An excellent essay collection on transnational approaches to regionalism just published open access with Radboud University Press. Not one but two essays on Freeman! It was a pleasure to work with these editors. books.radbouduniversitypress.nl/index.php/ru...

Oh, 81%, eh? And I wonder what percentage it would be refusing care from medical workers who hadn't been born here.

Great roundtable on ghost stories by Wharton, Freeman, and Stowe in the latest _Edith Wharton Review_.

A-level English : Language, Language & Literature and Language : our results 2025 analysis. @tesmagazine.bsky.social englishassociation.ac.uk/the-ea-congr...

Tens of thousands of Americans will have died (literally) from Medicaid cuts by the time Hersheys removes nontoxic synthetic dyes from their high-calorie, low-nutrition candies

Please don’t lump me in with the IDF, that seems kinda antisemitic

These huge cars are vastly more dangerous, kill far more children, as they're higher at the front. They should have their own much lower speed limit in towns; and higher tax. Parking should be charged as for vans, they're larger than normal spaces. It's bizarre that they're treated as cars.

Absolutely thrilled to see this excellent piece by our MA graduate and now PhD student, Nada Saadaoui, on walking as a form of resistance for Jane Austen and her heroines, published in ‘The Conversation’ today: theconversation.com/for-jane-aus...

Foxgloves are blooming in Nottingham

"I do not need to be Bandanese to understand what Gunung Api means to the islanders, just as I do not need to be Greek to be moved by the Iliad." - Amitav Ghosh. I'm moved by his rejection of ecofascist arguments for protecting only one's own nation's nature.

In case you're tired of being asked, when do you break up?

Reminder that today is the last day to object to Facebook using your data to feed their AI. You need to go into the privacy center until you get to 'Right to Object' where they deliberately make it hard to enter your email address. However now had an email confirming they won't use any of my data.

Our future may depend on the humanities wonkhe.com/blogs/our-fu...

Five or six wrens flitting in and out of my woodpile.

Thanks to Valerie Kinsey for noticing our book's ecocriticism: 'Freeman in these critics’ hands moves beyond denaturalizing social worlds toward rendering ways of being in and of nature.’ muse.jhu.edu/issue/53522?...

I'm giving a talk in a few months to some children's publishing and bookselling bods. If you could say one thing to a capitive audience of publishers and booksellers, what would YOU say? #KidLitUK (Dm me if it's something you'd rather not say out loud...)

Can recommend Aimz Rushton's substack. She always has her finger on the heartbeat. aimzrushton.substack.com?r=185r72&utm...

Talking BAAS and SSAWW with Emma in Hertfordshire. She actually approves this Chardonnay.

Nearing Hatfield for #BAAS2025.

Easter walk at Gotham

Women's appearance and behaviour is about to get even more highly policed in the UK, with a few people doubtless being emboldened to "take action". This whole billionaire-funded enterprise dials back gender equity by decades.

'If we're not real women, why are you patronising and talking over us?' sign at Trans Rights rally Nottinham just now.

University of Derby faces mass job cuts as management plans to make half of senior academics redundant. Please spread the word. www.ucu.org.uk/article/1398...

Recommendation for a short story with an environmental critique of consumerism, anyone? I'd like to teach Ling Ma's Severance, but fear it's too long for the students given other things on the syllabus--for a sustainable world module.

In the US, the Government is cracking down on Universities. In the UK, Universities' senior management are cracking down on Universities.

LibGen potentially trains AI on my books and articles, no payments to me, nor any of the other Stephanie Palmers out there. www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

I think narrative that mental health services have reached breaking point was true a long time ago, and possibily always was. For folks not watching closely the crisis never quite arrives, as it is atomised in individual lives. Then change only happens based on scandals that are about other things

Dear BlueSky, Please widely share that my book is out today. 🚀 It tells wild & wonderful, (& arrestingly illustrated) little-known histories from the reproductive frontline. It is a history like no other and like any other, ie brill & for any history lover anywhere. Discount code in replies 👇🏾

I know, I know, I have to read before I can write, but it still feels like I'm slacking off.

For me, holding a national ballot on pay (*last year's* pay) is a ludicrous idea. I also find it insulting because, as a casualised member, I may be unemployed next year. You can't get a pay rise if you don't have a job. If you agree we should call it off, sign here: ucucommons.org/2025/02/13/m...

BAAS cancels its small grant programme rather than accede to Trump's anti DEI executive order. Well done BAAS. Since 1955 independence is more important than State Dept funding.

Just finally drafted a piece of writing I've been reading around and worrying over for about four weeks.

What?

Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902, in Joplin, MO.

Marking on Sunday, out of reach of email. Not ideal but surprisingly productive.

If anyone knows how to get JSTOR to believe I want to accept cookies instead of being asked every click please let me know.

Reading an entire book manuscript is hard. There is so much material to absorb. This is even true when it's your own book manuscript.🥲

For every woman who has ever gone for a run. open.substack.com/pub/lyz/p/i-...

Really good idea for a statement on AI in module leaflets, thanks for posting

This is 100% the correct explanation for the higher ed crisis. Are there any examples of where this trend has been successfully reversed? celestemdavis.substack.com/p/why-boys-d...

Now out in paperback!

Here is my example of nearby nature or the edgelands from next week's lecture.

Last two lectures of term written and I'm spent.

Apply for a fully funded interdisciplinary PhD at NTU studying nature writing, nearby nature, and community practice in the East Midlands. www.ntu.ac.uk/study-and-co...

Fantastic review of our New Perspectives on Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (Edinburgh University Press, 2023) in the latest Edith Wharton Review by Wendy Ryden, which argues that our 'impressive collection' sees 'Freeman in all her complexity.' Wonderful to have such readers.

The protestors want to call it "the tractor tax" because calling it "the inheritance tax protest" would turn off public opinion. The tractors coming into London today, in fact, pay no road tax, no congestion charge, and no ULEZ. Exempt from all.

Lecture-writing weekly update:not finished yet, but enjoying my own slides on Freytag's pyramid, on a lesbian seagull, on the prevalence of mountains in landscape painting. Students already reported they like the book.

Poppies

Great afternoon with Five Leaves Bookshop Writing While Muslim event, and also this remembering millinery workers alongside the enslaved. Solidarity!

Just finished lecture on When the Levees Broke for lit and environmentalism module and wish the film made the link to climate change a bit more emphatically. Good, though.