"And the Rest is Noise" 🎙️ Giving a talk at Career Tales' The Stories We Carry — on storytelling, VR, and why more, virtual ways to narrate ourselves hasn't meant more control over the story. Live VR essay demo included. For more intel: careertales.co.uk

@eadh2026krakow.bsky.social After DH2026's talk on Atwood & Alderman's uncanny stylistic convergence, Karina van Dalen-Oskam and I are headed to EADH in Kraków. New target: Cristina Dalcher, whose novel echoes The Handmaid's Tale. Computational methods reveal intriguing—but not simple—evidence.

Stefan Collini's essay on the destruction of British higher education is an acute diagnosis of the current crisis. English Literature and Language departments across the UK are facing another summer of bloodletting — and in some cases outright termination. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Stefan Collini · Squadrons of Pigs: Bonfire of the Universities

The problems with Britain’s universities are systemic and deep-rooted, not just local or contingent. Yet political and...

lrb.co.uk

The past week I visited the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas (USA) to start a new Arts and Humanities Research Council project: 'Computational Literary Studies UK'. The project will make more non-canonical voices and stories available for (computational) research. A new journey starts here.

My first Waymo ride in Austin, Texas. At first weird, scary but you get used to it quickly. Until I had a ride where the car started hallucinating.

Yesterday and today I spend an amazing time in the Harry Ransom Center digging through the archives of Rachel Cusk and, of course, Kazuo Ishiguro. I was looking for evidence that Ish had read a certain philosopher for writing - and I found it. The HRC is a truly inspiring place.

Delighted the BBC covered the Digital Futures Lab launch Sat, 7 February at the @wlvuni.bsky.social. We'll showcase exciting research in immersive technology, computational literary studies with @alex-goody.bsky.social. See: lnkd.in/gHeFwZXC Students, join us here: bit.ly/4q9nRfY

Ready to explore how technology and creativity can change the world? The University of Wolverhampton invites you to an exclusive Digital Futures Lab experience designed for curious, ambitious students like you! Step into the future of creativity & tech! Sat, Feb 7, 2026, from 2pm to 5pm

Nature is full of strange, inspirational phenomena. Yesterday we went for a walk in my hometown of Hoorn, the Netherlands and discovered these rocks wearing thick ice jackets. The wind had blown water onto frozen boulders, forming layered ice sculptures: spray icing. Sublime stuff.

🇺🇦 This Christmas, let’s not forget the war in Ukraine. Let’s continue to support their writers also. You can buy our book with Ukrainian and Black Country writers here: bit.ly/3Odzyly 📚 Below is one of our writer, Ihor Pavlyuk, who tried to continue writing under fire. **Support Ukraine.**🕊️✌🏼

'Thinking in binary terms of Before and After is limiting and false. The two time frames merge until a big bang-type crash happens.’ - Kieran Yates Please follow Write in the Head, a creative writing program for survivors: writeinthehead.co.uk www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

‘Mum, my brain’: how I learned to walk, talk and even dance again after a devastating stroke at 36

I was riding high as a music journalist with a new book in the shops when I had what I thought was a migraine. In fact, it was a burst aneurysm and I needed emergency surgery. Two years into my recove...

theguardian.com

Here's a piece by @theguardian.com's Charlotte Higgins on how poetry can help people survive war mentally: www.theguardian.com/artanddesign.... Our book WRITING UNDER FIRE has writers from Ukraine and the Black Country in dialogue. All proceeds go to the Lviv Literary Festival. bit.ly/3PTf0iq

I have resigned as member of the @teamlabouruk.bsky.social. It is not getting anything done. It is leaving healthcare, education & other areas in the lurch. Disabled people are targeted & the power of big companies is not addressed. Instead: disgusting Trumpian rhetoric. Extremely disappointing.

BS! Finally saw Big Special last eve - two extraordinarily gifted Black Country lads. Also discovered that my colleague Tom Hicks designed the artwork for the cover of their new record. Very cool indeed!

Nothing more satisfying than cooking meals with one’s own fresh produce. 🤓😎🥔🥔🥔🤗

At the Neo-Victorian Criminalities, Detection and Punishment conference today. Organised by Helen Davies and Maria Isabel Romero-Ruiz. Keynote is the amazing Claire Nally - great to meet her in person at last after reading her work on subcultures and on Irish fin-de-Siegel print culture.

Glitching AI bots; virtual imposter syndrome; autonomous military systems – what does it all mean? Together with David Devanny I am editing a special edition of Revenant on Haunted Technologies. Tell us something we don’t know. More info here: bit.ly/44c6VvZ

🇺🇦 In 2024, the Humanities team @wlv_uni published WRITING UNDER FIRE. We have caught up with our Ukrainian contributors to see how they are faring. See Tetiana Belimova's update here: instagram.com/p/DKog_ulMatI/ Buy the book here: bit.ly/3Odzyly 📚

At our department's Researchmoot today, organised by @daisyeblack.bsky.social. 1st panel: Helen Davies on comic representations of Joseph Merrick, 'the Elephant Man'; Anastasia Novoselova on lexical/stylistic characteristics of book reviews + @basgroes.bsky.social on Atwood/ Alderman's collaboration

🔥🎇 Last week Wednesday, my team hosted an event with the wonderful @yomiadegoke.bsky.social where we chatted to her about The List and unveiled research into the public's memory. And great to see @alex-goody.bsky.social! English Literature is thriving at Wolves. To join: lnkd.in/deRxjcbJ

Wonderful to see the BBC pay attention to the Virtual Reality experiments we have been running with our English Literature students: lnkd.in/dWkHjqKj. If you want to join the most exciting English Literature course in the UK, go to lnkd.in/deRxjcbJ 👏

Here is Aleks, one of my students on my course Literature in the Digital Age explaining her creation of a 3D essay using Virtual Reality tools to show how agency, identity and social relationships have changed over the past 20 years. Next steps in the Digital Humanities... Come along...

It's wonderful to see that my memoir RIGHT IN THE HEAD is receiving serious critical attention. See chapter 7 in Emma Aldwinckle's PhD thesis on Lived Experience of Chronic Illness and Disability: doi.org/10.25392/lei... Emma's review in MEDIUM has over a 1000 likes: medium.com/@emmaastra/b...

Glad to see the UK Parliamentary Committee on Prison Culture use our report on the @artscouncilengland.bsky.social Big Bookshare project. * reading has wellbeing benefits for inmates * we need tech in prisons to upskill prisoners Full report, here: committees.parliament.uk/writtenevide...

Last week, my PhD student Lily breezed through the defence of her doctoral work on the representation of non-conscious cognition in contemporary British fiction. She has a gifted mind and a tenacious spirit. In these times of darkness and distraction, I find a glimmer of hope in her achievement.

🖊️📚🧠 Our Arts Council England project WRITE IN THE HEAD is featured by the BBC in this excellent and deeply human article interviewing stroke survivors about our online creative writing programme for people with acquired brain injury. See: www.bbc.com/news/article...

Last week I started trialling VR technology on my module Literature in the Digital Age. The students are creating their own VR builds, 3D essays that offer the user a spatialised and embodied experience. They loved this new way of communicating knowledge whilst building new skills.

Today I had the humbling pleasure of testing creative exercises w volunteer's at @wlvuni.bsky.social's Walsall campus for the Write in the Head project funded by @artscouncilengland.bsky.social. Alice Cullinane is creating a story for BBC. Tmrw we'll be at the Wolves Lit Fest bit.ly/3PBTP4h

🧠🧠❤️‍🔥🔥To celebrate the release of the audio version of Right in the Head's Chapter One, Jetstone is temporarily offering the e-book 📚 at an discounted price of only *£2.49*: amzn.to/42xxX1Z Listen to Chapter One, here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwW-...

Right in the Head: My Stroke Journey by Sebastian Groes - Chapter One (abridged with subtitles)

YouTube video by School of Humanities, University of Wolverhampton

youtube.com