Deidre Lynch
@drbibliomane.bsky.social
She/her, 1st gen, Canadian who's at Harvard but isn't OF Harvard-posts mainly about books (w/ cats & flowers thrown in for good measure). Now writing an itty-bitty book that aims to be a literary & media history of scrap.
Website: https://deidrelynch.org
Website: https://deidrelynch.org
Pinned
A JANE AUSTEN GUIDE TO FACULTY MEETINGS
(an intermittent series)
"He said it, she knew, to be contradicted"--Persuasion, ch. 7
(on the distribution of service commitments)
"Every body allows that the talent of writing agreeable letters is peculiarly female."--Northanger Abbey, ch. 3
(an intermittent series)
"He said it, she knew, to be contradicted"--Persuasion, ch. 7
(on the distribution of service commitments)
"Every body allows that the talent of writing agreeable letters is peculiarly female."--Northanger Abbey, ch. 3
Reposted by Deidre Lynch
For the first time since 1988, the US government will no longer commemorate World Aids Day, to the point of banning employees from mentioning it
The US has decided to pretend like diseases don’t exist. They are so far in denial. They are not encouraging vaccines either.
This will end well.
The US has decided to pretend like diseases don’t exist. They are so far in denial. They are not encouraging vaccines either.
This will end well.
US will no longer commemorate World Aids Day, reports say — Guardian US
State department has told employees and grant recipients to not publicly promote or make event on 1 December
apple.news
November 27, 2025 at 8:00 PM
For the first time since 1988, the US government will no longer commemorate World Aids Day, to the point of banning employees from mentioning it
The US has decided to pretend like diseases don’t exist. They are so far in denial. They are not encouraging vaccines either.
This will end well.
The US has decided to pretend like diseases don’t exist. They are so far in denial. They are not encouraging vaccines either.
This will end well.
Reposted by Deidre Lynch
"oh, you research literature? you must get to read all the time, how fun!"
*me, going through every single (digital) issue of an 18th century daily newspaper to make a spreadsheet listing number of advertisements and the portion of them that were for books*
*me, going through every single (digital) issue of an 18th century daily newspaper to make a spreadsheet listing number of advertisements and the portion of them that were for books*
November 27, 2025 at 2:30 PM
"oh, you research literature? you must get to read all the time, how fun!"
*me, going through every single (digital) issue of an 18th century daily newspaper to make a spreadsheet listing number of advertisements and the portion of them that were for books*
*me, going through every single (digital) issue of an 18th century daily newspaper to make a spreadsheet listing number of advertisements and the portion of them that were for books*
Amazing thread! I'm thankful this week for book historians like @drleonj.bsky.social and for their reminders about the complexities that the tech bro hype obscures.
You know what we won't need once handwriting recognition software has done its thing? Archivists, curators, conservators, catalogers, codicologists, or paleographers. We won't need archives either. We won't need diplomatics, editorial theory, book or media history, or material culture studies 🗃️🧵
November 27, 2025 at 12:49 AM
Amazing thread! I'm thankful this week for book historians like @drleonj.bsky.social and for their reminders about the complexities that the tech bro hype obscures.
The Toronto-based ceramic artist Janet Macpherson, who mingles the cute and the creepy like no one else, has a cool St. Lucy's day themed show (that is, a show involving 👀) on at a gallery on Queen St in TO.
The one on the right, titled St. Lucy's Tree, reminds me of Ali Smith's How To Be Both.)
The one on the right, titled St. Lucy's Tree, reminds me of Ali Smith's How To Be Both.)
November 26, 2025 at 11:58 PM
The Toronto-based ceramic artist Janet Macpherson, who mingles the cute and the creepy like no one else, has a cool St. Lucy's day themed show (that is, a show involving 👀) on at a gallery on Queen St in TO.
The one on the right, titled St. Lucy's Tree, reminds me of Ali Smith's How To Be Both.)
The one on the right, titled St. Lucy's Tree, reminds me of Ali Smith's How To Be Both.)
Reposted by Deidre Lynch
2 summers ago I posted in great sorrow about the fire that destroyed lovely St. Anne's Anglican Church in my Toronto neighbourhood.
2 updates today:
The Fire Department now says the fire was arson, which is horrific!
But, in better news, 3 panels from the Group of Seven murals have been restored.
2 updates today:
The Fire Department now says the fire was arson, which is horrific!
But, in better news, 3 panels from the Group of Seven murals have been restored.
This is a photo of the interior of St. Anne's Anglican Church, the only Byzantine style Anglican church in Canada, a treasure-trove of Canadian modernist art, with murals designed by Jock Macdonald w/ the help of his Group of 7 friends. And it burned down this morning. I am SO full of rage & grief.
November 25, 2025 at 11:55 PM
2 summers ago I posted in great sorrow about the fire that destroyed lovely St. Anne's Anglican Church in my Toronto neighbourhood.
2 updates today:
The Fire Department now says the fire was arson, which is horrific!
But, in better news, 3 panels from the Group of Seven murals have been restored.
2 updates today:
The Fire Department now says the fire was arson, which is horrific!
But, in better news, 3 panels from the Group of Seven murals have been restored.
Reposted by Deidre Lynch
I am quoted in this Globe article as Director of American Studies at BU, and I like my quote very much:
“It's a value to society to have people highly educated in disciplines, whether they teach at universities or not.”
“It's a value to society to have people highly educated in disciplines, whether they teach at universities or not.”
"From Harvard to BU to Brown, New England schools are enrolling fewer new PhDs this year. Why?"
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/25/b...
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/25/b...
From Harvard to BU to Brown, New England schools are enrolling fewer new PhDs this year. Why? - The Boston Globe
Elite universities are taking fewer doctoral candidates after decades of beefing up their research enterprises.
www.bostonglobe.com
November 25, 2025 at 5:39 PM
I am quoted in this Globe article as Director of American Studies at BU, and I like my quote very much:
“It's a value to society to have people highly educated in disciplines, whether they teach at universities or not.”
“It's a value to society to have people highly educated in disciplines, whether they teach at universities or not.”
Doing all I could this morning to keep the few undergrads who even turned up awake, & even this ghastly but interesting image, a prop to my discussion of the female Gothic & "Get Out" didn't quite do the job.
So I'll try with YOU.
It's an illustration to Bluebeard by Winslow Homer, of all people.
So I'll try with YOU.
It's an illustration to Bluebeard by Winslow Homer, of all people.
November 24, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Doing all I could this morning to keep the few undergrads who even turned up awake, & even this ghastly but interesting image, a prop to my discussion of the female Gothic & "Get Out" didn't quite do the job.
So I'll try with YOU.
It's an illustration to Bluebeard by Winslow Homer, of all people.
So I'll try with YOU.
It's an illustration to Bluebeard by Winslow Homer, of all people.
Reposted by Deidre Lynch
Oxford Handbook to the End of Academia
November 22, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Oxford Handbook to the End of Academia
Reposted by Deidre Lynch
The latest three titles in the Empyrean Series arrived in Seattle from the printer this past week!
Learn more abt these new books from Jean Paul, Pierre Custot, & Fernando Pessoa, & the rest of the series catalogue, here: asterismbooks.com/publisher/em...
Learn more abt these new books from Jean Paul, Pierre Custot, & Fernando Pessoa, & the rest of the series catalogue, here: asterismbooks.com/publisher/em...
November 22, 2025 at 2:08 PM
The latest three titles in the Empyrean Series arrived in Seattle from the printer this past week!
Learn more abt these new books from Jean Paul, Pierre Custot, & Fernando Pessoa, & the rest of the series catalogue, here: asterismbooks.com/publisher/em...
Learn more abt these new books from Jean Paul, Pierre Custot, & Fernando Pessoa, & the rest of the series catalogue, here: asterismbooks.com/publisher/em...
As the press reports on the so-called peace deal being forced by Trump and Vance on Ukraine, nobody is noting one particular bit of awfulness: today is Holodomor Remembrance Day
November 22, 2025 at 1:29 PM
As the press reports on the so-called peace deal being forced by Trump and Vance on Ukraine, nobody is noting one particular bit of awfulness: today is Holodomor Remembrance Day
Reposted by Deidre Lynch
Happy “On the Calculation of Volume” (by Solvej Balle) day for those who celebrate !!
Psyched for Vol. 3 out today
Psyched for Vol. 3 out today
November 18, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Happy “On the Calculation of Volume” (by Solvej Balle) day for those who celebrate !!
Psyched for Vol. 3 out today
Psyched for Vol. 3 out today
Reposted by Deidre Lynch
I will be marking the occasion by purchasing some antique coins and hiding from my spouse
November 18th. Have yourself a weird and upsetting Calculation Of Volume Day.
November 18, 2025 at 9:36 AM
I will be marking the occasion by purchasing some antique coins and hiding from my spouse
Reposted by Deidre Lynch
Of all my posts, this is the one that I wish would be shared widely. I hope people will donate to Bryan's legal defense, but even if you don't, it's important to be aware of the human rights horrors that are going on around us on a daily basis.
Please help Bryan, a decent and hardworking person who was just kidnapped off the street in DC. He has been in this country since he was a child. He has a business and a family. He does not deserve such shameful cruelty. Please share.
www.gofundme.com/f/help-bryan...
www.gofundme.com/f/help-bryan...
Donate to Help Bryan Fight for His Freedom, organized by Kira Tewalt
Help Bryan Fight for His Freedom
My name is Kira, and I’m asking for your help on… Kira Tewalt needs your support for Help Bryan Fight for His Freedom
www.gofundme.com
November 17, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Of all my posts, this is the one that I wish would be shared widely. I hope people will donate to Bryan's legal defense, but even if you don't, it's important to be aware of the human rights horrors that are going on around us on a daily basis.
Reposted by Deidre Lynch
The promised Plum pudding. With a hard sauce (it was supposed to be a sherry sauce, but I only had sherry brandy. I figure that thats close enough). I made another that I’ll keep (and feed with brandy) to have at Christmas
November 16, 2025 at 12:35 AM
The promised Plum pudding. With a hard sauce (it was supposed to be a sherry sauce, but I only had sherry brandy. I figure that thats close enough). I made another that I’ll keep (and feed with brandy) to have at Christmas
Reposted by Deidre Lynch
NEW: Epstein survivors release the most powerful PSA I have ever seen.
Make this go viral so every member of the House of Representatives sees it.
Make this go viral so every member of the House of Representatives sees it.
November 16, 2025 at 11:43 PM
NEW: Epstein survivors release the most powerful PSA I have ever seen.
Make this go viral so every member of the House of Representatives sees it.
Make this go viral so every member of the House of Representatives sees it.
Look at this excellent handkerchief from 1769 at the V & A museum: a showcase for #18thc practices of remediation. Made to imitate a quodlibet/medley print, a genre that itself aims to simulate, in a trompe l'oeil idiom, a scatter of small printed papers.
Imagine blowing your nose on that!
#scraps
Imagine blowing your nose on that!
#scraps
November 16, 2025 at 6:57 PM
If you're doing your holiday shopping and/or thinking about best to celebrate Jane Austen's 250th birthday, 1 month from today, I have some news: Harvard UP's annotated editions of Austen's fiction (my own edition of Mansfield Park included) are now 25% off.
www.hup.harvard.edu/features/hap...
www.hup.harvard.edu/features/hap...
Happy 250th Birthday, Jane Austen — Harvard University Press
Celebrate with six gorgeous annotated editions of Jane Austen’s classics. “A sumptuous reading experience…richly illustrated with paintings, museum-quality photographs, and colorful Regency prints. A ...
www.hup.harvard.edu
November 16, 2025 at 3:57 PM
If you're doing your holiday shopping and/or thinking about best to celebrate Jane Austen's 250th birthday, 1 month from today, I have some news: Harvard UP's annotated editions of Austen's fiction (my own edition of Mansfield Park included) are now 25% off.
www.hup.harvard.edu/features/hap...
www.hup.harvard.edu/features/hap...
Reposted by Deidre Lynch
My vegetarian suet arrived today. Time to think about plum pudding!
November 12, 2025 at 9:06 PM
My vegetarian suet arrived today. Time to think about plum pudding!
I travelled to NYC to help launch (last night) Joanna Stalnaker's astonishing new book _The Rest is Silence: Enlightenment Philosophers Facing Death_. The book is a treasure, humane and moving: a vindication both of the #18thc philosophes and of what literary studies scholarship can do with them.
November 14, 2025 at 1:52 PM
I travelled to NYC to help launch (last night) Joanna Stalnaker's astonishing new book _The Rest is Silence: Enlightenment Philosophers Facing Death_. The book is a treasure, humane and moving: a vindication both of the #18thc philosophes and of what literary studies scholarship can do with them.
I am currently in a hotel room in New York City that is so small that as I stood outside the shower preparing to plunge in, I was able to place my nightgown atop the bed.
#tinyjoys
But it is very nice to be in New York. & I'm going to see the Ruth Asawa show at MOMA in just a few hours!
#tinyjoys
But it is very nice to be in New York. & I'm going to see the Ruth Asawa show at MOMA in just a few hours!
November 14, 2025 at 1:46 PM
I am currently in a hotel room in New York City that is so small that as I stood outside the shower preparing to plunge in, I was able to place my nightgown atop the bed.
#tinyjoys
But it is very nice to be in New York. & I'm going to see the Ruth Asawa show at MOMA in just a few hours!
#tinyjoys
But it is very nice to be in New York. & I'm going to see the Ruth Asawa show at MOMA in just a few hours!
Reposted by Deidre Lynch
A tiny Indian primer, or book of religious instruction written in Wampanoag and printed at Harvard College in 1669; the buckskin cover and wooden binding are original, and the now-faint strawberry design is believed to have been done by an Indigenous binder. The book has been in Scotland since 1675.
November 12, 2025 at 8:36 PM
A tiny Indian primer, or book of religious instruction written in Wampanoag and printed at Harvard College in 1669; the buckskin cover and wooden binding are original, and the now-faint strawberry design is believed to have been done by an Indigenous binder. The book has been in Scotland since 1675.
Prepping class & arrested by a detail in Kazuo Ishiguro's 2017 Nobel Prize lecture. From his 1st days in England, he recalls "hedgehogs . . . squashed by car wheels during the night, left in the morning dew, tucked neatly by the roadside, awaiting collection by the refuse men."🦔
#DiscardStudies
#DiscardStudies
November 11, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Prepping class & arrested by a detail in Kazuo Ishiguro's 2017 Nobel Prize lecture. From his 1st days in England, he recalls "hedgehogs . . . squashed by car wheels during the night, left in the morning dew, tucked neatly by the roadside, awaiting collection by the refuse men."🦔
#DiscardStudies
#DiscardStudies
Reposted by Deidre Lynch
Use external reviewers who are trained to look not just at curriculum but also at working conditions for full and part-time faculty, demographics of students and faculty, recruitment, retention, and more. Learn to be a reviewer like that: mla.confex.com/mla/2026/mee... mla.confex.com/mla/2026/mee...
Preconvention Workshop: Become a Certified External Reviewer for the ADE
This workshop trains faculty members to become expert external reviewers of departments and programs of English. Faculty members who wish to acquire experience in reviewing or to learn more about the ...
mla.confex.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Use external reviewers who are trained to look not just at curriculum but also at working conditions for full and part-time faculty, demographics of students and faculty, recruitment, retention, and more. Learn to be a reviewer like that: mla.confex.com/mla/2026/mee... mla.confex.com/mla/2026/mee...
Reposted by Deidre Lynch
A different kind of "black page" that has always fascinated me - the ink blot in Ignatius Sancho's Letters - Samcho was a big fan of Sterne
November 10, 2025 at 1:32 PM
A different kind of "black page" that has always fascinated me - the ink blot in Ignatius Sancho's Letters - Samcho was a big fan of Sterne