🚨: My new monograph ARRESTING ECOLOGIES: GLOBAL LITERATURE ACROSS AIR, LAND, and SEA, 1926-2014 is available for preorder from OXFORD UP, with 30 percent discount.

This talk by Dr JT Welsch explores the readerly problems raised when ‘the death of the author’ is not only a literal death but credited with author-like intentions, examining the work and life of the early-20th-century US poet Sara Teasdale. buff.ly/qo2zaC6

CFP: ‘American Democracy and Statecraft: Transatlantic Relations at the 250th’ The Transatlantic Studies Association, July 2026 buff.ly/8DC5HLc Proposals should be shared by 24th April.

I’m thrilled to have finally sent off the manuscript for a new edition of Agnes Grey that I’ve produced for @oxunipress. Working with Anne’s novel has been utterly joyful - she is such a smart writer and woe betide those who underestimate the power of Agnes Grey.

📢 PSA for anyone sending research proposals for academics to read: use a sans serif font. We have a studentship competition open right now and I cannot tell you how many 1,000s of words I have read for them & I need easy-to-read fonts. Please. [squints at screen]

#EnglishCreates: Futures To round off our series on 'Critical Reading', Prof Ben Davies (University of Southern Denmark) takes a fascinating look at some of the books that have shaped his research into reading and readers: universityenglish.ac.uk/a-reading-li... #EnglishStudies

This was fun to do with wonderful collaborators @jenniferacooke.bsky.social @bobeaglestone.bsky.social @gailmarshall.bsky.social CEO @englishassociation.bsky.social @jtwelsch.bsky.social #ReadingMatters @ies-sas.bsky.social

#EnglishCreates: Futures Today, Prof Jennifer Cooke (Loughborough University) discusses the profound value of reading in the age of social media: 'Just as smart phones and social media sites train us in one way, proper reading trains us in another...' universityenglish.ac.uk/really-readi...

Important post on the importance of reading by @jenniferacooke.bsky.social #EnglishCreates @ies-sas.bsky.social @englishassociation.bsky.social @engmediacentre.bsky.social @lboroenglish.bsky.social @rsliterature.bsky.social @literacy-trust.bsky.social

C21 journal has published a ‘round table review’ of Timothy Bewes’s book FREE INDIRECT. It includes a short essay by me; other contributors include Leonid Bilmes, Laura Zander & Adam Kelly. Bewes does a response at the end 👇 c21.openlibhums.org/article/id/2... @c21literature.bsky.social

Today I am writing about carebots. No one seems to like them much, especially the people they are envisioned as helping. Novelists like them, though, & tend to make them likeable.

Got a contemporary lit proposal? Or one on care or feminism or social reproduction? Send it to me!

Tomorrow I am on campus in conversation with award-winning novelist & memoirist Christie Watson, discussing differences between memoir & fiction, the ethics of writing about patients & medical experiences, as well as hearing her read excerpts from her work. DM me if you'd like the Teams link/room.

Went to hear Adam Phillips in conversation with Katherine Angel about his new book, The Life You Want. I find psychoanalysis so endlessly fascinating & am turning to it once again for this book chapter on carers. Highly recommend listening to Phillips’ mellifluous voice too.

Last term I tried an experiment: I walked into my Tech and Design Ethics class, admitted that I had *no idea* what to do about ChatGPT - so I would let them figure it out. As in: their first project was to decide and write the ChatGPT policy for the class. Here's what happened:

Looking for an opportunity to improve the world a bit? @nuffieldfoundation.org is looking for a new trustee. A great organisation supporting a range of research and initiatives such as @adalovelaceinst.bsky.social; all ably led by @gavin-kelly.bsky.social www.saxbam.com/appointment/...

Preliminary proofs are in......

The Centre for Uses of Literature at the University of Southern Denmark is inviting applications for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships 2026 (MSCA-PF). www.sdu.dk/en/forskning... @bacls.bsky.social @c21literature.bsky.social @englishassociation.bsky.social @ies-sas.bsky.social

We are delighted to share the programme for our upcoming conference! We will be running fourteen panels across two days in early February - all online and open to everyone 😊 please see our website for more details on speakers, panels and how to book.

One of the most important December drops every year!

a new monograph by one of our fabulous advisory board ☺️

Alt text for those who need it. This is amazing.

'The report, led by the University of Bristol and funded by Research England, found that some universities are already using generative AI to assess the quality of their research.' 1/3

This week in Glasgow I needed a space to work where I didn’t have to buy anything, with free WiFi & without the vagaries of eduroam. I used the beautiful Hillhead Library. We need to value our public libraries for the wonderful service they provide us all.

A report by the Covid inquiry into political decision-making during the pandemic proves that the “horrific” and disproportionate death toll among disabled people was not inevitable but the result of treating them as an “afterthought” www.disabilitynewsservice.com/inquiry-repo...

Interesting report for HEIs to consider. English degrees deliver a lot of the skills outlined as needed here.

I tried a couple new things this term. It has been my best term since 2019. Among my trial runs was self-directed reading, following the advice of Mary Isbell on @c19podcast.bsky.social I highly recommend this & it should be part of your 2025 best of public humanities, @americanstudier.bsky.social

you do have to do it in a couple of places but this tutorial makes it easy to go uncheck the boxes that otherwise lets Google's AI read all your shit. or move everything over to protonmail but moving everything over is a giant thing I know.

I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight www.cityam.com/the-british-...

all the Prometheus, Icarus, Palantir, Erebor, etc. shows that none of these guys - none, and it is almost all guys - have actually done the reading

Doctoral Researcher, Liam Young, is co-organising the first @bacls.bsky.social graduate conference, held at the Uni of Leeds on 20 May 2026. Participants will be invited to contribute to a special issue of the journal Alluvium. Deadline for abstracts: 4 January 2026. CFP here: bacls.org/news/188/

I'm giving a short talk about my new book, The Help Deficit and the Stories We Tell to Dispel It, in my department's research seminar series on 3rd December, 4.15 pm - 5,30 pm. It's hybrid so let me know if you'd like the Teams link.

👋 Hi Bluesky! The School of Advanced Study, University of London champions the arts and humanities. Working through our renowned specialist institutes and centres of excellence, we offer a rich interdisciplinary environment for researchers to collaborate. Let's connect: 🔗 sas.ac.uk/

Apply!

We speak with Caroline Levine, Ryan Professor of the Humanities in the Department of Literatures in English at Cornell University, about her important book The Activist Humanist: Form and Method in the Climate Crisis.

Thrilled to announce our new issue, Novel Media/Media Novel, edited by Dong Xia and Sandro Eich: c21.openlibhums.org/issue/1286/i...

This conversation between ChatGPT and the young man it encouraged to commit suicide is just...my god www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...

The world’s first trillionaire initiated a move that has left more than half a million people dead, most of whom are children.

Lovely to see that Minimalism and Affect in American Literature, 1970-2020 was shortlisted for the BACLS Monograph Prize! Huge congratulations to winners, @drdominicdean.bsky.social and @dremmaparker.bsky.social, and fellow shortlister @gabriele-lazzari.bsky.social

Thrilled to share that Killing Children in British Fiction has been jointly awarded the @bacls.bsky.social Monograph Prize 2025. Thanks to judges; huge congratulations fellow winner @dremmaparker.bsky.social and shortlisted @olihaslam.bsky.social @gabriele-lazzari.bsky.social. bacls.org/news/187/

One of our reviews editors @heyitsdenisew.bsky.social has a book out! Congratulations Denise!

I'm giving an online talk tomorrow about the poets Holly Pester, Rachel Galvin & Maya Marshall. It's called 'Beyond Proleptic Pregnancy: Abortion and Miscarriage in Contemporary Poetry'. DM me if you'd like to come along and I'll send you the link. 4-5 pm UK time, Tuesday 4th November, on Zoom.

'Study in SHAPE disciplines – social sciences, humanities and the arts – develops the skills that underpin a modern workforce: critical thinking, communication and creativity. These are not peripheral to the industrial strategy but essential to it.' 1/3

In short, the ANES data shows: 📉 Social media use is shrinking 💥 Twitter/X posting has moved ~50 points to the right 🧩 Platforms are splintering 🔊 Fewer people are talking — but those still talking are more politically extreme

We need a critique of AI in academic publishing. Following my decision not to sign an AI addendum to my contract with Cambridge University Press, I wrote this short essay which is now out in the Dublin Review of Books. 👇 drb.ie/move-over-fo...

This is an incredibly depressing but important read for those of us in English HEIs.

ASAP in Houston last Thurs - Sat was fabulous. Such a friendly conference and some really great papers, plus a fun city (even if the weather was a bit swampy). Highly recommend going if you work in contemporary lit or art.

So….southern imagining… what’s that? A book, it seems. @princetonupress.bsky.social

Read our response to the Government's Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper, published today: https://bit.ly/48z0QOe

Breaking: England to see automatic tuition fee rises each year from 2026, skills white paper reveals. Labour government says inflation-linked increases will be tied to teaching quality. Free to read. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...