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Helen Dallas

@helcdall.bsky.social
455 followers 835 following 42 posts

Postdoctoral researcher at University of Galway working on Romantic theatre. Current project on history plays. Writer, theatre fan, cat aunt. she/her

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Reposted by Helen Dallas
Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 11/09/2026
A staged reading of Joanna Baillie’s 1798 comedy THE TRYAL. The text has been modified for the stage: it has been shortened but there is also a scene added to clarify the plot. This reading brings to life a text Baillie was unable to produce in her own day. #C18 #C19 www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3ks...
youtube.com
The Tryal
YouTube video by Chris Bundock
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Helen Dallas @helcdall.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Happy birthday Joanna Baillie! Thank you @asls.org.uk for sharing my talk!
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Reposted by Helen Dallas
Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 11/09/2026
Joanna Baillie (1762–1851) was born #OTD, 11 Sep. Plays on the Passions, a series of female-led comedies & tragedies, brought Baillie fame during a period when serious drama was in decline. Her 256th birthday was commemorated by a Google doodle in 2018 🎂🧵 #C18 #C19 doodles.google/doodle/joann...
doodles.google
Joanna Baillie’s 256th Birthday Doodle - Google Doodles
Learn more about the creation of Joanna Baillie’s 256th Birthday Doodle and discover the story behind the unique artwork.
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Reposted by Helen Dallas
Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
'The area of the National Trust’s Holnicote estate where rivers have been returned to their natural courses and wetlands have been restored have remained green and lush during the five heatwaves across the summer.'
theguardian.com
Rewilded land remains green amid drought-stricken English countryside, images show
National Trust’s Holnicote estate says restored wetlands and rivers offer proof of resilience to drought, wildfires and flooding
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Reposted by Helen Dallas
Emma Monk @monkemma.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
It was inevitable, wasn't it🙄 Of course the Telegraph would run with something like this👇 So let's remove some of the rose-tinted spectacles and also look at some of that data comparing 1976 with modern heat waves Because the 1976 nostalgia porn is wearing a bit thin at this stage 🧵1/23
Telegraph headiline:

"Heatwave hysterics wouldn't have lasted a day in 1976", overlaid with a bold “MONK DEBUNKED” stamp.
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Helen Dallas @helcdall.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Your annual reminder that I write the 18th-century drama section of Year's Work in English Studies and would love you to tell me if in 2025 you had anything (book, chapter, or article) published on drama 1700-1780 that (broadly) fits within English Studies! I love reading and celebrating your work 💙
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Reposted by Helen Dallas
British Association for Romantic Studies @bars.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Sarah has also written a blog post to accompany the film, in which she tells us about the play's creation and provides scripts of the epilogues/addresses in the film: www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6500
bars.ac.uk
Drama Queens of the Georgian Period: A Tragic-Comic Entertainment, by Sarah Burdett – BARS Blog
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Reposted by Helen Dallas
British Association for Romantic Studies @bars.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
The recording of this event is now on the BARS Youtube channel, alongside a short film about Sarah Burdett’s ‘Drama Queens of the Georgian Period: A Tragic-Comic Entertainment’, in which actresses perform addresses and epilogues written/performed by Georgian women. www.youtube.com/@barsdigital...
A screenshot of two Youtube thumbnails. The first video is titled, 'Romantic Drama, Contemporary Performance: A Roundtable Discussion' and the second, 'Sarah Burdett’s ‘Drama Queens of the Georgian Period: A Tragic-Comic Entertainment’.
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Reposted by Helen Dallas
drsburdett22 @sburdett.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
If @helcdall.bsky.social has got you eager to learn more about the wonderful Joanna Baillie, then this virtual reading of Baillie's gothic drama, 'The Family Legend', might be of interest! www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6469 @romgothsam.bsky.social @bsecs.bsky.social @bars.bsky.social
bars.ac.uk
Call for Expressions of Interest: Virtual Reading of Joanna Baillie’s The Family Legend – BARS Blog
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Helen Dallas @helcdall.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
So energised by the enthusiasm for this, thank you all!
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Sarah @sarahalba.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
As a Scottish person I can't believe that I had never heard of Joanna Baillie before. Why can't we get some of this alongside our mandatory Burns lessons?
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Reposted by Helen Dallas
Dr. Emily Friedman @ecfriedman.com · 08/06/2026
One of my favorite memories of my studies here in York was learning about Baillie’s Plays on the Passions.
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Reposted by Helen Dallas
Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 08/06/2026
Joanna Baillie supported working-class poets & female writers. She inspired Byron & was considered by Harriet Martineau “second only to Shakespeare”. In 2018, her 256th birthday was marked by a Google doodle doodles.google/doodle/joann...
doodles.google
Joanna Baillie’s 256th Birthday Doodle - Google Doodles
Learn more about the creation of Joanna Baillie’s 256th Birthday Doodle and discover the story behind the unique artwork.
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Helen Dallas @helcdall.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Had a fantastic time talking about Joanna Baillie to a lovely audience at Romancing the Gothic run by @romgothsam.bsky.social! It was very exciting to introduce people to Baillie for the first time. Thank you to everyone who came along and brought so much enthusiasm! youtu.be/pgJGoCMk85A?...
youtu.be
Joanna Baillie: Gothic Plays and Psychological Horror with Dr Helen Dallas
YouTube video by Romancing the Gothic
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Reposted by Helen Dallas
James Harriman-Smith @jharrimansmith.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
This is TODAY! Come all 🎭 (and please spread the word!)
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Reposted by Helen Dallas
Keats-Shelley Assoc. @ksaacomm.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Join K-SAA Vice President Omar F. Miranda tomorrow for Romantic Drama, Contemporary Performance, a roundtable exploring the vibrant theatrical life of Romantic-era drama and its continuing impact on contemporary performance. 2 June | 5pm UK uofglasgow.zoom.us/webinar/regi... #RomanticDrama #BARS
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Helen Dallas @helcdall.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Come along tomorrow at 5pm BST to this exciting @bars.bsky.social digital event on Romantic drama and contemporary performance that I organised with Chris Bundock, featuring amazing speakers doing very cool work with 18th C and Romantic theatre! Sign up: www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6461
Romantic Drama, Contemporary Performance: A Roundtable Discussion

With support from the Centre for Theatre Research and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Literary Studies at the University of Essex 

Well into the twentieth century it was common to think of Romanticism as a period somewhat allergic to the stage. Even today, anthologies and surveys of the period emphasise the achievements of lyric poetry and the novel. When drama does arise, it often takes the form of what Byron called “mental theatre.” However, over the last 30 or 40 years, scholars have challenged this view to reveal in the period a “ranging debate about the theatre” in which, according to Greg Kucich,“there is a recurrent insistence on stage production as an indispensable component of dramatic writing.” This roundtable builds on this critical reassessment of the Romantic stage and how it informs contemporary work on Romantic drama. The question of whether (and which) Romantic plays were viable on the commercial stage has been re-energised by the emergence of practice-as-research methodologies, which have seen contemporary scholars experimenting with producing Romantic drama for modern audiences. 

Join our speakers, Chris Bundock, Helen Dallas, David Francis Taylor, James Harriman-Smith, Omar F. Miranda, for a roundtable on Romantic theatre and its afterlives!
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Helen Dallas @helcdall.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
This Saturday!!
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Justin Carville @justinmcarville.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
AHSS research is already massively underfunded in Ireland, proposals to restructure funding models and prioritise commercialisation of research will disproportionately impact the humanities - Irish academics, post-docs & post-grads past, current and future please add your voice in opposition 👇
openletter.earth
Concern about Research Ireland’s Strategy and Programme Plan
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Helen Dallas @helcdall.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
I'll be talking (online) in just over a month about the amazing Joanna Baillie! All welcome, no prior knowledge necessary (please come along if you've never heard of Baillie!)
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St. Simeon the Holy Fool @simeonthefool.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
The wonderful thing about Tyggers Is Tyggers are burning bright Their tops are made out of rubber In the forest of the night What bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy, Immortal hand or eye Did frame the most wonderful thing about Tyggers, Their fearful symmetry!
William Blake’s illustration for “The Tyger” has what appears to be a dippy grin for some reason.
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Helen Dallas @helcdall.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
My journal article 'The Haunted Closet: Romantic Drama and the Absent Body' is now online! This is material from my thesis, and honestly I'm very proud of it. Available here: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
muse.jhu.edu
Project MUSE -- Verification required!
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Shane Darcy @shanedarcy.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Shannon airport has long been put at the disposal of the US military by Irish authorities. Now it is facilitating ICE deportations which may amount to human trafficking or even crimes against humanity. For a country that speaks loudly in support of the rights of Palestinians, this is shameful.
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Helen Dallas @helcdall.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
Is anyone putting together a theatre panel for NASSR/NAVSA and looking for another speaker? 👀 (I'll write it as theater here too for whatever search optimisation that can provide)
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Reposted by Helen Dallas
Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
2025 has been a rotten year for most early career postdoctoral researchers, especially in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. For a better 2026, check out (or repost) this short thread on a free resource for UK-based SHAPE PhDs within 10 years (excluding career breaks) of the doctorate. 1/3
thebritishacademy.ac.uk
Early Career Researcher Network
An inclusive, researcher-led network for UK-based early career researchers working in the humanities and social sciences
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Helen Dallas @helcdall.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
Delighted by Bertie's delight!
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
'His book tour brought him to Cambridgeshire, where he would marry and have two children with Susannah Cullen, an Englishwoman from Ely. They settled in Soham, supported by a local network including abolitionist friends, safe...when reactionary “church and king” mobs were targeting reformers.' 1/3
theguardian.com
Lost grave of daughter of Black abolitionist Olaudah Equiano found by A-level student
Fitzwilliam Museum has uncovered student’s work from 1977 that revealed Cambridgeshire location of child’s burial place
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Helen Dallas @helcdall.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Thank you @srwride.bsky.social, and thank you for your amazing editing! 😊
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EHUNineteen @ehunineteen.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Our second seminar is: 27/11/25: David Coates, ‘Amateur Theatricals: in Fiction and in Fact’, 6-7 pm us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi... #EHU19SeminarSeries
A print called ‘A Private Theatrical of Jane Shore’ with a seated woman performing with book for variously involved seated guests, a cat and dog fighting in the middle of them
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Helen Dallas @helcdall.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
18th C theatre people, is there any text of Cape St Vincent (the adaptation of Glorious First of June) other than what's in the printed songbook? I have a point that I can back up with the songbook alone, but I just want to check I'm not overlooking the play somewhere!
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British Library @britishlibrary.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
Are you an early career researcher with an interest in our collection? Apply to develop an independent research project funded by AHRC. Hear more about the opportunity at a virtual town hall event on Monday 6 October: bit.ly/BL-EarlyCare...
A group of students sat at a table examining documents and books from the Library's collection.
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Helen Dallas @helcdall.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Rusted hinges squeal and a cloud of dust chokes the intrepid academic as she opens up the document file for the chapter she abandoned months ago...
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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
YOU GUYS. DAVID BOWIE WAS WRITING AN 18thc MUSICAL CALLED THE SPECTATOR WHEN HE DIED. Between this and Hilary Mantel’s unfinished rewriting of Pride & Prejudice… I cannot. David Bowie’s secret final project discovered locked in his study www.bbc.com/news/article...
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profchander @profchander.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
Professors Jarrar and Mohammed discuss the relationship between Romantic literature and Palestinian literature, as well as what it looks like to teach such literature during a genocide.
tandfonline.com
“This Experience Was a Reminder That No Matter How Much We May Try to Distance Ourselves, This Reality Remains Inescapably Present”: An Interview with Professors Osama Jarrar and Sumaya Haj Mohammed
In this interview, which took place virtually at the 2024 North American Society for the Study of Romanticism conference with the International Conference on Romanticism, Professors Jarrar and Moha...
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Helen Dallas @helcdall.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
I'd love to put together a theatre panel for this! Let me know if you'd also be interested?
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Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 10/08/2025
BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen has confirmed that the entire Al Jazeera team in Gaza City has been killed.
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Katie Slivensky @kslivensky.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
Okay. You all ready for a feel-good thread? Because one literally fell out of the sky for us last week and it's only fair we share this heartwarming tale with you. 1/?
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Alison Phipps አሊሰን @alisonphipps.bsky.social · 27/07/2025
An open letter has been launched today (27/7/25) for members of the UK academic community (academics and other university staff) to sign, to press the UK Home Office to facilitate safe passage out of Gaza for 40+ students with offers for UK universities. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com
Open letter from UK university staff: Request for biometric deferral and safe evacuation of incoming Palestinian students and scholars from Gaza to UK Universities
More than 40 students currently trapped in Gaza with full scholarships to UK Universities are asking for a safe route to come and study. We, the academic community hoping to welcome these scholars, ca...
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UNRWA @unrwa.org · 22/07/2025
People in #Gaza, including UNRWA colleagues, are fainting due to severe hunger. They are being starved. Meanwhile, just a few kilometers away from Gaza supermarkets and shops are loaded with food and other goods. Lift the siege. Allow UNRWA to bring in food and medicines.
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Andrew Hickey @andrewhickey.500songs.com · 22/07/2025
You know, I'm a "knowledge worker", and one of the big reasons for me doing the job I do is that I want to *tear down* the boundaries and share knowledge with people who don't have it. LLMs *reinforce* those boundaries, which is why I loathe them.
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Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
3/4 For those interested in the details of what Eltis actually said about the cost of antislavery patrols and how it has been misused the details are here: alanlester.co.uk/blog/the-wes...
alanlester.co.uk
The West Africa Squadron Memorial: An Exercise in Virtue Signalling and Denial
Alan Lester* In recent months the Daily Mail and right wing groups have mounted a clamour for a new memorial to be built in Portsmouth. In principle, the proposal seems reasonable, since it is to c…
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History Workshop @historyworkshop.org.uk · 20/05/2025
How can we better approach the histories of Indigenous peoples? Mary Katherine Newman introduces a new History Workshop series which will introduce a range of scholars, educators, and activists and the ways in which they examine Indigenous histories. www.historyworkshop....
historyworkshop.org.uk
Indigenous Historical Practices
Delve into Indigenous history with our History Workshop series, highlighting complex systems of historical knowledge and their significance.
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Caroline Dodds Pennock @carolinepennock.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
Close to TWO THOUSAND academics and educators say TRANS RIGHTS NOW. (Sorry if you've seen this (and the historians' letter!) too many times. The lack of an algorithm means we have to keep reposting it to catch people, and this really matters.)
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
'a leading Shakespeare expert [Matthew Steggle, Bristol] has analysed a fragment of a 17th-century letter that appears to cast dramatic new light on their relationship, overturning the idea that the couple never lived together in London.' 1/2
theguardian.com
Shakespeare did not leave his wife Anne in Stratford, letter fragment suggests
Professor says text shows Hathaway lived with playwright in London, upending the established idea of an unhappy marriage
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History Workshop @historyworkshop.org.uk · 21/04/2025
We stand in solidarity with trans women and the trans community and we will always be a space that recognises the importance of trans history. Read on for a selection from our archive 🧵 1/8
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Caroline Dodds Pennock @carolinepennock.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
This. Protect trans kids. Protect trans rights. Gender is a spectrum. Trans women are women. Trans men are men. Non-binary people exist. Inter-sex & DSD people exist. Gender-non-conforming people exist. Transphobia is anti-feminist. Laws are often wrong and unjust. We must fight for a fairer future.
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Helen Dallas @helcdall.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
I don't know if I have enough of an audience here for an announcement, but the wonderful production of Joanna Baillie's The Tryal that I was in at the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds is available to watch online! youtu.be/E3ksanlDElU?...
youtu.be
The Tryal
YouTube video by Chris Bundock
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
just imagine working at microsofft and thinking “let’s spend billions, steal a load of intellectual property, and destroy the planet to make an interface to write bad essays” rather than “let’s update MS Word so users can comment on footnotes”
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Robert Macfarlane @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
Hamdan Ballal, one of the directors of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, has been assaulted & injured by settlers at his home in the West Bank & arrested by the IDF. No trace of him since. The vengeance is clear. Do not let Hamdan disappear. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...
theguardian.com
Oscar-winning Palestinian director attacked by Israeli settlers and arrested
No Other Land’s Hamdan Ballal attacked by armed settlers in West Bank and handed to Israeli military, witnesses say
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