Two plans I have for assessments someday: 1: extra, low % ass. where students are marked on how well they apply feedback from A1 2: essays include a short oral exam, dissuading AI use or making it easier to tell (when they can’t remember any concepts) Idk how/when, but I think it’d fix everything

Constant question while marking: is it my university that’s failed students on basic writing skills or to what extent is it a national/international problem… Surely it can’t all be Covid fallout? Even with everything being underfunded… it’s basic grammar, basic punctuation, basic citing…

How am I meant to mark papers under these conditions (waiting to see if I got Harry Styles one night only in Manchester tickets)

I initially panicked when HS4 was announced bc I am too busy for this (and I still am) but now that the first single is out I think it’s actually going to revive me and get me through the next six months

I’ve semi accidentally amassed a collection of adhd-panic students and I love them but they also make me want to email all my former professors to thank them for their service lol

Wait Harry’s House came out in 2022 right when I started my PhD and Kiss All The Time is coming out 2026 at the very end of my PhD that’s kind of cunty for me (and also Harry that’s been so long)

Harry Styles announced his album and in doing so put more things on my PhD edits to do list 🥲

Listen I generally don’t love celebs knowing about fic things but this is the only Heated Rivalry image that’s made me at all interested in watching the show

I hate that hideous fucking ai coke ad so much it’s ruining my Christmas more than being sick

Sick and half dead but finally submitted to the TWC music issue woooo, now just an analysis chapter to finish before the new year 🙃

I made it thru 99% of term and international travel without getting sick, and then 2 days before break a student coughed through a supervision meeting saying “I don’t think I’m infectious, no one in my flat has gotten sick”, and now I’m dying :(

🎅 Santa has looked much the same on the page for generations. Preserving periodical covers like this one helps connect how the season ❄️ was pictured then with how we recognize it now. See more vintage images in our Holiday 2025 Periodical Art collection ⤵️ archive.org/details/@ias... #HolidayArt

I’m sorry, but it is disgraceful to be an academic who uses this technology to conduct research. It should be prohibited in all of our scholarly institutions, including universities and journals.

This entire weekend

Merriam-Webster’s human editors have chosen ‘slop’ as the 2025 Word of the Year.

This quote is rich and verbatim confirms that Iger and Disney literally don’t see artists as creatives or creators.

There isn't a single problem "solved" by edtech that couldn't be fixed with smaller classes led by well-paid teachers given real academic freedom

lol remember when we thought Disney’s litigious nature was gonna maybe possibly hopefully save us from AI even a tiny bit?

There’s a dog up for adoption from the rescue I got my dog from, and she looks the same as my dog with the same silly personality but she’s half the size, and my dog would love a friend oh my god I want her so bad but I cannot have a second dog yet

Realising Grey’s Anatomy did a “keep a brain dead woman alive as an incubator” subplot all the way back in 2005, except in the show it’s a white woman and her family is the one asking to keep her on life support, to everyone’s horror, and hospital bills go completely unmentioned…

Can someone write/has anyone written something on Cameo, celebs, the powerless elite, etc…. It’s a baffling subindustry that I want to read about but don’t want to write

Last year I taught first year ideology content and 3rd year gossip and morality content with Kendrick/Drake beef and the halftime show, and it was great loved it went so well and I was planning on using it again this year… but now the 50 Cent Diddy documentary is out and I’m… considering…

If there’s one thing about me it’s that I love stuff and I especially love lining stuff up

Writing about a fangirl wave incoming….. (inspected and signed off by Esther)

All my modules this week and next week are focused on gender and representation, and after that they’re all basically about ideology and morality — I love it when things like up (aka that I’ve designed it that way) very much teaching from my happy place until the end of term 🥰🥰🥰

Cambridge dictionary's word of the year is parasocial which gives me an excuse to promote this episode where I explain why I think it's a silly word that obscures more than it reveals and significantly fails to capture the messiness of modern audience/celebrity interactions.

Creator discussing the shift that happens as a video goes viral— first commenters addressing her (you said) & expecting her to read, then talking ABOUT her (she said) & leaving comments for other people… Depersonalisation of creators? Feels like an interesting place for the parasocial lit to engage?

Chat do you think I can get my first year media studies students to edit and analyse trumps thanksgiving tweet? We’re in our representation topic, and also their first essay is coming up…..

Had Toby Carvery w friends for Thanksgiving yesterday, I think I’m gonna make a huge pot of mash and a pumpkin pie tomorrow so I can still indulge in thanksgiving leftover breakfast (the best part)

SO excited to read this one omg

one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.

I teach a first year media studies class called analysing content and I think I’m going to add a spotting ai/misinformation section somewhere… hmm…

Finally confronting the answer to my word count problems that’s been staring at me for like 3 years and I don’t like it

I know they’ve already given me an extra 20,000 words but honestly it feels like all of my problems would be solved if my diss could be 110k words instead of 100k……

Taught encoding and decoding w Sherlock again this year, but this year the students who hadn’t seen the show before couldn’t fathom the possibility that Johnlock wasn’t canon (just from like half of the first episode), which was a delight lol

Loser behaviour of my undergrad uni having an AI filmmaking class, less loser behaviour that all the alums hate it

The 2017 millennial skinny jeans business casual at school at the club everywhere is killing me Ik it’s tv but also we were really out there dressing like that

Riverdale is so terrible it’s so good

Hello good morning my new article for Celebrity Studies is live! The link here will give the first 50 viewers free access (ideal if you don't currently belong to a University with a subscription): www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....

The vibe Ill be bringing to the function (my presentation on fangirls, methods, and TikTok at #FSNNA2025)

The vibe I bring to the function

Oh #FSNNA2025 it’s only the intro day and you’ve already got my little fan studies scholar heart so warm and fuzzy

I officially love the #MLA website. I'm citing the casting call for #Hamilton via the Wayback Machine. They have an explanation of how to cite a web page in the Internet Archive!!! #PhDsky #AcademicSky style.mla.org/citing-work-...

There’s a fan vidder on TikTok who has done genuinely like 30 videos of different Twilight/Hunger Games gay ships (Bella/Katniss, Edward/Peeta, Carlisle/Haymitch, etc) and every single one of them deserves an Oscar and every single one of them leaves me baffled that vidding used to be done via VHS

Sometimes TikTok is miserable but sometimes it’s algorithm gives me such perfect little gems, like, currently an analysis of the rapper bbno$ as a cis drag king

I fear the day when, post PhD, I make one document combining everything I’ve written in these four years and find out just how much I’ve actually written for this 100k word thesis….

Skeet Ulrich in Scream has such pretty doe eyes it’s making me consider watching Riverdale again (likewise Courtney Cox and Friends)

Just saw the CFP for “A Conference…but it’s Midwest Emo” and they’ve got me looking up flights to saint louis www.emocon2026.com