An open letter, to readers, about Charity and Sylvia. I am very pained to feel the need to write this. #queerhistory #pride

I consider it my prerogative to use Bsky experts to nerdsnipe my family, so if any musicologists want to weigh in on the latest tiff between me and Spousal Unit, have at: Porgy and Bess—opera? Musical? Some secret third thing? And why/how do you figure that?

This is astonishing, please send to all your hometown friends and parents and second cousins and academic administrators: lareviewofbooks.org/article/dang...

A lot of media coverage of the ‘AI’ reading of the Herculaneum scrolls really fails to understand what’s happened here. There’s no language processing happening, the AI/ML is not trained on a corpus of texts or language. It can detect ink to see shapes. HUMAN EXPERTS are then transcribing the text.

First #bookhistory post of the year. Some books simply scream for a thread! We have two copies of the same #EarlyModern edition. Why would we want to collect two copies of the same book, you ask? Read on! EHC Antwerp, K 54092 copy 1 and 2. [1/16] 📜 💙📚

As it is Pride Month, I thought people might enjoy a list of the many queer themed talks that Romancing the Gothic has run over the years. Whether you want to explore trans rage in Polish cinema, explore the history of gay Gothic pulp, or lean about lesbian vampires, we've got it all! 1/

"The funniest possible outcome of the AI mandate era is about to be HR departments discovering that 'sincerely held religious belief' under Title VII has a much lower bar than they assumed, and Pope Leo handed every Catholic employee a written excuse" www.businessinsider.com/worker-got-r...

I found a new-to-me woman publisher this morning, so that means going back through all the records attached to the publisher when we didn't know who they were and reconfiguring them with the extra care we give women in the WPHP. She's in the archived BBTI: bbti.grubstreetproject.net/details_trad...

Everything is gender and eww

Bread-binding: 18th century almanac housed in a wooden case meant to look like a Vienna bread roll! Images courtesy of the Rare Book School

ISLE, a leading journal in the environmental humanities, is seeking 2 Associate Editors to begin on July 1, 2026. Read the call for applications (deadline June 15) at www.asle.org/stay-informe...

The Art of Cookery annotations!! Delightful.

The final solution for AI in academia is a scenario where students are submitting AI-generated homework to be graded by AI-generated faculty using AI agents, all of which is being overseen by highly paid administrators who are extracting money from the students in exchange for a degree. The end.

They also completely destroyed "[x word] synonym" searches, which were the bulk of my googling. My weak brain can never remember the word I want, but it can always remember the word just to the left of what I want... and now, thanks to AI™️, I am bereft of even tedious synonym hunting!

On the eve of our submission window opening, we felt we should add an AI policy

For those in Toronto, a nice exhibition at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library until 14 August #c18 #c18th #18thc library.utoronto.ca/exhibit/popu...

HBD to the legendary joyful/angry feminist and superlative filmmaker Agnès Varda (1928-2019)!!! 🎊🎞️

We've all had performances fall short of our expectations before, but have you ever had one directly undermine your legitimacy as ruler of a nation? No? Well Queen Mary II did! Read about her experience here: blogs.uoregon.edu/londonstage/... #digitalhumanities #18thc #theaterhistory

This is deliberate deliteracy.

Lecturer in English (Teaching & Scholarship) Queen Mary University of London - Department of English Salary: £51,755 to £60,901 per annum www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRR618/l... #HigherEd

In Shelley Puhak's (fantastic) discussion of her new publication "The Blood Countess" on the New Books Network, she mentions that there was a famous German serial killer whose escapades were being published in broadside publications in the early modern period- anyone know who that serial killer was?

Call for Papers! @pamlaorg.bsky.social has a brand-new #popularromance area, which I am chairing (yay!) - join us on the #romance panel in November in Seattle! Abstract deadline May 25! #CFP #BookSky #AcademicSky session link: pamla.ballastacademic.com/Home/S/19917 PAMLA website: www.pamla.org

My father has created a whole spreadsheet for my job search next year, to collate "all the faculty positions" I could apply for. Very sweet, but I feel bad that he's now put all this effort in for what will likely be 1.5 jobs total 🙃

Per a conversation w/ @thefallingdream.bsky.social: "AI Psychosis": ableist, saneist, makes it seem like an individual problem; washed "AI Ensorcellment": highlights both the truth of the magico-religious commitments underlying all tech *&* the curse-like nature of systemic "AI" impositions; fire

Glad that Canvas is back for now, but does this mean someone paid the hackers? And can we get that monied person(s) to pay the British Library so they can keep recovering from their massive hack of yesteryear as well?

I'm not a big fan of both the government and the hacker group simultaneously attacking higher education, even if I also hate Canvas. I suppose they're all crime syndicates, but come on, leave us something!

PSA for a new approach to the AI issue: make all assignments optional. If the student is AI-inclined, they instead just write “I would use AI to complete this assignment” to get full credit. The undergrads said it made them “not want to use AI because I felt like such a stupid chud writing that.”

Listsning to the first run of this now. It is so fascinating. Learning so much about Shirley Jackson's relationship to witchcraft. You can still get your free ticket for this evening!

On Jane Austen’s 250th birthday, would like to encourage fans to check out Fanny Burney’s work which highly influenced Austen, who even borrowed the phrase ‘pride and prejudice’ from Burney. Recommend starting with Evelina. Also, Burney’s life was WILD. 🖤 #JaneAusten #Austen250 #FannyBurney

I am so excited about the online course I will be teaching next year at Liverpool Uni on popular romance! They finally let me run a whole romance course!!!! Falling in love with love: A History of Popular Romance | Continuing Education | University of Liverpool share.google/QdPJ2ubolU59...

Statement on the Lemkin Institute's website:

Great to celebrate the launch of ‘The Verse of Charles Dickens’ and ‘The Plays of Charles Dickens’ with their respective editors - Lydia Craig and @emilyjlm.bsky.social - and - Joanna Hofer-Robinson and @peteorford.bsky.social - at the Charles Dickens Museum.👏

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell casts a huge shadow over the book world. I'm seeing a flood of books that borrow its genre-hopping, generation-spanning format. So in my latest newsletter, I wonder: is Cloud Atlas becoming a bit of a genre on its own? buttondown.com/charliejane/...

"i dont know what id do widdout my chatgpt 🥺👉👈" Oh my god go back to Baby School you fucking failure

Saw this in Edinburgh a few years ago and have carried the thought with me since 🩷

Very excited about the two new books I picked up at #SCMS2025! Love @robinmeanscoleman.bsky.social so I'm especially thrilled to have snagged Horror Noire. Overall a lovely conference - it was so fun to present on creepy little kids in horror games, and the papers I saw on cozy games were super! 👾

Rest in Power Linda Williams. 💔 (1946-2025) This loss hangs heavy on my heart. Linda was a legend--inspiring feminist scholar, warm interlocutor always generous to students & newbies, and fierce/indomitable presence whose commitment made us all care more. I'm grateful to have known her!! ❤️😢

A chairde, as they say, "every wishlist helps!" Our gothic horror game, set in #Ireland - specifically set in the Hellfire Club in #Dublin 😱 - will be going into Early Access this year :)) Find out more below, & wishlist us today. Míle baochas 🙇‍♀️

Just listened to a wonderful talk from @drsurekhadavies.bsky.social about her very interesting (and very beautiful) book! Excited to display it on my bookshelf 🧟‍♀️

How is the top University in the Bluest state in the US reacting to Trump’s attacks on Academic Freedom in the form of the “Anti-DEI order? The answer is: NOT good. A thread 🧵 about how the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa is responding to these attacks.

Devastating read. "'You would have thought at some point you escape the poverty trap,' said Nathaniel Hendren, a Harvard economist and an author of the study. Black boys — even rich black boys — can seemingly never assume that." www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Saw this in Edinburgh a few years ago and have carried the thought with me since 🩷

Interesting. Here's my alternative take: Kill it with fire.

My hometown!

Yesterday, I discovered a(n apparently v famous) theatre tradition 'Grand-Guignol' that was both unbelievably gross, but also cool af. I'm kind of ashamed I hadn't heard of it before... Massive props (no pun intended) to @alexiamandla.bsky.social for her enthusiastic/detailed gore descriptions.

Every clothing website is now an endless battle. 10% OFF IF YOU SIGN UP FOR TEXTS! ACCEPT COOKIES, EVEN IF YOU'VE BEEN TO THIS WEBSITE 100 TIMES! SPIN OUR WHEEL TO GET 15% OFF IF YOU SIGN UP FOR TEXTS! FREE SHIPPING IF YOU SPEND $300! GIVE US YOUR PHONE NUMBER SO WE CAN TEXT YOU! I'm exhausted.

Ann Radcliffe tries to joke They wound through black woods of pine as even the last tints of stars died in the savage foliage, seeking safety in the wretched inn; if Misery ever had local habitation, this may have been "her dearest place of seclusion," where even the moon declined to shed her rays.

Now here's an attractive CFP: Railway Aesthetics: Experiencing Locomotion across Media and Cultures. Takes place ON THE TRAIN Vienna-Bucharest-Istanbul, 10-13 September 2025. Deadline for submissions: May 2, 2025 call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/02/...

Does anyone have experience writing on an ereader? I'm thinking about getting one of those nifty "ereader + keyboard + Microsoft word" devices, but I haven't ever owned an ereader so I'm not sure how people feel about them for long-term writing. I just really need something lightweight for my diss!

How I think I look when I teach / How I actually look when I teach