I have commitment issues in friendships, social media, and writing.

Some of the most important and fulfilling moments of my life have happened while reading novels. It’s a very strange way to have found value on this earth. And society seems determined to give up on reading entirely.

Anyone else checking out Matthew Rankin's Universal Language (2024) tonight? This nerd is excited, even though it's almost -30 C out of doors here.

Next time I teach our Studies in Screen Culture course, my topic will be "Slow Screens." Look for it in the 2028-29 academic year.

My wife sent me a link to Akerman's trailer for Jeanne Dielman and then called me the world's biggest nerd for liking a film that no one's ever heard of. I think I was set up, but I'm not completely sure.

My students' heads nodded vigorously and enthusiastically when a classmate suggested that Jane Eyre might be on the autism spectrum.

Reposting--applications due in 2 weeks; open field tenure-track job in English.

In my upper English undergrad courses, students write three Demonstrations of Learning in a semester. Each DL includes a range of assignment options they can complete (traditional essays, unessays, presentations, personal responses, etc). They're game-changers for grading and students love them.

If you're interested in scholarly and aesthetic work on stuttering pride and Dysfluency Studies, check out our library of resources from The Stuttering Commons: www.stutteringcommons.org/library

All I want to do right now: talk with my students about awesome literary, theoretical, and cinematic texts; coach my son's soccer team; hang out with my wife and son; read some new books; exercise; eat; sleep; listen to music; watch good film and television; watch crappy film and television.

Trying to decide which novel to read in installments all semester in my 1859 class: *The Woman in White* or *A Tale of Two Cities*. Both are on the syllabus, so it's a matter of which will most benefit from being done in small pieces weekly for 14wks vs in a more traditional 2wk format. Thoughts?

I've always struggled with reading. I'm slow and impatient, but so far I've been loving Ned Beauman's Venomous Lumpsucker. I also loved The Teleportation Accident from 2012, so I'm wondering if Beauman is one of my favourite writers now.

Another book my brain will never be able to write would focus on visual cultures of speech-language therapy (1800-2025).

From Leslie J. Meacham's Lessons in Hypnotism (1898). One of Meacham's plans for inducing hypnotic states focuses on filling the mouth with stutters.

I'm not up to the task of writing it, but I would love to read the book about how knowledge only ever moves toward dysfluency, despite broad systemic efforts to the contrary.

Jane Eyre Great Expectations Cranford In Memoriam Goblin Market Lady of Shalott Fra Lippo Lippi Cry of the Children Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point History of Mary Prince Curse for a Nation A Musical Instrument Soul's Expression Stanzas from the Grand Chartreuse Scholar Gypsy

I have many talents in addition to my ability to apply literary/critical theory to close readings of texts.

Here's my concern about Humanities scholars: we've all been traumatized by grad school because Humanities PhD programs are singularly cruel to their students, in contrast to other fields. That's why we fall back on weak beliefs about the "ethics" of grades, late penalties, etc, etc.

I put down Glissant because I'm trying to figure out how "Time After Time" became a xmas song. It's on the playlist at this dealership.

Anyone else reading Glissant at a car dealership? Surely I’m not the only one.

Turning 50 next year, and one of my proudest accomplishments is that I'm pretty sure I've avoided the inevitable "everything was better in the past" mindset. Everything was shitty in the 90s, the 00s, the 10s, and the 20s.

Our scholarly engagement with AI will either eventually prove Cultural Studies methods to be correct or essentially signal the death of Cultural Studies.

Wanna come to my party? Having a convo with @ryancordell.bsky.social about *Digital Victorians* in a series about new books in critical bibliography. Thurs 12/12 12:00p EST. Details and register here: rarebookschool.org/all-programs...

Post the LAST SENTENCE of your last article The distinction between a child’s body (and voice) and the world around it (awash with words) collapses.

I've pretty much given up on conferences, with the exception of maybe one a year.

In 30 mins, I'm doing something that is way, way out of my comfort zone. Lecturing to large classes: no problem. Making up stories in a collaborative game setting: big problem, but I'm doing it.

Two days of classes left this semester, so today my first-year essay students are doing an in-class game I call Cite that Source!

I have a paper title, but no paper yet, but I love the title. "Spooky Dysfluencies: Dickens, Deleuze, Who Else?"

I'm hearing from colleagues who describe working non-stop and wearing themselves out completely and I find myself trying to find tactful ways to say "just stop, just don't." I know why they want to but if it's too much, it's too much. Scale back. Be realistic. You didn't choose these conditions.

The CFP for the Victorian Studies Association of Western Canada's 2025 conference, EXHIBITING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, May 23-24 in Regina, Saskatchewan is live! Please circulate and send abstracts by Jan. 5. Travel grants available for students + underemployed/contingent faculty 👇 vsawc.org/events/

It's just Thursday up here in the Frozen North.

It's here! navsa.georgetown.edu/cfp/

For those interested in communications, especially across distance and/or related to grief, check out our introduction to our special issue in Cultural and Social history journal (behind paywall) www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... #skystorians #18c #19c #communications

How Georges Méliès "A Trip to the Moon" Became the First Sci-Fi Film & Changed Cinema Forever (1902) www.openculture.com/2024/11/how-...

No matter how you set the test, I will end up chaotic good.

Another complaint that informs my research and writing in dysfluency studies: I'm a private, introverted person who loves silence and is suspicious of ego, so I struggle with the collectivist, activist, social justice side of stuttering pride. I suspect I'm not alone in the stuttering community.

I only want to write in the first person these days. Not ready for the second person yet. Third person is dead to me.

One of the series of complaints I'm trying to work through in my research on dysfluencies is this: if we advocate for stuttering pride and challenge systemic expectations of fluency, the result runs the risk of inadvertently promoting anti-intellectualism.

The only series I want to watch is Somebody Somewhere, and there are only two episodes left. I don't want it to end, ever.

Turns out that the one thing I hate more than writing is reading. I'm kidding, of course, but after saying goodnight to my family late this evening, I sat down with a book. Put my glasses on, picked up the book, put it down, grabbed my laptop and wrote for an hour instead.

Er-Introduction (done) Ch 1 Dysfluent Temporalities (done) Ch 2 Minor Voices (done) Ch 3 Living in the Claustrum (in progress) Ch 4 Choreographies of Contagious Speech (in progress) Ch 5 Comedy, Mechanization, and Elocutionary Annihilation (done) Ch 6 Dysfluent Futures? (many notes)

I have a student interested in investigating the concept of the weird. Not the horror/sci fi genre, per se, but rather the disposition/descriptor more generally. Any leads would be appreciated!

Where are my Victorianists working on writing about/inspired by their own families, especially public-facing writing? Who is writing memoirs, family history, or doing scholarly/public crossover work that centers the personal and family? Please tell me about your projects & if you'd be up for a chat!

I'm back in this space, but still conflicted. Here's something I wrote a while back that should have gone in the book I'm always trying to write (and always near completion): www.degruyter.com/document/doi...

Stuttering can create time. whitney.org/exhibitions/...

“Stutters create time.” Stutter more, inconveniently and inefficiently.

This semester, students in my dysfluencies class and my theorizing bodies class are writing a series of three "Demonstrations of Learning." In each demonstration, they can choose from a suite of course assignments and select the grade weights for them. Grading is fun again!!!!

I first assigned unessays in my courses 11 years ago now. I'm still going strong, still loving the authenticity that students put into their learning in these assignments. I have another batch coming in this week.

Join me in Nova Scotia! navsa.org/2024/01/04/t...