Catherine Quirk, PhD

This is a sneak preview of our poster image as we finalise details - it’s a coloured etching by Thomas Rowlandson after G M Woodward from 1801 called ‘The Quack Doctor’s Prayer’ with a kneeling doctor praying over a box with a duck drawn on it. In the background there’s a candelabra and pink hangings.

We are delighted to announce the first seminar in our 25/26 series: the wonderful @drreznicek.bsky.social will be presenting on ‘Too Bodily: Disability, Care, & Belonging in Romantic Novels’ on Wednesday 29th October at 6pm.

Free! Online! All welcome!

Register here: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Cover of Cambridge Elements title: Caryl Churchill's Eco-Socialist Feminism by Elaine Aston

You can read 'Caryl Churchill's Eco-Socialist Feminism' by Elaine Aston (published by Cambridge University Press) for free online until 22 October:

www.cambridge.org/core/element...

Spoilers from the upcoming film adaptation, a sequel to the recent Wuthering Heights (50 More Shades of Brontë) 😏

Fascinatingly, most of the things in the replies to this are…things I’ve not seen 😂

When it comes to intimidating racist protests including outside our homes or place of worship, Black and Asian people are supposed to just accept it and the government saying “we hear you” and “it is right to protest this” and “I love flags me”. No thought of “cumulative impact” for us!

Lecturer - English Company Description: Waipapa Taumata Rau | The University of AucklandThe University of Auckland is New Zealand’s pre-eminent University, with a turnover of $1.1bn, including research revenue of over $...

Job alert! University of Auckland, lectureship in English, in the long 19th century:

jobs.smartrecruiters.com/TheUniversit...

Jobs | City University of New York

The English Department at Hunter College, CUNY is very happy to announce a Tenure Track position in #Medieval British Literature at the Assistant Professor level. Applications from scholars in interdisciplinary and/or global approaches are especially encouraged to apply.

cuny.jobs/new-york-ny/...

I wonder if Carney had to crowd-fund his trip to the Women’s Rugby World Cup final, or if it was just the team who needed to do that…? 😒

ChatGPT Edu is built for conning education executives into subsidising and edu-washing planet-burning slop machines via non-consensual access to young people’s creativity AND DATA while attacking their ability to learn. At a university.

Michael Field in Context (Cambridge University Press) is out today! I'm so excited that this volume is finally out in the world. It features 35 chapters on so many different aspects of Michael Field's lives and work. Find out more/order for your library here: www.cambridge.org/gb/universit...

Read This When Things Fall Apart by Kelly Hayes | Pilsen Community Books Letters to Activists in Crisis

Every day, I find myself wishing that our new book, Read This When Things Fall Apart: Letters to Organizers in Crisis, was already out in the world, because I think it could really help people right now. Preorders really make all the difference in terms of helping a book become widely available.

Battle doomscrolling by posting 5 small pleasures in life

The smell of firewood from a log burner on a quiet evening
The comfort of a soft sweater
The sound of a gentle sea
Finding you have twenty minutes when you thought it was ten
Coming home to your dog

battle doom scrolling by posting 5 small pleasures in life:

- the sound of my grumpiest cat snoring
- finding bees sleeping in the garden
- a whole saturday spent reading
- the first swipe of charcoal on a blank page
- the colors of autumn against a bright blue sky

battle doomscrolling by posting 5 small pleasures in life:

-the little sigh as a dog puts their sleepy head on your knee
-the first bar of the overture in a hushed theatre
-discovering the coffee pot still has another cup in it
-rereading a good book
-the smell of a fireplace on a crisp autumn day

Are you an early career researcher, based in the UK, looking to get published? The Bloomsbury Academic Writing Fellowship, in partnership with @writersandartists.bsky.social, may be for you.

Applications now open until 1st October 👉 https://bit.ly/4nd2sBp

The Arts Emergency manifesto - a pink background with statements written in alternative colours - red and blue reading: There are things that are bigger and better than money. We have things that those in power will never understand. We take it as a given that a civilised society values education, lifelong learning and creativity as a public good. We are a social justice not social mobility organisation. Arts Emergency is no substitute for justice withheld. Fight the conditioning that tells you to demonise young people. Be fearless. You are just as entitled as anyone to have the life you want. There is no recession of the imagination. The future is another place. Allow yourself to believe a better life is possible. Say it loud, defiantly, to everyone. Be generous. Now be more generous. Share your privilege. Do something. Start small, start local, keep going. Optimism is a weapon and if all else fails be silly.

Be generous. Now be more generous. Share your privilege.

We need creative professionals to step up & volunteer to mentor a young person who doesn't have the connections or financial backing to believe they could access a creative career.

Sign up to mentor in 2026 👉 www.arts-emergency.o...

Fall Registration for Race, Media & International Affairs with Karen Attiah — Resistance Study Series A virtual, seven week beginner and intermediate course on the history of race, mass media, and the modern world order.

Here's how to support my work:

I'll be teaching a version of my Columbia class on Race, Media and International Affairs 101 and 102 next month for @resistanceschool.bsky.social.

The course is online/ hybrid. Deadline is Sept. 19th! Sign up!

www.resistancesummerschool.com/fall-2025-re...

Deeds With Words: Votes for Women and the Edwardian Stage - Guildford Fringe Festival In 1908 the Actresses’ Franchise League and Women Writers’ Suffrage League were founded to bring together theatre and entertainment professionals in support of the Votes for Women movement. Both […]

Doing this talk tonight at Guildford Fringe - if you’re interested in suffrage histories and theatre histories then it’ll be the perfect way to spend a blustery evening away from the news… guildfordfringefestival.com/events/deeds...

New rules: if you can't pass a Life in the UK test on the first go, you don't get to talk about immigration.

If you wouldn't cheerfully pay twice for the NHS (your taxes + healthcare surcharge), you don't get to talk about immigration.

Unfunded hobbyist researchers of the world, unite!

a white dog with black eyebrows drawn on its face Alt: a white dog with black eyebrows drawn on its face

Why did Pavlov have such great hair?

He conditioned it.

New video out on our TikTok page about Chloe’s trip to see Frankenstein: The Musical (directed by @catherinequirk.bsky.social) at Edge Hill University last month: vm.tiktok.com/ZNdqGJcBf/

Universities ‘poisoning student minds’, says Farage Populist leader takes aim at higher education in speech on first day of the Reform UK conference in Birmingham

'Nigel Farage has hit out at universities for “poisoning the minds” of students with what he said was a “twisted interpretation of history” in his speech on the opening day of the Reform UK conference.' 1/3

“LAW AND ORDER” he screamed as a he nailed up yet another makeshift edict declaring another form of protest illegal without so much as a statutory citation

Exhibition: Performing 19th Century Glasgow: Nation, Celebrity, Empire - Glasgow Life Exhibition on Glasgow Theatres

Glasgow pals, check out my new exhibition at the Mitchell Library on c19 theatre, empire, and celebrity! On display thru October. I'm also giving a talk at the Mitchell on race and c19 theatre on October 4 😊 www.glasgowlife.org.uk/event/1/exhi...

Typo du jour: A Doll’s Hose

(Close runner up: 1789 as date of first performance)

#AmWriting #TheatreHistory

A group of actors on a stage, enthusiastically cheersing

Today an actor told me that they’d felt safe as a queer person in my rehearsal room when they hadn’t been used to feeling that way. And honestly that’s the biggest win I’ll ever have in my entire career.

Thank you to all who came to our Frankenstein: I hope you felt just as safe with us!

Frankenstein - Edge Hill University This is a world premiere sung in English and is performed by an international cast of musical theatre students from Dankook University, South Korea and Edge Hill University, UK.

I’m currently working on a musical with some of the beautifulest music I’ve ever heard: why do I have Avril Lavigne in my head?
(Relatedly, last chance to see the English-language world premiere of Beom and Lee’s Frankenstein! A few tickets left for today’s shows: www.edgehill.ac.uk/event/franke...)

World chess just placed restrictions on both trans women and trans men The International Chess Federation will stop allowing transgender women to participate in women's tournaments. The group said changing genders has a "significant impact" on a player's status.

All you need to know about transphobes/terfs/gender critical people is that they think trans people have an unfair advantage in chess.

Be like Chloe (and their mum): get your tickets while you can! 💚