Bluesky friends, please signal boost! I am trying to read an obituary in the Springfield Republican (1919) for a ESN Goodall who might, just *might*, be the author of the ‘George Eliot Birthday Book’, but it’s behind a paywall 😭 Can anyone help?

After two months off with burnout, and a new ADHD diagnosis, I’m back in the PhD and feeling ready for anything!

Last month, I was formally diagnosed with ADHD! Really happy 🥳

A few weeks ago, I contacted the bookshop where a friend had bought a misbound George Eliot novel for my birthday. I wanted to say thanks and share the queer things I’d learned from studying it. Today, the owner surprised me with ‘a gift from the shop’. What a lovely man 🥹

My goal for 2025 x

Two good writing days, and this afternoon I learned that I’ll be getting some assistive technology from the uni 🥹 #ADHD

On a journey of self-discovery #ADHD

Today, I disclosed my ADHD to the university. I’m going to get lots of help, and, hopefully, the PhD won’t be so hard anymore 😭

The term 'trans' (in relation to sex and gender) is over 350 years old... Thomas Blount's 'Glossographia' from 1656, the first full-length English Language Dictionary, had two different words for changing sex. These were "Tranſection" and "Transfeminate".

Gave my first lecture today 🥹

Wearing my favourite trans-affirming t-shirt to campus today because my university is hosting an event on ‘academic freedom’. Events like this make me - and other LGBT+ people I know - feel anxious and deeply uncomfortable. But I won’t give up. Trans people belong.

‘Do not ban transgender people from receiving care in mainstream hospital wards’ | If you are a UK resident, please sign this parliamentary petition: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/66...

Do not listen to their lies. I have zero concerns about sharing a hospital ward with a trans, non-binary or intersex person. And I’m not the only one who feels this way. Trans people belong. Always. amp.theguardian.com/society/2024...

The strangest thing about the NHS ‘biologically segregated’ wards is that there’s already a commitment in place to have male/female wards & that often gets broken. Where will these ‘single rooms’ for trans patients be found? It’s a bit unrealistic isn’t it?

On route to see the boyfriend, I’m thinking about queerness, anxiety, and the need to pause in Eliot. Delighted to find an accidental pause in my copy of ‘Impressions of Theophrastus Such’ (1879). Page 49 is ‘missing’ and ends on a pause ‘when—’. (It then reappears later in the book around p. 112).

My paper was accepted 🥹🥳 Looking forward to sharing my archival research on the surprising connection(s) between George Eliot and Edward Carpenter 🏳️‍🌈

Does #AcademicTwitter know of any work on literary pauses, those moments when a story stops unexpectedly or steps outside of itself and reflects? Bonus points for any queer approaches. I want to think about Adam Bede, pauses, grief, interruptions of study, and my PhD with holes in it.

adding this to my dissertation chapter on the trans materiality of Leaves of Grass...

First proper day of writing since losing my grandma. Not a huge word count, but it’s a start. I can do this 🥹

Ready for this to become my entire personality 🥹

Me at 3am: What if I made my Woolf seminar an escape room? Also me:

As the midterm is due an hour before today’s seminar, I’m going to give my students a moment to reflect (in private!) on their ‘slay of the day’. Because there is a slay in every day and it doesn’t always have to be linked to academic performance. Yes, I am a gay teacher 💁🏻‍♂️

More time with him. More daffodils.

Anyone know of any queer fiction/poetry/non-fiction about taxidermy? 🤔I’m mainly working on C19th pieces, but keen to bring in contemporary examples (like this one!) where relevant.

My supervisor @nbsteps4stonewall.bsky.social is perhaps the most compassionate man I know. He inspires me to be a better thinker, scholar and human everyday. This month, NB is walking 10,000 steps a day to raise money for @stonewalluk! 🚶🏳️‍🌈 Let’s support him: www.justgiving.com/page/nb-1708...

Every Barthes seminar must include this picture of the (very handsome!) man himself. Sorry, I don’t make the rules 🤷🏻‍♂️

🏳️‍⚧️ 🫶

Found some shoes abandoned in the rain. It felt oddly poetic.

@barthesstudies.bsky.social new covers incoming 👀

Earlier this week, I was heartened to see that someone had left period products in the men’s bathroom at university. Trans men and non binary people have periods too! 🏳️‍⚧️

My first read of 2024 is, I think, a book for the ages. Witty, raw, and incandescent. There simply aren’t enough words in the English language to describe how moved I am by this little book.

Motivating myself to return to the thesis tomorrow x

1/2: On this NYE, I wish for peace, for compassion, and for an end to war, homelessness, divisive politics, hunger, pain, and loneliness. I wish for radical queer love, shorter waiting lists, warm + affordable housing for all, accessible spaces everywhere, logical families, + endless trans joy.

1/2: As of five minutes ago, I’ve donated the last of the funds from my teaching in trans-affirming t-shirts challenge to Impact, an LGBTQ+ youth group based in Cathays, near to my university.

Outraged to hear Labour supporting the Tories anti-trans school ‘guidance’. Trans, non-binary, and intersex young people exist (they always have done, history tells us so) and they are just as deserving of dignity and respect as cisgender children and young adults. Shame on you all. Labour = Tories.

🥹

After 11 weeks of teaching in trans-affirming clothing, 80% of donations have been transferred to @ImpactLGBTQ 🫶 Just waiting for Gofundme to process and release the remaining 20%💰Will tweet as soon as it’s complete for full transparency! Thank you for donating #transrights 🏳️‍⚧️

City break with friends to Winchester. Going to eat mince pies, look at posh buildings, and learn lots about groovy Jane Austen 📚🫶

It’s the season finale of SE2139: Drama-Stage and Page today and everyone is getting a plastic Oscar—I mean, Olivier award. Yes. Definitely haven’t scratched out the word Oscar…

WE DID IT! 🥳 My 11 week teaching in trans-affirming t-shirts challenge has raised a whopping £625 for IMPACT, a LGBTQ+ youth group based in Cathays, close to Cardiff University, in the UK, where I work and study 🏳️‍⚧️ Thank you for donating. And @cardiffuni take note hun, we can do better 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️👨‍🎓