Assistant Professor in an academic library. Publishes on British romantic literature, climate change, plant humanities, librarianship, social justice, and pedagogy. Not gay as in happy, queer as in free Palestine.
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Your Labor Day reminder that if the minimum wage increased at the rate of inflation & productivity since 1960 it'd be $28 today—not $7.25. Meaning—billionaires & corps have stolen at least $21/hour from working Americans for 60 years. We don't suffer a lack of resources—but from an excess of greed.
Mamdani on Nadler: Just read that last sentence. Perfect.
I have no idea where this meme comes from but I definitely used it when I taught Frankenstein in 2018.
I went to Google to find an image of him "clearing" homeless encampments (stealing the few possessions that people held onto when they lost housing), a thing I remember from months or years ago, and it's in the news as a thing that happened (again) yesterday.
For those of you without direct access, it's also available through my institutional repository in accordance with ECF's self-archiving policy: academicworks.cuny.edu/qc_pubs/686/
New article! "Open Educational Resources for a More Just Romanticism." I couldn't include acknowledgments, but I'm so grateful to @zugenia.bsky.social, @reneemc.bsky.social, @profchander.bsky.social, Andrew McKinney, and Duncan Faherty for helping make this happen. utppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3...
(I recognize how extremely pedantic this is, but Fanny, Mary's half-sister, was not Mary's only sibling. Mary also had 2 step-siblings and a younger half-brother. Her step-sister's daughter by Byron had also died before Mary exited her 20s.)
Join us Mon 1 Sept 2025 for @greenhouseuis.net #envhum book talk with @richardfallon.bsky.social on Contesting Earth’s History in Transatlantic Literary Culture 1860-1935: Believers & Visionaries on the Borderlines of Geology & Palaeontology (Oxford UP 2025). newnatures.org/greenhouse/e... #histsci
Kamala Harris lost because the electorate refused to vote for a candidate who supported genocide. The fact that there are people out here yelling at the voters to be less moral, and not yelling at the Democrats to be more moral, is exactly why we're here.
WHAT. That's just mind-bogglingly stupid. I'm so sorry.
imagine being so maniacally racist that you side with the fire over the firefighter
Just tried to purchase a dehumidifier for my office, the same one we bought for home earlier in the summer, and it doesn't appear to deliver to the US anymore. Yay.
I read this novel once, probably right around when it came out, but there are passages from it that just float around in my brain like song lyrics. And almost all of them are about YT's mom. Go figure.
There's a section in "Snow Crash" (1992) that isn't particularly relevant to the plot: YT's mom works for what remains of the US government, and spends her day navigating the surveillance systems that monitor every keystroke. I've been thinking about that a lot lately.
Good for these grand juries.
Congratulations, Dr. Wagstaffe!!
Congratulations!! Excited to read it!
I think my phone finally died. And because the only way we can access library resources now is through the Microsoft authenticator app, that means I can't actually work. The day before classes start.
Hahaha should be labrum! I’ve been reading too many botanicals lately!
What a sweet guardian!
I think most of us didn’t get cards!
My physical therapist is probably going to yell at me for walking so much on a torn laburnum, but I had so much fun joining my neighbors in the #zcavengerhunt. Joy wins.
It’s a beautiful day for it!
Tammany Hall!
lol I’m still on the subway. I guess I shouldn’t have dawdled 🤷♀️
Feeling Extremely Ridgewood as I head out for the #zcavengerhunt wearing a Peg’s Cavalier tee, watermelon necklace, and keffiyeh bracelet.
What in the fresh fuck is this bullshit. "Let's wipe entire groups of people out of our vocabulary! Next step: off the face of the earth!"
CHESTER.
Let's gooooooo!!!
I just tried to use two fingers to zoom in on a photo in a book.
That page seems to have disappeared, but there are some resources here: qc-cuny.libguides.com/c.php?g=1348... Including other ideas for making zines in a variety of formats, if you want to create your own!
My first ever completed Zine idea! "Why GenAI Sucks and You Should Not Use It" with 20 sources cited on the inside page. Thanks to all the researchers and journalists for the hard work I built from! The scanned zine to print your own and all the references can be found at padlet.com/laurenUU/antiAI
When my mom was pregnant with my sister, some well-meaning relative gave me a physically accurate baby doll for Christmas. That thing was FREAKISH. Who does that to a child?!
Sometimes, when I lead the OER Fellowship, faculty convert their courses to "zero-textbook-cost" by putting everything they normally teach on course reserves. Other times, they write an entire openly licensed textbook, and it's gorgeous and I love my job pressbooks.cuny.edu/introplaneta...
It was just a misunderstanding of the phrase “cash in your chips”
🗃️ Variation of this: I gave students one of my chapters w/no footnotes, asked where they thought footnotes should go: What type of source was used? What makes you think that? They have to consider how writing shows evidence vs. context vs. author’s voice. They liked it a lot and had great questions!
Oopsie, didn't read far enough down. I support @lwalker.bsky.social's suggestion for a group of shushing librarians! (A worthy repurposing of academicworks.cuny.edu/ulj/vol27/is...)
(Although I would change the group of shushing librarians to a shhhtereotype, from the great @jillasella.bsky.social.)
Beautiful.
Bad ideas, Chester edition.
This is why people don't use university-sanctioned tools. Because they are all Microsoft and don't &*$#ing work.
I have spent literally the last 90 minutes trying to print a doc with comments from my work computer. I can't print it from the desktop Word app because it wants me to "activate" something, but the login link leads to an error page. I can't print from OneDrive because it doesn't have that option.
I'll admit, I was skeptical when they said Gemini was just like a bunch of PhDs. But I gotta admit they nailed it.
@rarebookschool.bsky.social -- especially 600 Years of Botanical Illustration, held at Oak Spring Garden -- comes pretty close rarebookschool.org/courses/illu...
I love this assignment so much. Reading, writing, and research happen out in the world. These activities belong everywhere, and they unfold differently in different contexts. And that's good!
In the spirit of syllabus season, here’s a link to an extinction studies course of the #envhist #envhum variety. From the dodo to dire wolves...Please borrow, adapt, share! drive.google.com/file/d/1SzKp... cc: @dollyjorgensen.bsky.social!
Wow, that's a huge loss. Bucknell has been so consistent in supporting interesting new work.
This post is partly about how ballet/gymnastics culture around pain is pretty fucked, or was in the 1980s, but also about how medicine needs to be able to accommodate people lacking the vocabulary of pain.
True story: I am pretty seriously injured, as in I will probably need surgery, but I’ve been going to doctors for almost a year unable to say if it “hurts” because I grew up with ballet and gymnastics and you just turn that light switch off. (Don’t do that.)
It’s live! My new zine “How to Report ICE and Help Keep Our Neighbors Safe” is available in NYC and a Philly editions!! You can download and print both from here: drive.google.com/drive/folder... **Be sure to set your printer settings to print the zine at 100%!**
my statement on Ai from the mini-comic I'm making as syllabus for a new class I'm teaching this fall. It's simple, but I pretty much said all I have to say on it - it robs you of decisions and struggle - and the joy of being surprised. It robs you of learning...
For all of the educators trying to deal with AI, I did a deep dive in early June and these are the four articles I decided to assign to my students. 1. This is the longest of the bunch, but so wonderfully comprehensive. www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1...
Anyone else finding that the last-minute-panic strategy of conference paper writing is significantly less effective when said conference is remote?
WOW. That is a staggering display of professional malpractice. Horrifying.
Come on someone please write a novel out of the 1871 microscope larcenist Catherine White where she builds an underground lab to find a cure for tuberculosis or something by stealing thingies from stuffy posh scholars who wouldn’t care
Zohran should propose “Cuomo’s Law”, a law that bars sex offenders from being mayor of New York City
Who got the best replacement for Spotify? 👀
I did this to Vicky. It’s my fault. The cat community is right to punish me forever.
Who gave Andrew Cuomo his password?
If you use Instagram, turn off location sharing for your stories. I can see exactly where people are posting from in the built-in map. What the actual fuck?
When you put it like that, AI is the *exact opposite* of punk rock. It is the *exact opposite* of zines.
Aesthetic responses to the climate crisis are politically paralyzing and historically inaccurate. Our podcast of the week calls for a “climate counter-aesthetics” that foregrounds planning and collective action. With @annakornbluh.bsky.social on @futurehistories.bsky.social buff.ly/tVj0oqE
One time I was packing for a move and lost my phone. Had a very similar experience of, I know it's here, somewhere, but I can't find it, and I'm panicking! Fortunately I had left the alarm on, so it literally woke me up. From inside a box. Where I had carefully wrapped it with a framed photo.
And yet they didn't think to delete the 25th Amendment.
*Academics in early August
One of my cats is fasting this morning in preparation for a vet visit, which means I can't take my breakfast bowl into the kitchen or wash the many dishes in the sink because I don't want to see her disappointed little face when she realizes I'm still not feeding her. I'm a monster.
It was less than 10 years ago that NYC employees were barred from official travel to North Carolina because of the bathroom ban there.
What an absolutely nightmare. I'm so sorry.
Okay I lied before. This is ACTUALLY the final cover. I was, however, telling the truth about it being great for people interested in heritage, libraries, our relationship to books, &c. Maybe your library would like to preorder a copy? Maybe you are rich and would like to preorder a copy?
Gorgeous! I can’t wait to read it!
Delighted to see my recent article on the life of Thomas Martyn (1735-1825), third professor of botany at Cambridge in print! www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/... @theul.bsky.social @camplantsci.bsky.social @cubotanicgarden.bsky.social @hpsleeds.bsky.social @sidneysussex.bsky.social
Remember that NC bathroom bill and how if you worked for CUNY (and probably other places) you couldn't travel to NC and get reimbursed? Me neither.
Me too, Amanda.
Venture far enough back in any bodega at 8:30am on a Saturday and you will inevitably find a group of men drinking Modelos. Maybe you're carrying a kitten that wandered out of the bodega. Maybe one of those men reaches his arms out with pure wonder on his face to take the kitten. I love NYC.
I love how this photo makes it look like Mamdani is squishing Sandler's head. Just chef's kiss.
Israel destroyed a Palestinian seed bank today. This is such a specific kind of evil, targeting literal hope for the future. Attempting to further alienate Palestinians from their home and land. So much destroyed just for the sake of destroying. It's awful.
Oh hey! You had Osgood-Schlatter's too?! What a fun souvenir of childhood antics.
Just to show how much the anti trans side is driven by conspiracy theory bs, the FTC is investigating whether trans "influencers" are getting kickbacks from gender affirming care providers and pharma companies. This is absolutely insane.
This totally makes sense. A notable public figure in the US (Amazon labor organizer Christian Smalls) is illegally arrested by Israel and subjected to severe physical violence while on a hunger strike… and not one US media outlet of any type has decided that is news.
Here's a preview of the cover and contents of 'Plant Perspectives' 2.2, a special issue guest edited by Caroline Cornish and Christina Hourigan at Kew Gardens; forthcoming in October. #openaccess #subscribetoopen @rbgkew.bsky.social @plantperspectives.bsky.social #plantstudies
Chester is learning how to cope.
Why do we need AI when Katy Perry exists?
My spouse walked in while I was reading this post, and saw my face, and said, “OH MY GOD WHAT IS WRONG WHO DIED.” And I had to explain that there was a 40th anniversary edition of Bunnicula. She was not impressed.
Actually every American taxpayer should be angrier, not more polite, about Gaza
Omg that looks amazing.
I’m co-organizing this proposed panel, “The Latinx-Asian Commons,” for @c19americanists.bsky.social 2026 conference with @ayendy.bsky.social! Please consider submitting, and please share widely! Due 8/1
SOS! The crew of 'Handala' have been kidnapped by Israeli forces. Tan Safi is a citizen of 'Australia' E/Tag DFAT E: enquiries@dfat.gov.au X: @dfat @SenatorWong IG: dfat senatorpennywong FB: Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Penny Wong - Senator for SA
Setting aside the ethical and environmental concerns of AI, I'm really offended by a bunch of elite dudes telling us our minds aren't good enough when they've had to steal everything human minds have created to create their pretend mind and it doesn't even work right!
😊
I'm so happy it's coming out in ECF! I couldn't include acknowledgments, but I'm so grateful to you, @profchander.bsky.social, Duncan Faherty, and Andrew McKinney for all your help bringing this article into being.
All famines are man-made, all famines are political. Historians of empire and humanitarianism have known this forever. Gaza is not starving, Gaza is being starved, by Israel, and this starvation is enabled by our government and by every other government that does not step in to force food and aid.
It just gets worse and worse.
Ugh I have been there and it is so hard. Somehow extra hard bc of the way the cat is always like, “Did something happen? You seem stressed,” afterward. Like, yes, I’m stressed because I’m worried our relationship is permanently damaged, and you’re a cat, so you don’t even remember!
To be fair, I don’t really need to venture beyond my disciplinary boundaries for that particular experience😂
I also love the feeling of, "I just learned the most amazing new thing! And ... there's an entire body of research devoted to it that I must now read obsessively, chasing the initial high of discovery."
"I am beautiful. I am full of love. I am dying." From Ada Limón's book, Bright Dead Things: bookshop.org/a/862/9781571314710 #poem #books #writing
We are receiving desperate messages of starvation from #Gaza, including from our colleagues. Food prices have increased 40 fold. UNRWA has enough food for the entire population for over three months, stockpiled just outside Gaza. Lift the siege and let aid in safely and at scale.
In the past month NYT has published 32 articles that mention Mamdani and “globalize the intifada", 13 that mention Israel's fake "aid" agency that's killed 800+, 5 on Israel's starvation campaign and two that mention, in passing, child amputees in Gaza. I argue this is makes no sense and is depraved
Our governments are forcing us to watch Palestinians starve to death A bipartisan endeavor We kept saying genocide and it has been and also that can make it hard to appreciate this is a new level to it Mass, irreversible starvation