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drjonpotter.bsky.social
Researches Victorian periodicals, visual culture, and literature; teaches academic skills at Birmingham City University. Probably the least online person you'll meet online. Author of Discourses of Vision in C19th Britain: https://tinyurl.com/5bxvawy6
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Books designed to be read only by human eyes are different from books designed to be read by machines, which is why Google will tell you that the phrase “shake my booty” can be found in an 1863 English translation of Don Quixote.

submitted 344 days ago • 82 comments

Two Weeks In The Death Spiral Of Cardiff University, by an anonymous academic. This is truly shocking read. The Cardiff executive board should hang their heads in shame. voice.cymru/two-weeks-in...

submitted 10 days ago • 31 comments

If you have not seen the latest issues of @victorianpoetry.bsky.social you are missing out, folks! The most recent issue, just out, is open access. (New lewk, too. 💅) muse.jhu.edu/issue/53644

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

Those of you in UK HE sector right now: a reminder that no matter how passionate you are - a job is a job. It might feel like you could never land anywhere else. You can, and will, should you need to. And wherever you end up, your new workplace will be lucky to have you.

submitted 25 days ago • 1 comment

"This sketch is really beautiful, defective and devoid of art though it is." Perfect description for those strangely arresting AI drawings you sometimes see, fresh from 1860.

submitted 24 days ago • 1 comment

If anyone's looking to try a new fragrance, here's two from June 1861: Stolen Kisses and the sequel, Box-His-Ears!

submitted 24 days ago • 1 comment

www.theguardian.com/education/20...

submitted 26 days ago • 1 comment

This chapter sounds so important! NB: The Obama Institute for American Studies at the Universitat Mainz is compiling a comprehensive database of Native American newspapers. I've also seen similar patterns in Anishinaabe papers in the late 19th and early 20th c. @lionellarre.bsky.social

submitted 26 days ago • 2 comments

Delighted to say I have a new article on Mary Russell Mitford available open access in Women's Writing. Mitford is important for anyone interested in C19th literature/periodicals (quick thread below outlining why): www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

submitted 27 days ago • 2 comments

"Cor, isn't that gravel pit romantic!" "That's nothing love, wait till you see the commercial office I've got lined up next."

submitted 38 days ago • 1 comment

This… is a heck of a thing. I am 0% surprised, and yet. (Click through and read the whole thread.)

submitted 65 days ago • 0 comments

Helen Macfarlane everybody! First translator of Marx’s Communist Manifesto (1850)!Fascinating details on how she ensured the text would be approachable for a mass audience. (I remember trying to find out about her in the pre-internet world and getting absolutely nowhere).

submitted 75 days ago • 0 comments

And indeed setting yourself up for life to understand and engage with literature (and other cultural products). Studying enriches your appreciation! Arts and Humanities are for life.

submitted 76 days ago • 0 comments

It's December 15, 1849, and I don't have anything for anybody. Thank goodness for Douglas Jerrold's Weekly Newspaper. Still, it's hard to decide what to get. The cheap "Martin Chuzzlewit"? What's this Titmarsh thing? Can't really go wrong with all 8 previous Punch Almanacs in one volume at 2s. #19c

submitted 79 days ago • 5 comments

Pretty much nails it. When Turnitin first launched their AI detection tool, their admitted error rates were obviously going to cause problems. Universities leapt at it anyway and it's only made things worse. You sound crazy if you suggest students/teachers need to build relationships based on trust.

submitted 78 days ago • 1 comment

One of my history student groups created a board game for their final project based on Robert Darnton’s The Great Cat Massacre! #Amazing

submitted 79 days ago • 7 comments

Day 14 of the #Chartism themed #AdventCalendar🎄 William Hill, Swedenborgian minister and Northern Star editor www.chartistancestors.co.uk/william-hill... A Chartist a day till Christmas

submitted 79 days ago • 1 comment

How great is this

submitted 79 days ago • 2 comments

'Hill wrote a sometimes abrupt column titled ‘To Readers and Correspondents’ in which he answered readers’ questions, issued short announcements, rejected poems that were not up to standard, and ticked off contributors for failing to get their reports in on time.' Lovely stuff on the Northern Star ⬇️

submitted 79 days ago • 1 comment

George Gissing, prophet of Hell. His character who imagines this is a woman writer.

submitted 86 days ago • 0 comments

In The Santa Clause 2, Santa's workshop uses an intriguing mix of factory system and traditional handcrafting which has made me want to read a breakdown of economic/labour models in depictions of Santa. Has Santa read Adam Smith?

submitted 87 days ago • 1 comment

high school teacher asks: "is there a site w short videos of people describing their professions+their college major, to help guide students, show them all the different things people do?" we made humanitiesworks.org and individual depts have alumni roundtables, but got video testimonials? please RT

submitted 87 days ago • 9 comments

And a sly commentary on what we do when we read the results of generative AI.

submitted 87 days ago • 0 comments

I despair to think of the longer term social impacts of this. What sort of society will we be 20 or 30 years from now, when 1 or 2 generations of kids have grown up without vibrant arts/humanities education and all the critical & empathy skills they engender www.theguardian.com/education/20...

submitted 88 days ago • 9 comments

Two stages of writing: 1) This shouldn't take too long 2) Oh no

submitted 89 days ago • 579 comments