Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 28/09/2026And on the seventh day, he caught up on his grading. 030
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Today's side-discussion in the disgust course was talk about our favorite writing tool. Much to my surprise and delight, each student shared their favorite pen or pencil, and its backstory. 030
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 22/09/2026I’m having trouble enough with the one I have, thanks. 061
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 19/09/2026My coffee snobbery journey is about to take a new turn. 130
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Someone got tons of attention at the department picnic and is now totally pooped out. 040
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Trying my highly experimental blue book and Biscoff pedagogy today. 240
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Good thinking on my part to run the disgust course mid-afternoon. 010
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Catching up on my reading with this fascinating article by @matthewlevay.bsky.social. 130
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 13/09/2026When you're department chair and your university switches to multi-year scheduling. 060
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 13/09/2026It’s okay that I like the Phoebe Bridgers album, right? 130
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 06/09/2026I have the pleasure this semester, once a week, of meeting with the new majors. Their first essay will be to identify and reflect upon their own “gateway books.” thepointmag.com/examined-lif...thepointmag.comGateway Books | The Point MagazineIt has to start somewhere, this business of being an intellectual. Chances are, it doesn’t start well. 000
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 05/09/2026The disgust students might be getting a treat next week. 030
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 01/09/2026Second week of the disgust course is going to be off the rails. www.vice.com/en/article/i...vice.comIntroducing Pheromone Maxxing, TikTok’s Latest Disgusting Dating TrendResearchers say human scent can affect attraction, but there’s still no clear proof of a human sex pheromone. 000
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 01/09/2026Third time I've assigned it, and Murata's "Convenience Store Woman" really teaches itself. 030
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 30/08/2026Looking forward to sharing my thoughts at this roundtable for MLA in January. 080
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 23/08/2026Getting ready for the first day of the disgust course. 240
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 15/08/2026When faculty need to decide who’s chairing a committee. 130
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 14/08/2026Me trying to land this Didion chapter I've been working on. 060
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 08/08/2026Currently averaging one Greek yogurt ice cream bar per page of writing. 180
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 19/07/2026Slowly working my way through converting a MLA talk on Joan Didion into a chapter. I gave the talk in 2023, two years before the now-infamous "Notes to John" was published, and in itself, a difficult read. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notes_t...en.wikipedia.orgNotes to John - Wikipedia 010
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 19/07/2026Just finished a remarkable article by @becimay.bsky.social on “The Last Line.” “And the hardest of all is to make them hatch”—a stellar (hatching!) last line of its own. 292
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 14/07/2026Two terrific articles in the latest issue of PMLA, one on creepiness by James Draney (who I don't think is on here) and another by @pdkindig.bsky.social on cruising, which has me thinking more about the potential erotics of closeness and distance in close reading. 251
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 26/06/2026Joanie took my spot while I was out of the room and expresses no repentance. 130
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 21/06/2026Do take @dem8z.bsky.social's advice--and mine! The folks at UVA Press are terrific to work with. They made my book all the better, right down to the title. www.upress.virginia.edu/title/5889/upress.virginia.eduWe, Us, and ThemWhen Americans describe their compatriots, who exactly are they talking about? This is the urgent question that Douglas Dowland asks in <i>We, Us, and 131
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 14/06/2026Catching up on my reading with this timely issue of @asapjournal.bsky.social. 051
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 31/05/2026My weekend reading. Adams’s opening axioms are worth a class in themselves. cup.columbia.edu/book/love-mo...cup.columbia.eduLove, Money, Duty | Columbia University PressFrom birth to death, we care and are cared for by others. Yet we rarely acknowledge care except when it fails. In Love, Money, Duty, Rachel Adams examines th... | CUP 010
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 28/05/2026Catching up on my reading, this book is a fresh and thoughtful reflection on why it's so much fun to read together. press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...press.uchicago.eduReading TogetherA lively and thoughtful exploration of how book clubs change the way we read. In this engaging and vivacious memoir, college professor Katarzyna Bartoszyńska thinks back on various book clubs she has ... 010
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 26/05/2026This is going to be great. For my part, I'll be talking about the multidisciplinary chair as bearer of radical hope. 000
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 26/05/2026Books are wonderful things, and this is a wonderful essay about them. 164
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 11/05/2026An intriguing essay. The last paragraph might be the early twenty-first century's "A Room of One's Own." thepointmag.substack.com/p/classroom-...thepointmag.substack.comClassroom CopeMisplaced optimism in the age of AI 010
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 09/05/2026If we're going to talk about brutal buildings at Iowa, the Boyd is a palace compared to the infamous (and easily floodable) EPB. 050
Reposted by Douglas DowlandScott Selisker @sselisker.bsky.social · 27/04/2026Cover, official page, Oct 6 2026 hardcover / late-June ebook release dates, ISBN-13 for my book, *Character Networks in Contemporary U.S. Fiction*... global.oup.com/academic/pro... 116714
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 22/04/2026Some of the work of the department chair is political. Much of the work is ideational. And just a sliver of it is ridiculously capturing students attention at Honors Day so the campus photographer can take this awesome photo. 040
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 07/03/2026The reading list for next semester's Literature of Mental Illness course. I feel like I'm missing a book of poems or another play. Suggestions? 020
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 03/03/2026Have a friend or colleague who chairs a multidisciplinary humanities department? We'd like their abstract for MLA27! mla.confex.com/mla/2027/web...mla.confex.comCall for Papers: Chairing a Multidisciplinary Humanities Department (2027 MLA Annual Convention) 000
Douglas Dowland @profdgd.bsky.social · 24/02/2026Reading the pedagogy column at @mid-theory.bsky.social and finding it to be quite good! mid-theory.com/category/ped...mid-theory.comPedagogy – Mid Theory CollectivePosts about Pedagogy written by Alec Abramson, John Downes-Angus, and Samuel P. Catlin 041