Dr Corrina Readioff

Reeves to launch crackdown on benefit fraud alongside lifting two-child limit Move aims to bring in extra £1.2bn of savings as government seeks to head off criticism over welfare spending

Can anyone remember a time when there wasn't an ongoing “crackdown on benefit fraud”?

The entire basis of the benefit application system is that you, as a claimant, are probably lying.

Gulliver’s Travels at 300. The Global Afterlives of a Bestseller in Print, Transmedial Adaptations, and Material Cultures (Seventh ILLUSTR4TIO International Symposium, London) Plenary Lecture: Professor Daniel Cook (University of Dundee) Artist’s Talk: Martin Rowson (in conversation with Brigitte Friant-Kessler) Venue: St. Bride Library (London, U.K.) Dates: 23–25 September...

I’m looking forward to delivering the plenary lecture at this multidisciplinary conference, which marks the tercentenary of the first publication of the world’s greatest prose satire, in 2026:
www.fabula.org/actualites/1...

Vaccines don't cause autism

Pass it on

If You Use Gmail, You're Going To Want To Turn Off This 1 Automatic Setting ASAP Plus: a quick guide to the two-step process for opting out.

Google defaulting all Gmail users to a setting that enables Google to harvest all your emails into chatbot training is straight-up evil and invasive.

www.huffpost.com/entry/opt-ou...

Does anyone have any good recommendations for scholarship summarising popular perceptions of the British East India Company & nabobs in Britain in the 1780s/90s?
It’s not my specialism but I’m stuck on a paragraph in my research project until I can find a balanced & reliable appraisal

Interesting question.. I have a very visual mind but have a friend who is the complete opposite: we discovered this one day when reading the same page of a book together. My friend finished much faster than me, as they were able to pick out key points while I was vividly visualising everything

It's here! Our special issue of JECS (journal of @bsecs.bsky.social), a bumper vol of cutting-edge interdisciplinary research on 18c networks, gender, sociability & manuscript, deriving from @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social project. I'll be skeeting today about the contributions in turn...stay tuned!

Trans people could be barred from services based on appearance The new code of practice on access to single-sex services cannot gain legal force until it gets sign-off from ministers.

You're not asking trans people. You're asking all people. This affects us all. Anyone could be barred from services based on appearance. Since, surprisingly we all have a fecking appearance

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This government has not taken a single meaningful step to tackle the causes of the horrendous inefficiencies in the criminal justice system, instead rushing to dismantle trial by jury.

Legal professionals have offered numerous alternatives to address the backlog.

Ministers are not listening.

Kind of feel like this kind of removal to a fundamental right should be getting more attention.
The whole foundation of the justice system in this country is that people are judged by their peers

Facsimile of the title-page of Anon. ԿՆԴԻ ԵՂԵՐԳՈՒԹԻԻՆ Ւ ԳԻՒՂԱԿԱՆ ԳԵՐԵԶՄԱՆԱՏՈՒՆ. Beauties of English Poets. Venice: In the island of S. Lazzaro, 1852. 149-177.

Thrilled to announce the completion of phase II of the #ElegyInTranslation project: 55 early #19thC #translations in Armenian, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovene, Spanish, and Welsh:

www.thomasgray.org/texts/poems/...

#ThomasGrayArchive #c18th #DH #TEI

Sounds like a fascinating project! Congratulations!!

I found it distinctly unsettling that the trailer for the new film adaptation described it as “the greatest love story ever told” 😬

Congratulations Dr!! 🥳🎓 it’s a wonderful achievement & don’t let anyone steal your joy in it!

Personally I have always rather disliked turkey
Would much prefer to have a nice bit of roast chicken at Christmas 😋

👇👇

Really great thread here on why film producers should stop casting Heathcliff as white (because he isn't white in the book)

(Could expand on this, it's a bit of a pet topic with me too, but sounds like you're already getting a bit of unwanted traffic from this post so will resist)

This is a really brilliant, nuanced, & extremely informative thread! All I would add is that, while H is clearly perceived as Romani by those around him, it seems likely that his true heritage is South Asian (the Liverpool 'Lascar' reference in the novel), but racial "othering" conflates the two

A book cover for Being Pretty in the Eighteenth Century: a cultural history of female beauty by Katherine Aske published by Bloomsbury. The cover is teal blue and depicts an eighteenth century portrait of a white woman in a large, white silk dress with puff sleeves, brown curled hair with blue ribbons, looking towards the sky. There is a large brown curtain hanging behind the sitting figure. The painting is by Joshua Reynolds of Mrs Stanhope as Contemplation.

This week I submitted my manuscript for Being Pretty in the Eighteenth Century: a Cultural History of Female Beauty to @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social This book has been a (long) labour of love and I owe so many thank yous to so many people for helping me reach this stage!

It's so stupid for me to get pissed about this, but I still remember the radical shift when Advil went over-the-counter, when I was a freshman in college— I was wrecked by cramps, non-functional, & suddenly, this cheap miracle fixed it all in 20 min

It is absolutely not in anyway unreasonable for you to be angry about this stupid man’s stupid & false beliefs: ibuprofen is a complete godsend to menstruators. It’s also great for migraines, severe muscle aches, etc

On the first dvd of Mulan I got, the colour of Cri-Kee was wildly different from the colour he was both in the cinema and on the VHS tape

Pixar designed Toy Story to be printed on physical film. The Disney renaissance movies were the same.

Today, it's hard to see them as they were meant to be seen. The versions on streaming and home media aren't quite the same films that ruled the '90s:
animationobsessive.substack.com/p/the-toy-st...

If you don’t have access to a 35mm print then a 16mm print (or 8mm) is also an option for some of these films, though there is of course the risk of colour fade depending on the quality/composition of the film base

The First Time I Read ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’

So, uh, I'm quoted in the @nytimes.com today in an article about C. S. Lewis and the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Cool! 🦁 🧙 🚪
.
. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/b...
.
. #lionwitchwardrobe #CSLewis #NYTimes #fantasy

Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle is very good if they like magic & dragons: it features many traditional fantasy elements whilst avoiding/challenging problematic stereotypes from previous fantasy series

Rosalind Franklin and the damage of gender harassment Spurred by a recent report on sexual harassment in academia, our columnist revisits a historical case and reflects on what has changed—and what hasn’t

Thinking only of Rosalind Franklin today, and what was stolen from her (and so many other female scientists alongside her).

I’m more of a literary historian, but I haven’t been watching it either: it’s mystifying seeing it get showcased on serious news programs

And all this whilst still being less than 2yrs older than your thesis viva