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Helen Smith

@wordsmith.bsky.social
2.1K followers 2K following 287 posts

Professor, @UoYEnglish. Printer, @thinicepress. Opinions mainly culled from the dustier corners of the sixenteenth century.

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Danielle Terrazas Williams @drdanielletw.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
Job Opportunity!
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Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies, York @crems-york.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
🚨 Two @rarebookschool.bsky.social courses coming to York in July! @wordsmith.bsky.social 'The Culture & Craft of Wood Type' & @jenniebatchelor.bsky.social 'The Rise of Periodical Print Culture' rarebookschool.org/courses/typo... rarebookschool.org/courses/hist... 🗃️ #bookhistory #earlymodern #18thC
rarebookschool.org
The Culture & Craft of Wood Type | Rare Book School
Course Length: 30 hours Course Week: 12–17 July 2026 Format: in person, York, UK Fee: $1,495 This course offers an in-depth engagement with the culture and craft of wood type, with a core focus on the...
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
In 2-3 pages, please provide evidence for how you meet every one of a 17-page list of criteria and how you excel in several.
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Sarah Wride @srwride.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
If you’re a #Humanities #ECR & in/willing to travel to York on 17 December, join me & the @historylabplus.bsky.social team for our 2025 ‘Christmas Connections’ event, a FREE & informal opportunity to support each other, build professional connections, & sample the city’s heritage & eatables. 👇&🧵
sas.ac.uk
Christmas Connections @ York
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Hannah Murphy @hsmurphy.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
An amazing opportunity for a PhD and a 4-year postdoc on this important project with the brilliant and lovely @smschober.bsky.social - hair, race, trade and multispecies history! #EarlyModern 🗃️
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Jim Waterson @jim.londoncentric.media · 01/10/2025
House prices will be our last bulwark against fascism.
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Please do not tell me it is time for my annual password update. I can't update my password, there are no more passwords, the universe is empty of passwords, it is all void.
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Still fighting my losing battle against capitalising articles after a colon.
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
do my clever and knowledgeable followers have examples of historians writing (eg journal article or book chapter) about their own *failures* in interesting ways? eg research goes wrong, wrong questions etc 🗃️
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
Please can someone come up with a flowchart for 'Is the Union Flag racist?', with Gerri Halliwell's dress featuring on one side and anything funded by Tommy Robinson and his right-wing mates marked out clearly on the other?
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
Quite a niche question today. Does anyone know if the phrase 'a nun's buttock' or similar is in any way proverbial in France?
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
I am writing more about buttocks today than I had anticipated.
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Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan @london.gov.uk · 17/09/2025
In London, hate will never win.
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
How we talk about history is the issue where the media and political discourse is perhaps most out of touch with how out of touch Nigel Farage is with the British public, outside his core vocal minority
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
With apologies for making you feel ancient, Anna Elizabeth Smith is 10!!!!!!!! today!
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 17/08/2025
Eurostar waitress spotted my daughter gnawing on a block of parmesan, in preference to her train meal. 'Oh, you're living your best life right now', she cried. 'No need to hide the cheese, I'm French.'
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
A plethora of new ODNB entries on early modern women stationers! Entries from Heidi Craig, Andrea Silva, Kirk Melnikoff, @mgyarn.bsky.social, Andreas P. Bassett, @tarallyons.bsky.social and @georginaemw.bsky.social, me, and of course from @valeriewayne.bsky.social who cooked up the whole cluster.
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Cait Coker <<digital brat with an insect mind>> @caitcoker.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
HELLO NEW JAPANESE PAPERMAKING RESOURCE!!!! h/t @wordsmith.bsky.social
washi-academy.com
Home - Washi Academy
Offered in early March and late October, our six-day Intensive workshops in Oguni provide a comprehensive introduction to the craft. Students experience every
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Oliver K. Langmead @oliverklangmead.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
A petition against the mass redundancies proposed at my university: www.change.org/p/stop-mass-...
change.org
Sign the Petition
Stop Mass Redundancies at Lancaster University – Hold Senior Management Accountable
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
I wrote about John Taylor and ethnographies of paper. It's out online today, prior to publication in *Critical Quarterly*. Thanks to @georginaemw.bsky.social and co for kicking off this train of thought with a wonderful conference, and giving it a home. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Ethnographies of Paper in Early Modern England
Click on the article title to read more.
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Jennie Batchelor @jenniebatchelor.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
It was wonderful to be present when @wordsmith.bsky.social introduced Margaret Atwood, who received an Honorary Degree, and who spoke so movingly about the power of books, words and reading in a world in crisis. youtu.be/BWpdOg4DZHc?...
youtu.be
Margaret Atwood receives an honorary degree from the University of York
YouTube video by University of York
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Society for Renaissance Studies @srsrensoc.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
#CfP: Poetry & Science, From the Renaissance to Enlightenment York, June 26-27 2026. Abstracts Sept 30 2025 Keynote: @manymanyplies.bsky.social. Confirmed speakers: @medrenliza.bsky.social, @titachico.bsky.social, Jonathan Sawday, @wordsmith.bsky.social Lizzie Swann #Skystorians shorturl.at/rYg7H
Call for Papers: Poetry and Science, From the Renaissance to Enlightenment

University of York, June 26, 2026 - June 27, 2026
Deadline for submission/application: September 30, 2025

Keynote: Katie Murphy
 
Confirmed Speakers include: Liza Blake, Tita Chico, Jonathan Sawday, Helen Smith, Lizzie Swann

We invite proposals for the final conference of the AHRC-DFG project, ‘Scientific Poetry and Poetics in Britain and Germany, from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, 1580-1750’.

From the late 16th and on into the first half of the 18th century, a large body of poetic writing addressed scientific subject matter. The conference explores this mass of scientific poetry – and a corresponding poetics of science – that reveals a vibrant facet of Renaissance, Restoration, and Enlightenment culture: the production not only of ideas, but of new, technical vocabularies and fast-paced neologizing, all forged in the particular demands of poetic form. Poetry, the era believed, did not function as mere ornament, but to reveal deep structures in the created world. This potential was theorized by the period’s emerging literary criticism, a practice that developed in demonstrable parallel with modern ‘science’.
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Susannah Lyon-Whaley @susannah-lw.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
Thanks to Thin Ice Press and @georginaemw.bsky.social @wordsmith.bsky.social for an enlightening three days of material thinking! If I have learned anything it is that there is there is no end to matter and 'digressions are sunshine'!
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
Please someone buy the last two tickets for my Edgar Allen Poe-stcards workshop at York Art Gallery! www.yorkmuseumstrust.org.uk/whats-on/eve...
yorkmuseumstrust.org.uk
Edgar Allan Poe-stcards – letterpress workshop | York Museums Trust
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
Spitting blood at being thanked for my 'patience and resilience' in the face of VS schemes. I have resilience in spades, and patience in a small number of extremely niche contexts, but I have felt neither of those emotions when it comes to the damage these measures are doing across the sector.
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
I had not seen this before, and it made me smile...
A flow chart titled 'What to call your Academic Event', poking fun at academic event titles.
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
We're advertising two artist's residencies at Thin Ice Press: the York Centre for Print. Please share! www.thinicepress.org/research/pri...
thinicepress.org
print matters artist’s residencies — Thin Ice Press: the York Centre for Print, offering memberships, workshops, equipment hire, events & exhibition space.
Thin Ice Press: the York Centre for Print welcomes applications for two artist’s residencies, to take place across five days between August and September 2025 as part of our research project: Print ...
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gailrenard.bsky.social @gailrenard.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Saw the play Nye last night, starring Michael Sheen, about the founding of NHS. Both Sheen and play magnificent. The takeaway message.
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
Still not persuaded that the answer to women's work being undervalued is for women to behave more like (certain) male colleagues. How about instead we recognise, value and reward the work that gets done? Workloads are an institutional responsibility, not a personal one.
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
Congratulations to my brilliant colleague, Daniel Matore, whose @oupacademic.bsky.social monograph, 'The Graphics of Verse: Experimental Typography in Twentieth-Century Poetry' has been awarded the University English Book Prize. universityenglish.ac.uk/announced-un...
universityenglish.ac.uk
Announced: University English Book Prize Winner 2023
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
On the downside, my lungs are gurgling gently once again and I have been prescribed further antibiotics. On the upside, the doctor used the words 'Obviously you're young and fit', which more than makes up for it.
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The Poetry Society @poetrysociety.org.uk · 06/07/2025
This week we've been at the English: #SharedFutures conference in York, run by @englishassociation.bsky.social & University English Thanks to all the speakers for an inspiring week & @wordsmith.bsky.social for organising! Great to catch up with Manchester Poetry Library & the zine-making station!
A zine with a title made of stamps that reads 'Poetry is in the Process'A white board on which it is written 'How to make a poetry library'. Two zines stuck to the board and a sign saying before standard outcomes of progress comes belief, risk, uncertainty. A poetry library, perhaps.A toy bike in red and yellow in front of a sign saying Everything starts with an idea (text crossed out). Then ' How do we tend to the space that precedes the idea?A small zine with a cut-out picture of banana man saying 'There's a whole bunch of stuff going on in my head!'. With the word 'possible' below.
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
I don't know how many of my followers here are York-based, but we have a lovely workshop as part of Shared Futures tomorrow, so if you are local and have some spare children, send them along! And please spread the word. little-vikings.co.uk/events/untea...
little-vikings.co.uk
Unteaching Creative Writing – A free workshop • Little Vikings - York for Kids
How do we keep the creative spark alive, nurture a love of writing in children, or regain that love as adults? In this session we'll look at different techniques and games that unlock the block and ge...
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
Say you were going to a mega Shakespeare conference, perhaps next week, and had the chance to visit the most delightful of small presses and teaching facilities, what would appeal to you most as a souvenir bookmark to print and take home?
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
THEY WERE ALREADY LISTED IN THE CATALOGUE. theonion.com/scholars-dis...
theonion.com
Scholars Discover 23 Blank Pages That May As Well Be Lost Samuel Beckett Play
PARIS—Just weeks after the centennial of the birth of pioneering minimalist playwright Samuel Beckett, archivists analyzing papers from his Paris estate uncovered a small stack of blank paper that sch...
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 18/06/2025
i just find this so bizarre. searching through texts and doing the reading for myself is how i actually think through ideas! trying to put together a sentence is how i figure out what i actually want to say!
nytimes.com
Everyone Is Using A.I. for Everything. Is That Bad?
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
A great Phd opportunity for a Black British student, starting this September. Spread the word! www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
ucl.ac.uk
UCL – University College London
UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
A sad little antibiotics poem titled 'I have turned down all the free booze on the Eurostar '.
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
'we know far less about how graduates themselves experience their early careers. Until now, subject-level data on graduate job quality—how meaningful their work is, how well it aligns with their goals, and whether it uses their university-acquired skills—has been missing from the policy debate.' 1/3
wonkhe.com
Subject-level insights on graduate activity
Rather than examine how much graduates get paid, why not ask them how they feel about what they are doing? Sean Brophy explains.
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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
Men are extremely keen to explain to me that Britain *needs* a domestic steel production plant and doesn't necessarily *need* universities. Okay. Steel contributed about £1.7bn to the UK economy in 2024. Universities contributed more than £200bn.
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Prof. Elaine Chalus @profelainechalus.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
Lecturer in Liberal Arts York St John University - School of Humanities #skystorians 🗃️www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNF251/l...
jobs.ac.uk
Lecturer in Liberal Arts at York St John University
Looking for a new job opportunity in academia? Check out this job opening for a Lecturer in Liberal Arts on jobs.ac.uk!
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Mateusz Fafinski @calthalas.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
Ok, it’s time to settle this 1st c. SHORT 2nd c. LONG 3rd c. SHORT 4th c. SHORT 5th c. LONG 6th c. SHORT 7th c. LONG 8th c. SHORT 9th c. SHORT 10th c. LONG 11th c. SHORT 12th c. LONG 13th c. LONG 14th c. SHORT 15th c. SHORT 16th c. LONG 17th c. LONG 18th c. SHORT 19th c. LONG 20th c. SHORT
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
To be fair to the Chicago Sun-Times, there are entire swathes of my CV where the authors are real but the works themselves are wholly fictional...
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
The other day I saw an ad for an app which uses AI to generate bespoke emojis. The mismatch of resource and outcomes is staggering!
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
A contributor has had to withdraw from something I'm editing, late in the day. I'm looking for a sprightly 10,000 book historical words on the broad theme of 'consumers/consumption' and the period 1450-1650 (not necessarily all of it).
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Open to teachers, academics, writers, policymakers, and anyone else with an interest in how English is taught and what it means for us.
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
English: Shared Futures 2025 is just over six weeks away! Join us in beautiful York for three extraordinary days of papers, panels, roundtables, salons, pop-ups, picnics and much, much more! www.englishsharedfutures.org/programme
englishsharedfutures.org
Draft Programme — English: Shared Futures 2025
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
Same.
Sign saying 'Sorry, je ne fonctionne plus'.
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Helen Smith @wordsmith.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
OMG!! The ESTC is back!!!! datb.cerl.org/estc/
datb.cerl.org
English Short Title Catalogue
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
‘Baroness Smith, the universities minister, said many institutions were failing to rein in spending despite demanding financial support from the government.’ Which institutions are these? We’ve seen absolute carnage in redundancies across the sector, so I’m curious which she is thinking of
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