Desperately lobbying my dean for funds to resuscitate Edmund Burke for a campus speaking tour

#EnvHist folks - what are some go-to readings for narratives about conservation in the UK, especially late 19th-early 20th C.??

Two attempts to draw the same yellow warbler, one before and one after I took a course in nature journaling. Art education has an impact!!

a lot of people think maria from the sound of music is antifa, but she isn't, she just thinks its a long long way to run

Happy first birthday to *The Ecological Plot*!!! I am so proud of you & how far you’ve come. When you first entered the world as a series of poorly organized Word docs on my laptop, I couldn’t believe you would blossom into the obscure, esoteric monograph you are today. Never change—I love you!!!

This point is well made. During the prospectus and methods portion of my dissertation, what I realized was that the committee was not there to give you lots of known things but rather to gently steer you away from trying to make entirely unknowable claims. Expertise is understanding limits.

The person Isaac Chotiner is hardest on is Isaac Chotiner. He only interviews other people to distract and redirect the ruthless internal voice that daily threatens to tear him apart. He regrets what he does, but he sees his subjects as the lamentable sacrifices necessary to prolong his own survival

The person Isaac Chotiner is hardest on is Isaac Chotiner. He only interviews other people to distract and redirect the ruthless internal voice that daily threatens to tear him apart. He regrets what he does, but he sees his subjects as the lamentable sacrifices necessary to prolong his own survival

imagine if a family of beavers randomly showed up right now and finished whatever thing you've been putting off

A lways B e C owardly

Do you guys think Belly’s Spanish lover calls her Estómago

We have to consider who are the stifled people and who are the stiflers before we can be sure of our ground.

man, even when writing sucks it's still the absolute best

The people cry out with a voice that is often still confused but is becoming ever louder and clearer: death to the tyranny of the release date

I feel like the president learned his entire defense strategy from Shaggy lyrics circa 2000

So, I wrote a thing about my vase-fucking skeet and resulting thread with thanks to @romgothsam.bsky.social, @profchander.bsky.social, @philistella.bsky.social, & @gothicbodies.bsky.social for inspiration PLUS a shout out to a very old *undergraduate* essay by @joanpassey.bsky.social

I think it’s hard for outsiders to grasp how low staff and faculty morale get at universities where everyone’s job gets worse every year because there’s a hiring freeze and program cuts and any real money is locked up in new projects meant to help higher admin shine so they can move somewhere better

Been looking forward to this one, from @snarlsdickens.bsky.social, for a while:

Reading performatively (reading aloud in such a way that my utterances bring about the states of affairs they refer to)

Rude to call it French toast when it could have been called “the toast of France”

A great interview about a great novel—I normally struggle a lot with long contemporary realist fiction, but Schaefer’s book nails it.

“And so you see, Senator, I had to fire the head of the CDC because I’ve always struggled with the Liar’s Paradox.”

The AI in charge of our particular simulation isn’t even trying anymore

The Lord of the Rings should NOT be dismissed as a work of medievalist fantasy. It should be celebrated as an early example of frodo-modernism

The call for submissions for ASLE Spotlight 2026 is out with deadline October 1, 2025, read it here: www.asle.org/stay-informe...

Stressed out wedding planner: WHERE IS SAMUEL, HE IS NEXT OF KIN. HE IS SUPPOSED TO BE DOING A SPEECH NOW. Wedding planner assistant: hes listening to the Rime of the Ancient Mariner Wedding planner: WHAT Assistant: It's a guy who shot a bird

I study novels. I have lived thousands of lives. I have time travelled to every period (post-1700). I understand every type of narrator. Each time I read a work of fiction, my power grows

Concerned that we are losing the necessary ratio. 15% of teachers/faculty should be irretrievably strange eccentrics. Every learning experience should have some element where in later life you can reflect with former classmates about how bizarre at least one (1) class per year was.

The fact that no one is excited about this is deeply disappointing

*running breathless into the room* You guys!! YOU GUYS!!! The omniscient-but-unexpectedly-compassionate Victorian third-person narrator has come back!!!!

Most activities in universities do not produce easily measurable outputs, which is a massive problem for everyone because politics and policy can no longer cope with intangible long term strategic interest. Hence [gestures in despair at … everything].

for real and for true, the RISE OF CELEBRITY AUTHORSHIP is out!! The code CUP20 will get you 20% through the Columbia University Press website; let me know if you are dying to read it but need a presentation copy from the author, who is very excited about it------!! cup.columbia.edu/book/the-ris...

Scientific American turns 180 today, and we recently celebrated with a collection of print features about times in history when science has seemingly done a complete pivot—a 180-degree turn, if you will. Here's a tour of a few highlights from that package.

My university canceled its library subscription to Project MUSE, making it harder for me to do research, but enrolled all us faculty in Salesforce

the dream of not having to think is powerful though rarely articulated and it governs a lot of people’s overt hierarchies of disciplinary knowledge and of public intellectual. If thinking is not over quickly, it must not be a very serious discipline

I can think of several prominent pieces of trash in Washington that they missed

(Teacher sitting backwards in chair) Yeah, I'm pretty invested in the big engagement...my STUDENTS' big engagement with the novels we're about to read

Approximately 50% of the characters are named "George"

I wrote an essay on Dracula but it had no stakes

New page of prospective tattoo art just dropped

Relieved we can all finally say what we really think about Bluesky users from Mississippi since they’re gone now

Tired: calling people NPCs Wired: calling people who are too into AI “Eloi”

Now available! THE RISE OF CELEBRITY AUTHORSHIP: 19th-CENTURY PRINT CULTURE & ANTI-SLAVERY, by Sarah Allison Use the coupon code CUP20 and save 20%: bit.ly/3V9ygLk @sarahdallison.bsky.social @columbiaup.bsky.social

anyway i am so angry about having more BS work caused by something i absolutely did NOT ask for and makes NO pedagogical sense AND harms students both pedagogically and professionally (law firms complaining about the quality of law graduates)

what a Lays-y attempt at bribery

Bare minimum for holding a conversation: Dickens, Carlyle, Tennyson, Browning, Brontë, Gaskell, Eliot, Browning, Brontë, Collins, Arnold, Braddon, Clough, Brontë, Swinburne, Carroll, Hardy, Stevenson, Doyle, Naden, Hopkins, Conrad, Wells and Wilde.

hi this is my favorite writing advice, it's from former simpsons writer john swartzwelder (i think about the crappy little elf all the time) www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

All right, I think I've *finally* finished my syllabus revisions. I'd welcome folks' thoughts!