rmclaycomb.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Teaching Terry Eagleton's Literary Theory 40 years after publication is to recognize the importance of introductory texts on the future of the field. Reading the "Political Criticism" chapter is a crystal ball into the next four decades. www.upress.umn.edu/978081665447...

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

One effect of uncertainty is that it erodes trust. As I've said before in scholarly work, suspicion has the effect of disabling empathy. People with whom we will need to be aligned are going to say things that arouse our suspicions - do they believe in the same things I do?

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

Because Higher Ed is so hierarchical, faculty often believe in grassroots, but depend on leadership. Expertise doesn't need to be activated by a university statement for us to apply it to our transforming landscape. We can move in a common direction without waiting for individual directives.

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

The recent book by @timothysnyder.bsky.social reminds us that freedom is an affirmative value. By focusing on the positive aspects of freedom that are under threat, we can recognize that we're not just resisting something, but asserting our positive values. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ timothysnyder.org/on-freedom

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Those who know me IRL know that I am married to the remarkable novelist of feminist fairy-tales, Ann Claycomb, author of The Mermaid's Daughter and Silenced. She recently started a Substack: annclaycomb.substack.com/p/the-empero...

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

Toad ran to Frog’s house. “Frog, Frog,” cried Toad, “taste these cookies that I have made.”

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

Things that seem important right now: * Reading slowly, carefully * Taking deep breaths * Thanking people for the generosity of joy * Writing your elected representatives urging them to step it up. Recognizing that overwhelm is the point, and jumping back in when ready. Dark chocolate, always.

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

Last call to propose a plenary or working group to ASTR! The conference organizers have put together an exciting call--apply apply apply! www.astr.org/general/cust...

submitted 29 days ago • 0 comments

Two things I’ve heard this week that resonate: “At moments like this, joy is a kind of resistance,” and “Love is local.” Be good to each other out there!

submitted 30 days ago • 0 comments

I know Hall and Oates are famous, but why aren't they, like, really famous?

submitted 31 days ago • 0 comments

One of the best things you can do right now is read books. Buy them. Borrow them from the library. Gift them. Read history. Read fiction. Read science writing. Read anything that shows you the world is bigger than what fascists say it is. Read to remember why your resistance matters. 📚💙

submitted 35 days ago • 48 comments

I’ve written about losing faith in the kind of verbatim theatre that gives voice to multiple views in a kind of staged public sphere. I spent less time on a form more accurately called Theatre of Witness - where the stories are the performers’ own. We’re gonna need more of that, I think.

submitted 35 days ago • 0 comments

The choir I’m in is singing James Whitnourne’s Annelies, a setting of the Diary of Anne Frank. It’s just one reason I’ve been thinking about the holocaust recently.

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

Classes begin today, and as I put the finishing touches on my syllabus for my critical theory course, a few questions that I reflect on before beginning: 1/

submitted 40 days ago • 1 comment

Let’s not underestimate the sparkling gem of a gift given when a colleague outside your field reads your work just because it interests them. These moments of what Kathleen Fitzpatrick call “critical generosity” are going to be needed to sustain all of us through the coming hard years in higher ed.

submitted 41 days ago • 1 comment

The to-do list is suddenly much longer this week.

submitted 43 days ago • 0 comments

Oh god, I can’t help but have reviewer-2 opinions about this ms, but I’m trying so hard to be generous and kind in the way that I say it!

submitted 47 days ago • 0 comments

Visits to my folks like this one make me glad I’ve read *Long Day’s Journey into Night.”

submitted 51 days ago • 0 comments

Hollis Robbins @anecdotal.bsky.social posts a decisive way of thinking about a pathway forward for higher education: foregrounding the role of knowledge creation (and students' capacity to participate in it) and validation. "AI Aced Your State’s Gen Ed. Now What?" open.substack.com/pub/hollisro...

submitted 51 days ago • 0 comments

Hey #theatre folks, #academic folks, & esp theatre academic folks-did you know it's ASTR proposal time again? IT IS!! Apps are open til 2/3 but PRO TIP: get those materials together now before the Spring Semester flurry hits! www.astr.org/page/confere... #AcademicSky #TheatreSky

submitted 54 days ago • 2 comments

Instead of 12 pipers piping, my true love today gave to me some delicious Mexican take-out. Sometimes ya gotta update the classics.

submitted 55 days ago • 0 comments

I do love a good resolution, so this year, my goal is to embrace more emphatically the weird, the esoteric, the too-clever-by-half, the formally brilliant, the technically innovative , and the more-interesting-than-it-is-good. In short, in 2025, I'm indulging my inner modernist.

submitted 59 days ago • 0 comments

@dougeacho.bsky.social highlights a really rich strand in this vital moment in the field. Check out the thread below. (Not at all influenced by his excellent fifth entry).

submitted 59 days ago • 0 comments

Madeleine is Sleeping by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum, Wittgenstein’s Mistress by David Markson

submitted 63 days ago • 0 comments

Hey, pals: What’s the book (fiction or non-) that you think of as your secret? Ie, nobody knows how astounding it is but you? Sure sign: you’ve bought multiple copies to give away. Two of mine: “The Mezzanine” by @nicholsonbaker.bsky.social and “Golden Gate” by Vikram Seth. What’s yours?

submitted 63 days ago • 820 comments

Listen, I don't brag abut my parenting much, but my kid did just put on one of his playlists in the living room, and it featured The Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine, The Smiths, Radiohead, and Jeff Buckley.

submitted 65 days ago • 0 comments

Happy Christmas Eve to all who celebrate…

submitted 67 days ago • 0 comments

Our little downtown knows how to light up for the holidays…

submitted 68 days ago • 1 comment

Took a conservation biology class that never counted for anything but taught me to understand key aspects of the ecosystem before I had any real clue that environmentalism was anything more than fringe politics.

submitted 73 days ago • 0 comments

Two owls cooing outside the window as a gentle snow begins to fall.

submitted 74 days ago • 0 comments