It was inevitable, wasn't it🙄 Of course the Telegraph would run with something like this👇 So let's remove some of the rose-tinted spectacles and also look at some of that data comparing 1976 with modern heat waves Because the 1976 nostalgia porn is wearing a bit thin at this stage 🧵1/23

Your annual reminder that I write the 18th-century drama section of Year's Work in English Studies and would love you to tell me if in 2025 you had anything (book, chapter, or article) published on drama 1700-1780 that (broadly) fits within English Studies! I love reading and celebrating your work 💙

Sarah has also written a blog post to accompany the film, in which she tells us about the play's creation and provides scripts of the epilogues/addresses in the film: www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6500

The recording of this event is now on the BARS Youtube channel, alongside a short film about Sarah Burdett’s ‘Drama Queens of the Georgian Period: A Tragic-Comic Entertainment’, in which actresses perform addresses and epilogues written/performed by Georgian women. www.youtube.com/@barsdigital...

British Association for Romantic Studies@bars.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Taking place TOMORROW - 2 June 2026, 5pm UK Time BARS Digital Event: Romantic Drama, Contemporary Performance: A Roundtable Discussion Book free tickets at the link here: uofglasgow.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

If @helcdall.bsky.social has got you eager to learn more about the wonderful Joanna Baillie, then this virtual reading of Baillie's gothic drama, 'The Family Legend', might be of interest! www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6469 @romgothsam.bsky.social @bsecs.bsky.social @bars.bsky.social

Helen Dallas@helcdall.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Had a fantastic time talking about Joanna Baillie to a lovely audience at Romancing the Gothic run by @romgothsam.bsky.social! It was very exciting to introduce people to Baillie for the first time. Thank you to everyone who came along and brought so much enthusiasm! youtu.be/pgJGoCMk85A?...

So energised by the enthusiasm for this, thank you all!

Dr Sam Hirst@romgothsam.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Hi guys! What do you know about 18th/19th century Gothic drama? Want to know more? Want to know about one of the most popular playwrights you may never have heard of? We've got Helen Dallas' new talk on Joanna Baillie here! youtu.be/pgJGoCMk85A

As a Scottish person I can't believe that I had never heard of Joanna Baillie before. Why can't we get some of this alongside our mandatory Burns lessons?

Dr Sam Hirst@romgothsam.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Hi guys! What do you know about 18th/19th century Gothic drama? Want to know more? Want to know about one of the most popular playwrights you may never have heard of? We've got Helen Dallas' new talk on Joanna Baillie here! youtu.be/pgJGoCMk85A

One of my favorite memories of my studies here in York was learning about Baillie’s Plays on the Passions.

Dr Sam Hirst@romgothsam.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Hi guys! What do you know about 18th/19th century Gothic drama? Want to know more? Want to know about one of the most popular playwrights you may never have heard of? We've got Helen Dallas' new talk on Joanna Baillie here! youtu.be/pgJGoCMk85A

Joanna Baillie supported working-class poets & female writers. She inspired Byron & was considered by Harriet Martineau “second only to Shakespeare”. In 2018, her 256th birthday was marked by a Google doodle doodles.google/doodle/joann...

Joanna Baillie’s 256th Birthday Doodle - Google Doodles

Learn more about the creation of Joanna Baillie’s 256th Birthday Doodle and discover the story behind the unique artwork.

doodles.google

Dr Sam Hirst@romgothsam.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Hi guys! What do you know about 18th/19th century Gothic drama? Want to know more? Want to know about one of the most popular playwrights you may never have heard of? We've got Helen Dallas' new talk on Joanna Baillie here! youtu.be/pgJGoCMk85A

Had a fantastic time talking about Joanna Baillie to a lovely audience at Romancing the Gothic run by @romgothsam.bsky.social! It was very exciting to introduce people to Baillie for the first time. Thank you to everyone who came along and brought so much enthusiasm! youtu.be/pgJGoCMk85A?...

Joanna Baillie: Gothic Plays and Psychological Horror with Dr Helen Dallas

YouTube video by Romancing the Gothic

youtu.be

This is TODAY! Come all 🎭 (and please spread the word!)

British Association for Romantic Studies@bars.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Taking place TOMORROW - 2 June 2026, 5pm UK Time BARS Digital Event: Romantic Drama, Contemporary Performance: A Roundtable Discussion Book free tickets at the link here: uofglasgow.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Join K-SAA Vice President Omar F. Miranda tomorrow for Romantic Drama, Contemporary Performance, a roundtable exploring the vibrant theatrical life of Romantic-era drama and its continuing impact on contemporary performance. 2 June | 5pm UK uofglasgow.zoom.us/webinar/regi... #RomanticDrama #BARS

Come along tomorrow at 5pm BST to this exciting @bars.bsky.social digital event on Romantic drama and contemporary performance that I organised with Chris Bundock, featuring amazing speakers doing very cool work with 18th C and Romantic theatre! Sign up: www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6461

This Saturday!!

Helen Dallas@helcdall.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I'll be talking (online) in just over a month about the amazing Joanna Baillie! All welcome, no prior knowledge necessary (please come along if you've never heard of Baillie!)

AHSS research is already massively underfunded in Ireland, proposals to restructure funding models and prioritise commercialisation of research will disproportionately impact the humanities - Irish academics, post-docs & post-grads past, current and future please add your voice in opposition 👇

Concern about Research Ireland’s Strategy and Programme Plan

openletter.earth

I'll be talking (online) in just over a month about the amazing Joanna Baillie! All welcome, no prior knowledge necessary (please come along if you've never heard of Baillie!)

Dr Sam Hirst@romgothsam.bsky.social · 4mo ago

In June, we'll be exploring the work of women writing the Gothic in the 19th century. We kick off the month with Helen Dallas talking to us about the popular and influential playwright Joanna Baillie. 10am and 7pm on June 6th 10 - buytickets.at/romancingthe... 7 - buytickets.at/romancingthe...

The wonderful thing about Tyggers Is Tyggers are burning bright Their tops are made out of rubber In the forest of the night What bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy, Immortal hand or eye Did frame the most wonderful thing about Tyggers, Their fearful symmetry!

My journal article 'The Haunted Closet: Romantic Drama and the Absent Body' is now online! This is material from my thesis, and honestly I'm very proud of it. Available here: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

Shannon airport has long been put at the disposal of the US military by Irish authorities. Now it is facilitating ICE deportations which may amount to human trafficking or even crimes against humanity. For a country that speaks loudly in support of the rights of Palestinians, this is shameful.

Shane Darcy@shanedarcy.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Eight Palestinian deported by ICE from the United States to the West Bank - via Ireland. “They dropped us off like animals on the side of the road". www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Is anyone putting together a theatre panel for NASSR/NAVSA and looking for another speaker? 👀 (I'll write it as theater here too for whatever search optimisation that can provide)

2025 has been a rotten year for most early career postdoctoral researchers, especially in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. For a better 2026, check out (or repost) this short thread on a free resource for UK-based SHAPE PhDs within 10 years (excluding career breaks) of the doctorate. 1/3

Early Career Researcher Network

An inclusive, researcher-led network for UK-based early career researchers working in the humanities and social sciences

thebritishacademy.ac.uk

Delighted by Bertie's delight!

Katherine Ibbett@eparpillee.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Bertie’s first catsitter and beloved friend @helcdall.bsky.social has gifted him a bespoke stocking, crafted by her mum - if you too would like to spread delight in sewn format, she takes bespoke orders of all kinds! www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Sewn...

'His book tour brought him to Cambridgeshire, where he would marry and have two children with Susannah Cullen, an Englishwoman from Ely. They settled in Soham, supported by a local network including abolitionist friends, safe...when reactionary “church and king” mobs were targeting reformers.' 1/3

Lost grave of daughter of Black abolitionist Olaudah Equiano found by A-level student

Fitzwilliam Museum has uncovered student’s work from 1977 that revealed Cambridgeshire location of child’s burial place

theguardian.com

Thank you @srwride.bsky.social, and thank you for your amazing editing! 😊

Sarah Wride@srwride.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Today @helcdall.bsky.social's mega-review of 2024 #c18th #drama scholarship for @englishassociation.bsky.social journal #YWES landed on my digital doormat. So looking forward to diving in! #YWESnesday #editing #academicsky

Our second seminar is: 27/11/25: David Coates, ‘Amateur Theatricals: in Fiction and in Fact’, 6-7 pm us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi... #EHU19SeminarSeries

18th C theatre people, is there any text of Cape St Vincent (the adaptation of Glorious First of June) other than what's in the printed songbook? I have a point that I can back up with the songbook alone, but I just want to check I'm not overlooking the play somewhere!

Are you an early career researcher with an interest in our collection? Apply to develop an independent research project funded by AHRC. Hear more about the opportunity at a virtual town hall event on Monday 6 October: bit.ly/BL-EarlyCare...

Rusted hinges squeal and a cloud of dust chokes the intrepid academic as she opens up the document file for the chapter she abandoned months ago...

#18thc pals, pls RT: @kasiaiskasia.bsky.social & I are assembling a roundtable for the American Society for 18th-C Studies mting in Philly in April, on Olga Tokarczuk's 18th Century. Abstracts due 9/22. Pls help us think together about this fabulous novelist's wayward ways with our period & its 📚.

YOU GUYS. DAVID BOWIE WAS WRITING AN 18thc MUSICAL CALLED THE SPECTATOR WHEN HE DIED. Between this and Hilary Mantel’s unfinished rewriting of Pride & Prejudice… I cannot. David Bowie’s secret final project discovered locked in his study www.bbc.com/news/article...