Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 05/10/2026We've just expanded the catalogue of Xbox games for the Games Lab at my department with a weird (but actually quite good) mix of titles. I'm looking forward to using them in teaching. We are using Xbox because of its backward compatibility, which is very important for historical game studies. 110
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 02/10/2026It has been a labour-intensive year, but I've just submitted the final version of my new book to the press for production. More details to come in due course! 🥳 160
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 07/09/2026I'm pretty chuffed with my recent haul of books, which link to my current research activities. 010
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 25/08/2026I fell down a bit of a rabbit hole this morning thinking about the computers we had at school. In Ontario the Ministry commissioned Unisys ICONS (aka Bionic Beavers - genuine nickname) for schools that came pre-loaded with educational games. Did anyone else play Crosscountry Canada? 020
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 04/08/2026I am always so chuffed with myself when I write silly names for my meetings. However, I can never remember what they are about which makes prep difficult... 🙃 110
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 05/07/2026I am working on my presentation for ESHS/HSS at Edinburgh. I'm going to be discussing the contest for cultural authority in Victorian Britain and the spiritualist press using two well-known stories: the transit of Mrs. Guppy by spirit apport and Henry Slade's alleged exposure and criminal trial. 130
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 18/05/2026For my last class of the semester on *Monsters in the Literary and Cultural Imagination*, the students surprised me with this awesome cake. It is moments like this that make the job worth it. 050
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 13/05/2026I was reminded this morning of "Psycho," an automaton co-invented by John Nevil Maskelyne and John Algernon Clarke in 1874. Psycho was designed to play the card games Whist and Nap and performed over 4000 times at the Egyptian Hall. He's now at the Museum of London. 042
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 05/05/2026Like some of his friends and colleagues in the 1870s, I want to give William Crookes the benefit of the doubt that his experiments with psychic force were not as flawed as his critics said. But then I think about how he also unreservedly argued that Katie King's physical materialisation was real... 020
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 29/04/2026My students shared this gem with me today in class. The album includes Lovecraftian-themed bangers such as: 'I'm Dreaming of a Dead City', 'It's Beginning to Look at Lot Like Fishmen', and 'O Come All Ye Olde Ones' 💗 020
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 20/04/2026This is a fabulous PhD opportunity to study the history of Scottish video games and its intersection with museums. More details can be found at the following link. Click on 'Fully Funded PhD Research Studentship' on the left side: ce0173li.webitrent.com/ce0173li_web... 064
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 14/04/2026I'm spending the morning writing about Daniel Dunglas Home, which is always fun. I was reminded of this wonderful sketch by the famed caricaturist George Cruikshank from 1868. It was drawn during a private seance. It depicts Home levitating in the air and floating out of the room. 030
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 10/04/2026My darling cat Viktoria and I have been immortalised together in print! 💗 030
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 25/03/2026My adorable little snuggle monster Viktoria has just been recruited to promote my good friend @sharonchoe.bsky.social's forthcoming novel Queen of the Spirit Woods. I'm a proud cat daddy 051
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 25/03/2026Two fictional characters from different universes you want to see fight 010
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 04/03/2026A hand-drawn diagram showing the set up for a seance that the naturalist TH Huxley attended in Jan of 1874. Huxley initially resisted the idea of investigating spiritualism, but eventually capitulated as a result of AR Wallace's and Wm Crookes' respective writings on spirits and psychic forces. 010
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 26/02/2026I've added a little slide at the end of my seminar today to showcase my adorable little snuggle monster. 050
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 23/02/2026While reading about William Crookes' psychic experiments in 1871, I found an entry where a critic compares D.D. Home's floating accordion to the stage magician Alexander Hermann's floating wand. Crookes purposefully ignores magicians because they undermine his findings. Hermann's posters are fun! 010
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 16/02/2026Curling Gate might be the most amazing Canadian sports controversy of the decade. And the memes are wonderful! 020
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 11/02/2026Here's a snippet from an article in the Saturday Review from 1871, where the journalist is making fun of William Crookes experiments on psychic force. 020
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 09/02/2026In my lecture and seminars this week, we will be exploring the Lizzie Borden murder case. I taught this last semester too at the MA level and it was wildly popular. I plan to also discuss the emergence of a dark tourism culture in Fall River, MA, which was the setting of the murders. 001
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 03/02/2026It's the first day of term and it is time for my lecture on Silent Spring and the dangers of chemical pesticides like DDT. Here are some old adverts to enjoy! 010
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 26/01/2026I forgot how wonderful William Crookes' experiments in the early 1870s with the medium D.D. Home were. I've revisited them for some new research, and I'm geeking out hard right now... 040
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 23/01/2026I was going through some old files and found these scans from Lewis Carroll's handwritten manuscript "Alice’s Adventures Underground" (1862). He originally gave it to Alice Liddell as a Christmas gift. The full text was available at the BL before the infamous hack. 141
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 22/01/2026I've got some exciting news brewing about the Henry Slade case from 1876. But I can't share it just yet. This was a famous event in the history of spiritualism when the naturalist E. Ray Lankester supposedly exposed the medium Slade as a cheat. It went to trial but ultimately Slade was acquitted. 150
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 12/01/2026"The Octopus" from the Moody Bible Institute Monthly, December 1925. Published a hundred years ago and still on the money... 😬 020
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 19/12/2025I've finished Stray. What a game! If you are looking for a great escape this holiday season, I highly recommend it. I enjoyed it so much, it is going straight into teaching. 050
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 19/12/2025After a series of delays, my article "Harry Price and the Crawley Poltergeist" has finally been published in the Magazine of the Society for Psychical Research. A big thanks to @emmamerkling.bsky.social, who originally directed me to the case and digitised the requisite archival material. 1104
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 16/12/2025I forgot about this advert for Pelikan's cough medicine. What a list of ingredients 😂 "The best and safest cough remedy" 091
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 12/12/2025Aren't these woodcuts from my 1920 edition of Lewis Carroll's Alice stories delightful? It is the Red Queen being shaken into a kitten. 💕 010
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 09/12/2025It still blows my mind that in the 1980s we played videogame off of cassette tapes. Everything about it makes so little sense. Yet when you read about how it worked, you discover how bloody brilliant the process truly was. Also, the cover art for Ghosts n Goblins port on the Spectrum was awful! 081
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 25/11/2025Still working through my chapter on Henry Slade's alleged exposure by E Ray Lankester in 1876. There are so many wonderful woodcuts from the trial, including this one from The Graphic in October of that year. 030
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 17/11/2025I'm giving a talk tomorrow for @royalsocietypublishing.org. It's on the Japanese anthropologist Baba Tatsui who worked with E.B. Tylor on the first English-language translation of the Kojiki. Baba also wrote an amazing book on Japanese ethnographic impressions of the British in Japan in 1875. 050
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 12/11/2025I'm spending the day writing about "The Slade Number" from the Medium and Daybreak from October 1876. The entire issue was devoted to a defence of Henry Slade who had recently been exposed by E Ray Lankester as a fake during a seance. At least that's the story according to Lankester. 050
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 04/11/2025Two years ago, @upittpress.bsky.social first shared with Bernie and me a mock-up of the cover for our collection, "Victorian Interdisciplinarity and the Sciences." I still love the design, which was originally suggested by @kingtekkers.bsky.social Visit the website👇 upittpress.org/books/978082... 170
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 03/11/2025I did another interview, this time for "Tumble Science Podcast for Kids". Basically, kids ask questions to experts. My question from 6yo Lily was: Are ghosts real? Listen here: www.sciencepodcastforkids.com/single-post/... The producers also made this hilarious picture of me for the episode. 140
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 21/10/2025The Blue Jays are going back to the World Series for the first time in 32 years. What a moment! Now the biggest challenge yet, defeating the Dodgers. 000
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 08/10/2025Next week, I'm doing an interview on horror games, moral panic and censorship. I've decided to talk about Atari's "Halloween" (1983). It was deemed too violent and realistic for young gamers, and might send impressionable minds down nefarious paths. Try it here👇 www.retrogames.cz/play_1177-At... 020
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 07/10/2025I just got recognised by the Toronto Blue Jays as one of their top fans. 💕 I guess five decades of fandom finally paid off. Now with my fellow blue-feathered friends we wait in anticipation of game 3, where Toronto will hopefully sweep the dislikable Yankees. 000
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 03/10/2025I'm preparing my seminar on the History Environmentalism and for the class I'm going to talk about everyone's favourite early 90s environmental champion, Captain Planet. 010
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 03/10/2025There is no team in sports that I detest more than the NY Yankees. I don't just want my beloved Toronto Blue Jays to beat them in the ALDS, I want them to eviscerate the Yankees. Go Jays Go! ⚾ 010
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 29/09/2025My beloved Toronto @bluejays.com won their first pennant in 10 years last night. Is this the year we finally make it back to the World Series? That's the dream! 🥳 120
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 22/09/2025It says a lot that after my lecture on the Scientific Revolution today, the historical figure most people wanted to chat about was John Dee and not Newton, Boyle or Bacon. I guess it was my discussion on his scrying mirror and healing crystal that grabbed their attention. 000
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 22/09/2025Today feels like a good day to reshare this wonderful woodcut from Punch, "Spiritualism Made Useful" (1877). It was made by George du Maurier, who was one of the periodical's more prolific artists. 020
Efram Sera-Shriar @dreframss.bsky.social · 18/09/2025True story, but over a slightly longer timeline... 😂 041