Julia M. Wright
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juliamwright.bsky.social
Julia M. Wright
@juliamwright.bsky.social

FRSC Professor in Halifax🍁. Member of @dalfaculty.bsky.social . Locked out for 30 days in 2025. Views here mine only. Rebleats≠agreement.

"it is not Air / That from a thousand Lungs reeks back to thine" (Armstrong 1744). Silence=Spread🦠 #COVIDisAirborne .. more

Julia Margaret Wright is a professor in the Department of English and University Research Professor at Dalhousie University. Wright is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. .. more

History 22%
Political science 18%
Pinned
As #cdnpse institutions compete for domestic students after decades of funding cuts and new limits on int'l enrolment, I'm curious to see if we get recruitment campaigns based on pandemic safety: e.g., "Breathe Easier: We Know Your Health Matters to Your Success." theconversation.com/we-can-and-m...
We can, and must, do more to protect students in higher education from the risks of post-COVID condition
Postsecondary students are particularly vulnerable to repeated COVID-19 infections, putting them at risk for post-COVID condition, or long COVID. Campuses can take action to protect them.
theconversation.com

We live at a time that demands that we all think very carefully about the fine line between compliance and complicity.

Reposted by Anne Applebaum, Stephen M. Walt, Kori Schake , and 88 more

Video message from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KckG...
www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/s...
Statement by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell
YouTube video by Federal Reserve
www.youtube.com

Reposted by Julia M. Wright

I will accept no moral high ground from a government that refuses to ban a platform that is actively, in real time, right in front of our faces, creating child sexual abuse materials.

They're not banning it and there are still government departments with official Twitter accounts.

Fuck Carney.
Canada not considering a ban on X over deepfake controversy, AI minister says
The platform, which is owned by Elon Musk, has been embroiled in controversy over sexualized deepfakes of women and children created by X’s chatbot Grok.
www.thestar.com

Reposted by Julia M. Wright

UVC has been present in hospitals for decades and is well studied. Equipment sourced by healthcare facility engineers are usually from their own budget, not infection control's. There is a financial business case based on energy savings to achieve standards compliance by implementing UVC.

Reposted by Julia M. Wright

I just signed a petition demanding the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Ban X/Twitter in Canada. Join me in signing here: you.leadnow.ca/petitions/ba... you.leadnow.ca/petitions/ba...
Ban X/Twitter in Canada
I just signed a petition demanding the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Ban X/Twitter in Canada. Join me in signing here: https://you.leadnow.ca/petitions/ban-x-twitter-in-canada/?source=f...
you.leadnow.ca

Reposted by Julia M. Wright

(Reposting with the actual picture). Julia M. Wright @juliamwright.bsky.social receiving one of this year’s Keats-Shelley Association’s Distinguished Scholars Awards.

Reposted by Julia M. Wright

If you’re at #MLA26, you can register (for free) and attend the Keats-Shelley Association reception where @dal-english.bsky.social professor Julia M. Wright @juliamwright.bsky.social and others will be receiving awards:
Awards Reception MLA 2026 — K-SAA
Join us for a festive reception that brings everyone together. This gathering will feature recognition of our award recipients, including encomia and brief remarks from the honorees, a celebratory atm...
www.k-saa.org
Good reading.

'How the financial problem is described is not neutral. It reflects and reinforces a particular way of understanding what a university is....If the financial situation is framed as a classic demand-and-cost problem....the obvious actions are to emphasise tight cost controls'. 1/4
WEEKEND READING: What if, in trying to ‘fix’ universities, we are quietly unmaking them? - HEPI
Join HEPI and Advance HE for a webinar onTuesday, 13 January 2026, from 11am to 12pm, exploring what higher education can learn from leadership approaches in other sectors. Sign up here to hear this a...
www.hepi.ac.uk
New BARS Digital Event Announcement: Re-reading the Minerva Press

Taking place 22 Jan 2026, 6pm GMT

For more info and to register for the Zoom link:
www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6265

New article in the Guardian on experts asking WHO to catch up to respirator science: respirators are designed, and required to meet clear scientific standards, to protect us from airborne pathogens and other dangerous particles. And they have been for decades. 😷 www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Reposted by Julia M. Wright

For Renee Nicole Good
Killed by I.C.E. on January 7, 2026

by Amanda Gorman
WIRED @wired.com ¡ 5d
We've removed the paywall from this guide so everyone can access it. 👇 Stay safe.
Just days into 2026, the killing of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has sparked protests around the US.

If you’re planning to protest, here’s how to safeguard your digital security.
How to Protest Safely in the Age of Surveillance
Law enforcement has more tools than ever to track your movements and access your communications. Here’s how to protect your privacy if you plan to protest.
www.wired.com
"I’m going to pause here just to review: an institution that purports to be a university has told a philosophy professor he is forbidden from teaching Plato."

surreal times

dailynous.com/2026/01/06/t...
Texas A&M Bans Plato - Daily Nous
Drop the race and gender material from your course and the Plato readings, or teach a different course. You have a day to decide. That's a paraphrase of what Martin Peterson, professor of philosophy a...
dailynous.com

Reposted by Julia M. Wright

“The Crisis of the Humanities is Over. That’s Not a Good Thing.” Archived link here: archive.md/PHqyF

Reposted by Julia M. Wright

Heading to MLA 2026 in Toronto? Make K-SAA part of your #MLA26 plans! Don’t miss our panel, Mary Shelley At Last, and our annual Awards Reception. We look forward to welcoming members, friends, and colleagues. See you soon!
www.k-saa.org/blog/celebra...

Reposted by Julia M. Wright

Ugggh. If you don’t want to get emails over the holidays, then… just don’t open your email.

There are financial motivations to acknowledge the ongoing harms of the COVID pandemic, and even act: policyoptions.irpp.org/2025/07/indo... .

I can only speculate why govts are choosing the expensive course of inaction--I hope it isn't just wishful thinking that the pandemic will end on its own.
The next leap forward: Clean air for Canadians
“Weak productivity is making life less affordable for Canadians and beginning to strain our government’s finances and starting to put at risk the social programs on which Canadians rely,” Prime Minist...
policyoptions.irpp.org

I wasn't talking about the COVID pandemic ending (lots of pandemics are ongoing--cholera too, e.g.), but governments' silence and inaction in response to it.

How do we dig our way out of this? Does a government 'fess up? Or do they passively allow surge after surge until we get vaccines that are highly effective against transmission (as well as hospitalizations for acute COVID), & then slowly recognize long COVID when new cases are much less likely? Or?
1. Sometimes, the absurdity of the situation we're all in just hits me. Going forward, ongoing and continuous transmission of SARS-CoV-2 will lead to an ever-increasing percentage of the global population developing chronic illnesses due to sequelae of infection.

Reposted by Julia M. Wright

Seeing more and more weighing in about how the GNH Triage nurse/ED team should be held to personal account makes me realize that the avg AB just doesn’t understand what an utter dumpster fire our major EDs have been for months/yrs.
1/9

Reposted by Julia M. Wright

My apologies, I was tired and screwed up. This poster didn’t work on the aerosol studies side but (finally) remembered the arguments and disconnect from public comms. Same with masks early on. We need to learn from this and get much better at communicating what we know and don’t know during crisis.

Reposted by Julia M. Wright

1. Sometimes, the absurdity of the situation we're all in just hits me. Going forward, ongoing and continuous transmission of SARS-CoV-2 will lead to an ever-increasing percentage of the global population developing chronic illnesses due to sequelae of infection.

Reposted by Julia M. Wright

Another actuarial report from June 2025 concerning excess mortality.

"The analysis of excess mortality offers valuable insights into the Covid pandemic. Excess mortality was originally attributed to the Covid pandemic; however, it has persisted beyond the height of the Covid pandemic,

Reposted by Julia M. Wright

Policy on health is clearly broken - politicized, out of touch, reactive and slow. My recent keynote at the Canadian Biosafety Symposium took a big-picture look at how and why that's happening, and how we can turn things around.

Here's a general-audience version, recorded at the Deep River library.
Inquiring Minds 03: Mark Ungrin - Science, Pseudoscience and Public Policy
YouTube video by Deep River Public Library
www.youtube.com
I kind of like this whole “We won’t buy your liquor but we will air your state-suppressed news stories” niche that Canada’s apparently carved out.

Reposted by Julia M. Wright

NVC test shows significant microvascular damage in #LongCovid patients vs matched healthy controls. Dilated capillaries, microhaemorrhages, abnormal shapes and reduced capillary density are still detectable in LC 12 months after acute SARS-CoV-2 infection

rmdopen.bmj.com/content/11/2...
Multicentre retrospective detection of nailfold videocapillaroscopy abnormalities in long covid patients
Background SARS-CoV-2 induces acute non-specific endothelial/microvascular alterations that have been identified by nailfold videocapillaroscopy (NVC). Details on NVC abnormalities in long covid (LC) ...
rmdopen.bmj.com

Reposted by Julia M. Wright

Infections in Canada this week are expected to result in 3,800 hospitalizations, 770 deaths (people who die at least 1 year earlier than they would without COVID) and 20,000 new long COVID cases serious enough to limit daily life activities.

Reposted by Julia M. Wright

One of the things about my anthology that I am both excited and extremely humbled by is the fact that Samuel Delany sent @broadviewpress.bsky.social a newly edited version of his story “Among the Blobs” for me to use, complete with some relevant images, new notes, and a new introduction! #SFF