#AcademicRunPlaylist - 6/17/25

Today was fairly packed, but I still managed to get in some talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was an engaging panel on law and gender equality in Japan with Frank Upham and Sawako Shirahase at The University of Tokyo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd8AZHrp4s8

Next was an intriguing talk by Rainer Mühlhoff and Hannah Ruschemeier on regulating secondary uses of training data and pre-trained models at the Oxford Internet Institute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEctQXRCjs8

Next was an important talk by Deborah Archer on the infrastructure of inequality at the New York University School of Law. Starting with moving personal experiences, Archer looks at more systemic cases of discrimination through infrastructural choices and brings in the individual costs with powerful case studies. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFS6h5wGb_Y

Last was "The Horse, the Wheel, and Language" by David Anthony. This book brings academic rigor to the study of human and cultural diffusion, focusing on Proto-Indo-Europeans and the massive linguistic patterns that spread in their wake. While the beginning and end of the book have insightful linguistic analysis, that is mostly left to the side for the rest of the book, which focuses on fairly in-the-weeds archaeological analyses (Anthony's field). Anthony is at his best in sections dealing with these minutia - the portion on detecting the presence of horse bits from skeletal dentition was fascinating - but connecting these details to the larger picture is left to the reader. If one pages back and forth or uses this book as part of a research project this wouldn't be a problem, but it's a bit challenging to follow on a straight read through. Still highly recommend https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691148182/the-horse-the-wheel-and-language