On the origins of natural language processing and how corporations like IBM leaned into predictive algorithms.

References and suggested readings:

• Xiaochang Li. 2026. Divination Engines: Natural Language Processing, Artificial Intelligence, and the Making of Algorithmic Culture. University of Chicago Press.
• Anil Seth. July 15, 2026. “Once again we are told AI may be conscious – I study consciousness, and I have my doubts.” The Guardian.
• Paul Kockelman. 2024. Last Words: Large Language Model and the AI Apocalypse. Prickly Paradigm Press.
• Lief Weatherby. 2025. Language Machines: Cultural AI and the End of Remainder Humanism. University of Minnesota Press.
• Carlo Ginzburg. 2026. The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth Century Miller, 50th anniversary edition. Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Kate Crawford. 2022. Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence. Yale University Press.
• Chris Wiggins and Matthew L. Jones. 2024. How Data Happened: A History from the Age of Reason to the Age of Algorithms. W. W. Norton.
• Christopher Manning and Hinrich Schütze. 2026. Foundations of Statistical Natural Language Processing. MIT Press.
• Danial Jurafsky and James Martin. 2026. Speech and Language Processing.
• Xiaochang Li’s faculty page and @xiaochang@bsky.social

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References and suggested readings:

• Guy Standing. 2026. Human Capital: The Tragedy of the Education Commons. Penguin Press.
• “Linda McMahon slaps her daughter Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley: RAW IS WAR, Apr. 17, 2000”
• Nafeez Ahmed, Peter Jukes, and Hardeep Matharu. July 9, 2026. Palantir Co-Founder Peter Thiel and Reform UK’s Cambridge University Recruitment Pipeline Project Revealed. Byline Times.
• Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway. 2011. Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Climate Change. Bloomsbury.
• Ralph Wilson and Isaac Kamola. 2021. Free Speech and Koch Money: Manufacturing a Campus Culture War. Pluto Press.
• Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff. 2026. Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed. Harper.
• Hannah Arendt. The Human Condition.
• Guy Standing. 2021. The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class Special Covid-19 Edition. IB Taurus & Co.
• Guy Standing. 2023. The Blue Commons: Rescuing the Economy of the Sea. Pelican.
• Guy Standing’s website

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References and suggested readings:

• Matthew C. Ehrlich. 2021. Dangerous Ideas on Campus: Sex, Conspiracy, and Academic Freedom in the Age of JFK. University of Illinois Press.
• Matthew C. Ehrlich. 2024. The Krebiozen Hoax: How a Mysterious Cancer Drug Shook Organized Medicine. University of Illinois Press.
• Pseudoscience and the ethics of academic medicine episode with Matthew C. Ehrlich
• Michael Bérubé and Jennifer Ruth. 2022. It’s Not Free Speech: Race, Democracy, and the Future of Academic Freedom. Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Mary Anne Franks. 2024. Fearless Speech: Breaking Free from the First Amendment. Bold Type Books.
• Beware of FIRE (and institutional neutrality) episode with Mary Anne Franks
• Jacob Holmes. June 9, 2026. “Auburn board takes control of curricula, dissolves faculty senate.” Alabama Political Reporter.
• Thomas Milan Konda. 2019. Conspiracies of Conspiracies: How Delusions Have Overrun America. University of Chicago Press.
• John Durham Peters. 2020. Courting the Abyss: Free Speech and the Liberal Tradition. University of Chicago Press.
• Jim Windolf. 2026. Where the Music Had to Go: How Bob Dylan and the Beatles Changed Each Other—and the World. Scribner.
• Matthew C. Ehrlich’s faculty page

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References and suggested readings:

• Zak Foste and Lauren N. Irwin. 2026. Disrupting White Noise: Challenging Beliefs about Race on Campus. Harvard Education Press. CODE FOR 20% OFF: HCPR26
• Elijah Anderson. 2023. Black in White Space: The Enduring Impact of Color in Everyday Life. University of Chicago Press.
• Beverly Daniel Tatum. 2025. Peril and Promise: College Leadership in Turbulent Times. Basic Books.
• Sarah J. Mass. 2023. Throne of Glass. Bloomsbury.
• Colin Diver. 2022. Breaking Ranks: How the Rankings Industry Rules Higher Education and What to Do about It. Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Follow Lauren N. Irwin and Zak Foste on LinkedIn

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References and suggested readings:

• Alexander D. Hyres. 2026. Protest and Pedagogy: Charlottesville’s Black Freedom Struggle and the Making of the American High School. University of Georgia Press.
• Alex Hyres’s faculty page
• Heather Andrea Williams. 2007. Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom. University of North Carolina Press.
• James D. Anderson. 1988. Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935. University of North Carolina Press.
• Jarvis R. Givens. 2023. Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching. Harvard University Press.
• Vanessa Siddle Walker. 1996. Their Highest Potential: An African American School Community in the Segregated South. University of North Carolina Press.
• School Yearbook: A Cringey Tradition and Its Digital Afterlife episode with Kate Eichhorn
• Scott Anderson. 2025. King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation. Doubleday.
• Instagram @hyres376 Bluesky @hyres376.bsky.social, linktree

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On the student life apparatus.

References and suggested readings:

• Chad Wellmon. 2026. After the University: Higher Education and the Future of Intellectual Work. Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Paul Reitter and Chad Wellmon. 2023. Permanent Crisis: The Humanities in a Disenchanted Age. University of Chicago Press.
• Chad Wellmon. 2016. Organizing Enlightenment: Information Overload and the Invention of the Modern Research University. Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Bavarian L. Baldwin. 2021. In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities. Bold Type Books.
• David S. Busch. 2025. Disciplining Democracy: How the Modern American University Transformed Student Activism. Cornell University Press.
• Matteo Pasquinelli. 2023. The Eye of the Master: A Social History of Artificial Intelligence. Verso.
• Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Phenomenology of Perception.
• Sean Keilen. 2026. Shakespeare's Scholars: Three Lessons from the Liberal Arts. Princeton University Press.
• Chadwellmon.com

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On age, class, and jobs.

References and suggested readings:

• Samuel Moyn. 2026. Gerontocracy in America: How the Old Are Hoarding Power and Wealth—and What to Do About It. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
• Samuel Moyn. April 23, 2026. Professors Are Too Old: The Academy’s Gerontocracy Problem is Worse than Anyone Admits. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
• Dino Buzzati, translated by Lawrence Venuti. 2023. The Stronghold. NYRB Classics.
• Nazmul Sultan. 2024. Waiting for the People: The Idea of Democracy in Indian Anticolonial Thought. Harvard University Press.
• Samuel Moyn’s faculty page
• Follow Sam on X, The Everything App, @samuelmoyn

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Speaking to the dead, academically.

References and suggested readings:

• Jesse Bering. 2026. The Incredible Afterlives of Dr. Stevenson: One Scientist's Epic Quest for Evidence of Reincarnation, Apparitions, Poltergeists, and Other Matters of the Soul. University of Chicago Press.
• Jesse Bering’s website
• Bering in Mind Substack

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