Sign in

Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>

@caitcoker.bsky.social
713 followers 763 following 1.5K posts

Curator, fangirl, utter nerd. Assoc. Prof/Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts at U of Illinois Urbana Champaign. Co-Editor Women in Book History Bibliography at womensbookhistory.org. Fan Studies, Tolkien Studies, SFF Studies. I just really love books ok

PostsRepliesMedia
Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Have been brutally confronted with middle age by way of being exhausted after running across three airport concourses to miss a flight by minutes, followed by needing seatmate's help to plug in my cell phone somewhere below our knees. Thanks, I hate it.
010
Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Packing for a conference and yet another thing I miss about my old man cat (RIP) is how much he HATED me traveling and would open up my bag and start pulling my clothes out. The Current Ginger is sleeping and blissfully unaware of what I am up to.
050
Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>
Suzanne Karr Schmidt @drkarrschmidt.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
ImPRESSed Yet? I am thrilled to announce that Impressive Textiles: Premodern Printing on Fabric will be published October 27 in print and Open Access with @acmrs.bsky.social, thanks to 30 textile and print scholars, and 1 groundbreaking exhibition @newberrylibrary.bsky.social! #CoverReveal 1/5
Cover art for Impressive Textiles: Premodern Printing on Fabric!
1526693
Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>
Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
New, Open Access book on late antique & medieval Polychromy: "This volume examines the role of colour in Late Antiquity & the early Middle Ages, exploring its use in art and architecture through archaeological, art historica l& scientific research." www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress...
Figure 6. Detail of the captives’ trousers in daylight (a) and under IR light with Egyptian blue glowing white(b), Nicomedia frieze © Nicomedia-Çukurbağ Archaeology ProjectFigure 6. Detail of the captives’ trousers in daylight (a) and under IR light with Egyptian blue glowing white(b), Nicomedia frieze © Nicomedia-Çukurbağ Archaeology ProjectFigure 6. Detail of the captives’ trousers in daylight (a) and under IR light with Egyptian blue glowing white(b), Nicomedia frieze © Nicomedia-Çukurbağ Archaeology Project
15716
Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>
Reactor Magazine @reactorsff.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Welcome back to the Martha Wells Book Club! @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social dives into The Wizard Hunters, book one of The Fall of Ile-Rien, with everything to love about Wells' writing: "...deep worldbuilding, vivid descriptions, moral quandaries with no easy answers..." And of course, airships!
reactormag.com
Martha Wells Book Club: The Wizard Hunters - Reactor
Ile-Rien is on its last legs, and invasion is a near certainty...
2717
Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>
The Serfs (youtube.com/theserfstv) @theserfstv.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I don't think the right realizes how much of the internet is run by programmed and powered by queers. The brain drain in STEM alone is all but guaranteeing the end of US domination in those fields
1441089
Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
::stares:: Also "Sylvia Plath Stole My Boyfriend" is the name of my next band actually.
theguardian.com
Sylvia Plath Stole My Boyfriend: the 95-year-old who has turned her romance with Ted Hughes into a play
The Yorkshire poet had a ‘magic touch’, Liz Hicklin recalls, felt by many women: ‘It was like I was blossoming’
030
Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Usually a desire for a second coffee is sparked by a riotous work day, but today I feel like I want one just to function. I know it’s ALMOST October, but what the hell dude?
010
Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>
Neugin @lostcitymagic.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
With alt text
Black background with white text that reads: "raising boys who won't commit sexual assault isn't enough. Raise them to be the man in the group chat who texts back: what in the actual fuck, hell no, stop this, and I'm calling the cops."
08127
Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
In retrospect so amazing how back in the 90s Georgians were still talked about how Carter was so fucked over by Reagan and how that led to the Iran-Contra Affair and also how no one almost anywhere connects those dots anymore.
030
Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>
lyra tasis🪬🧿✡︎ @tribhuwana.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
This looks SO COOL and it's a free online webinar so why aren't you signed up yet?
021
Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Saturday vinyl!
110
Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>
The Fake History Hunter @fakehistoryhunter.net · 25/09/2026
Dying fabric the medieval way, because you know, medieval people LOVED COLOUR!! youtu.be/tQFtKDWUe3I?...
youtu.be
I Tried Medieval Dyeing
YouTube video by V. Birchwood
519527
Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
"What if, instead of teaching us how to be resilient, institutions took responsibility for the environments they create and the things they ask of us?"
timeshighereducation.com
It’s time to stop celebrating resilience
When universities ask their staff to do more with less, is it really a test of individual fortitude? Rachelle McKay explains why we should stop praising endurance
0268
Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>
Martha Wells @marthawells.com · 24/09/2026
Behold, the prelaunch is open for the graphic novel of The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red!
13546172
Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>
Starshaped Press @starshapedpress.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
@dansinker.com out here saying what we’re all feeling. Here’s a gem of his from last year. Thanks, friend. #letterpress
Print with Dan Sinker quote: Write it down. I mean that literally. Get a pen get a notebook use your hands. There is something visceral about using your hands and nobody can delete ink on paper with a keystroke. Write it down.
02510
Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Two different people commented on how fried I am today. It's still only September.
040
Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>
lyra tasis🪬🧿✡︎ @tribhuwana.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Super interesting article about the interaction of printing with manuscript traditions
131
Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Good morning. Today is brought to you by a venti white mocha, because I forgot how Starbucks sizes work and I panicked.
130
Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
HWAET! Juliet mathelode.
050
Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>
The Fake History Hunter @fakehistoryhunter.net · 22/09/2026
Love this little drawing Michelangelo did on a poem full of complaints about how much he hated painting the Sistine chapel and how it made him hurt all over.
733262
Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>
Kristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The newly discovered cuneiform tablet fragment contains text from a section of the Treaty of Kadesh related to the treatment of Hittite and Egyptian refugees in the Bronze Age (circa 1269 BC). 🧪🏺
livescience.com
'We have found traces of peace, thousands of years old': Fragment of world's oldest known peace treaty found in Turkey
Archaeologists excavating in the ancient Hittite capital of Hattusha have uncovered a fragment of the world's oldest peace treaty, signed around 1269 B.C.
111069327
Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
... Every time you think you've gotten to the lowest, stupidest point -- nope, turns out you haven't. Christ on a cracker.
theguardian.com
Meta bans ads for Virginia Woolf play in Spain because they relate to feminism
Theatre told that Facebook and Instagram filter out ads mentioning ‘social topics’ such as civil rights or feminism
062
Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
All this is true, and I will further add that it is PROOF that the Midwest knows it does a moral wrong when it cuts pizza slices into rectangles.
130
Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Emily Wilson, I do love you. (From “Translating The Odyssey” in Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea.)
1478
Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I am on the couch with my dog and my book and my mocha, listening to my records. Why on earth do I try to do anything besides this.
180
Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>
Archaeology News Online Magazine @archaeologynews.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Rare Roman painting reveals an unusual use of Egyptian blue A study of Roman wall-painting fragments from northern Italy has found an unusual use of Egyptian blue. Roman craftsmen mixed it into the lime mortar beneath a marine scene... More information: archaeologymag.com/2026/09/roma...
archaeologymag.com
Rare Roman painting reveals an unusual use of Egyptian blue | Archaeology News Online Magazine
Roman craftsmen in Italy mixed Egyptian blue into lime mortar beneath a marine painting, revealing a rare Roman wall-painting technique.
225868
Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Headcanon that the Reuters travel journalist went there to help writing their HR fics.
reuters.com
Ottawa like a local
Our correspondent’s guide to BeaverTails, snowshoeing, and ice wine.
000
Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>
Kim 💚💙 SPNNJ26 @kimfangirl.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Happy Castiel Day! #LazerousRising
0208
Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
...Imma just assume they want to make Cylons at this point.
reuters.com
EXCLUSIVE: Anthropic quietly sets up biology lab as it ramps AI drug program
At a time when fears of AI are gripping the public, the startup has built a wet lab — or ​place for physical experiments — in the San Francisco Bay Area, two people familiar with the matter said.
131
Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>
marybeard @wmarybeard.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Would we have Shakespeare (eg Tempest) without Homer's Odyssey. Well, that's too crude a question, of course. But we start to chew into it on this episode of Instant Classics. It's here to enjoy: www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0wT...
youtube.com
How Homer’s Odyssey Conquered the English-speaking World
YouTube video by Instant Classics
35214
Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
JANE EYRE is the one they go for? The one where the lady marries her boss who was hiding his wife in the attic?? CHINA ARE YOU OKAY????????????
cnn.com
Love is in the Eyre: China turns to classic English novel to teach teens about romance | CNN
When teenagers went back to school in China earlier this month, one book on their new mandatory reading list stood out: the 19th century English novel “Jane Eyre.”
000
Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>
Nicolas Hénin @nicolashenin.net · 17/09/2026
Nice campaign by the Norwegian Consumer Council about the declining lifespan of products. Enjoy!
180140526471
Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>
elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Friend shared this video of a man unveiling the library he hid when he fled Damascus in 2011. It’s incredible
25150233940
Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>
W. Kamau Bell @wkamaubell.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Words in the dictionary that describe things that aren’t real. 1. unicorn 2. centaur 3. apolitical
561950387
Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Working on conference org stuff today so once again sharing the CFP for Fan Studies at PCA 2027. Deadline is October 31 this year. Come hang out and geek with me in Boston!! pcaaca.org/members/grou...
pcaaca.org
Popular Culture Association
135
Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
So because reasons I had to reorg a couple shelves and now I am admiring my handiwork!
020
Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Feeling overwhelmed by the term for a moment, but please enjoy this creature from a 16th c. Italian map. As far as I am concerned it is an early doom chicken (tyrannosaur) and I shan’t be taking questions at this time.
172
Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Today is a graphic arts class looking at structures!
050
Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>
Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The press as a showman, showing off. A timeless statement of media impact on human life. The Gutenberg Galaxy's main technology, the printing press, is half-man, half-machine! Goosebumps, dear #skystorians, goosebumps.
A wood engraving of early 19th century showing a printing press (called PRESS) with an ink pot as a hat, half human and half printing press. Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1871-0429-668
39725
Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>
River River Books @riverriverbooks.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Hey babe. We’ve got you covered: www.riverriverbooks.org/store
Comic by Kyle Bravo with a woman looking and her bookshelf at home and the dialogue: 

"Hi honey, could you run by the bookstore on the way home? We're almost out of poetry."
115033
Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
The first decorative gourd of the season, motherfuckers!
031
Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>
marybeard @wmarybeard.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Here's a discussion about the Vestal Virgins... who, where and why. But we also try to open up how scholars now go about making sense of them, and how they change their minds.. that's me! tinyurl.com/yun74nep
tinyurl.com
The Vestal Virgins - just how virginal were they?
Podcast Episode · Instant Classics · 3 September · 54min
0679
Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
When your fandom is old enough to drink and the blorbos are all DILFs.
1194
Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>
Martha Wells @marthawells.com · 13/09/2026
m.youtube.com/watch?v=9j7L...
m.youtube.com
Acclaimed Apple TV Series “Murderbot” at Texas A&M
YouTube video by KAMU Public Broadcasting
321721
Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
As ever, art is the way through, but also, yay start to weekend!
280
Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Charmed by this empty speech bubble.
191
Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>
kelly jensen @heykellyjensen.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Librarians Suing Over Wrongful Termination for Defending Books Are Winning. A look at the librarians who've settled lawsuits for defending the right to read and where that stands in contrast to lawsuits about the right to read more broadly. bookriot.com/librarians-s...
bookriot.com
Librarians Suing Over Wrongful Termination for Defending Books Are Winning: Book Censorship News, September 11, 2026
Librarians who've been fired for not banning books and sued are winning settlements in their cases.
22615907
Reposted by Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>>
Martha Wells @marthawells.com · 10/09/2026
This is tonight at 7 pm ct. Murderbot event at TAMU
211328
Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Fun 17th c. list of maladies…
060