Farah Bakaari
@bakaari.bsky.social
“permanently in east coast time”
Pinned
yes, i’m a class A curmudgeon, but a basic tenant of my professional life is to act as though the pie is always larger than we are told it is. i’m always happy to choose fellowship over ambition. i’ve no anxiety about influence. may this always be the case.
Reposted by Farah Bakaari
Sarah Sgro and Olivia Stowell take on the "Instagram Theme Party™," dressing for the algorithm, and what these rituals tell us about the "kind of choreographed sociality that both relies on and is reproduced by algorithmic culture and platform capitalism."
Article illustrations by Carolyn Jao
Article illustrations by Carolyn Jao
Styling Algorithmic Life
The Instagram Theme Party™ (trademark ours) is everywhere, and it requires you to dress to code. Sundresses studded with a faux-watercolor seashell print. A pair of pajama shorts sporting a flimsy …
mid-theory.com
November 24, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Sarah Sgro and Olivia Stowell take on the "Instagram Theme Party™," dressing for the algorithm, and what these rituals tell us about the "kind of choreographed sociality that both relies on and is reproduced by algorithmic culture and platform capitalism."
Article illustrations by Carolyn Jao
Article illustrations by Carolyn Jao
i only read memoirs by affluent liberal white women because absolutely nothing is at risk but the stakes are so high.
November 22, 2025 at 1:38 PM
i only read memoirs by affluent liberal white women because absolutely nothing is at risk but the stakes are so high.
wow, flying out of atlanta and not with delta is an exercise in corrective humiliation.
November 22, 2025 at 1:18 PM
wow, flying out of atlanta and not with delta is an exercise in corrective humiliation.
i do not enjoy when cities i visit are big. it’s like please have manners and be a reasonable, manageable size. i am starving.
November 20, 2025 at 12:46 AM
i do not enjoy when cities i visit are big. it’s like please have manners and be a reasonable, manageable size. i am starving.
so planes now have commercials you can’t turn off or turn down?? everything continues to get suckier….
November 19, 2025 at 5:00 PM
so planes now have commercials you can’t turn off or turn down?? everything continues to get suckier….
yes, i’m a class A curmudgeon, but a basic tenant of my professional life is to act as though the pie is always larger than we are told it is. i’m always happy to choose fellowship over ambition. i’ve no anxiety about influence. may this always be the case.
November 18, 2025 at 9:12 PM
yes, i’m a class A curmudgeon, but a basic tenant of my professional life is to act as though the pie is always larger than we are told it is. i’m always happy to choose fellowship over ambition. i’ve no anxiety about influence. may this always be the case.
Reposted by Farah Bakaari
Editors have a really hard job, and the good ones can make something unreadable readable, and the great ones can make something unreadable into something good. But they're basically invisible, until someone tries to write without one.
November 17, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Editors have a really hard job, and the good ones can make something unreadable readable, and the great ones can make something unreadable into something good. But they're basically invisible, until someone tries to write without one.
teaching a short excerpt from rob nixon’s ‘slow violence’ this morning. this is how nixon starts the book, reminding you that the global south has always known larry summers for the moral degenerate that he is.
November 17, 2025 at 3:50 PM
teaching a short excerpt from rob nixon’s ‘slow violence’ this morning. this is how nixon starts the book, reminding you that the global south has always known larry summers for the moral degenerate that he is.
when i signed up i hadn’t realized that what i thought was a comments section was actually where your preferred name was supposed to go, so this was my name at the berkeley half marathon today 🤦🏾♀️
November 16, 2025 at 10:00 PM
when i signed up i hadn’t realized that what i thought was a comments section was actually where your preferred name was supposed to go, so this was my name at the berkeley half marathon today 🤦🏾♀️
YESSS!!! 🧿🧿🎉🎉
BREAKING: In AAUP et al v. Trump (wall-to-wall union lawsuit challenging the administration’s unlawful use of TItle VI to reshape the University of California system), the faculty and staff of the UC system WON!!!
We were granted our preliminary injunction! @aaup.org
We were granted our preliminary injunction! @aaup.org
November 15, 2025 at 2:21 AM
YESSS!!! 🧿🧿🎉🎉
Reposted by Farah Bakaari
***break from close reading promo***
Sharon Cameron's thinking about poetry has meant so much to me for decades now; I reviewed her new book and seized the chance to look back at her career.
Thanks to the Wallace Stevens Journal, currently open access:
muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
Sharon Cameron's thinking about poetry has meant so much to me for decades now; I reviewed her new book and seized the chance to look back at her career.
Thanks to the Wallace Stevens Journal, currently open access:
muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
Project MUSE - The Likeness of Things Unlike: A Poetics of Incommensurability by Sharon Cameron (review)
muse.jhu.edu
November 14, 2025 at 3:47 PM
***break from close reading promo***
Sharon Cameron's thinking about poetry has meant so much to me for decades now; I reviewed her new book and seized the chance to look back at her career.
Thanks to the Wallace Stevens Journal, currently open access:
muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
Sharon Cameron's thinking about poetry has meant so much to me for decades now; I reviewed her new book and seized the chance to look back at her career.
Thanks to the Wallace Stevens Journal, currently open access:
muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
i just want to finish ONE thing this semester, just one thing. how am i this tired and this behind??
November 14, 2025 at 3:24 PM
i just want to finish ONE thing this semester, just one thing. how am i this tired and this behind??
Reposted by Farah Bakaari
Dear Auntie
You will be surprised to hear that I am going to prison tomorrow.
You will be surprised to hear that I am going to prison tomorrow.
November 13, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Dear Auntie
You will be surprised to hear that I am going to prison tomorrow.
You will be surprised to hear that I am going to prison tomorrow.
i love gaining clarity on an essay, i don’t enjoy when that clarity involves me deleting half the essay. i could have had a fun career if i made better choices.
November 12, 2025 at 9:11 PM
i love gaining clarity on an essay, i don’t enjoy when that clarity involves me deleting half the essay. i could have had a fun career if i made better choices.
a grading interlude: brownies for class tomorrow. i’ve finally christened my oven and baked in berkeley! but i still have 11 more papers to grade 🥹
November 12, 2025 at 1:44 AM
a grading interlude: brownies for class tomorrow. i’ve finally christened my oven and baked in berkeley! but i still have 11 more papers to grade 🥹
at my eye exam i asked the doc about my eye twitches and he was like you’re tired and i go “well, there’s not much i can do about that, and he goes “well, if you don’t wanna rest, tonic water is a good muscle relaxant, now you can always add gin to the tonic to relax even more muscles.” 😎
November 10, 2025 at 10:55 PM
at my eye exam i asked the doc about my eye twitches and he was like you’re tired and i go “well, there’s not much i can do about that, and he goes “well, if you don’t wanna rest, tonic water is a good muscle relaxant, now you can always add gin to the tonic to relax even more muscles.” 😎
so if the dems just caved and threw everyone under the bus what was 40 day shutdown for, the missed paychecks and all the rest?
November 10, 2025 at 4:09 PM
so if the dems just caved and threw everyone under the bus what was 40 day shutdown for, the missed paychecks and all the rest?
me: why does my eye twitch often lately?
the internet:
1) stress
2) too much caffeine
3) not enough sleep
4) brain tumor.
we suggest you get an MRI immediately.
the internet:
1) stress
2) too much caffeine
3) not enough sleep
4) brain tumor.
we suggest you get an MRI immediately.
November 10, 2025 at 2:22 PM
me: why does my eye twitch often lately?
the internet:
1) stress
2) too much caffeine
3) not enough sleep
4) brain tumor.
we suggest you get an MRI immediately.
the internet:
1) stress
2) too much caffeine
3) not enough sleep
4) brain tumor.
we suggest you get an MRI immediately.
Reposted by Farah Bakaari
Happy University Press Week! Join us in celebrating how authors, university press publishing professionals & so many others #TeamUP to advance knowledge. Explore this @bookshop.org collection of university press books to find your next thought-provoking read: https://bit.ly/4nhTQcc. #ReadUP
November 10, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Happy University Press Week! Join us in celebrating how authors, university press publishing professionals & so many others #TeamUP to advance knowledge. Explore this @bookshop.org collection of university press books to find your next thought-provoking read: https://bit.ly/4nhTQcc. #ReadUP
Reposted by Farah Bakaari
a gift from @bakaari.bsky.social (some of the other ones she brought were her brilliance and her humor)
@mid-theory.bsky.social
@mid-theory.bsky.social
November 9, 2025 at 5:01 PM
a gift from @bakaari.bsky.social (some of the other ones she brought were her brilliance and her humor)
@mid-theory.bsky.social
@mid-theory.bsky.social
what level of broken adult sunday is procrastinating on your rescheduled long run by answering a dozen emails?
November 9, 2025 at 4:52 PM
what level of broken adult sunday is procrastinating on your rescheduled long run by answering a dozen emails?
Reposted by Farah Bakaari
The 100th episode of American Vandal. Launching the 12th season. Live at UPenn English Faculty Lounge with @cnewf.bsky.social, @whitneytrettien.bsky.social, & an incredible assembly of faculty, students, visiting scholars, & friends of the pod.
Criticism & The Chatbot Bubble (Vandal Live at UPenn English)
with Christopher Newfield & Whitney Trettien
theamericanvandal.substack.com
October 31, 2025 at 2:25 PM
The 100th episode of American Vandal. Launching the 12th season. Live at UPenn English Faculty Lounge with @cnewf.bsky.social, @whitneytrettien.bsky.social, & an incredible assembly of faculty, students, visiting scholars, & friends of the pod.
these are certainly “interesting times” because delta airlines now has free wifi and i’m squandering it by hate-reading this oxymoronic garbage. if that’s not a sign of female pathology, i don’t know what is. feminism can’t save me from the new york crimes
November 8, 2025 at 6:46 PM
these are certainly “interesting times” because delta airlines now has free wifi and i’m squandering it by hate-reading this oxymoronic garbage. if that’s not a sign of female pathology, i don’t know what is. feminism can’t save me from the new york crimes