Thomas S. Davis

This definitely isn‘t how I imagined “mid-career” during those late nights of pitchers & method discussions at Frank’s….what a dumb fucking century.

Speaking from the frontlines of “AI fluency,” I can tell you that it is the same dumb plot on repeat and, thankfully, a lot of students seem to hate having AI forced onto them.

“The work is original…”

We had a scenario last semester at Ohio State w/ BlackTom AI, which could log in to Canvas, take proctored exams, & evade the detection tools we have. I have made my classes mostly analog, but our individual solutions won’t repair the decades of institutional & systemic failures. It is grim.

In what feels like a fever dream, it turns out my old band will be playing Gilman St in May as part of a short west coast tour. If anyone on here has Bay Area recs—food, bookstores, practice spaces—I’d love to hear them.

I’ve decided that folks hitting reply all are generally signaling that I don’t need to pay attention to their emails. Instant delete.

Our local NPR station WOSU did a much better job with the headline. Of course, this is a professor at the Chase Center, which was established by state law & is supposed to be the anchor for "viewpoint diversity" and "civility." The stories write themselves...

The degree to which both of these people are so completely full of shit, name checking things they have no understanding of, free associating “deep thoughts” & yet so perfectly confident in their half-assed knowledge, helps clarify why the entire elite class is so desperate to get us all on ChatGPT

All of this!!! For example, Ohio State (not an Ivy but big deal R1) has...

Wexner Medical Center
Wexner Center for the Arts

These are named after Les Wexner, who made his money on Victoria's Secret, Abercrombie, etc. + employed Epstein as his financial manager for 20 years + bankrolled his abuses.

I am planning Thursday’s class on climate anger as a form of political anger ( & using a wonderful piece by @doctorvive.bsky.social ) & thinking through different methods for analyzing emotion, extractive violence, & historical specificity and I think this is basically my whole pedagogy:

This is the full version of that brilliant talk you gave in London, no?

I’ve never seen a play that batshit. Amazing.

20th/21st century literature, Environmental Humanities, and historical surveys of Brit or Am lit 1800 to the present. Ready to do whatever whenever!

O-H ICE-OUT!

Reviews of my no tech, analog seminar were all positive: “this class gave me room to breathe,” “I loved not having screens in class,” “writing in our attention notebooks gave me space to think,” “this was the most immersive class I’ve ever taken,” “I felt like I could think freely,”l loved Sebald.”

It is worth noting that so many of these universities mandating AI are in states that liquidated DEI programs & made them illegal. Just in case you were unclear about the trajectory of “intellectual diversity” in higher ed, this is what it looks like.

If you enter a prompt they give you free coffee. It’s gone now thankfully

For reference, the “prompt and pour cafe”: www.reddit.com/r/OSU/commen...

We are under one of these impossible demands & I can tell you that one of the outcomes is backlash from undergraduates who will tell you (& Reddit & the school newspaper & anyone who will listen to them) that they don’t want the uni forcing AI on them (including the pop-up ChatGPT cafe on campus).

My employer is referenced in that Chronicle piece. We were put under a similar ridiculous mandate; there is a lot of talk that the administrators pushing this are padding their own CVs for future jobs. I could go on about the widespread confusion it has caused & the backlash from students.

Woah! I know folks who have worked within the Wexner brand empire and they do indeed have stories.

Strauss survivors protest Board of Trustees meeting Thursday, call for Wexner’s attorneys to accept subpoena in lawsuit The Ohio State Board of Trustees adjourned its Thursday afternoon meeting in the presence of survivors of Dr. Richard Strauss, who were protesting. The meeting was scheduled to run from 1 to 2 p.m. bu...

Also worth noting that the current head of the BoT is John Zeiger whose family law firm defends Wexner. Protestors & Strauss survivors interrupted the BoT meeting last week & called him out by name: www.thelantern.com/2025/12/stra...

"Ask Jeffrey": Epstein Ran Wexner's Pro-Israel Philanthropy Machine, Emails Reveal The Wexner Foundation has long claimed Epstein "did not make decisions regarding the use of Foundation’s funds.” New emails show that is flagrantly false.

⚡️NEW from @dropsitenews.com: "Ask Jeffrey": Epstein Ran Wexner's Pro-Israel Philanthropy Machine, Emails Reveal

The Wexner Foundation has long claimed Epstein had "did not make decisions regarding the use of Foundation’s funds.” New emails show that is...false.

open.substack.com/pub/dropsite...

I have taught portions of Underland and it bends their brains and also generates incredible discussion. Would love to teach Is a River Alive?

Every time I read these stories I try to find the salaries of the Presidents and administrators they interview and to see if any of them took voluntary cuts.

So there is no plan of where they will go and maybe no buses to get them there either? Cool.

I thought CGA was going to relocate to Avondale?

I mean, it’s a little bit on them if we take the time to explain to how it is fraudulent and deskilling them. I find most students get it & would rather do the work if they think you take them seriously. But if they still don’t give a shit, I ain’t wasting my time policing & punishingZ

These are the new state mandated questions that will appear at the end of our student evaluations. Just in case anyone was curious about the effects of right wing higher ed legislation in Ohio:

The AAUP at Ohio State encourages all to attend this Tuesday event by Jewish Voice for Peace - Central Ohio @jvpcentralohio. We stand in solidarity with our colleague Tom Hayes of Ohio University who was removed from his teaching position after being detained in the humanitarian flotilla to Gaza.