Rebecca Anne Barr
@rabarr.bsky.social
Reading, writing, thinking about the long 18th Century at the Faculty of English @cam.ac.uk. Irish woman baffled by the fens and the English middle classes. Emotional support/ emotional manipulation provided by a terrier.
Pinned
Rebecca Anne Barr
@rabarr.bsky.social
· Nov 25
Here's our magnificent cover: a little-known illustration of Richardson's 'Pamela' by Francis Hayman. 'The Elopement' decorated one of the original #Pamela supper-boxes at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. Thanks to @nationaltrust.bsky.social who hold the original at Sizergh Castle, Cumbria. #18thcentury
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
Without much reading, you will no more be able to penetrate the moral of the next marbled page (motley emblem of my work!) than the world with all its sagacity has been able to unravel the many opinions, transactions, and truths.
(Happy birthday to Laurence Sterne.)
(Happy birthday to Laurence Sterne.)
November 24, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Without much reading, you will no more be able to penetrate the moral of the next marbled page (motley emblem of my work!) than the world with all its sagacity has been able to unravel the many opinions, transactions, and truths.
(Happy birthday to Laurence Sterne.)
(Happy birthday to Laurence Sterne.)
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
ADVERSARIAL POETRY
ENGLISH MAJORS WILL LEAD THE REVOLUTION
“Adversarial poetry functions as a universal single-turn jailbreak technique for large language models (LLMs). Across 25 frontier proprietary and open-weight models, curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates.”
ENGLISH MAJORS WILL LEAD THE REVOLUTION
“Adversarial poetry functions as a universal single-turn jailbreak technique for large language models (LLMs). Across 25 frontier proprietary and open-weight models, curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates.”
does… does this mean that the hackers of the future are poets because ☠️
November 20, 2025 at 7:36 PM
ADVERSARIAL POETRY
ENGLISH MAJORS WILL LEAD THE REVOLUTION
“Adversarial poetry functions as a universal single-turn jailbreak technique for large language models (LLMs). Across 25 frontier proprietary and open-weight models, curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates.”
ENGLISH MAJORS WILL LEAD THE REVOLUTION
“Adversarial poetry functions as a universal single-turn jailbreak technique for large language models (LLMs). Across 25 frontier proprietary and open-weight models, curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates.”
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
Congratulations, @clemicollett.bsky.social!
NEW REPORT – The Impact of Generative AI and the Novel 📚
Today we've published new research by @clemicollett.bsky.social examining how industry practitioners, from novelists to publishers, are experiencing AI’s significant impacts.
Read now: www.mctd.ac.uk/impact-of-ge...
Today we've published new research by @clemicollett.bsky.social examining how industry practitioners, from novelists to publishers, are experiencing AI’s significant impacts.
Read now: www.mctd.ac.uk/impact-of-ge...
November 20, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Congratulations, @clemicollett.bsky.social!
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
This looks cool.
"‘Britishness’ was an ever-shifting balance of European multiculturalism, imperial ambition, tradition and experimentation, a messy mix that reveals the entanglement of cultures and cuisines, continually changed by the people who cook and eat the food".
"‘Britishness’ was an ever-shifting balance of European multiculturalism, imperial ambition, tradition and experimentation, a messy mix that reveals the entanglement of cultures and cuisines, continually changed by the people who cook and eat the food".
Excited to see that our book page (The King's Dinner) is now live. It is all feeling a bit real now! It has been such a pleasure to work with Rachel Rich @adamcrymble.bsky.social @sarahfoxhistory.bsky.social -- and the lovely editorial team @uclpress.bsky.social uclpress.co.uk/book/the-kin...
The King’s Dinner
The King’s Dinner is about what it meant to be British at the end of the eighteenth century. Drawing on a large, open dataset of two royal household kitchen ledgers, the authors study the role and inf...
uclpress.co.uk
November 20, 2025 at 10:47 AM
This looks cool.
"‘Britishness’ was an ever-shifting balance of European multiculturalism, imperial ambition, tradition and experimentation, a messy mix that reveals the entanglement of cultures and cuisines, continually changed by the people who cook and eat the food".
"‘Britishness’ was an ever-shifting balance of European multiculturalism, imperial ambition, tradition and experimentation, a messy mix that reveals the entanglement of cultures and cuisines, continually changed by the people who cook and eat the food".
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
"...I am a hater, which is a kind of integrity."
"...I am more than a critic: I am a hater."
"I am here to be rude, because this is a rude technology, and it deserves a rude response."
EVERY LINE IS A GEM.
1/
"...I am more than a critic: I am a hater."
"I am here to be rude, because this is a rude technology, and it deserves a rude response."
EVERY LINE IS A GEM.
1/
I considered writing a long carefully constructed argument laying out the harms and limitations of AI, but instead I wrote about being a hater. Only humans can be haters.
I Am An AI Hater
I am an AI hater. This is considered rude, but I do not care, because I am a hater.
anthonymoser.github.io
November 19, 2025 at 12:48 PM
"...I am a hater, which is a kind of integrity."
"...I am more than a critic: I am a hater."
"I am here to be rude, because this is a rude technology, and it deserves a rude response."
EVERY LINE IS A GEM.
1/
"...I am more than a critic: I am a hater."
"I am here to be rude, because this is a rude technology, and it deserves a rude response."
EVERY LINE IS A GEM.
1/
Welp. One of those days when my primary professional mode is despairing shame. Fail again, fail better?
November 18, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Welp. One of those days when my primary professional mode is despairing shame. Fail again, fail better?
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
So exciting to see this in print - congratulations @claireconnolly.bsky.social
I'm told this will be out in early to mid December. Please forgive coming episodes of shameless self-promotion and make a note of launch dates in your diaries!
UCC 19 February
Boston College 11 March
NYU Glucksman House 12 March
Royal Irish Academy 25 March
www.cambridge.org/ie/universit...
UCC 19 February
Boston College 11 March
NYU Glucksman House 12 March
Royal Irish Academy 25 March
www.cambridge.org/ie/universit...
Irish Romanticism | Cambridge University Press & Assessment
www.cambridge.org
November 18, 2025 at 12:35 PM
So exciting to see this in print - congratulations @claireconnolly.bsky.social
New issue of The Shandean is out: @livunipress.bsky.social inc. an essay on 43 unpublished letters of Sarah Scott & Lady Barbara Montagu and my review @stephaniedegooyer.bsky.social's compelling Before Borders. #18thcentury @bsecs.bsky.social www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/toc/shandean...
November 18, 2025 at 12:37 PM
New issue of The Shandean is out: @livunipress.bsky.social inc. an essay on 43 unpublished letters of Sarah Scott & Lady Barbara Montagu and my review @stephaniedegooyer.bsky.social's compelling Before Borders. #18thcentury @bsecs.bsky.social www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/toc/shandean...
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
You know you can always judge a book by its cover. Look at this nice book about bears.
November 16, 2025 at 11:00 PM
You know you can always judge a book by its cover. Look at this nice book about bears.
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
Terrible news: Rachel Cooke has died. She was 56.
When I was lucky enough to commission her at The Observer, I wanted her to write everything. She was seriously witty and crystalline in her argument when being serious, which she was on a dazzling range of topics. observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
When I was lucky enough to commission her at The Observer, I wanted her to write everything. She was seriously witty and crystalline in her argument when being serious, which she was on a dazzling range of topics. observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
Remembering Rachel Cooke | The Observer
observer.co.uk
November 14, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Terrible news: Rachel Cooke has died. She was 56.
When I was lucky enough to commission her at The Observer, I wanted her to write everything. She was seriously witty and crystalline in her argument when being serious, which she was on a dazzling range of topics. observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
When I was lucky enough to commission her at The Observer, I wanted her to write everything. She was seriously witty and crystalline in her argument when being serious, which she was on a dazzling range of topics. observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
One of the houses in the Gaza Strip
November 14, 2025 at 3:47 PM
One of the houses in the Gaza Strip
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
I wrote an article about psychiatry and the humanities - more glamorously, about asylums and gothic melodrama - up now @ BMJ Medical Humanities . Check it out! #medhum #psychiatry
mh.bmj.com/cgi/content/...
Free link: mh.bmj.com/cgi/rapidpdf...
mh.bmj.com/cgi/content/...
Free link: mh.bmj.com/cgi/rapidpdf...
Psych ward gothic: melodrama, hospitalisation anxiety and a case for the humanities in psychiatric research
This article offers a critical assessment of representations of psychiatric hospitalisation in modern Western societies, with the goal of informing clinicians’ approach to communication and reassuranc...
mh.bmj.com
November 12, 2025 at 3:19 PM
I wrote an article about psychiatry and the humanities - more glamorously, about asylums and gothic melodrama - up now @ BMJ Medical Humanities . Check it out! #medhum #psychiatry
mh.bmj.com/cgi/content/...
Free link: mh.bmj.com/cgi/rapidpdf...
mh.bmj.com/cgi/content/...
Free link: mh.bmj.com/cgi/rapidpdf...
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
Join us next week, Tues 18th Nov for our second meeting of term. Author and journalist Mark O'Connell will be in conversation with the Guardian's Ireland Correspondent Rory Carroll. All welcome, refreshments will be served.
5pm at the Lightfoot Room, Old Divinity School, St John's College
5pm at the Lightfoot Room, Old Divinity School, St John's College
November 12, 2025 at 11:06 AM
Join us next week, Tues 18th Nov for our second meeting of term. Author and journalist Mark O'Connell will be in conversation with the Guardian's Ireland Correspondent Rory Carroll. All welcome, refreshments will be served.
5pm at the Lightfoot Room, Old Divinity School, St John's College
5pm at the Lightfoot Room, Old Divinity School, St John's College
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
We are delighted to share our programme of seminars for Michaelmas Term 2025 🍂
👇
👇
October 15, 2025 at 10:02 AM
We are delighted to share our programme of seminars for Michaelmas Term 2025 🍂
👇
👇
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
Reminder: If you use generative AI for *any of your writing tasks* you are a Slopper not a writer and should be ashamed of yourself. The end.
November 11, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Reminder: If you use generative AI for *any of your writing tasks* you are a Slopper not a writer and should be ashamed of yourself. The end.
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
Congratulations to Linda Zionkowski, Mimi Hart, and all contributors to "Women and Music in the Age of Austen," winner of the American Musicological Society's Ruth A. Solie Award for an outstanding essay collection of exceptional scholarly merit.
For more: lnkd.in/dNa_gmK9
#ReadUP #TeamUP #UPWeek
For more: lnkd.in/dNa_gmK9
#ReadUP #TeamUP #UPWeek
November 11, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Congratulations to Linda Zionkowski, Mimi Hart, and all contributors to "Women and Music in the Age of Austen," winner of the American Musicological Society's Ruth A. Solie Award for an outstanding essay collection of exceptional scholarly merit.
For more: lnkd.in/dNa_gmK9
#ReadUP #TeamUP #UPWeek
For more: lnkd.in/dNa_gmK9
#ReadUP #TeamUP #UPWeek
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
Was really struck by what a lovely inspiring exercise this is, like a primary school version of Mary Oliver’s Instructions for living a life
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it
November 10, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Was really struck by what a lovely inspiring exercise this is, like a primary school version of Mary Oliver’s Instructions for living a life
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
Global Irish Studies Postdoctoral Fellowship at Notre Dame University. This is open exclusively to scholars of any nationality with a PhD from institutions outside the US, UK, Canada, and Ireland. Scholars working in any area of Irish Studies are encouraged to apply. apply.interfolio.com/176805
Apply - Interfolio
{{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
November 9, 2025 at 9:14 AM
Global Irish Studies Postdoctoral Fellowship at Notre Dame University. This is open exclusively to scholars of any nationality with a PhD from institutions outside the US, UK, Canada, and Ireland. Scholars working in any area of Irish Studies are encouraged to apply. apply.interfolio.com/176805
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
Somewhat astonishingly, here it is, a book, a thing in the world... More, including acknowledgements, soon❤️
October 31, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Somewhat astonishingly, here it is, a book, a thing in the world... More, including acknowledgements, soon❤️
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
I'm giving what might be the "biggest" talk of my life tomorrow, at Cambridge, and I seem to have written my most certifiably bonkers talk yet for it, about Jacobite poetics and Sean Bonney via Charles Le Brun, called "Non-Literary Beauty?". If you're in Cambridge, come see me in the Eng Dept @ 5pm!
November 5, 2025 at 2:08 PM
I'm giving what might be the "biggest" talk of my life tomorrow, at Cambridge, and I seem to have written my most certifiably bonkers talk yet for it, about Jacobite poetics and Sean Bonney via Charles Le Brun, called "Non-Literary Beauty?". If you're in Cambridge, come see me in the Eng Dept @ 5pm!
@claudewillan.bsky.social is at the English Faculty in @cam.ac.uk today at 5pm, speaking on Jacobite poetry in manuscript (1688-1750), & the work of Sean Bonney. This sounds like a 🔥 talk on the limits of permissible speech, materiality, & literary experimentation. @bsecs.bsky.social #18thcentury
November 6, 2025 at 10:59 AM
@claudewillan.bsky.social is at the English Faculty in @cam.ac.uk today at 5pm, speaking on Jacobite poetry in manuscript (1688-1750), & the work of Sean Bonney. This sounds like a 🔥 talk on the limits of permissible speech, materiality, & literary experimentation. @bsecs.bsky.social #18thcentury
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
November 3, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
'His book tour brought him to Cambridgeshire, where he would marry and have two children with Susannah Cullen, an Englishwoman from Ely. They settled in Soham, supported by a local network including abolitionist friends, safe...when reactionary “church and king” mobs were targeting reformers.' 1/3
Lost grave of daughter of Black abolitionist Olaudah Equiano found by A-level student
Fitzwilliam Museum has uncovered student’s work from 1977 that revealed Cambridgeshire location of child’s burial place
www.theguardian.com
November 1, 2025 at 8:24 AM
'His book tour brought him to Cambridgeshire, where he would marry and have two children with Susannah Cullen, an Englishwoman from Ely. They settled in Soham, supported by a local network including abolitionist friends, safe...when reactionary “church and king” mobs were targeting reformers.' 1/3