I wrote about Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal and the Gothic doubles of reality tv for Mid-Theory Collective!

For our first essay of the new year, Matthew Moore looks a closer look, a double take if you will, at the doppelgänger in Nathan Fielder's oeuvre and his many attempts, albeit in vain, to stage his and our doubles so we might succeed in our repression of them. Give it a read!

MTC New Year's Letter from our editor-in-chief plus our editors' picks of 2025. Thank you everyone for helping us have a great year! See you next year and happy holidays ✨ tinyurl.com/bddh3y4r

New Year’s resolution is to write more publicly about teaching—have a couple things in the works that I’m excited about. Grateful for places like @mid-theory.bsky.social, who helped me make something I’m proud of, that are open to writing from some guy who teaches public school 🫡.

MTC New Year's Letter from our editor-in-chief plus our editors' picks of 2025. Thank you everyone for helping us have a great year! See you next year and happy holidays ✨ tinyurl.com/bddh3y4r

Our last piece of the calendar year goes to our "For Your Consideration" column, where Thomas Higgins reviews three recent poetry collections that meditate on loss, homeland, and the shape of memory. mid-theory.com/2025/12/29/f...

For MTC, Marie Lambert takes a closer look at the Gordon Ramsay televised media empire, its perils and parables. "How is it that a man who spends no small amount of his time on television being literally censored has become so omnipresent in primetime American media and culture?"

Thank you to the brilliant editors at @mid-theory.bsky.social for the chance to write about some of my favorite subjects: transfictional character, gender performance, and Daniel Craig’s tenure as a post-9/11, “serially straight” James Bond.

yesss central questions from brilliant #navsa2025 paper but make it 007 & benoit blanc

"It is a drag, and it is drag doing the gender work expected of 007. This year Amazon acquired full creative rights to the James Bond franchise. And as the quest for the next 007 drags on, Lauren Eriks Cline reflects on Daniel Craig's legacy in making palpable the character’s coerced masculinity.

we just finished the last editorial meeting of the calendar year for @mid-theory.bsky.social. it’s hard to believe we’ve only been up for 14 months. personally & professionally 2025 has been quite the year for me, but MTC remains the thing i am most proud of & the one i’ve worked the hardest at! 🎉🥂

Stephanie Insley Hershinow surveys recent Austen-related works on Jane Austen's 250th birthday: "Austen offers endless opportunity for examination and reexamination; still, it might be fair to ask what more one can say about our dear Jane." https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/happy-birthday-jane/

please enjoy this tiny-font version of the TOC! (w alt-text to actually read) 🌸

"With no closure in sight, readers join Alex in his pursuit of the unspeakable, hovering in an endless silence thick as blue smoke." Read Korey Williams revisiting of Richard Bruce Nugent's “Smoke, Lilies and Jade" for MTC celebration of Harlem Renaissance Centennial mid-theory.com/2025/12/11/h...

"With no closure in sight, readers join Alex in his pursuit of the unspeakable, hovering in an endless silence thick as blue smoke." Read Korey Williams revisiting of Richard Bruce Nugent's “Smoke, Lilies and Jade" for MTC celebration of Harlem Renaissance Centennial mid-theory.com/2025/12/11/h...

In honor of Harlem Renaissance Centennial, Korey Williams revisits Richard Bruce Nugent’s blazing queer short story ‘Smoke, Lilies and Jade.’ Williams reflects on the story’s treatise on love and beauty, its abiding legacy, and its singular lesson for today’s living. #HarlemRenaissance100

In honor of Harlem Renaissance Centennial, Korey Williams revisits Richard Bruce Nugent’s blazing queer short story ‘Smoke, Lilies and Jade.’ Williams reflects on the story’s treatise on love and beauty, its abiding legacy, and its singular lesson for today’s living. #HarlemRenaissance100

we endorse this 2026 new year's resolution for you all! send us pitches for your book reviews, book essays, and all your other bookish thoughts! 📚

“Broadening access to the humanities…—an effort that gives, for example, a room of public school kids the chance to experience the thrill of something entirely new—is needed now in ways that are difficult to overstate. There’s an essential kind of freedom at stake.” 💙😭🤟

Had a lot of fun writing this review of @tomcomitta.bsky.social’s strange, moving, and hilarious book. Gets us to think, as I argue here, about the value of an aesthetic education—something we all should aim for as we teach our kids. mid-theory.com/2025/12/04/u...

For MTC, John Downes-Angus reviews Tom Comitta's PEOPLE'S CHOICE LITERATURE and reflects on his experiences as a high school English teacher where on the daily he makes a case for reading the strange, the extreme, the unwanted—for the chance to accept "reading’s complicated gift to us."

Such a brilliant essay, John. So grateful for your thoughts here and the insight into practical ways to keep literature and difficult books alive. Another reminder of how much I’d like to get back to teaching. Sending warmth and admiration from LA

"Those of us who reject romantic notions of individual genius nevertheless can admit that there’s something to be said for a dose of extreme, un-assimalable newness—an aesthetic experience that does not appeal merely to our existing tastes and preferences, that does something unprecedented to us."

For @mid-theory.bsky.social, @johndownesangus.bsky.social wrote about @tomcomitta.bsky.social’s awesome book at @columbiaup.bsky.social! It was so fun to edit this piece!

For MTC, John Downes-Angus reviews Tom Comitta's PEOPLE'S CHOICE LITERATURE and reflects on his experiences as a high school English teacher where on the daily he makes a case for reading the strange, the extreme, the unwanted—for the chance to accept "reading’s complicated gift to us."

Sarah Sgro and Olivia Stowell take on the "Instagram Theme Party™," dressing for the algorithm, and what these rituals tell us about the "kind of choreographed sociality that both relies on and is reproduced by algorithmic culture and platform capitalism." Article illustrations by Carolyn Jao

Tomorrow's the deadline for proposals for this virtual mini-workshop for grad students with the Post45 Data Collective. Pitch a 10-15 minute presentation with data from the collective. Get feedback from a lot of excellent people.

DEAR GRAD STUDENTS, This March @post45data.bsky.social will be holding a free, online mini-workshop for grads working in the fields of contemporary literature and culture. More info / abstract submission here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... 1/4

The Post45 Data Collective invites graduate students in the humanities or adjacent fields to explore cultural data reflexively and collaboratively in a mini-workshop hosted virtually on Friday, March 13. Details here: data.post45.org/news/grad-wo...

This sounds amazing, please apply ✨

Sarah Sgro and Olivia Stowell take on the "Instagram Theme Party™," dressing for the algorithm, and what these rituals tell us about the "kind of choreographed sociality that both relies on and is reproduced by algorithmic culture and platform capitalism." Article illustrations by Carolyn Jao

Sarah Sgro and Olivia Stowell take on the "Instagram Theme Party™," dressing for the algorithm, and they tell us about "ritual talismans for a kind of choreographed sociality that both relies on and is reproduced by algorithmic culture and platform capitalism" Article Illustrations by Carolyn Jao

"the universal defilement of political speech saddles every utterance with such a burden of filth that, crushed and starting from within a dystopia that has already occurred, political speech can briefly, vanishingly, in the fragile space of an instant, attain the condition that literature cannot."

a gift from @bakaari.bsky.social (some of the other ones she brought were her brilliance and her humor) @mid-theory.bsky.social

We are underway. @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social delivers opening remarks at a packed “Close Reading For The 21st Centure” book launch symposium.

"the universal defilement of political speech saddles every utterance with such a burden of filth that, crushed and starting from within a dystopia that has already occurred, political speech can briefly, vanishingly, in the fragile space of an instant, attain the condition that literature cannot."

On the day of the NYC mayoral election, Ali Raz pens a gorgeous essay reflecting on how Mamdani's rhetoric evinces a poetics of the Universal and convokes a shared commons united by labor and by the rhythms of life spent working in cities most of us cannot afford. mid-theory.com/2025/11/04/m...

This is a beautiful essay

A piece about having Big Feelings about Mamdani. @mid-theory.bsky.social was a dream to work with 💖 Now glueing myself to election coverage. 🍺📺

On the day of the NYC mayoral election, Ali Raz pens a gorgeous essay reflecting on how Mamdani's rhetoric evinces a poetics of the Universal and convokes a shared commons united by labor and by the rhythms of life spent working in cities most of us cannot afford. mid-theory.com/2025/11/04/m...

In our inaugural 'For Your Consideration' column Amanda Ann Klein and Olivia Stowell discuss Aaron Schimberg’s 2024 film A DIFFERENT MAN, a psychological drama about an actor with facial differences who undergoes an experimental treatment to alter his appearance. mid-theory.com/2025/10/22/f...

Working with Adam was an absolute dream! He was as usual responsive, attentive, brilliant. We cannot wait to work with him again ✨🎉

Our final meeting on NEVADA will be TODAY 10/30 at 5:30pm ET. We look forward to seeing returning and new faces! Sign up here: tinyurl.com/4yj7xj8p

Our final meeting on NEVADA will be tomorrow 10/30 at 5:30pm ET. We look forward to seeing returning and new faces! Sign up here: tinyurl.com/4yj7xj8p

As you gear up for the spooky season, may we interest you in the unplayable and the haunt of the VHS tape mid-theory.com/2025/09/04/c...

For MTC, TJ Calhoun reviews Danzy Senna’s 'Colored Television.' Of the novel's protagonist they write, "She is the daughter of a theory-minded generation, where race is both too fluid and too real, and where no one actually wants to be understood, only verified."

Would anyone want to write a review of Lily Allen’s new album for @mid-theory.bsky.social ?? It’s so so so good and begs for some great criticism!

For MTC, TJ Calhoun reviews Danzy Senna’s 'Colored Television.' Of the novel's protagonist they write, "She is the daughter of a theory-minded generation, where race is both too fluid and too real, and where no one actually wants to be understood, only verified."

In our inaugural 'For Your Consideration' column Amanda Ann Klein and Olivia Stowell discuss Aaron Schimberg’s 2024 film A DIFFERENT MAN, a psychological drama about an actor with facial differences who undergoes an experimental treatment to alter his appearance. mid-theory.com/2025/10/22/f...

For MTC, Sophia Richardson examines how Netflix's SIRENS draws on competing visions of the ancient myth. mid-theory.com/2025/10/16/w...