.umn.edu/978081669906...
brb writing a new book chapter
Ha! 🫠 Thank you so much.
Although the timing isn't ideal, hope to see some of you at our
"Precarity Media" panel at #SCMS2026 this evening!
chicago!
the Inter Chicago Circle for Experimental Critical Theory partners with the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research (chicago edition) for a special event this saturday:
Slop Machine: Anna Kornbluh and Kate Wagner on the Aesthetics of Contemporary Fascism
interccect.com/2026/02/16/a...
Obviously naming a snow plow won't fix any of our big problems, but I do think it is evidence of a huge shift in the Overton window where the city has allowed this to win.
(In previous years, the name had been disqualified from the competition by city officials)
I'm beyond thrilled to announce that How Color Became a Technology: The Making of Chromatic Capitalism is under contract with Duke University Press! (And yes, the images will be in full color 🎨) @dukepress.bsky.social @kwissoker.bsky.social
No one has ever tried to sell me drugs as hard as people try to sell me on AI.
I wrote about Pantone's controversial 2026 COTY pick, Cloud Dancer (AKA white) for @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social. I discuss what color-focused corporations like Pantone are actually selling us and how Cloud Dancer holds up a reactionary mirror to our current fascist times. #Pantone #ColorOftheYear
As someone who taught just one 8-week asynchronous course during my brief time at ODU, I can't even imagine mandating courses like this across the board. This is what happens when neoliberal universities make massive structural changes with zero regard for the needs of their faculty and students.
I HAVE IDEAS
Dr Kareem Carr man: i wish to publish @kareem_carr Jan 21 reviewer 2: your paper is no good man: i'll do anything to improve reviewer 2: it's simple. you must read the work of the great scientist Pagliarini man: *bursts into tears* but i am Pagliarini Andre Pagliarini @apagliar Jan 21 a first: in rejecting an article I submitted to a journal, reviewer 2 noted I failed to engage the work of one Andre Pagliarini Jan 21, 2026 • 3:47 PM UTC
I just thought everyone should see this
Congrats, @nancyhelicopter.bsky.social !!! Can't wait to read.
📅🔔 ICYMI 🔔📅
Applications for our 2026 DISCO Network Affiliate Program close this Sunday, January 11, 2026 at 11:59PM!
For more information and to access the application, please visit: www.disconetwork.org/affiliate-app
"It seems Captain Von Trapp and I misunderstood each other. I assumed he was looking for a wife of taste and sophistication, who was a dead ringer for Tippi Hedren; instead, he wanted to marry a curtain-wearing religious fanatic who shouts every word she says."
@yrfatfriend.bsky.social @michaelhobbes.bsky.social DIET AIR
I love how "welsh rarebit" became "welsh rabbit" 🐇
johnpaulbrammer.substack.com/p/cloud-danc...
Best take on the Color of the Year so far. Cloud Dancer is
"the color of ChatGPT’s blood if ChatGPT could bleed, if ChatGPT could be slashed with a sashimi knife and if milky fluid could come gushing out of its jugular."
The status of higher ed right now in a fucking nutshell
Looks so cool!
Environmental metaphors also abound here, making the digital cloud appear weightless. As Tung-Hui Hu writes in A Prehistory of the Cloud: "Today's dominant metaphor for digital space, 'the cloud,' is actually a
metaphor for private ownership" (in this case, private ownership over color itself).
"A timeless neutral white of serene sophistication".... Richard Dyer is feeling smug right now, no doubt.
So Pantone's 2026 Color of the Year is.... white. Each December, the corporation promises consumers that they can soothe themselves to serenity amidst unending crisis--and they do so by taking advantage of a 100+ year history of color's embroilment in self-help culture and emotional capitalism.
Come visit next summer for the DSI's annual Digital IDEAS! ☀️🗓️
Led by faculty director Sarah Murray, IDEAS brings together those working at the intersection of critical digital studies, social justice, and public intellectualism for a week-long community-building workshop
Learn more: myumi.ch/rAP6M
Oops! I clearly have no sense of time. I meant #SCMS2026.
Made it through the crapshoot #scms2025 acceptance process this year! Looking forward to talking "precarity media" with Laurie Ouellette, Anna Watkins Fisher, and Roopali Mukherjee.
if you want Chicago food/drink/other recommendations as the conference approaches, hit me up.
