Sonja Drimmer

@sonjadrimmer

W. Ford Schumann Distinguished Visiting Professor in Democratic Studies, Williams College, 2026–2027. Assoc. Professor, UMass Amherst. Impressive Politics: Print before the Press in Late Medieval England (UPenn, forthcoming).

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YouTube Website Bluesky

education

Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir sonjadrimmer.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· 28d

My other tablet is talking-to-a-real-person.

A screen at a CVS counter with a handwritten sign taped to it that reads “please use the other tablet to sign in.”

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· 28d

This is the single item I found in the bathroom left behind by my parents after their last visit, and I have two questions about this Extremely Dad item: 1) did they make a single batch in 1962 that they just continue to sell? 2) what is country club size?

A medicine cabinet shelf on which is displayed a bottle of pinaud clubman after shave lotion in “country club size.” The design looks like it hasn’t changed in 60 years.

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· 28d

We have an update. Chucho is ready for the craps table or at the very least the slots.

A mini bernadoodle on a bed looking away from the camera and wearing a mini tie with a design of cigarettes, money, and the word vice on it.

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· 29d

My co-conspirator, comrade, and collaborator, the brilliant @cnygren.bsky.social has written a lapidary book, it just landed on my doorstep, and after sneak previews of it I’m delighted to get to finally read it in full. And you should too! yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

On a wooden table, face up, the booo, Sedimentary Aesthetics: Painting on Stone and the Ecology of Early Modern Art by Christopher J Nygren.

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· Jul 12

Had a blast orienteering for the first time today. I nevertheless remain firm in my conviction that compasses are a scam.

An orienteering map for Burnt Mountain New Hampshire shown against the background of the trail.

A labradoodle in a sit with the orienteering time stamp receipt held in front of him.

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· Jul 12

Talbot insisted that we stop in our neighbor’s stunning garden on our evening walk.

A labradoodle sitting in front of a garden full of pink, yellow, and white flowers.

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· Jul 11

My first favorite part is what comes next, which I don't even need to gloss for it to be funny. Enjoy. www.thecut.com/article/alph...

Week seven brings the showstopper workshop: “Serhant open house.” Over the course of these five days, students will stage an open house for an actual, on-the-market Hamptons home, partnering with the luxury real-estate company founded by celebrity agent Ryan Serhant, star of Owning Manhattan. The connection came about organically, explains Arnold, when Alpha used Serhant agents to find the space for the program.
I reached out to Serhant to get his thoughts on the partnership. He was traveling but did send me this statement: “SERHANT. will be bringing students into a one-week real estate course focused on pitch prep and execution this summer. The students will work on a real listing with our agents in the Hamptons, and learn how to communicate, position, and sell in a live environment.” He went on: “SERHANT. is an AI-native brokerage and we are big believers in innovation through education. I think that honestly, our agents will get just as much out of this.” I asked if Ryan will be working with the kids (the answer is “no”; it will be two agents), if the house has already been identified (“Not yet”), and if he is planning to send his own daughter to the program (“Not at this time”).

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· Jul 11

The NYMag piece on Alpha School's summer camp in the Hamptons is pitch perfect in managing to satirize w an absolutely straight face. My second favorite part is this list of rebranded *things you do at sleepaway camp.* Survivor = color war Dinner service = campout cooking "Stage & Screen" = a play

“The sort of experiences that we’re able to build out in the Hamptons are quite different from other areas.” What might these specialized experiences include? After the iPads go away, “we have hands-on things that are called ‘side quests,’” she says. These activities include knot tying, identifying bird calls, wood carving, basketball, and soccer. The afternoon workshops, though, are the star of the show. The first week, Arnold says, will feature “a multi-tribe Survivor competition,” which includes immunity challenges and a final tribal council. The second week will center on a “dinner service,” during which students will learn to make a meal for their families consisting of “foraged starters” and homemade macarons. There’s a “Stage and Screen” week, when students will make movie trailers, and a “Concert Night” week, in which kids will build instruments (an artist named Manuel Perez Luna is there to help) and perform.

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· Jul 10

Everybody, this is Chucho. Chucho's humans are out of town for the week, so my parents are taking care of him, which means spoiling him AS HE DESERVES.

A tiny mini bernadoodle, I think, sitting on the floor and looking to the right with quintessential puppy dog eyes.

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· Jul 10

I will serve as your historical consultant, only ask for a modestly exorbitant fee, and finally be able to afford the renovate my home so that everything in it is ergonomically optimized for my son.

A labradoodle on a couch with his head on a cushion. The couch is NOT optimized for him.

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· Jul 10

Boy is week 10 of my fall semester course for them what agree with you!

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· Jul 9

I’m so sorry to hear this, Leon! I hope today looks up. Here’s Talbot harvesting.

A black and cream labradoodle in a sit on grass with his mouth happily open and a bag of cherry tomatoes in front of him.

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· Jul 8

Feeling pretty pumped about my course title for fall maybe possibly hopefully being prophecy. 🤞

COMP 381 / STS 381
Extracting the Past:
Democratic Futures and a World without Al
Fall 2026

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· Jul 7

Reducing this to a matter of “data” & privacy means that Palantir can make this claim and most readers are none-the-wiser about how this very “making sense of data” is what affects them. The modeling and analysis is pernicious to people in aggregate if not, personally, to the individual.

A Palantir spokesperson said that the firm was "not in the business" of storing, collecting, mining, or selling data: "We don't
'use' data from customers for other efforts,
"
the spokesperson said. "In all cases, our customers control and retain their own data.
We are simply the software that helps them make sense of it. And in all deployments of our software, we strictly uphold our enduring commitment to protecting privacy and civil liberties.

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· Jul 6

Doin’ a big weird help while I cook.

A large labradoodle on his back on a kitchen floor with his legs against the fridge and his head turned around as if he were possessed. He is not possessed. Or if he is, it is by a poltergeist whose chief power is to be lazy.

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· Jul 5

It took me an hour but I made gobi Manchurian and it was so good I feel like congratulating myself.

A bowl with gobi Manchurian plus broccoli that we got from the farm

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· Jul 5

This is an excellent example of how a prepackaged rhetorical stance accompanies this tech, and its power lies in how both ppl use it bc it’s so easy to adopt & how easily it can be automatically generated. Here, critical self-awareness postures as responsible engagement. But it’s just a sales pitch.

Screenshot of the pinned tweet from this account which reads:

Just launched: "Al Tools for Busy Professionals" starter pack g
The best Al accounts on Bluesky for people who want to actually USE Al - not just read about it.
Follow the whole pack in one tap https://bsky.app/starter-pack/
bytesignal.bsky.social/3mmgqtq2i2j2s

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· Jul 5

www.artnews.com/art-in-ameri...

Unchecked, the ultimate outcome of this reconfiguration will be profound doubt that threatens to plunge us all into nihilism and paralysis. One could argue that this, and not the faked images themselves, is the endgame of those who wish to weaken people's belief in the value of basic civic institutions and the fourth estate.

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· Jul 4

“I’m not mad; I’m just disappointed.”

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· Jul 4

Me too!

When I look at Eckhout’s and Amaral’s paintings, I see bananas. But what I also see are contexts that lie beneath and to the side of the subjects that they represent. When we charge an algorithm with processing these images, it can only tell us with some probability what lies on their surface, and it is frequently wrong even about that. Instead of being enthralled by its wan superficiality, we would be better off looking beside and beneath it at the extractive project that machine learning serves in its expansion into humanistic research and education.26 It is only sight blinkered by a narrow focus on what computer vision does that cannot perceive this truth.

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· Jul 3

The profound sigh he just made longing for the temperature to cool…

A labradoodle seen from behind on a couch and resting his chin on a window sill.

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· Jul 3

Trademarking “as a relatively prominent Jew” for myself and none of you can stop me. I promise that when I use it, it won’t function as a dangling modifier.

But that's exactly why I stay. X remains unparalleled as a social media site focused on news, comment and discussion with around 570 million monthly active users. What happens if those of us who aren't driven by hate and who try to use reason rather than gut impulse (or at least like to think we do) leave? The bigots, the bots and the lunatics have the place to themselves.
As a relatively prominent Jew, my daily experience is of unrelenting anti-Semitism and abuse.

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· Jul 2

This book is going to jokerfy me.

Levying taxes made medieval European monarchs rich; only in the seventeenth century did monarchs begin to cede the power to tax to legislatures. Taxation became tied to representation at the very time that England was founding colonies in North America

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· Jul 1

A fun fact is that IBM was using the Dead Sea Scrolls to make a cultural argument for itself after WWII

An IBM Ad with a photo of people in caves on one page and, adjacent, the following text: N 1947, an Arab boy searching a cave
for a goat stumbled upon the first Dead
Sea Scrolls. They were in tatters when
scholars received them. Words, even whole
sentences, were missing.
Scholars used an IBM computer and
“crossword puzzle logic” to test thousands
of combinations of words until they found
the best-fitting meanings.
Further computer work on the Scrolls
has helped shed new light on Biblical times,
and the use of language 2,000 years ago.
Recently, IBM computers have helped
scholars explore other fascinating subjects.
Books of clay and IBM computers
The drawing below shows one of many
clay tablets on which ancient Babylonians
wrote their history. Scholars could read
them, but could not easily date them.
Then an IBM computer
was used to chart the
movements of planets over
Babylonia from 600 B.C.
until 1 A.D. These planetary
tables could then be
compared with observations
of the heavens Babylonians
had marked on
these tablets. It is now easier to place six
centuries of history in proper sequence.
Stonehenge, a huge monument in England,
has mystified men for centuries. What in the
world was it for? Recently, scholars gained
a new theory as to its purpose. With the
help of an IBM computer, they analyzed
the curious placement of its stones.
The research showed the stones could have
been used to “sight” the sun and moon
3,500 years ago —to predict seasons and
even eclipses with reasonable accuracy.
Helping solve literary puzzles
There are many unanswered questions
about world literary figures, from Yeats
back to ancient Homer.
Using IBM computers, scholars are getting
many new perspectives on the work of
these men. Disputes about who wrote what
are being settled. Literary indexes that
once took tedious years to complete can
now be finished in weeks.
Computers are helping man fill in blank
pages of his past, to gain a new understanding
of that fascinating subject—himself.
IBM

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· Jul 1

Thanks! I use variations on it throughout my article, as here.

Yet what recent attributional paleography shares with scientifically aspirational connoisseurship is the desire for provability (or near-provability) and the provision of an object that can be tested against others. In other words, both practices hypostatize the intuitive knowledge of perception, gleaned from a first impression, in order to produce analytical individuals for diagnostic purposes. They move from a descriptive characterization of details to the extraction and codification of those details for use in forensic “field guides” that aid in tracking and attaching a name to ahand.However,constructingascheduleofisolateddetailsisitself an act of production, not reception, which manufactures an artificial discursive agent. We might compare this act to extracting and parsing verbally the flavor combinations from a

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· Jul 1

This is very much in my wheelhouse. Several years ago I published an article that lays out why such use of automation should be examined within a 150-year-old debate within art history on the flaws of scientifically-aspirational forms of attribution. www.jstor.org/stable/27312...

6 Unliketheobjectsofinquiryinthehardsciences,Napoleon is not a replicable experiment and cannot be “proved.” Likewise, we cannot resurrect the writing agent to produce new specimens of his or her writing to test against preexisting ones. Nor can we feed graphemes into software to measure probable matches between samples without introducing a discerning human agent to dictate allowable degrees of variation to that very program, concerns that have recently been voiced after an initial period of optimism about the possibilities of automation.

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· Jun 30

The people charged with bringing "AI literacy" to Boston's public schools, the people at the core of a public-private partnership, that is just selling out students and compromising their education, cannot even write a sentence to mean what they want it to mean. bostonpublic.ai/faq

Screenshot from the boston dot ai webpage's FAQ that reads as follows:

Will students use AI to do their work and not learn how to think on their own?
This is one of the most important questions we hear, and it's one the advisory board takes seriously. Our curriculum is designed to teach students how to think alongside AI, not instead of it. Just as calculators didn't replace the need to understand math, AI tools don't replace the need for critical thinking, creativity, and judgment. We're building a program that develops those skills, with AI as a tool students learn to use thoughtfully and responsibly.

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· Jun 30

With thanks to my partner in crime for stopping and getting me to notice.

A large black and white Labradoodle standing and looking off in the distance on a forested trail.

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· Jun 30

Another mink sighting!

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer· Jun 29

Le Corbusier screaming crying throwing up in an REI [dot]gif