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I WILL get back to my seminar papers, but, 1st, 1 more quote from Pope Leo. For my deans and yours: "We must learn . . to protect our young people from the promise of the perfect machine, from that subtle temptation which renders human thought seemingly superfluous when it is most needed."

Ghent is such a lovely city of bicycles & beer, & also where (now Dr.) Dominic Bentley Hussey successfully defended his startlingly original dissertation on media studies, Romanticism, & pseudo-translation (British + French). 36 hrs there was not enough. In other news, my BU regalia made its debut 🎉

📣 Job Alert (permanent) 📣 Lecturer in English Literature (Romanticism), The Open University www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRQ222/l...

Really looking forward to two full days of interdisciplinary conversation around inner music and wellbeing next week, a highlight of which will be this event that is free and open to all!

We’re very pleased to share news of this research fellowship position, working with our wonderful CECS / English Literature colleague Prof Mary Fairclough @maryfairclough.bsky.social on the collected works of Mary Wollstonecraft: 🔗 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRL782/r...

Sense of community is crucial to postgrad intellectual life, so the Directors of Durham's MA in English are cooking up ideas for 2026/27, from a Welcome Symposium👋 and autumn picnic🥪🧺 to a winter Bake-Off 🍰 and a movie/theatre night🎭🍿. (Yes, a baked goods competition *will* help the ideas flourish.)

Posting again for the daytime crowd! I'm particularly looking for readings on best grad advising practices, but comments on your personal or program recs are also welcome! Thanks!

Sense of community is crucial to postgrad intellectual life, so the Directors of Durham's MA in English are cooking up ideas for 2026/27, from a Welcome Symposium👋 and autumn picnic🥪🧺 to a winter Bake-Off 🍰 and a movie/theatre night🎭🍿. (Yes, a baked goods competition *will* help the ideas flourish.)

In the depths of book production anguish, I did it. I bought myself a 1797 edition of Charlotte Smith’s Elegiac Sonnets ♥️🌸

Visiting family in Florida last week, I got to see the space launch.🚀🌖 And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne.

Join us in lovely North East England for an MA in English Literary Studies at Durham. Applications now being accepted for 2026/27.

📢 Fully-funded PhD scholarship: Living with Print in the Eighteenth Century Based at the University of Sydney (supervised by me) and the University of Glasgow (supervised by Matthew Sangster), with time at both institutions. Applications due 21 April More details: www.gla.ac.uk/scholarships...

Join us this summer at the Wordsworth conference--where they make you climb a mountain before giving your talk ⛰️😅

London ♥️🌸

My book has its very own webpage 🥳 October 2026 www.cambridge.org/core/books/c...

Partial MA Scholarships for International applicants: deadline; 20 March: www.durham.ac.uk/study/schola...

Next week, I'll be giving 2 talks in London. Tickets available. Happy World Book Day! 📚

for anyone who happens to have the Rivkin and Ryan anthology of theory: would you be willing to share an image of the copyright page? i'm trying to get a sense of how frequently it was reprinted (among other things)

I love books. I really, *really* do. But sometimes, when a book is so big as to be downright cumbersome, one must apply the razorblade to lighten the physical burden of class prep. Happy Year of Reading📚

Join us in lovely North East England for an MA in English Literary Studies at Durham. Applications now being accepted for 2026/27.

For non-UK undergrads considering an MA degree abroad: Durham University is offering partial scholarships for our 1-year programme. As co-Director of the MA in English, I am happy to answer questions about our degree. Deadline 16 January. Tell your students! www.durham.ac.uk/study/schola...

Academics outside the UK: If your undergrads are considering an MA degree, tell them about these int'l scholarships that Durham University offers! As co-Director of our 1-year program in English, I'm happy to answer questions. Deadline for scholarship: 16 January. 📚✨ www.durham.ac.uk/study/schola...

My second-year students in Poetry by the Book with archivist Richard Higgins at the Palace Green Library yesterday, learning about Romantic-period book production and exploring some of the library’s gems. (Posted with permission of those pictured.)

The deadline to apply for the SHARP News Editor-in-Chief position has been extended through November 28th. This is such a great opportunity for any one interested in public-facing book history work! sharpweb.org/sharpnews/20...

Autumn in the Durham woods 🍄

In Swedish, a word for what you eat to bridge the gap between meals (or while waiting for the main course to cook) is stödmacka. It means "support sandwich." A similar word in Norwegian is ventepølse, or "waiting sausage."

Next week! Come along if you're in Durham 📚♥️ www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...

Calling teachers of all levels! Email [email protected] to share short essays about how you have incorporated (or plan to incorporate!) birdsong into your teaching this year. Materials will be compiled and published on the K-SAA website. #KSAAComm www.k-saa.org/birdsong

My immediate reaction to seeing these tiny volumes: 💞Oh, they are cute! … Evidently so cute they broke Hazlitt’s theory of repeat reading when, in this form, Rousseau’s ‘Eloisa’, which he had long loved, suddenly revolted him 😅 (small, gilt edges, rosy perfume)—at the Palace Green Library, Durham

Staying in a flat attached to Rydal Mount. In the day, the house and garden is open to tourists; at night the garden is all ours! 🌸🌹

Sunday morning news: I have figured out an edition of Rousseau 'Eloisa' that is plausibly the one that revolted Hazlitt when he encountered it years after first reading (and loving) the novel in a different edition. Very small, with gilt edges. Perfumed with rose leaves? TBC. Ordered it for £30...

The hottest ticket in Durham this September? Probably not this, but I'm still excited to be giving a talk on Keats's copy of Shakespeare at the Palace Green Library, inspired by the current exhibit of Durham's First Folio📖 @ksaacomm.bsky.social @bars.bsky.social: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/twilight-t...

✨️Job Alert✨️ Research Associate, 21st Century Oxford Authors Edition of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Fixed-term, University of Sheffield, closing date 18 August. Please share with ECRs! jobsite.sheffield.ac.uk/job/Research...

Closing date today!

In exciting news: at long last I took my UK driver test. This means now being able to reach the beautiful and stunningly undeveloped beaches of the North East, where Jolene can chase all the birds. Best days ever.

Applications are invited for the position of Post-Doctoral Researcher with expertise in digital and spatial humanities (11 months, whole-time) - to work with me and @insightcentre.bsky.social on a project called 'Data Travels: Analysing the Ladies of Llangollen'. ore.ucc.ie (Job ID: 088233)

Splashing in the River Wear on a warm day ☀️🐾💕🌊

🥀💕

My Literacy Trust North East group is collaborating this afternoon with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to launch their work in Newcastle and I am deeply excited to tell them my dog’s name is Jolene 🎶

In Godwin’s Herald of Literature, Godwin ‘reviewed’, among other hallucinated literary works, Fanny Burney’s forthcoming novel Louisa, even ‘quoting’ from it. Ahead of his time, evidently 😂 . Herald indeed.

The roses have gone rogue, but I have no will to tame them. My version of ‘no-mow May’ 🌹

My aspirational energy, in any case!

Applications are now open for the BSECS-Northumbria Fellowship - up to £4000 to research the culture, history, and identity of the North East of England and the Scottish Borders in the long eighteenth century. Find out more at www.bsecs.org.uk/prizes-and-a...

Thrilled to announce the 2025 Katharine F. Pantzer Junior Fellow, @ceyingst.bsky.social !🏆 Their research, "Transitions by the Book," delves into how print shaped and reflected non-normative gender in the long 18th century. This award is generously supported by Katharine F. Pantzer's legacy.

I've extended the deadline & adjusted the wording on this scholarship after queries from prospective students. Please encourage students interested in a funded PhD on poetry in either 18c/Romantic and/or settler colonialism & Indigenous sovereignty to get in touch! www.wgtn.ac.nz/scholarships...

In view of Thursday's visit of the king and queen to Durham: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GANe...

Delighted to see in print my review of Arden Hegele's bold first book, Romantic Autopsy: Literary Form & Medical Reading. This 'incisive' book will appeal to those interested in medical humanities,theories of affect & reading,history of criticism,Romanticism.🔪📚✨ www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3...