Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Eric Selinger

Jodi McAlister @jodimca.bsky.social · 5d

For The Conversation, @dramyburge.bsky.social and I wrote an obituary for the late, great Jilly Cooper.

Jilly Cooper: why readers still cherish her ‘fat, fun, frothy novels’

Many of Cooper’s depictions of sex are very funny. However, there is a clear message throughout.

theconversation.com

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Esther Schindler @estherschindler.bsky.social · 6d

I just saw someone use the abbreviation “AI;DR” and I’ll be laughing for a while.

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Owen K.C. Stephens (He/Him) @owenkcstephens.bsky.social · 6d

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Laura Ashe @lauraashe.bsky.social · 6d

Epic; no notes

Headline from the Times: "Bestselling novelist Jilly Cooper dies in fall aged 88", illustrated with a rather famous black and white picture of Virginia Woolf

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Susan Kaye Quinn is Writing Solarpunk 🌞🌱 @susankayequinn.bsky.social · 18d

They've lost the 9yos

JA Westenberg
@Daojoan@mastodon.social

My 9 year old and his classmates have started using “that’s AI” to mean “I don’t believe you.”

Me: we’re having dinosaur meat for dinner

Kiddo: that’s AI
Sep 24, 2025, 07:36 AM

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Eric Selinger @emselinger.bsky.social · 18d

Curiosity, research, understanding: such a fun process when it all goes well!

Eric Selinger @emselinger.bsky.social · 18d

Spent an hour or so this morning figuring out whether the phrase from Psalm 34 that Stephen Mitchell and Chana Bloch put in their translation of Amichai's "Song of Lies on Sabbath Eve" is in the original (it isn't), and then figuring out what the actual Hebrew bit is, so I'd know why they did that.

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@AuthorMsBev @authormsbev.bsky.social · 19d

Join me. Free. events.howard.edu/event/black-...

Black Love is Resistance: A Conversation with Beverly Jenkins and Kristina Forest - International Black Writers Festival 2025

events.howard.edu

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Nomadic Warriors for Pritzker @nomads.bsky.social · 19d

Hey everybody - I was raptured, but then chose to return to Earth to aid all sentient beings in their quest for nirvana. This may not have been the eschatology you were expecting but my advice is to start practicing compassion and loving kindness right now. Svaha!

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Eric Selinger @emselinger.bsky.social · 19d

If you’ve waited four months and the feeling ain’t gone…

Lauren S. Hallion, Ph.D. @laurenshallion.bsky.social · 20d

United States academic landscape got you down? Apply to join my lab at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, Canada!

I’m planning to accept a graduate student in Clinical Psychology. Additional information:

https://www.uregina.ca/academics/programs/arts/master-phd-clinical-psychology.html

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Laura Vivanco @lauravivanco.bsky.social · 19d

@dramyburge.bsky.social and Joseph Crawford have a short article out on the legacy and impact of Twilight

Twilight at 20: how Stephenie Meyer’s vampire saga changed young adult fiction forever

In 2005, Twilight’s adolescent female readership made it a target for mockery. Today, that same demographic is the most coveted in publishing.

theconversation.com

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Eric Selinger @emselinger.bsky.social · 20d

Folks in the romance scholar community, take note--my materials probably won't be there much longer. A pity; they recommended a lot of useful material to me over the years.

Justin Weinberg @dailynous.com · 20d

A popular online service for academics is claiming an irrevocable right to use its subscribers' voice, signature, photograph, likeness, etc., "in any manner"...

What Will Academia.edu Do with Its New Rights to Your Name, Likeness, and Voice? - Daily Nous

Users of the Academia.edu service are cancelling their subscriptions in response to perceived overreach by the firm in its recent update to its terms of service. Catching users' attention was a new pa...

dailynous.com

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Eric Selinger @emselinger.bsky.social · 24d

Popular romance scholars, keep an eye out for this--I wonder when it will start showing up in books....

N.V. Binder 𓀨 @nvbinder.io · 24d

wow sounds like a cool consumer technology that everyone wants

ChatGPT Is Blowing Up Marriages as Spouses Use AI to Attack Their Partners

Across the world, marriages are being destroyed as spouses use AI like OpenAI's ChatGPT to attack their partners.

futurism.com

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Eric Selinger @emselinger.bsky.social · 25d

I'm on the Board of this new series from University of Wales Press: "Romance, Power, and Desire." If you have a book idea or proposal, I hope you'll get in touch!

A flyer advertising the new University of Wales Press series "Romance, Power and Desire."

Romance, Power and Desire provides a focus for scholarly debates in the humanities around sexual/romantic power and agency, fantasy and social reality, relationships and sexual practices.

The series is global in scope and interdisciplinary in nature; it comprises of cutting-edge research in monographs and edited collections across a broad historical period, from the ancient world to the present day.

Series Editors: Dr Jo Parsons Falmouth University and Dr Meredith Miller Cardiff University

Would you like to write for this series? We’d love to hear from you. Please contact Chris Richards, Journals and Assistant Commissioning Editor, with your proposal, including a brief synopsis of the proposed work: chris.richards@press.wales.ac.uk

To read more on the information we require at proposal stage, see our Publish With Us page https://www.uwp.co.uk/publish-with-us/ .

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Jon Becker @jonbecker.bsky.social · Sep 12

Perfect

Ars Technica @arstechnica.com · Sep 12

Education report calling for ethical AI use contains over 15 fake sources

Experts find fake sources in Canadian government report that took 18 months to complete.

arstechnica.com

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Eric Selinger @emselinger.bsky.social · Sep 10

Oh, that’s a smart way to frame it!

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Annie Abrams @annieabrams.bsky.social · Sep 9

talked today in class about how ai doesn’t, can’t have a unique perspective, so it’s irrelevant to the work we’ll be doing in high school english

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Journal of Popular Romance Studies @jprstudies.bsky.social · Aug 7

CfP 🚨 The Journal of Popular Romance Studies is now accepting paper submissions for its Special Issue "Romancing the Posthuman", focusing on romance, critical love studies and posthumanism:

📆 Deadline: 31 October 2025
📄 Send 300-word abstracts
➕ More information: www.jprstudies.org/submissions/...

Special Issue Call for Papers | Journal of Popular Romance Studies

JPRS publishes special issues on a range of topics relating to the study of romantic love and its representations. These issues contain at least 3 articles on their shared topic, as well as an introdu...

www.jprstudies.org

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Spooky Back From the Dead Lazarus @jlazarus.bsky.social · Sep 8

Any and every professor who uses AI to generate student feedback should just quit. You don't really want to be a professor anyway. Leave the teaching to people who actually want to teach.

BOOOOlioraptor, PhD (spooky version) @biblioraptorphd.bsky.social · Sep 8

Blackboard update - can’t be bothered to read a student’s work? AI has you covered!

What's new on Blackboard!
September 2025 highlights | 3900.125.0
This release introduces improvements in instructional design and assessment grading:
• Al-Powered Feedback Summaries: Instructors can use the new
Summarize option when grading assessments to generate Al-driven overall feedback based on the graded rubric, with options to edit, accept, reject, or regenerate

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michael röbbins @alienvsrobbins.bsky.social · Sep 8

"I mean, we're so old—we've been going on for eight years and we can't go on for another eight.... I just can't, I mean we're so old—Bill's thirty-three!" — Mick Jagger in 1969

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Eric Selinger @emselinger.bsky.social · Sep 8

So cute!

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Professor Peter Matthews @urbaneprofessor.bsky.social · Sep 7

This frontispiece in my book just made me laugh a lot. Is this Buddhist reincarnation, or some other form of afterlife?

Bram Stoker
1847-1912
A PENGUIN SINCE 1979

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Journal of Popular Romance Studies @jprstudies.bsky.social · Sep 6

🚨 This CfP may be of interest to some of our readers!

🗓️ 250-word proposal by November 30, 2025.

Laura Vivanco @lauravivanco.bsky.social · Sep 3

Romance area chairs @jodimca.bsky.social and @heatherschell.bsky.social have put out the call for papers for PCA 2026!

"Scholars, romance writers, romance readers/viewers, romance industry professionals, librarians, and any combination of these are welcome."

Popular Culture Association

The Romance Area of the National Popular Culture Association is soliciting abstracts for the next annual conference, to held April 8-11, 2026, in Atlanta, Georgia.

pcaaca.org

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Simon A Corvid (sometimes a bear) @scrow1022.bsky.social · Sep 4

Oh, my library hold list just got a whole lot longer!

LGBTQReads @lgbtqreads.bsky.social · Sep 4

Happy National Translation Month 2025!

Join us in celebrating National Translation Month with these queer novels translated into English, organized by language of origin! Looking for translations of English-language works to other languages? Click here for MG/YA and here for Adult fiction.…

Happy National Translation Month 2025!

Join us in celebrating National Translation Month with these queer novels translated into English, organized by language of origin! Looking for translations of English-language works to other languages? Click here for MG/YA and here for Adult fiction. Afrikaans Fathers and Fugitives by S.J. Naudé, translated by Michiel Heyns Daniel is a worldly and urbane journalist living in London. His relationships appear to be sexually fulfilling but sentimentally meager.

lgbtqreads.com

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Eric Selinger @emselinger.bsky.social · Sep 4

Just realized that if I teach KPop Demon Hunters at the end of term, I really need to teach some poems by Rumi earlier…