My book comes out next month and I'd love to talk to your research group/seminar series/PGRs about it! Potential talk topics: Why do we think natural history museums are for kids? How public are our public museums? Truth and fiction in the museum Looting: empire in the museum...

Just back from brilliant Snake Summer event at Hunterian Museum of Zoology, big thanks to @tattersdill.bsky.social and @jordankistler.bsky.social. Bothrodon pridii, lost worlds, cryptid snakes and snake diversity and biology. Thanks to those who bought my tsuchinoko stickers :)

Hugely bittersweet to see all the wonderful doctoral projects that have received AHRC funding this year in Scotland - 50 in total! - and to know that the introduction of the Landscape Awards for 2026 will mean a 58% reduction in funding for Scottish institutions.

I always knew he was no good

I just feel like I'd have trouble taking news from this source seriously.

Want to know how baseless the claim that em dashes indicate GenAI use is? I just had to change all my book's em dashes to en dashes to fit house style (SOB), which means I now know that I used 275 em dashes in this book. Of course, I also named my rabbit Em Dash, so perhaps this isn't a surprise.

Funded PhD in heritage! Collecting Australia: colonial consumption and the display of Australia in Scotland during the long nineteenth century. Closing date: 25 May www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Very pleased that my article 'Facts and Fictions: Emotional Authenticity and Narrative in Natural History Exhibitions', which close reads the displays of the NHM and the Loch Ness Centre, has been published today! journals.le.ac.uk/index.php/mas

Absolutely lovely feeling of Friday 5 o'clock (nearly) coinciding with the completion of the last chapter of my book! There's still a conclusion to be written and the notes and the index (shudder) to sort out, but that's still 90,000 words drafted!

Come join @tanjabueltmann.net and I at Strathclyde for a funded PhD on built heritage and Glasgow’s slaving links, centred around Tobacco Merchant’s House. Excellent ops to engage with heritage industry via co-supervision by Scottish Civic Trust! Details below! Any questions - get in touch!

The problem with comical nicknames for your pets is that you call for "stinky baby" and "darling horror", and that's at least several of them, if not all of them.

I visited the Museu Martorell in Barcelona last week and can't get over the spectacular taxidermy they currently have on display, by Antonio Perez Rodriguez. A genuine feat of engineering, I can't quite work out how he did it!

Victorianist friends: I'm looking for appearance of the Egyptian Hall Piccadilly in fiction. Any ideas?

For very important research reasons, I need to know everyone's favourite cryptid (not just nessie). @tetzoo.bsky.social ?

A new obstacle to work has appeared in my life

The BSLS is now on bluesky! Give us a follow for all the latest lit and science news. @thebsls.bsky.social

I love that the Stardew Valley update allows me to blow half a million on a purple tortoise. Living my best Des Esseintes life.

It's nearly time for the BSLS Winter Symposium! Interested in the medical humanities? Narratives about bodies? Intersections between fatness, race, queerness, and disability? Register here for 'Fat Fictions', January 25 (online)

What is life like for people who don't struggle with word count? Who have never spent hours deleting every word that can possibly be spared? Who haven't wondered if "the" is really REALLY necessary? You must feel so light and free.

Once any space becomes less than 40% male, (straight) men tend to cede it entirely while shouting about how it “went woke”. Fascinating read:

A great start to a new year's pleasure reading. Sea monsters galore!

Abstract deadline extension: The BSLS winter symposium on 'Fat Fictions' will accept paper abstracts up until 5 January - if you missed the earlier deadline, please do submit an abstract now! www.bsls.ac.uk/2024/11/cfp-...

Frankly, should I even correct this? It gives all the important information

Hello to all #academics! The #Neurodivergent #Humanities Network, is now on Bluesky! We've got many exciting events lined up for 2025, including the relaunch of our NDHums #mentorship scheme! Follow us here for important updates, and join the network via our website. #AcademicSky #PhD

Excited to announce that Prof Lorna Piatti-Farnell and Dr Francis Ray White will be giving keynotes at this year's symposium! Prof Piatti-Farnell's work marries the Gothic with literary food studies, while Dr White's work focuses on queer, trans, and fat embodiment and activism.

Incredible Frankenstein cover spotted in the wild today.

Imagine failing to become famous during your lifetime and then more than ten years after your (untimely) death, people are STILL bodying you like this in the press.

Just over a week left to get in your abstracts for the BSLS winter symposium! Work in the medical humanities, environmental humanities, post-colonial studies, or any thoughts about the fictions we tell about bodies welcome!

We didn't provide cool name badges, but the participants made their own! Thanks so much for coming and sharing some monsters with us, @tetzoo.bsky.social

Had a blast at a ‘Fantasy and Museums’ workshop hosted by the University of Strathclyde / University of Glasgow Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic ✨ My head is full of ideas, I’ve learned so much about using fantasy in museum contexts - thanks so much @jordankistler.bsky.social and Will! 🧚🏻‍♀️🐉🦄🧝‍♀️🦑🦕

A conversation with a former student/current friend today has given me the only teaching statement I will ever need:

The British Society for Literature and Science (not yet on bluesky) is excited to announce the 2025 Winter Symposium on 'Fat Fictions', which will take place online on 25 January. The deadline for abstracts is 20 Dec. www.bsls.ac.uk/2024/11/cfp-... Please spread the word!

This is how I'm working all this week 🥶