Helena Goodwyn

‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Robot Woman’ would be a new take.

Will you come and teach it with me?

Andrew I’m working on a CL module for my uni at the moment. Being the exceedingly generous chap you are I wondered if I might have a nosy at your syllabus?

Thanks so much Jen, very generous as always! I’ve added the Collins to my list. And look forward to reading the essay on Carter. Thanks also for the link to that.

That would also be a great one to use. Particularly as it has that strong thread about how the past can infect the present! Thank you.

That’s very generous of you Priti! Yes please ☺️

I do think an understanding of Dickens would be very useful. GE excellent for understanding seriality, class, country/city, narrative PoV - all sorts! Thank you.

It is a good one for all sorts isn’t it! MitA, religious doubt, gender, empire. Thank you

I had been thinking more along the sensation fiction / proto-detective lines I must admit. All sorts of ways in which I can see it being useful for various discussions. Thank you!

Interesting! Thank you. Brevity often a big selling point these days for students but to contain all those tropes in a relatively short space too 👌

If you were teaching a module on NeoVictorian fiction what is the one Victorian novel you would want students to have read (if it had to be just one) as a useful/informing baseline of knowledge?

I don’t know who it was but this guy will be suuuper mad about it.

Not contemporary exactly but in Kate Chopin you have a desire for freedom & independence from restrictive societal roles, proto-modernist impressionistic techniques, & in ‘The Awakening’ alone you have an articulation of women's need for financial & personal autonomy to achieve creative success.

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…

🚨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

History Day History Day and the History Day: Discover Collections website bring together researchers and collections in-person and online

It's here! Sign up for History Day 4 Nov 2025. #HistDay25 Together with @senatehouselib.bsky.social we are celebrating all things history with collections from galleries, libraries, archives, museums & more. Find out what it's all about and book your free spot. www.history.ac.uk/library-digi...

More than half of RSC staff urged to apply for voluntary redundancy Arts institution seeks to make ‘urgent’ savings as it is thought to be facing a shortfall of between £5m and £6m

Depressing - we need the arts now more than ever www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/s...

Major yn Englisshe:
• focused readinge & writinge prepare you for anythinge
• research, communicacioun, creativitye, and interpretacioun will be needed for careers not even invented yet
• meaningful engagement wyth big ideas and textes that will staye wyth you forevir
• it ys awesome
• books!

***CFP DEADLINE EXTENSION TO 22 SEPTEMBER 2025***
Due to some members experiencing issues with our submission site, we have decided to extend the #BSECS2026 #CFP deadline by a whole week.
Get scribbling #skystorians! #18thC 🗃️

Grants for writers facing financial difficulty As our research into authors’ incomes demonstrates, a career in writing is often financially precarious. If you’re currently facing financial difficulties, whether that be due to an unexpected bill or...

The Royal Literary Fund are offering grants to writers facing financial difficulties. If you're currently experiencing difficulties, such as an illness or unexpected bill, you might be eligible to receive support.

#History #SkyStorians Writing a new course on social movements/political practices in 19th c. Britain & Ireland & struggling to find secondary sources on associations/civil society in general, as opposed to studies of specific societies, e.g. Catholic Assoc. Any suggestions?

The Editors of Victorian Popular Fictions are looking for guest editors for autumn special issues from 2027 - 2030. Please see the attached CFP. The deadline for proposals is 30th September 2025, and we are very happy to take any queries, please just email us at vpfjournal@gmail.com.

Please help me share the CFP for this Literature Compass Special Issue dedicated to the work of Simon J James and covering key Victorian and Edwardian writers like H. G. Wells, George Gissing, Dickens, Wilde, George Du Maurier, and Conan-Doyle on behalf of Hadas Elber-Aviram.

The Curran Index is Hiring! – RSVP The Curran Index is hiring a qualified U.S.-based research assistant to conduct archival research at the Huntington Library in California.

🚨 JOB ALERT-The Curran Index is hiring! Editors @emilyjlm.bsky.social + Lars Atkin seek a Research Assistant to conduct archival research on /Fun/ housed at the Huntington Library. Stipend available, with applications accepted through Aug. 20! More details on our website: rs4vp.org/curran-index...

✨️Job Alert✨️ Research Associate, 21st Century Oxford Authors Edition of Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Fixed-term, University of Sheffield, closing date 18 August.

Please share with ECRs!

jobsite.sheffield.ac.uk/job/Research...

Here's an excellent opportunity for anyone working on Margaret Oliphant! Please help spread the word. This special issue is looking for more contributors.

Fellow freelancers, a boring tax question: do you use any accounting software, and would you recommend it? I currently, & happily, use an Excel spreadsheet - but I see this whole ~making tax digital!~ thing looming, so am reluctantly in the market for recommendations of more complicated things 🙏

a man without a shirt is taking a shower in a dark room ALT: a man without a shirt is taking a shower in a dark room

Oh no…

Blink twice if you’re being controlled by a convention-defying voice built on three core pillars, each with distinct voice traits?

Me thinks someone has gone ‘Beyond’ experimenting with generative AI to letting it ‘control’ the Brand Team…

WeTransfer just changed their TOS giving themselves permission to train AI on any content you transfer and produce derivative works based on content you transfer that they are allowed to monetize and you are not allowed payment for.

Stop using WeTransfer.