Today, August 4, 2026, is the setting of Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” about a fully automated house continuing on after the family who lived there and the world around it died in a nuclear blast.
Dr. Katie Sagal
@aksagal.bsky.social
Associate Professor; 18thc Brit Lit & Science. Author of Botanical Entanglements (UVA Press). New project on marine ecology in the works. Super into plants, running, art museums, libraries, cheese, pandas, and video games.
The seemingly ubiquitous inability of people to understand how four-way stops work. YOU WERE THERE FIRST GO.
Sanjay Srivastava@sanjaysrivastava.com · 6d agoWhat is an extremely nerdy/obscure/specific thing you hate with a white-hot wrath?
Since I'm missing ASECS (*sob*) is anyone interested in proposing a panel for ASEH with me?
American Society for Environmental History@aseh.bsky.social · last wk.Submit your panel or paper for the ASEH Conference in Richmond, VA March 31-April 3. The submission portal is open until August 16: convention2.allacademic.com/one/aseh/ase...
Since I'm missing ASECS (*sob*) is anyone interested in proposing a panel for ASEH with me?
American Society for Environmental History@aseh.bsky.social · last wk.Submit your panel or paper for the ASEH Conference in Richmond, VA March 31-April 3. The submission portal is open until August 16: convention2.allacademic.com/one/aseh/ase...
This morning in Biddeford, Maine, a 26-year-old man said goodbye to his wife and daughter and left for work. Moments later he was dead, shot in the head by ICE agents, the second man ICE has killed in six days. ICE is killing our neighbors. ICE cannot be reformed. Abolish ICE.
Ummm Teddy Ruxpin (c.1986) would like a word. We've already tried this kind of toy, thanks.
NPR@npr.org · 3w agoAI is moving beyond chatbots and into toys, dolls, and robots built to befriend children. A leading child-development expert says the technology offers real promise — but also risks crowding out the human relationships children need most. n.pr/450WOei
You might need this little soapstone carving of a whale today… (1200-1600 CE, Chumash culture, California, held at Musée des Beaux Arts, Montreal)
Got my hands on the latest print issue of @ecfjournal.bsky.social! I’m happy to share my essay, “Epistolarity and Black Futurity in The Woman of Colour,”which is the first piece I wrote postpartum and now the first that shows my new “Associate” title in print! 🥰🥹 dm me if you’d like a copy!
Well, good morning. Would you like to also look at some beautiful seaweed and think about knowledge? www.wrecka.ge/holdfast-0-s...
Holdfast 0: Situating
This post introduces the written version of some optimistic and constructive thinking on knowledge in networks that I’ve been wrestling with since the end of last year.
wrecka.ge
Lathyrus Magellanick Pea, 1752, by #HenriettaConyers (British, 1727-1793). Held at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, emuseum.huntington.org/objects/6428... #artherstory #womenartists #hernaturalhistory
Geriatric Vichy Dems don't have to feel left out, they can be part of the hottest trend of the season too
Fractures Emerge Between GOP’s Pro-Pedophilia, Extremely Pro-Pedophilia Wings
Absolutely over the moon to have been offered a contract for a Broadview edition of Sydney Owenson’s The Wild Irish Girl.
Just a reminder that my book, British Women Writers and the Review Periodical talks about what discoveries we can make when HUMANS compile data about history, and HUMANS evaluate the messy parts of that data instead of rejecting them. www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...
British Women Novelists and the Review Periodical
How did book reviews shape the fate of novels and their authors during the height of women's literary influence?At the turn of the nineteenth century, British women novelists were publishing more fict...
press.jhu.edu
Attention ABO readers! Issue 16.1 (2026) dropped last week. Content screenshots below with individual article abstracts to follow. Thanks for reading! digitalcommons.usf.edu/abo/ #18thCentury #C18 #C18th #18thC #scholarship #pedagogy #bookreviews #digitalhumanities
Feeling really bummed capitalism has ruined all of my favorite sports/teams (😭Jaylen!!!). Venture capital buys things up, then turns them to garbage (RIP Chelsea). MLS goes for profit & paywalls THE ENTIRE LEAGUE. FIFA licks the feet of dictators & fascists, so I can't (won't) even watch the WC.
If you’d read this in a sci-fi novel, it would be perfect. “July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the nation. The capital grounds are empty, the crumbling remains of a despot’s carnival baking under the heat and haze. The toxic air above is shifted by nothing save the passes of military jets.”
Hidden Barriers: The Experience of Academic Librarians and Archivists with Invisible Illnesses and/or Disabilities. A good article with a good list of resources at the end of it. crl.acrl.org/index.php/cr... Learn about this flag. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disabil... #DisabilityPride
My book baby has arrived! 🤩 Not for the first time, my wonderful editors @yalebooks.bsky.social have delightfully surprised me: the colours on the jacket catch the light (I'm told it's called 'spot gloss')! It really is a thing of beauty. #books #booksky #histsci #queerhistory 🌈📚🗃️
This is why bsky is great -- I had not heard of this volume, and now have immediately ordered it for my class. (www.bloomsbury.com/us/writing-g...)
bloomsbury.com
Dr Holly Nielsen@hollynielsen.bsky.social · last mo.It really meant a lot doing this chapter because it was the first time I contributed something to an academic publication (and was approached) as both a historian *and* a game dev. Being both an academic & practitioner/creative are key to my perspectives and it’s amazing to have that appreciated!
It really meant a lot doing this chapter because it was the first time I contributed something to an academic publication (and was approached) as both a historian *and* a game dev. Being both an academic & practitioner/creative are key to my perspectives and it’s amazing to have that appreciated!
Esther Wright@enwright.bsky.social · last mo.Genuinely ecstatic we have this chapter in Writing Game Histories. An amazing range of perspectives from people who care about what games do to history & vice versa. And at the core of it, a clear sense of why thinking thoughtfully & creatively about history, play (and research!!) matters so much
Announcement coming soon for three gownmaking workshops I'll be teaching in Scotland in March-April 2027. E-newsletter suscribers will learn all the details first, so head over to timesmith.co.uk and sign up, to hear all about them first. #18thcentury #mantuamaking #workshops
Abortion is a tradition older than the United States, and even Thomas Jefferson supported his daughter when she provided one to a friend. Read the essential @byreginamahone.bsky.social: www.thenation.com/article/soci...
Abortion Has Always Been an American Tradition
More than one founding father knew that to be truly free, women needed control over their reproduction.
thenation.com
Ford has rehired hundreds of senior engineers after replacing them with AI backfired and has cost the company billions of dollars. AI adoption is blamed for Ford being the most recalled automaker in the U.S. with 51 recalls covering over 11 million vehicles in the first half of 2026 alone.
BREAKING: UAW becomes largest Union to divest from Israel. UAW has long stood at the forefront of demanding justice, notably condemning Israel’s genocide on Gaza during the Biden administration. This is a huge step to force Israel to stop its apartheid & genocidal actions—all unions should follow.
