Sleepless last couple of nights because of this heartbreaking, tender, impeccably reported new book by @praddenkeefe.bsky.social LONDON FALLING is fascinating and utterly gobsmacking -- and that's just the footnotes. Best not read before bed!

Very pleased to share this Featured Essay I co-wrote with the wonderful Charlie Tyson for @us.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

Why does everything feel so joyless? Welcome to the age of decadence without pleasure | Michèle Mendelssohn and Charlie Tyson

Decadence in our era comes in technologically mediated forms, emptied of desire and obsessed with self-optimisation

theguardian.com

POV: when you're mapping your new research project and you hit on an old map that tells you exactly where to go next

Congratulations to Professor Michèle Mendelssohn (@mendelight.bsky.social), Mansfield Fellow and Professor of English and American Literature (@engfac.bsky.social), on her election as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS)! 🎉 www.mansfield.ox.ac.uk/news-events/...

Decadance like nobody is watching.

As someone who studies literature written by humans, I'm fascinated by the literary and rhetorical forms underpinning human-free tech, e.g. questions @carissaveliz.bsky.social discusses in her terrific new book, PROPHECY: PREDICTION, POWER, AND THE FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE, FROM ANCIENT ORACLES TO AI

Finally! An imaginative, fun, relevant take on Wilde's AN IDEAL HUSBAND set in the present day performed by a glorious cast @lyrichammersmith.bsky.social This is the production I've been waiting for. Bravo!

If you will be in London in May, please consider attending the Ronald Firbank Centenary Symposium. Alan Hollinghurst will be delivering the keynote!

Ronald Firbank: A Centenary Symposium

Exactly a hundred years after the death of incomparable novelist Ronald Firbank this symposium celebrates his work, life, and legacy.

eventbrite.com

Participants wanted — especially from Asia, South America & Africa! We’re looking for women working in polar regions—both the Arctic and Antarctic, science & support—to share their stories as part of the #100PolarWomen project. Go to womeninpolarscience.org/100polarwomen/ & click on "Contact us".

There's still time to register for this Saturday's ENGLISH STATE SCHOOLS' OPEN DAY for students interested in applying to study English at Oxford (& their teachers). Join us online on 14 March for info sessions, taster lectures & student Q&A. #EduSKy #English Free, but registration required:

Oxford English Faculty State Schools' Open Day 2026

english.web.ox.ac.uk

Come be our colleague @engfac.bsky.social @ox.ac.uk ! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQK016/a...

Associate Professorship (or Professorship) of English Literature at University of Oxford

Looking for a new job opportunity in academia? Check out this job opening for a Associate Professorship (or Professorship) of English Literature on jobs.ac.uk!

jobs.ac.uk

Calling all teachers of English! Our Teachers' Conference is taking place on 7 Feb from 11am - 3pm. The FREE online event features lectures, info talks, and a panel discussion. Registration is now OPEN. Please share! www.english.ox.ac.uk/event/oxford...

Oxford English Faculty English Teachers’ Conference 2026

english.ox.ac.uk

Currently reading #TheYearILayMyHeadInWater by @laurajhall.bsky.social and remembering the ecstatic joy of swimming under the stars last winter in #Helsinki, bobbing up against the backdrop of twinkling city lights.

An Irving Penn portrait, from 1947, of the hulking Arctic explorer Peter Freuchen and his chic wife, Dagmar, seems made for the coldest days of winter: www.newyorker.com/culture/phot...

We're hiring! Come work with us @engfac.bsky.social @ox.ac.uk @bkhistoxford.bsky.social !!! Professorship of Bibliography and Modern Book History www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPP968/p...

Professorship of Bibliography and Modern Book History at University of Oxford

Discover an exciting academic career path as a Professorship of Bibliography and Modern Book History at jobs.ac.uk. Don't miss out on this job opportunity - apply today!

jobs.ac.uk

This is good. If anyone wants to do something similar in humanities and social sciences give me a shout on.ft.com/48pT7jP

Trading firm XTX donates £26mn for maths research at UK universities

Billionaire Alex Gerko says Britain is missing out on top academic talent

on.ft.com

Rest in peace #RachelCooke, a writer I admired on the page for a long time. I only met her once and in our brief chat she radiated such warmth, intelligence and puckishness. What a blessing she was.

Post-doc applications for next year's seminar on "Translation" at Rutgers' Center for Cultural Analysis are "live"! The seminar will be co-ed by Preetha Mani and Jeff Lawrence. Fellow academics: let your early-career colleagues, students, and former students know! jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/263...

“We have the brightest and the best. Let’s keep it that way.” @rupahuq.bsky.social MP and academic stands with UCU members voting for fair pay, secure jobs and a stronger future for higher education. Vote. Share. Mobilise. We can do this.

Believe it or not, it's already time to think about MSA 2026 in Loughborough, UK. The conference will meet July 1-4, and proposals for panels, papers, roundtables, workshops, and seminars is December 1. Please note this MUCH earlier deadline. The CFP is here: www.moderniststudies.org/conference/M...

📣BREAKING NEWS! We've extended our CFP deadline for #RSVP2026 "Movements and Migrations"! Proposals now due 21 November 2025. Full CFP and more details about all things conference on our website: rs4vp.org/rsvp-confere...

"Libraries and archives are the labs of humanities and social science scholars, and history is not possible without them." 🔥

Hetan Shah@hetanshah.bsky.social · 9mo ago

I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight www.cityam.com/the-british-...

This is the importance of buying the books we write and teach from university presses. The same administrations that don’t care about the humanities would be just as happy to have academic publishing handled by these companies. We can save our own publishing ecosystem- but we have to do it.

Philipp Heimberger@heimbergecon.bsky.social · 9mo ago

"academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it... The dominant four collectively generated... $12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024."

Zadie Smith called it “essential reading.” Next Tuesday (25 Nov), discover the extraordinary 'The Third Reich of Dreams' in a seminar with Amanda Rubin-Lewis & Devorah Baum. 📍 Wolfson College Free and open to all Register: shorturl.at/dHVbc @oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social @engfac.bsky.social

🕯️ Santanu Das, Professor of Modern Literature and Culture at @ox.ac.uk, @engfac.bsky.social, highlights the essential need to acknowledge the millions of men of color who served in WW1, placing their stories back in history. #PLPEXPeditions

Utopia. 🌈 It's an important topic to think about in this troubled moment. Today, come join @duncanbell.bsky.social & Astor Visiting Professor Douglas Mao @ox.ac.uk for a conversation about this timely, timeless topic. Huge thanks to @mpblanco.bsky.social for her organisational masterminding

Duncan Bell@duncanbell.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Looking forward to talking with Douglas Mao about our new book, Utopia, this Wednesday in Oxford intellectualhistory.web.ox.ac.uk/event/utopia...

I fell in love with Pudlo Pudlat's "Winds of Change/ Vents de changement" in the Baud/Jacot collection of Arctic print and sculptures. Now the collection has a new home! ARCTIC WORLDS: From Alaska to Nunavut Musée de Boulogne-sur-Mer, until 3 July , 2026 musee.boulogne-sur-mer.fr

Workshop: Learn how to write an abstract! ❄️ Join us at 12:00 EST (17:00 BST / 18:00 CET) on Sunday 29th June and learn how to make your abstract sing. Can’t make the live session? We’ll send a link to watch the recording out to everyone who RSVPs. ✨ RSVP: docs.google.com/forms/d/1FSF...

Fantastic coverage of our #POLARX conference about #women and #extractivism at the world's poles by New York Times bestselling author and journalist @juliaflynnsiler.bsky.social juliaflynnsiler.com/2025/06/16/a...

A Dispatch from POLAR X: Telling True Stories About Women at the Poles - Julia Flynn Siler

It was sweltering in Paris over the weekend of Polar X, an inaugural workshop and symposium at the Université Paris Cité which brought together scholars, artists, and writers from around the world to ...

juliaflynnsiler.com

Very excited to be attending the Polar X workshop online today and tomorrow, organized by @mendelight.bsky.social and Cécile Roudeau, focusing on gender and extractivism. Grateful to colleauges who make space for hybrid gatherings! polar-x.weebly.com

POLAR X WORKSHOP & SYMPOSIUM

WOMEN'S NARRATIVES OF POLAR ENCOUNTERS, EXTRACTIVISM AND EXPLORATION FROM THE 19TH CENTURY TO THE PRESENT

polar-x.weebly.com