Volker Schröder

When DOGE Unleashed ChatGPT on the Humanities

"Documents filed in two lawsuits against the agency and DOGE reveal new details about how the mass cancellations took shape, with little input or pushback from the agency’s leadership" (Jennifer Schuessler in the New York Times - gift link): www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/a...

Perpective view of a printer's workshop | Martin Engelbrecht | V&A Explore The Collections Perspective view, Perspectivische Vorstellung einer Buchdruckhereij, Augsburg: Martin Engelbrecht, ca. 1750.

Engelbrecht? collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O146499...

Pentagon to Cut Ties With Top Universities and Think Tanks

"Defense Secretary [and Princeton alumnus] Pete Hegseth said he was banning attendance at Yale, Princeton, Brown and other elite colleges and think tanks, accusing them of indoctrinating service members with liberal ideologies." (New York Times gift link) www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/u...

Americans Are Leaving the U.S. in Record Numbers More citizens are replanting overseas, drawn by a quality of life made easily affordable by the U.S.’s enviable salaries.

"The new American dream, for some of its citizens, is to no longer live there" - long, well-documented article in the Wall Street Journal (gift link) www.wsj.com/us-news/amer...

A selection of books form the Fagel Collection

TCD Library is recruiting a Senior Bibliographer to help catalogue the Fagel Collection! This is a fabulous professional opportunity to work on one of Europe's great early modern private libraries. Closing 10 March at noon. Full details available at www.tcd.ie/hr/vacancies

The Sickest Burns on the Internet Right Now Are Coming From French Bureaucrats The country’s politicians have spent centuries mastering the art of saying nothing. That all changed in September.

A new development on X - originating in "the Parisian literary salons of the 17th and 18th centuries" (Wall Street Journal gift link) www.wsj.com/world/europe...

Tomorrow's talk, unwisely entitled "Polar Erratics," has been cancelled due to the incoming blizzard.

Frederick Wiseman, 96, Penetrating Documentarian of Institutions, Dies

Although his subject matter was almost always American, he occasionally ventured abroad to tackle subjects that were, in his words, “not possible in America,” in films like “La Comédie-Française ou L’Amour Joué,” “La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet,” and “Crazy Horse” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/16/m...

When AI Bots Start Bullying Humans, Even Silicon Valley Gets Rattled An extraordinary example of online aggression by a bot is contributing to fears of real-world harm caused by artificial intelligence.

"Scott Shambaugh woke up early Wednesday morning to learn that an artificial intelligence bot had written a blog post accusing him of hypocrisy and prejudice." (Wall Street Journal gift link) www.wsj.com/tech/ai/when...

A volume of essays I edited some years ago on news in #earlymodern Europe is now available open access 📖
Featuring chapters by @lenaliapi.bsky.social, @emmawhipday.bsky.social, among others!
brill.com/edcollbook-o...

Engraving of a woman (Louyse Bourgeois) with text in French below

Today marks international day of women and girls in science. Louyse Bourgeois (1563-1636) was midwife to the French royal family & the first woman to publish on obstetrics. #WomenInScience

Attn nerds: our annual history sale started yesterday and runs through 2/20. 25% off, free shipping over $50, code is HIST26. www.press.jhu.edu/books/histor...

The BM catalogue says 'Tortoise, and separate view of a walled, coastal town in the Veneto' for this by Melchior Lorck, mid-16th century.

I'm sticking with giant flying tortoise myself.

Dillingen on the Danube (not far from Stuttgart). Had a famous university, some centuries ago.

Estienne VOUILLEMONT - Le jeu de la sphere ou de l[']univers selon Tyco Brahe. Paris, l'auteur, 1661; Ibid, A. de Fer, 1671. Copper engraving, 38 x 52.6 cm.

This handcolored copy, a bit browned and dampstained, fetched 2200 euros today in Brussels (off an estimate of 150-200). www.book-auction-morel.com/lot/175454/3...

Plagiatsurteil gegen frühere UZH-Professorin: «Schwerster Fall wissenschaftlichen Fehlverhaltens» Der Schweizerische Nationalfond forderte Fördergelder wegen angeblich nicht korrekt zitierter Passagen zurück. Das Urteil bestätigt «massives Fehlverhalten» bei zwei ihrer Publikationen.

Plagiarism verdict against former University of Zurich professor: Massive scientific misconduct

#ReceptioGate

www.tagesanzeiger.ch/st-gallen-bu...

Wiener Kunstakademie bietet Donald Trump Studienplatz an Wien (dpo) - Die renommierte Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien hat Donald Trump heute überraschend einen Studienplatz für Malerei angeboten. Obwohl e

Wiener Kunstakademie bietet Donald Trump Studienplatz an www.der-postillon.com/2026/01/wien...

Artificial Intelligence and Greek Philology: An Experiment - Edizioni della Normale pp. 179 Scarica il PDF CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

New publication (open access): edizioni.sns.it/prodotto/art...

Si on consulte Instagram sur le web (plutôt que par l'app) il est assez facile d'ignorer les contenus publicitaires.

Entre l’atelier et le lecteur L’impression et la lecture des livres de la Renaissance sont déjà bien connues. Mais ce qui se passait entre le moment où l’encre séchait sur les feuilles dans l’atelier de l’imprimeur et celui où un ...

And for those who are interested in the book that looks at this from a French perspective, it is now available in #openaccess here: books.openedition.org/pur/298922

(so easy to read in automatic translation too!)

#bookhistory #earlymodernhistory #frenchhistory

This is a stunning resource, beautifully presented - congratulations to Ros Smith Kathy Acheson and their team emwmlibrary.com

Withdrawing the United States from International Organizations, Conventions, and Treaties that Are Contrary to the Interests of the United States MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United

We’re withdrawing from the International Law Commission??? This whole list is absolutely insane.

www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Texas A&M, Under New Curriculum Limits, Warns Professor Not to Teach Plato

"According to the syllabus, Dr. Peterson’s planned Plato readings included passages about Diotima’s Ladder of Love and Aristophanes’ myth involving split humans." (New York Times gift link) www.nytimes.com/2026/01/07/u...

Schedules | Rare Book School

For the first time ever, @ransomcenter.bsky.social host @rarebookschool.bsky.social courses this summer, June 7–12:

L-165: Literary Manuscripts w/ Stephen Enniss & Megan Barnard (this will be excellent)

G-60: Evidence in Handpress-Era Books, 1450–1830 w/ yours truly

rarebookschool.org/schedule/

Much-needed distraction

Overhead view of a table showing a folder labeled “John Langdon”. Contents of the folder are hand-lettered words that when rotated 180 degrees read the same: “symmetry”, “sometimes”, “minimum”, “infinity”.

On January 1, we lost a master of the ambigram (words expertly drawn so they read the same when turned upside down). In 2022, John Langdon donated his primary archive to us.

#JohnLangdon #Ambigrams #Lettering

Your Key Survival Skill for 2026: Critical Ignoring In an age of endless low-quality information, it’s time to fight our instinct to seek out and absorb all we can. It takes practice.

"it’s up to us, as individuals, to stop ingesting the pink slime of AI slop, the forever chemicals of outrage bait and the microplastics of misinformation-for-profit." (Christopher Mims in the Wall Street Journal - gift link): www.wsj.com/tech/persona...

Fireworks over Grand Army Plaza

BREAKING: Explosions felt across New York City as full socialism begins

Closing at 5pm on New Year’s Eve. Maybe open tomorrow.

New Year’s hours.

The Ping-Pong Hustler Who Inspired ‘Marty Supreme’

"With its wide release this month, “Marty Supreme,” which is loosely inspired by Reisman, has positioned him for the kind of posthumous cultural ubiquity and megawatt treatment that he always believed his arc deserved." (New York Times gift link): www.nytimes.com/2025/12/24/m...