Dominic Dean
@drdominicdean.bsky.social
Lecturer in Literature at the University of Essex.
Researcher and author (Killing Children in British Fiction - SUNY, 2024).
I work on contemporary British fiction and film, children, Ishiguro, migration, intergenerational conflict. All views my own.
Researcher and author (Killing Children in British Fiction - SUNY, 2024).
I work on contemporary British fiction and film, children, Ishiguro, migration, intergenerational conflict. All views my own.
Pinned
Dominic Dean
@drdominicdean.bsky.social
· Jan 21
My book, Killing Children in British Fiction: Thatcherism to Brexit, is now out from @sunypress.bsky.social.
'An authoritative, acute, and insightful book...makes a powerful case for child killing as an index of our times' - @bobeaglestone.bsky.social.
sunypress.edu/Books/K/Kill...
'An authoritative, acute, and insightful book...makes a powerful case for child killing as an index of our times' - @bobeaglestone.bsky.social.
sunypress.edu/Books/K/Kill...
Discussed at length and in reasonable detail on Radio 4’s PM without even a hint that there might be downsides to this. And that’s the good programme compared to Today!
I think the government meant to cut net migration but have accidentally overshot the target by a lot. They haven’t realised this yet.
November 27, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Discussed at length and in reasonable detail on Radio 4’s PM without even a hint that there might be downsides to this. And that’s the good programme compared to Today!
Reposted by Dominic Dean
This is a massive problem with Labour’s immigration proposals. All migrant families affected will be made considerably poorer (because of extra immigration fees over several years plus dampened job prospects) and many (most?) of those families have children.
Great to hear Rachel Reeves acknowledge that "there are many reasons why people choose to have children then find themselves in difficult times. The death of a partner. Separation. Ill health. A lost job. I don’t believe that children should bear the brunt of that."
So why should migrant children?
So why should migrant children?
November 26, 2025 at 5:22 PM
This is a massive problem with Labour’s immigration proposals. All migrant families affected will be made considerably poorer (because of extra immigration fees over several years plus dampened job prospects) and many (most?) of those families have children.
Reposted by Dominic Dean
I'm super pleased to announce that my book, Psychic Connection and the Twentieth-Century British Novel is out in paperback with Edinburgh University Press next month!
The paperback is already very reasonably priced (if I do say so myself), but the code PAPER30 will get you 30% off.
The paperback is already very reasonably priced (if I do say so myself), but the code PAPER30 will get you 30% off.
Psychic Connection and the Twentieth-Century British Novel
Psychic Connection and the Twentieth-Century British Novel
edinburghuniversitypress.com
November 27, 2025 at 1:15 PM
I'm super pleased to announce that my book, Psychic Connection and the Twentieth-Century British Novel is out in paperback with Edinburgh University Press next month!
The paperback is already very reasonably priced (if I do say so myself), but the code PAPER30 will get you 30% off.
The paperback is already very reasonably priced (if I do say so myself), but the code PAPER30 will get you 30% off.
Glad that the Pope will be visiting Lebanon shortly after renewed Israeli bombing. While overall I think Pope Leo has got off to a pretty good start, his public stance towards the Middle East has lacked a certain clarity and edge that Pope Francis brought; perhaps this trip will help bring it back.
November 27, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Glad that the Pope will be visiting Lebanon shortly after renewed Israeli bombing. While overall I think Pope Leo has got off to a pretty good start, his public stance towards the Middle East has lacked a certain clarity and edge that Pope Francis brought; perhaps this trip will help bring it back.
Whenever Labour do or say anything that could potentially bring a bit of that vote back, by 48 hours - often less! - later they’ve done five other things to push those voters further away. Unless they‘re willing to break this cycle - and there‘s no sign of them trying - haemorrhaging will continue.
Labour vs Greens is now serious electoral warfare: they’re winning around 20% of Lab’s 2024 vote at present (more than any other party).
November 26, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Whenever Labour do or say anything that could potentially bring a bit of that vote back, by 48 hours - often less! - later they’ve done five other things to push those voters further away. Unless they‘re willing to break this cycle - and there‘s no sign of them trying - haemorrhaging will continue.
Reposted by Dominic Dean
Praise where praise is due: scrapping the two-child benefit cap is an excellent move. And the most consequential of any of the measures announced today.
November 26, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Praise where praise is due: scrapping the two-child benefit cap is an excellent move. And the most consequential of any of the measures announced today.
Outside of cities and even towns, there is a corner of south Warwickshire with two country-house galleries a few miles apart, and which between them add up to quite a strong offering: Compton Verney, and Upton House.
Just been round the art sectiion of Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery. Paintings on display have changed a bit, but still pretty meh compared to medium-sized French cities. Where in UK outside London has good offerings: Liverpool, Cardiff, Oxford ... where else?
November 26, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Outside of cities and even towns, there is a corner of south Warwickshire with two country-house galleries a few miles apart, and which between them add up to quite a strong offering: Compton Verney, and Upton House.
Really really ugly stuff. And where there is more progressive stuff announced, the lingering taste of bile now ruins the moment.
“The Motability scheme was set up to protect the most vulnerable. Not to subsidise the lease on a Mercedes Benz,” Reeves says.
Misleading and nasty in equal measure.
Misleading and nasty in equal measure.
November 26, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Really really ugly stuff. And where there is more progressive stuff announced, the lingering taste of bile now ruins the moment.
British society remains in permanent quasi-Dickensian thrall to the ideal of the Deserving Poor, and sufficiently paranoid as to read any undermining of this ideal as trickery.
If you are eligible for the mobility component of PIP and you want to spend *your own money on top of that* on having a nicer modified car, why shouldn't you? Should screen readers only work on Chromebooks?
November 26, 2025 at 1:21 PM
British society remains in permanent quasi-Dickensian thrall to the ideal of the Deserving Poor, and sufficiently paranoid as to read any undermining of this ideal as trickery.
I've not forgotten the scandal where it turned out huge numbers of poor and vulnerable people were having energy company engineers break into their homes to disconnect the heating, because magistrates had signed off permission to do so en masse without bothering to scrutinise the requests.
We’ve had, quite literally, thousands of miscarriages of justice over the last two years due to both the incompetence of magistrates and the insanely tight sentencing guidelines that are as draconian as possible for those that attempt to be law abiding, and lenient as can be for serial offenders.
oh Americans may not understand this, but a 'magistrate' in the UK is a local volunteer with typically no legal background. But it's ok, they receive about 10 days of training. And now they can send you to jail for two years without a jury!
November 26, 2025 at 12:36 PM
I've not forgotten the scandal where it turned out huge numbers of poor and vulnerable people were having energy company engineers break into their homes to disconnect the heating, because magistrates had signed off permission to do so en masse without bothering to scrutinise the requests.
Trivia question: In my lecture on Federico Garcia Lorca today, I made a reference to Fawlty Towers. Can anyone guess the connection I was making? (It's indirect.)
November 26, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Trivia question: In my lecture on Federico Garcia Lorca today, I made a reference to Fawlty Towers. Can anyone guess the connection I was making? (It's indirect.)
Reposted by Dominic Dean
calling all PGRs and ECRs! this is a wonderful forum to share new work on modernisms. please share widely.
🔊 CfP: New Work in Modernist Studies 15
🗓️ Friday 9 January, online
⏰ Apply by 5pm (GMT) Friday 12 December
bams.ac.uk/new-work-in-...
A great opportunity for postgraduates & early career researchers to share work on modernist cultures in a supportive environment. See link above for full details.
🗓️ Friday 9 January, online
⏰ Apply by 5pm (GMT) Friday 12 December
bams.ac.uk/new-work-in-...
A great opportunity for postgraduates & early career researchers to share work on modernist cultures in a supportive environment. See link above for full details.
November 25, 2025 at 2:11 PM
calling all PGRs and ECRs! this is a wonderful forum to share new work on modernisms. please share widely.
Reposted by Dominic Dean
Juries are not perfect.
Many of the worst miscarriages of justice have followed jury trials.
But the merit of juries is not so much the power they have, but the power they prevent others from having.
They mean a judge cannot just nod-along with prosecution evidence and give a guilty verdict.
Many of the worst miscarriages of justice have followed jury trials.
But the merit of juries is not so much the power they have, but the power they prevent others from having.
They mean a judge cannot just nod-along with prosecution evidence and give a guilty verdict.
November 25, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Juries are not perfect.
Many of the worst miscarriages of justice have followed jury trials.
But the merit of juries is not so much the power they have, but the power they prevent others from having.
They mean a judge cannot just nod-along with prosecution evidence and give a guilty verdict.
Many of the worst miscarriages of justice have followed jury trials.
But the merit of juries is not so much the power they have, but the power they prevent others from having.
They mean a judge cannot just nod-along with prosecution evidence and give a guilty verdict.
Reposted by Dominic Dean
It's not just the scrapping of structures that were considered cornerstones of "Western Values" just a few years ago; it's not even that the people scrapping them are the same sort of people who bray about Western Values; it's the casualness, the unseriousness about *their own* Most Serious Beliefs
Jury trials in England and Wales to be scrapped except for most serious cases on.ft.com/3LY1Ceq
Jury trials in England and Wales to be scrapped except for most serious cases
Proposed changes unlikely to apply for trials of serious offences such as rape and murder
on.ft.com
November 25, 2025 at 5:27 PM
It's not just the scrapping of structures that were considered cornerstones of "Western Values" just a few years ago; it's not even that the people scrapping them are the same sort of people who bray about Western Values; it's the casualness, the unseriousness about *their own* Most Serious Beliefs
Pretty sure I’m not more morally deserving of my BMW than those who use the Motability scheme.
Don’t want to be too moralistic about this, but it is an active disgrace what people are doing to a profoundly liberational scheme that costs relatively piddling amounts on the basis of a couple of right wing shitposters misrepresenting it on Twitter.
November 25, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Pretty sure I’m not more morally deserving of my BMW than those who use the Motability scheme.
No one expects the Greens to win an overall majority and become a single party of government. They know they won’t; almost everyone who votes for them knows they won’t. So there is no point in pundits talking up the risks of such a scenario, and doing so is unlikely to lose the Greens any votes.
November 25, 2025 at 12:46 PM
No one expects the Greens to win an overall majority and become a single party of government. They know they won’t; almost everyone who votes for them knows they won’t. So there is no point in pundits talking up the risks of such a scenario, and doing so is unlikely to lose the Greens any votes.
My sense is that this phenomenon doesn't translate to the UK context, probably because we've always had fewer of the types of programme mentioned here and degree programmes overall are structured differently - though maybe others disagree?
Surveying CCC, English Journal, College English, etc., and the NCTE program, and the CVs at many uni programs, *literature* has long vanished as a keyword in writing studies, rhet/comp, ELA, etc. Anybody know of anybody in those fields explicitly interested in *literature* (beyond sff, fandom, YA)?
November 25, 2025 at 12:27 PM
My sense is that this phenomenon doesn't translate to the UK context, probably because we've always had fewer of the types of programme mentioned here and degree programmes overall are structured differently - though maybe others disagree?
Reposted by Dominic Dean
Important to remember this when you read news reports of DOGE closing 'without achieving anything'. It achieved plenty. Not only should this not be forgotten, those responsible should be held accountable.
DOGE shuts down having not found trillions of dollars of waste or saved any money.
They compromised the security of government systems, fired federal workers and oversaw the dismantling of USAID which has killed 600,000.
By 2030 approx 14 million people will have died.
That’s their legacy
They compromised the security of government systems, fired federal workers and oversaw the dismantling of USAID which has killed 600,000.
By 2030 approx 14 million people will have died.
That’s their legacy
November 24, 2025 at 9:32 PM
Important to remember this when you read news reports of DOGE closing 'without achieving anything'. It achieved plenty. Not only should this not be forgotten, those responsible should be held accountable.
A genuinely horrific thing to put people through for the sake of a few ephemeral headlines.
At least 160,000 people have been granted refugee status over the past five years. It now seems they are intended to be caught by the Government’s plans to make refugees wait up to 20 years for settlement - even for those just months away from ILR
www.thetimes.com/article/6f83...
www.thetimes.com/article/6f83...
November 24, 2025 at 7:56 PM
A genuinely horrific thing to put people through for the sake of a few ephemeral headlines.
Reposted by Dominic Dean
the first page of blood meridian goes so hard
November 23, 2025 at 8:42 PM
the first page of blood meridian goes so hard
Reposted by Dominic Dean
I’ve been quoted in @thespectator1828.bsky.social about the importance of taking a strategic approach nationally to language provision as universities are making individual decisions to slash provision which may collectively be very bad for the national interest
www.spectator.co.uk/article/in-p...
www.spectator.co.uk/article/in-p...
November 24, 2025 at 1:30 PM
I’ve been quoted in @thespectator1828.bsky.social about the importance of taking a strategic approach nationally to language provision as universities are making individual decisions to slash provision which may collectively be very bad for the national interest
www.spectator.co.uk/article/in-p...
www.spectator.co.uk/article/in-p...
Reposted by Dominic Dean
📢 We are delighted to officially announce that the wonderful @drdominicdean.bsky.social has joined the International Advisory Board at @englishstudies.bsky.social! Looking forward to collaborating on various exciting activities that are on the horizon!
Pleased to share that I have been appointed to the International Advisory Board for @englishstudies.bsky.social. After doing various bits of work with this excellent journal in recent years, I'm delighted to start this more formal relationship. Thanks @drchrislouttit.bsky.social for the invitation.
November 24, 2025 at 10:24 AM
📢 We are delighted to officially announce that the wonderful @drdominicdean.bsky.social has joined the International Advisory Board at @englishstudies.bsky.social! Looking forward to collaborating on various exciting activities that are on the horizon!
This weekend I ate at steak restaurant The Salt Shed in Brighton, a city that also features restaurants The Salt Room and The Coal Shed. Might have to trademark Salt Shack before anyone else gets to it.
November 23, 2025 at 11:48 PM
This weekend I ate at steak restaurant The Salt Shed in Brighton, a city that also features restaurants The Salt Room and The Coal Shed. Might have to trademark Salt Shack before anyone else gets to it.
Reposted by Dominic Dean
Congrats to @drdominicdean.bsky.social on KILLING CHILDREN IN BRITISH FICTION being named a Co-Winner for the 2025 Monograph Prize presented by the British Association of Contemporary Literary Studies
#WinnerWednesday #ReadUP tinyurl.com/ytzduwbj
#BritishStudies #FilmStudies #LiteraryCriticism
#WinnerWednesday #ReadUP tinyurl.com/ytzduwbj
#BritishStudies #FilmStudies #LiteraryCriticism
November 19, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Congrats to @drdominicdean.bsky.social on KILLING CHILDREN IN BRITISH FICTION being named a Co-Winner for the 2025 Monograph Prize presented by the British Association of Contemporary Literary Studies
#WinnerWednesday #ReadUP tinyurl.com/ytzduwbj
#BritishStudies #FilmStudies #LiteraryCriticism
#WinnerWednesday #ReadUP tinyurl.com/ytzduwbj
#BritishStudies #FilmStudies #LiteraryCriticism
Saw the stage version of The Woman in Black in the touring production currently in Brighton. I never caught it in all the years it was on the West End, and glad I’ve finally seen it - a superb piece of theatre for creating an intense atmosphere with extreme economy (far better than the 2012 movie).
November 22, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Saw the stage version of The Woman in Black in the touring production currently in Brighton. I never caught it in all the years it was on the West End, and glad I’ve finally seen it - a superb piece of theatre for creating an intense atmosphere with extreme economy (far better than the 2012 movie).