Sarah Wall-Randell (aka swallowsong)

Order your Faves on my Digital Cookie Site Today That's right! You can order your favorite Girl Scout Cookies from me online, all while helping my troop and I do great things in our community and beyond! Check it out.

So there's a black girl scout troop trying to raise money to to to Europe but they aren't close to their goal as of yet. Please share this and buy some cookies if you can

digitalcookie.girlscouts.org/scout/reagan...

Headshots of Michelle Dowd and Lara Dodds and an image of the cover of their 2025 book, with details of the virtual talk, superimposed on a background of Artemisia Gentilleschi's painting Judith Slaying Holofernes.

The seminar on Women, Gender, and Culture in the Early Modern World invites YOU to our December 4 Zoom seminar with @laradodds.bsky.social and Michelle M. Dowd! They will discuss their new book on early modern women's writing. 5:30pm Eastern. Register here: wellesley.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

I found this essay by Sarah Beckwith (yes, that Sarah Beckwith) absolutely shattering and brilliant. Further proof that if you want something terrible examined with laser-like precision and stunning clarity, get somebody who works on pre- & early modern literature

Look, this is much simpler than that.

When a billionaire says there's "fraud and waste" in the government, they mean "the government is giving money to non rich people which is a waste and those poor are frauds"

That's it.
That's the whole fuckin thing.

We are honored and thrilled to be (virtually) hosting Prof. Chakravarty! A discussion will follow her talk and the total event will last about 90 minutes. #earlymodernwomen #renaissancewomen #raceb4race #pcrs #shakerace #premoderncriticalrace #historysky #earlymodernhistory #earlymodernsky

Register here: wellesley.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

The Harvard Mahindra Center Seminar on Women, Gender, and Culture in the Early Modern World invites you to attend its yearly remote seminar on April 10 at 5:30ET, featuring Urvashi Chakravarty (U of Toronto) giving a talk entitled "'Fair Breeders': Gender and Heritability in the Early Modern World."

REFLECTIONS ON AI IN THE CLASSROOM: How We are Not Using Al in the Classroom By Sonja Drimmer & Christopher J. Nygren Premise Prompt engineering is a term that has become commonplace since the widespread availability of generative Al applications like ChatGPT. The idea is that the outputs of the large language models (LLMs) on which these applications are based are only as good as the prompts that are input: vague prompts result in equally vague outputs. And thus was born the race to train for careers in prompt engineering. Unfortunately, the bubble seems to have burst before even the first generation of students was trained for this career outcome. We were given a prompt as an invitation to participate in this newsletter: "How are you using Al in the classroom?" While we have accepted this invitation, we are engaging in the most humanistic act we can imagine—refusing the prompt.”

Love to refuse a prompt. static1.squarespace.com/static/53a4b...

And by “vibes” I mean the “gentleman’s library” aesthetic of many special collections reading rooms — Emma’s slide of the country-house libraries of various 18th century sugar & tobacco traders/enslavers really had my number

Still thinking about yesterday’s #Shax2025 books & sugar plenary with Kim F. Hall, @oldfortunatus.bsky.social & @bkadams.bsky.social 🍬📚As a scholar rather than a book collector I’ve indulged myself in politely ignoring the commerce side of “rare books” (while enjoying the vibes) — no longer.

Pre/Early Modern Trans Studies — Micah James Goodrich

Thinking of everyone due to fly home after #Shax2025 through LHR in a couple of days — hope y’all aren’t panicking and that you make it home on time. Maybe they’ll offer you $ to rebook later and you can stick around for PrEMoTrans at BU! www.micahjgoodrich.com/premotrans

What we're currently living through is a patriarchal panic reaction.

Our society came a little too close to acknowledging trans people as not merely quirky zoo exhibits to gawk at on the margins of society. Too close to acknowledging our humanity.

The response to this has been sheer terror.

I fear that people are going to forget this moment (image is a book from 2000) when there was an Internet but no Google. One would actually type the entire URL into the browser window. “Don’t use the quotes!” 😮

Cold War childhood, under the desks for nuclear-attack drill -- it was a thing!

I sometimes tell my kids about what it was like in the "bad old days" when I was growing up (seatbelts weren't the law, teachers could hit you, there was no chickenpox vaccine, etc) and it turns out my younger child thought I was saying "in the battle days" like I grew up in the Revolutionary War ☠️

Me!

If you see this, quote-post with a favorite photo of the sky that you’ve taken recently. (Good chance to practice making alt text!)

Why don't early modernists have theater kid energy? Are we too serious/self-important?

Yes lord. Finding out that Jason B himself is kind of an ass and a proud philistine (from listening to the Smartless podcast) has been chastening

I work on the Countess of Pembroke (among other things) and co-convene the Harvard Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar on Women & Gender in the Early Modern World; add me if possible! :)

My question for the universe: When will Brandon be on Bluesky??