iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Simon Kővesi

Banned Books Week @bannedbooksweek.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

"Book bans are against liberty. And as a proud mom for literacy I am here to support marginalized voices and making sure kids have the right to read." We are delighted to have Bess Kalb join us as an honorary chair for #BannedBooksWeek! #LetBooksBe ala-events.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

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David Cooper @drdavidcooper.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

A new book for the new academic year: my monograph, ‘Reading Place Writing: Geography, Form, Immersion, 2010-2020’ has been published by @livunipress.bsky.social as part of the @englishassociation.bsky.social ‘English at the Interface’ series www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....

liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk

Reading Place Writing | Home

David Cooper is Senior Lecturer in English at Manchester Metropolitan University where he is the founding co-director of the Centre for Place Writing.

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Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Huge congratulations David! Magnificent.

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Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Oh yes I recognise his art - never knew the name - extraordinary stuff isn't it - how does he do that lighting - so ephemeral & limpid & damp - thank you Morag!

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Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

No idea what you are even asking, sorry Dr Joss!

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Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Joseph Wright, ‘Matlock Tor by Moonlight’ (c. 1777-80).

Joseph Wright of Derby, ‘Matlock Tor by Moonlight’ (c. 1777-80), Yale Center for British Art.

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Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Ronald Blythe Fellowship 2026 The John Clare Society runs an annual bursary scheme, providing £1,000 for PhD researchers in the field of John Clare studies. Closing date: 30 October. @bars.bsky.social @bavs-uk.bsky.social @bsecs.bsky.social @univeng.bsky.social johnclaresociety.org/2026/10/01/r...

johnclaresociety.org

Apply for John Clare Society Bursary by 30 October 2026

Apply for the Ronald Blythe Fellowship bursary for John Clare studies! Deadline: 30 October 2026. Fund your research projects

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Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

This is an understated, but somehow extraordinary, study of a young fella toying with an insect, holding it carefully by the wings, from Thomas Barker, *Forty Lithographic Impressions from Drawings, Selected from his Studies of Rustic Figures After Nature* (Bath, 1813).

One image of a young man holding an insect by the wings, from Thomas Barker's book, *Forty Lithographic Impressions from Drawings, Selected from his Studies of Rustic Figures After Nature* (Bath, 1813).

Detail from the same image, of his hands holding an insect by the wings, from Thomas Barker's book, *Forty Lithographic Impressions from Drawings, Selected from his Studies of Rustic Figures After Nature* (Bath, 1813).

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Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

johnclaresociety.org

Apply for John Clare Society Bursary by 30 October 2026

Apply for the Ronald Blythe Fellowship bursary for John Clare studies! Deadline: 30 October 2026. Fund your research projects

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Reposted by Simon Kővesi

British Association for Romantic Studies @bars.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Call for Papers: Hogg’s Worlds Now, University of Glasgow, July 2027 Submit your abstracts for this new conference at the University of Glasgow on July 2-4, 2027. Deadline for submission 31 December 2026. More info: www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6619

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British Association for Romantic Studies @bars.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

BARS Digital Event: Returning to John Clare Join BARS for varied discussion focused around the poet, John Clare, including new archival discoveries, editing and class politics, global poetic legacy, and ideas of beauty in his poems. 19 October, 5pm UK Time www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6624

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Reposted by Simon Kővesi

Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Dada perfection

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Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Pierce Egan Life in London Coming soon...

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Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Well this is exciting. global.oup.com/academic/pro...

global.oup.com

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Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Goodhart's Law: "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure" Unis working towards REF2029 just now, should keep this in mind. REF is *not* research & it mustn't determine what kinds of research we foster or build. Yet we hear such miserable examples of researching *for* REF.

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Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Love Gadamer: Anyone who simply appeals to prejudices is not someone you can talk with. Indeed, a person who is not ready to put his or her own prejudices in question is also someone to whom there is no point in talking. Full enlightenment about one’s own interests in questioning is not attainable.

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Reposted by Simon Kővesi

Nic Wilson @nicwilson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Very much looking forward to celebrating autumn, nature writing & John Clare's poetry in the beautiful setting of Clare Cottage in Helpston on Monday 12 Oct: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/writing-th... Everyone welcome. No writing experience necessary. #johnclare #naturewriting @johnclare.bsky.social

eventbrite.co.uk

Writing the Rural Seasons: Colours of Autumn

Guardian Country Diarist Nic Wilson explores the spirit of autumn through creative writing, taking inspiration from Clare’s nature poems

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Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Become a friend of John Clare Cottage for £40 a year. www.clarecottage.org/7/become-a-f...

clarecottage.org

Become a Friend

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Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

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Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Coffee shop, 1821 style. From Pierce Egan's "Life in London", a novel richly illustrated by the Cruikshank brothers.

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Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

One of my favourite passages from Pierce Egan's Life in London (1821):- a biting critique of a type of elite, posh person affecting being moved by fiction & fantasy, drama & tragedy, but not even able to look at real tragedy or human suffering:

She had abundance of sentiment attached to her character, but not a grain of feeling. The pathetic imaginary tale of distress, highly wrought up in a novel, was delightful,—it was exquisite; but an account of real poverty was excruciating to her mind,—it was horrid,—quite disgusting,—shocking, and must not be repeated in her presence. She was entirely made up of ART; any thing like unsophisticated nature was brutish, barbarous, and low.

From Pierce Egan, Life in London (1821).

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The Agnes Owens Archive @aowensarchive.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

We’re delighted to be working with Byres Road Book Festival to celebrate Agnes Owens’ centenary with a special series of events. 📚✨ Join us 24 & 27 Sept at Òran Mór and Hillhead Library. Free!

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London Topographical Society @londontopsoc.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The LTS funds an annual prize of £1000 in honour of Dr Ann Saunders who was the Society’s Editor for 35 years. It is awarded for an original and unpublished research essay on the topography, development or buildings of London in any period. Click here: londontopsoc.org/about-us/ann...

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John Clare @johnclare.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

night for every oppertunity for everything but saying their prayers perhaps they are as good as their neighbours nay better they do without that fashionable veil hypocrisy.

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John Clare @johnclare.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

1824: Began Don Juan 2 verses of the Shipwreck very fine & the character of Haidee the best I have yet met it is very beautiful the hero seems a fit partner for Tom & Jerry fond of getting into scrapes & always finding means to get out again forever in the company of ladys who seem to watch at...

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Jessica R Valdez @jrvaldez.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

We're hiring in the long eighteenth century at LSU. Please spread the word and let me know if you have any questions. It's a wonderful department to work in! lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/LSU/job/0210...

lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com

Assistant Professor - 18th-Century British Literature

All Job Postings will close at 12:01a.m. CST (1:01a.m. EST) on the specified Closing Date (if designated). If you close the browser or exit your application prior to submitting, the application progre...

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Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

2. Any discussion about higher ed that misses that women and people of color were largely excluded until the *1970s* misses the fulcrum of these debates. 6/

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Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

The hole was 3 feet across.

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Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

A big ground nest, on Skye. Who made it?

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Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Thank you so much Maureen - yes we made it very much with making it easy (or easier!) to teach in mind. Hope it works!

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Reposted by Simon Kővesi

Hardeep Matharu @hardeepmatharu.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Now James Orr has stepped down as Reform UK's Head of Policy after C4's report, questions remain for Cambridge – where he is Associate Professor. Byline Times revealed serious concerns about his activities there months ago. We all know there won't now be 200+ articles on him and his life don't we?

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Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Colin Burrow, defining literary criticism, brilliantly, in the LRB: @lrb.co.uk

In the LRB, Colin Burrow writes:

But to return to the point of it all. Literary criticism is primarily about learning to read very complex creations and situations carefully. That requires a willingness to think and rethink, to take a thought and run with it until it either ceases to be viable or (ideally) generates its own internal impetus. It requires accepting that sometimes you get it wrong and that sometimes other people get it wrong. It makes you pull together a whole range of messy human bits and pieces, from autobiography to philology to counting lines and underlining letters and seeing almost invisible patterns, through histories of individuals and of peoples. All of this can go towards understanding the way a poem might cohere or interestingly not cohere. You’ve got to be bold sometimes in pushing a point and sometimes you’ve got to be humble about things you can’t see or haven’t seen. There’s a dash of politics, or more than a dash if you want that, and there could be a dash of religion too, if that’s your thing. But there has to be a great measure of self-awareness, about where you stand or sit or the corners into which you have been pushed by where you come from. Literary criticism is a supremely occasional skill, where you have to be bold enough to operate where there aren’t any clear rules and make up your own, and decide for yourself what you think, and maybe set that beside what other cleverer people have thought. Someone else might come along and see it differently, but if you’ve made them argue with you then you’ve done something worthwhile. If that doesn’t have a point to it, just in itself, then probably living doesn’t have a point to it either, because making ad hoc judgments on the basis of a mosaic of information and misinformation about people and about what you should say on a particular occasion, even a difficult one, is what we all need to do every day. Literary criticism is like the mess of life, an exercise in tact and understanding.

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Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Yes - I did actually say that caveat in my post?

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Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

We very much hope it will be! ☺️

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Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Are these academics completely ignorant of the extreme right money & explicitly racist politics that has driven all of this from the start? Or do they support this network too? At best, astonishing stupidity. bylinetimes.com/2026/08/18/t...

bylinetimes.com

The Peter Thiel-Linked Race Science Network that Penetrated Cambridge University and Targeted Jason Arday

The media's coverage of the academic's life was fuelled by the campaign of an established far-right network

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Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Go Helena! Huge congratulations!

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Reposted by Simon Kővesi

Dana @danalai6.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

The James Hogg Society is delighted to announce Hogg’s Worlds Now at the University of Glasgow, 2–4 July 2027. We invite proposals on Hogg’s life and writing, Scottish Romanticism, and new ways of reading Hogg and his world. Full CFP: tinyurl.com/Hogg2027 #ScottishRomanticism #Romanticism #CFP

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Dr. Emily Friedman @ecfriedman.com · 19/08/2026

Even if you are not a poetry nerd, this saga of a decades-long clash (reposted today by @kovesi.bsky.social) is worth reading. It’s satisfying to see a literary “dog-in-the-manger” foiled by a colleague with “make me” energy supported by his “publisher who had been in a Thai prison for libel”

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Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Ha - thank you Emily - that means a lot to me both to my very wet-behind-the-ears self in 1999 and to whatever this state of addled, grizzled self is now in 2026.

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Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Circulating this news on the copyright to John Clare's works again, because it doesn't seem to be as well known among Romantic-period scholars, editors and anthologisers, as it should. The copyright claim is dead.

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Seth L. Sanders @nabalkattu.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

pioneering the concept of Analog Humanities

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Simon Kővesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

You'd best write that down in a notebook.

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