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Sophie Franklin

@sophiefranklin.bsky.social
303 followers 314 following 40 posts

DOROTHY MSCA postdoc at UCD and University of Reading • Victorian literature, violence, health, contagion, afterlives • Associate Editor of Brontë Studies • 'Violence and the Brontës', out now with EUP • she/her

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Reposted by Sophie Franklin
Martin Gelin @martingelin.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
My latest piece for The Guardian: In Sweden, previously unthinkable far-right ideas are now comfortably embedded in the mainstream. The past four years were characterised by an astonishing acceptance of ethnonationalist views, xenophobic rhetoric and authoritarian policies often targeting children.
theguardian.com
How Sweden lost its soul – and stopped being Sweden | Martin Gelin
In 2022 my country entered a new era of cruelty. It will take more than one election to get the old, tolerant Sweden back, writes Swedish journalist Martin Gelin
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AMEND - eArly Modern European NeuroDivergence @amendproject.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
AMEND's PI Laura has written a great new article published on The Conversation, ‘What Early Modern Literature Can Teach Us About Neurodivergence’🤩 Read it here!: theconversation.com/what-early-m...
theconversation.com
What early modern literature can teach us about neurodivergence
Long before autism or ADHD were diagnoses, people were navigating lives outside social norms.
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Nate O @nateo.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
There are innumerable issues with Pinker (e.g. his association with Epstein), but I want to highlight how all the experts on history of violence wrote a special issue in Historical Reflections specifically because Pinker was perpetuating numerous falsehoods www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journal...
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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
anyway, anyone remember Jan Joosten? An Oxford theology professor, he downloaded over 28,000 images of CSA materials. I want to understand where the outrage over "standards" and "professional expectations," was back then. Social media was around then. www.theguardian.com/world/2020/j...
theguardian.com
Oxford professor sentenced to jail in France over child abuse images
Former pastor Jan Joosten receives year’s sentence for downloading 28,000 images and videos
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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 16/08/2026
‘The Scottish culture secretary, Màiri McAllan, says she has received “concrete assurances” from Creative Scotland that the CCA archive has a “secure future”. What this future might be, however, remains unclear.’ Helen Charman on Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/au...
lrb.co.uk
Helen Charman | Save the CCA
The entire contents of the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow were auctioned off by a commercial asset sales...
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Edinburgh University Press @edinburghup.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
📢 Ebook sale! We've dropped the price of our ebooks to £9.99/$14.95 for this week only. Yes, that's right: ALL of them! 😍 So if you've had your eye on something, now's your chance. Happy shopping: edin.ac/3m0FGgU
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
‘Thousands of university job cuts in humanities and social sciences are creating widespread cold spots for languages, classics and theology degrees, the British Academy has warned’ www.theguardian.com/education/20...
theguardian.com
Humanities among degrees being ‘extinguished’ by hard-up universities
Exclusive: Experts fear rise in education ‘cold spots’ and social immobility as 4,000 academic posts lost in one year
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
‘The subjects with the biggest staff cuts were social work (-9%), English and classics (both -8%), anthropology (-7%) and linguistics (-6%)… Education and social work together had nearly 1,000 job losses, English 440, media and journalism 235, performing arts 230, languages 225 and law 215.’
Graph showing size of staff cuts by subjects
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Des Fitzgerald @desfitzgerald.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
A few weeks ago, @wellcometrust.bsky.social announced that scholars in the republic of Ireland would no longer be eligible to lead bids to the flagship discovery research scheme. We think this decision is badly flawed, and are asking them to rethink: www.irishhumanities.ie/assets/PDFs/...
irishhumanities.ie
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Past and Present @pastpresentsoc.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Our 2026 Supplement (#18) "Medicine, Race, and Slavery in the Transatlantic World, 1600–1850" Edited by @hsmurphy.bsky.social (@kingshistory.bsky.social @cemskcl.bsky.social) Has now been published by @academic.oup.com academic.oup.com/past/issue/2...
Cover of the 18th Past & Present history journal suppment "Medicine, Race and Slavery in the Transatlantic World, 1600-1850" edited by Hannah Murphy. It is in the journal's standard colours of red and grey with text providing key bibliographic information in white. Most of the lower half of the cover is taken up by a historical pen drawing likely from a medical handbook of various surgical and other medical instruments
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Fraser Riddell @fraserriddell.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Looking for discussion of “the novel with a purpose“, particularly in Britain in the 1890s. Any suggestions for useful recent scholarship? (I need to track down Amanda Claybaugh‘s 2007 book…)
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Tom Scriven @pigsmeat.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Also working-class autodidacts didn't just read alone - they read in groups, set up libraries and reading rooms, and battled for Mechanics' Institutes (many long ago merged into unis) to teach music, history, and politics. They built the public adult education infrastructure that's being destroyed
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Rebecca Hutcheon @drbekahutcheon.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
This letter to the LRB perfectly captures the shocking catastrophe of UK HE. And the fact that no-one seems to care.
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Sophie Franklin @sophiefranklin.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
💥 This event is today! 💥 All welcome! Email womenwritingviolence@gmail.com for the Zoom link.
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Sophie Franklin @sophiefranklin.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
📣 This Thursday the Women Writing Violence Network is hosting an online best-practice conversation on: 💥 Teaching Violent Texts and Images 💥 📆 18th June – 3pm BST / 4pm CET (90 mins) with speakers including @drclaireocall.bsky.social and @hdohertyharrison.bsky.social – join us – all welcome!
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Saraband Books @saraband-books.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Our June newsletter is now published! 📩 With author events, prize updates, new releases and an exciting twinning announcement for Independent Bookshop Week! Read and subscribe (for free!) here: substack.com/home/post/p-... #BookSky 📚💙
Saraband June 2026 newsletter. Image of Emily Brontë Reappraised: Expanded and updated edition by Claire O’Callaghan. 

https://sarabandbooks.substack.com/
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Daniel Grey @djrgrey.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Reminder - just 5 days left to submit a paper proposal for "Belonging to the Victorians? Community, Collections, and Care", a 1-day conference on 4 September 2026 to be held at Wilton's Music Hall. Details in attached image. 🌟
Call for Papers for conference "Belonging to the Victorians? Community, Collections and Care" on 4 September 2026 - deadline 22 May 2026.
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Essie Fox Writer @essiefox.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
A new episode of Talking the Gothic feaures the brilliant scholar and writer, @drclaireocall.bsky.social. Join us as we discuss the life and work of the most gothic of the Brontës - the 'strange one' - Emily. essiefox.substack.com/p/emily-bron...
essiefox.substack.com
Emily Brontë Reappraised ~ Episode 9
Essie Fox in discussion with Dr. Claire O'Callaghan, author of Emily Brontë Reappraised, a fascinating work blending biography, feminist criticism, and cultural history.
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
We know for SHAPE subjects what's lost to UK higher education by current HE policy. (No one seems to be minding the STEM shop by the way). Cold spots for SHAPE subjects now abound. The data are clear: this disproportionately affects disadvantaged students. 8/9 @helenhayes.bsky.social
thebritishacademy.ac.uk
Cold spots: Mapping inequality in SHAPE provision in UK higher education
This British Academy report reveals that many parts of the UK are becoming subject cold spots – areas with no provision in a subject within a commutable distance. These are often in rural, coastal or ...
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Sophie Franklin @sophiefranklin.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Happy 210th birthday, Charlotte Brontë! 🎂 Check out the very beautiful snazzy cover to my book with @saraband-books.bsky.social! 👀💚
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Dr Andrew McInnes @drbeard79.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Happy birthday, Charlotte Brontë! Alongside my love of Jane Eyre, my favourite CB titbits are: she went thru a phase of signing her letters Caliban AND there’s a secret set of poems in Poems (1846) wherein a wife demands to travel with her spy husband, gets chased thru French woods, & survives him 🖤
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Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
Mudie's Select Circulating Library lay at the heart of the Victorian publishing system. Karen Wade's site, now at a new URL, makes it possible to explore the library's catalogues as never before, with an index of 22,000 novels by 6000 authors. curatr.ucd.ie/mudies/ #victorian #bookhistory
curatr.ucd.ie
Mudie's Library Online
Mudie's Library Online Catalogue - UCD Centre for Cultural Analytics, University College Dublin
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Catherine Fletcher @catherinefletcher.info · 16/04/2026
Just a few more days to apply to this year’s Take Your Research Public course - an introduction to public writing, social media, podcasting and more for academics new to this work. Guests include @drsurekhadavies.bsky.social and @estelleprnq.bsky.social. Free, online, over four Tuesdays in June.
mcphh.wordpress.com
Take Your Research Public
Take Your Research Public is a free practical course aimed at academic researchers (from mid-PhD onwards) who want to develop writing for magazines, social media, podcasts, radio or the broad trade…
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profchander @profchander.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Super happy to announce that the first book in our series, Race in Nineteenth-Century Literatures and Cultures, will be coming out this June. Check out Porscha Fermanis's _Settler Fiction from the Southern Hemisphere, 1820-1890_ and please ask your libraries to order?
global.oup.com
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Dr Marina Cano @drmarinacano.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
Thanks so much to @sophiefranklin.bsky.social and co, from the Women Writing Violence Network, for sharing news of my book ❤️ 💚 💜 So glad to feature in their April Newsletter! *Theatrical Afterlives: Nineteenth-Century Women’s Novels on the Stage* (OUP 26) global.oup.com/academic/pro...
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Jordan @jordanpfot.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Might be the greatest opening paragraph of anything ever.
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Sophie Franklin @sophiefranklin.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
I was on @rteradio1.bsky.social's Arena on Monday night, speaking alongside Martina Devlin all about Emily Brontë and 'Wuthering Heights' – you can listen back below! While I have some reservations about Emerald Fennell's adaptation, I will be watching... 👀📕
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Saraband Books @saraband-books.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
Listen to @sophiefranklin.bsky.social talk all things Emily Brontë, ahead of the new Wuthering Heights film release #Booksky #EmilyBrontë #WutheringHeights 📚💙 www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...
rte.ie
The enduring legacy of Emily Brontë
Martina Devlin and Dr. Sophie Franklin discuss the enduring legacy of Emily Brontë.
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CSAReps project @csarepsprojectucd.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
The workshop includes flash-talk presentations followed by Q&A sessions, with a roundtable discussion on the connections between violence, health, and the (health) @sophiefranklin.bsky.social @ailise-bulfin.bsky.social @brenrooney.bsky.social @hazelklarkin.bsky.social @theflyingchild.bsky.social
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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
What's this I see before me? I'm running an online course on the Bronte Juvenilia for the Bronte Parsonage! Come join me! www.bronte.org.uk/events/bront...
bronte.org.uk
Brontë Juvenilia: An online five-week course | The Brontë Parsonage Museum
This 5 week course takes us on a deep dive into the world of the Brontë Juvenilia, exploring the fantastical worlds they created, full of intrigue, adventu
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
'When it opened, the campus housed a GP surgery and a new dental clinic offering free treatment to local people. This was followed later by the forum – a library and art gallery shared by the university and local people.' 1/2
theguardian.com
‘If I think about what this means, I want to cry’: what happens when a city loses its university?
When Essex University’s Southend campus opened, it was a message of hope for a ‘left behind’ UK seaside town. Its closure will be felt far beyond its 800 students, some of whom will not get their degr...
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Sophie Franklin @sophiefranklin.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
📣 I'm giving one of the Brontë Parsonage's Thursday Talks on 5th March, in person and online – I'll be talking about the role of violence in Anne, Charlotte, and Emily Brontë's literary works and afterlives. ✨ Get your tickets here: www.bronte.org.uk/events/thurs...
bronte.org.uk
Thursday Talk: Brontës and Violence | The Brontë Parsonage Museum
When Anne, Charlotte, and Emily Brontë’s novels were first published in the 1840s, they caused quite a stir. Amidst the more positive reviews, critics sing
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Jay Todd 🏳️‍⚧️ @jaytoddgla.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
📣 Today @felicitycallard.bsky.social and I have published the first peer-reviewed response to the 'Sullivan Review' of research and data on sex and gender. doi.org/10.1111/tran... The Review could threaten trans rights and inclusion, erode academic freedom, and undermine research quality.
Graphic reading 'the UK Government-commissioned 'Sullivan Review' of sex and gender in data and research collection threatens British research and trans inclusion. Here's why.'
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Dr Hannah Victoria Palmer @hannahpalmer.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
My new article was published earlier this week!! It focuses on the gynaecological health of Mrs Glover, the subject of several letters in Elizabeth Gaskell's correspondence between 1853–54, and reveals Glover's original patient record that I found at the wonderful @bharchives.bsky.social. ✨
doi.org
Verification of a Date in the Gaskell Letters: Mrs Glover’s Original Patient Case Notes
‘Poor Mrs Glover’, wrote Elizabeth Gaskell, ‘[…] the operation is to be today’.1 There are nine letters featuring Mrs Glover and her diagnosis and treatmen
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Johanna Winant @johannawinant.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
I wrote an essay for @bostonreview.bsky.social about what I learned about close reading when I taught at West Virginia University www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
bostonreview.net
The Claims of Close Reading - Boston Review
Literary studies have been starved by austerity, but their core methodology remains radical.
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Dr Mary McAuliffe @drmarymcauliffe.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
Every day, 137 women and girls are killed by intimate partners or family members internationally - one death every 10 minutes, according to the UN, who released their annual femicide report today. Today is International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women #speirgorm jrnl.ie/6884469
jrnl.ie
One woman or girl killed every ten minutes by intimate partners or family members, UN says
Today is International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, but according to the UN the number of women and girls killed intentionally remains unchanged.
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
'In February, Sheffield Hallam University, home to the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice (HKC), a leading research institution focused on human rights, ordered one of its best-known professors, Laura Murphy, to cease research on supply chains and forced labour in China.' 1/3
theguardian.com
UK university halted human rights research after pressure from China
Exclusive: Leading professor at Sheffield Hallam was told to cease research on supply chains and forced labour in China after demands from authorities
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Durham Institute for Medical Humanities @durhamimh.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
📅 Join us on Tuesday 4 November for a seminar on Violence, Trauma & Memory: The Causes and Impacts of Moral Injury. This hybrid event is free to attend either in person at the Institute for Medical Humanities, or online. Find out more and book tickets:
eventbrite.co.uk
IMH Violence, Trauma & Memory: The Causes and Impacts of Moral Injury
A seminar on the impact and causes of moral injury (the enduring presence of negative emotions) and the possibilities for repair and change.
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Society for the Social History of Medicine (SSHM) @sshmedicine.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
The 2026 SSHM Conference will be @universityofleeds.bsky.social. The theme will be In/Out and we are inviting papers that consider experiences of being in and/or out of health or health care in any period or geographical location. #HistMed #HistSTM sshm.org/sshm-2026/
sshm.org
SSHM 2026: In/Out
Location: University of Leeds Dates: 30 June to 3 July 2026 Submission Deadline: 5.00pm (GMT) 11th January 2026 Conference Co-Convenors: Dr Alexia Moncrieff & Dr Katherine Rawling Conference Co…
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Sophie Franklin @sophiefranklin.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
📣 Myself, Lara Ehrenfried, and Nikolina Hatton have established a new literary network, the Women Writing Violence Network, to foster a cross-historical approach. We're having our launch event on 23 October at 14:00 (CET). All very welcome! Zoom details here: wwvnetwork.wordpress.com/meetings-eve...
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Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
🚨Call for Papers! ❓Sensation Fiction and the Health Humanities: A VPFA Study Day 🗺️Loughborough University 📅27 March 2026 💷 FREE For full CfP: victorianpopularfiction.org/studyday/for... Contact the organiser Anne-Marie Beller (@braddonite.bsky.social) at a.m.beller@lboro.ac.uk for more information
Mentally ill patients dancing at a ball at Somerset County Asylum. Process
print after a lithograph by K. Drake, ca. 1850/1855.
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/xswz3swa
CFP: Sensation Fiction and the Health Humanities
A VPFA Study Day
Loughborough University, 27 March 2026

The Health Humanities and Victorian popular fiction intersect in revealing ways, offering insights into how 19th-century literature shaped and reflected contemporary understandings of health, illness, and the body. Popular narratives not only mirrored anxieties surrounding public health and medical progress but also contributed to shaping public perceptions of health and healing. Health Humanities approaches re-examine these texts to uncover how cultural narratives and literary representations influenced attitudes toward physical and mental well-being, gendered experiences of illness, and the ethics of care in an age of rapid scientific change.

Health Humanities is a particularly useful approach to sensation fiction because it illuminates the ways in which these emotionally charged, often morally ambiguous narratives explore and interrogate concepts of the body, illness, and mental health. Sensation fiction, with its focus on secrets, trauma, nervous disorders, and abnormal psychological states, frequently dramatizes the anxieties of Victorian society surrounding health, gender, and identity. By applying the lens of Health Humanities, scholars can uncover how these texts reflect and shape contemporary medical discourse. Interdisciplinary approaches also highlight how sensation fiction critiques institutional medicine, domestic care practices, and the pathologization of women’s experiences. Ultimately, Health Humanities allows us to see sensation fiction not just as entertainment, but as a culturally significant form that negotiates the meanings of illness, morality, and human vulnerability in a rapidly changing world.

20-minute papers are invited on any aspect of the health humanities and sensation fiction. Topics may include, but are not limited to the following:

•	Madness, Hysteria, and the Sensation Heroine
•	The Role of Doctors and Medical Authority in Se…
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Sophie Franklin @sophiefranklin.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
My book, 'Violence and the Brontës: Language, Reception, Afterlives', is out now with @edinburghup.bsky.social! It's the first major study of violence in the Brontës' fiction and afterlives, and I'd be thrilled if you ordered a copy for your library: edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-violenc...
edinburghuniversitypress.com
Violence and the Brontës
Violence and the Brontës
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Emily Sharp @emilysharp.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
@sophiefranklin.bsky.social’s book on Violence and the Brontës is now available for purchase at edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-violenc... Learn more about the book in Sophie’s blog post below!
edinburghuniversitypress.com
Violence and the Brontës
Violence and the Brontës
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Dr Anna Jamieson @annafranjam.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Our call for papers deadline is a week today! #medhums #histmed #histpsych
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Sophie Franklin @sophiefranklin.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
Inspired by Emerald Fennell's upcoming 'Wuthering Heights' adaptation, and in anticipation of my book coming out with @edinburghup.bsky.social this month, I've written a post for the EUP blog about the role of violence in some recent Brontë afterlives: euppublishingblog.com/2025/09/22/v...
euppublishingblog.com
Violence in Brontë Afterlives - Edinburgh University Press Blog
Explore five adaptations of Brontë novels that amplify violence, from Wuthering Heights to Jane Eyre, reshaping the Brontës’ enduring cultural impact.
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Ruth-Anne @ruthannereads.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
✨Call for reviewers ✨ There are lots of new Victorianist books this autumn, and we're looking for reviewers at the @bavs-uk.bsky.social newsletter. It’s the perfect opportunity for Victorian scholars to read the latest releases and publish a review. Full details here 👇 bavs.ac.uk/newsletters/
bavs.ac.uk
» NewslettersBAVSNewsletters | BAVS
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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
"How Are the Very Rich Feeling About New York’s Next Mayor?" A Dramatic Reading of The Recent New York Times Dispatch from the Hamptons. Presented by The Gilded Age's Morgan Spector.
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Hot off the press, the British Academy's Cold Spots: Mapping Inequality in SHAPE Provision in UK Higher Education report. Read it if you care about universities or access to the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences for the rising generation. 1/5
thebritishacademy.ac.uk
Cold spots: Mapping inequality in SHAPE provision in UK higher education
This British Academy report reveals that many parts of the UK are becoming subject cold spots – areas with no provision in a subject within a commutable distance. These are often in rural, coastal or ...
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The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) @themerl.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
Opening tomorrow: our latest display and exhibit, connecting the life and work of beloved author Jane Austen to rural England! We'll be opening the exhibit with a gallery tour, led by MERL's Isabel Hughes and @uniofreading.bsky.social's Professor Paddy Bullard: merl.reading.ac.uk/event/monthl...
Jane Austen & Rural Life
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