Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Loughborough English @lboroenglish.bsky.social · 20h

Last month Barbara Cooke and @wvmierlo.bsky.social spoke at the Modernist Editing symposium (Uni of Reading). Wim drew on his monograph, Scholarly Editing in Perspective, to re-assess
the default framework for Scholarly Editions. Barbara reflected on 12 years of the Complete Works of Evelyn Waugh.

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Sarah Parker @profsarahparker.bsky.social · 2d

So excited that my article 'Michael Field’s “Caenis Caeneus”: Transmasculine Poetics at the Fin de Siècle', co-written with the fantastic @frankiedytor.bsky.social, is out in the world!
& in great company with @preraphsrule.bsky.social @kristinmahoney.bsky.social @nathankhensley.bsky.social & more!

Michael Field’s “Caenis Caeneus”: Transmasculine Poetics at the Fin de Siècle | Victorian Literature and Culture | Cambridge Core

Michael Field’s “Caenis Caeneus”: Transmasculine Poetics at the Fin de Siècle - Volume 53 Issue 2

www.cambridge.org

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Sarah Parker @profsarahparker.bsky.social · 5d

If you want to celebrate the launch of Michael Field in Context, save the date for a hybrid launch/roundtable event on Thurs 27 Nov, 18.30-20.00: bads.gold.ac.uk/future-fields

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Loughborough English @lboroenglish.bsky.social · 6d

The Brontë Society's Annual Lecture was delivered this weekend by @drclaireocall.bsky.social 'A happy Heathcliff and Cathy': The influence of Emily Brontë on Sylvia Plath & Ted Hughes. Claire is also Editor of Brontë Studies, the journal of the Brontë Society. www.bronte.org.uk/events/bront...

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Ben Davies @bendavies.bsky.social · 11d

Pleased to announce @univeng.bsky.social small funding scheme now open to members. UE will fund up to 20 projects up to £250 each to support research/pedagogy/continuing professional development activities in Lit, Lang, Creative Writing. See details here: universityenglish.ac.uk/englishcreat...

University English Funding

universityenglish.ac.uk

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Health Humanities Research Group @healthhumslboro.bsky.social · 9d

CFP 📣 Join us in Loughborough 📍 for a day of Sensation fiction and health humanities organised by our very own @braddonite.bsky.social. ✨ See post below for details 👇

Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · 9d

🚨Call for Papers!
❓Sensation Fiction and the Health Humanities: A VPFA Study Day
🗺️Loughborough University
📅27 March 2026
💷 FREE
For full CfP: victorianpopularfiction.org/studyday/for...
Contact the organiser Anne-Marie Beller (@braddonite.bsky.social) at [email protected] for more information

Mentally ill patients dancing at a ball at Somerset County Asylum. Process
print after a lithograph by K. Drake, ca. 1850/1855.
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/xswz3swa

CFP: Sensation Fiction and the Health Humanities
A VPFA Study Day
Loughborough University, 27 March 2026

The Health Humanities and Victorian popular fiction intersect in revealing ways, offering insights into how 19th-century literature shaped and reflected contemporary understandings of health, illness, and the body. Popular narratives not only mirrored anxieties surrounding public health and medical progress but also contributed to shaping public perceptions of health and healing. Health Humanities approaches re-examine these texts to uncover how cultural narratives and literary representations influenced attitudes toward physical and mental well-being, gendered experiences of illness, and the ethics of care in an age of rapid scientific change.

Health Humanities is a particularly useful approach to sensation fiction because it illuminates the ways in which these emotionally charged, often morally ambiguous narratives explore and interrogate concepts of the body, illness, and mental health. Sensation fiction, with its focus on secrets, trauma, nervous disorders, and abnormal psychological states, frequently dramatizes the anxieties of Victorian society surrounding health, gender, and identity. By applying the lens of Health Humanities, scholars can uncover how these texts reflect and shape contemporary medical discourse. Interdisciplinary approaches also highlight how sensation fiction critiques institutional medicine, domestic care practices, and the pathologization of women’s experiences. Ultimately, Health Humanities allows us to see sensation fiction not just as entertainment, but as a culturally significant form that negotiates the meanings of illness, morality, and human vulnerability in a rapidly changing world.

20-minute papers are invited on any aspect of the health humanities and sensation fiction. Topics may include, but are not limited to the following:

• Madness, Hysteria, and the Sensation Heroine
• The Role of Doctors and Medical Authority in Se…

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Loughborough English @lboroenglish.bsky.social · 10d

📢📢📢 Calling all poetry readers: if you could spare a few minutes to help @casparwortpoet.bsky.social with his poetry PhD research, that would be excellent!

Caspar Wort @casparwortpoet.bsky.social · 10d

Do you like poetry?

Regardless of the answer I need your help!

As part of my doctoral research @lborouniversity.bsky.social @lboroenglish.bsky.social I am collecting responses to poetry.

Just click or tap here to start or scan the QR code: forms.office.com/e/cbXmyRCYnU

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Loughborough English @lboroenglish.bsky.social · 15d

It was a real pleasure welcoming English and Liberal Arts students to our department today. After a welcome from @justin-waring.bsky.social, @sadiseshiah.bsky.social, Barbara Cooke, Rachael Grew, and our English Committee, some of our academics shared their favourite text to teach! #EscapedAlone

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Loughborough English @lboroenglish.bsky.social · 22d

Fantastic to meet prospective students and their families and friends at our Open Day today. There was a real buzz and the sun was shining! ☀️

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Loughborough English @lboroenglish.bsky.social · 22d

We are very much looking forward to welcoming prospective students, friends and family to our Open Day today! Come and talk to us at the English stand, listen to our subject presentation, and join a taster seminar.

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Loughborough English @lboroenglish.bsky.social · 24d

If you're on LinkedIn, please follow our page: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/....
We've posted an update on @profsarahparker.bsky.social's 5-year project '100 Years of the Well of Loneliness', funded by the AHRC. PI is Prof Jana Funke and the other CIs are Dr Elizabeth English and Dr Hannah Roche

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Health Humanities Research Group @healthhumslboro.bsky.social · 26d

Love this idea! @lboroenglish.bsky.social students, did you know Ladybird books were originally printed and published in Loughborough? 🐞

Vanessa is the name of the Doctor! @hpsvanessa.bsky.social · 29d

has anyone done a #histmed or #histSTM study of changes to representations of health/medicine/science in the ladybird books?
On a small scale feels like an amazing ug diss project, or even something smaller than that with just a few books.

Helen Day @lbflyawayhome.bsky.social · 29d

Old Ladybird books updated.

‘Visiting days’ (1963) and ‘Visiting hours’ (1985).

Artists: John Berry
Martin Aitchison

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Loughborough English @lboroenglish.bsky.social · 26d

Indeed! @wvmierlo.bsky.social has particular interests in Ladybird books.

Health Humanities Research Group @healthhumslboro.bsky.social · 26d

Love this idea! @lboroenglish.bsky.social students, did you know Ladybird books were originally printed and published in Loughborough? 🐞

Vanessa is the name of the Doctor! @hpsvanessa.bsky.social · 29d

has anyone done a #histmed or #histSTM study of changes to representations of health/medicine/science in the ladybird books?
On a small scale feels like an amazing ug diss project, or even something smaller than that with just a few books.

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Loughborough English @lboroenglish.bsky.social · Sep 11

Two of our academics - @wvmierlo.bsky.social and Dr Barbara Cooke - will be speaking at the Centre for Book Cultures and Publishing (CBCP) Modernist Editing Symposium on 23 September. More details here: research.reading.ac.uk/centre-for-b...

CBCP Modernist Editing Symposium, 23 September 2025 - Centre for Book Cultures and Publishing

This symposium brings together leading scholars and practitioners in modernist textual criticism and scholarly editing. Organised by Dr Buxi Duan and Lawrence Jones at the Centre for Book Cultures and...

research.reading.ac.uk

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Loughborough English @lboroenglish.bsky.social · Sep 4

Our own Head of Department @sadiseshiah.bsky.social has been appointed as a member of the REF 2029 sub-panel for UoA 27: English Language and Literature 2029.ref.ac.uk/panels/main-...

Main Panel D – Arts and Humanities – REF 2029

2029.ref.ac.uk

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Loughborough English @lboroenglish.bsky.social · Sep 2

In his new article for @theconversation.com, our own Andrew Dix, Senior Lecturer in American Literature and Film, considers the new Netflix adaptation of Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club.

Stand by for George Orwell, Angela Carter, Helen Mirren, and plenty of lemon drizzle cake ...

The Thursday Murder Club: everything is eclipsed by the cakes in this sanitised Netflix adaptation

Sumptuous cakes provide ample distraction from the weak script.

theconversation.com

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Sarah Parker @profsarahparker.bsky.social · Aug 12

I'm delighted to be chairing the online launch of Alice Meynell's Selected Poems and Essays, in conversation with the editor Alex Wong and Laura Mulvey (yes that one!), Meynell's great-granddaughter - 3 Sept 2025, 7pm: www.carcanet.co.uk/events/selec...

Selected Poems and Essays by Alice Meynell: Carcanet Online Book Launch - Carcanet Press

Please join us to celebrate the launch of Selected Poems and Essays by Alice Meynell. The event will be hosted by Sarah Parker and feature readings and

www.carcanet.co.uk

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Loughborough English @lboroenglish.bsky.social · Aug 29

Our own Andrew Dix, Senior Lecturer in American Literature and Film, recently wrote for @theconversation.com on the new adaptation of Stephen King's The Life of Chuck: theconversation.com/the-life-of-...

The Life of Chuck: Stephen King adaptation celebrates the richness of ordinary life

Dance is one of many ways in which The Life of Chuck celebrates the ordinary.

theconversation.com

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Loughborough English @lboroenglish.bsky.social · Aug 23

Our BA programme lead, Barbara Cooke, has been finishing her book ('Love and Landscape: Iconic Meeting Places in Classic and Contemporary Literature' with Bodleian Library Publishing), and was able to draw on it for the Jane Austen 250 series for The Conversation theconversation.com/in-jane-aust...

In Jane Austen’s Persuasion, respite is a key ingredient for romance

Jane Austen’s novels work a romantic alchemy, and travel is their catalyst.

theconversation.com

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Loughborough English @lboroenglish.bsky.social · Aug 19

We are delighted to share the exciting news that the CFP for the @moderniststudies.bsky.social 2026 conference - next year called Weird Modernisms - jointly held with @modernistudies.bsky.social at @lborouniversity.bsky.social is now live! More info here: moderniststudies.org/conference/MSA2026/CFP/

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Loughborough English @lboroenglish.bsky.social · Aug 13

www.timeshighereducation.com/news/essenti...

New Prof of Public Humanities appointed by Birmingham City. Humanities degrees are 'essential as they help us define what it means to be human. Now is the time to remember what makes us human as we face AI advancement and other challenges.'

‘Essential’ humanities to be championed by author in new role

Professor of public humanities position for Birmingham City University’s Islam Issa comes amid pressure on humanities courses and threat of AI

www.timeshighereducation.com

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Loughborough English @lboroenglish.bsky.social · Aug 7

An English degree remains an excellent choice for HE study.

"The latest Data for English Degree Graduates shows comparable employment and wage outcomes to Business, Law and STEM subjects and higher wage growth over 3 years."

universityenglish.ac.uk/we-have-a-ne...

Updated infographic and new Facebook page!

universityenglish.ac.uk

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Sarah Parker @profsarahparker.bsky.social · Aug 7

Come and get Weird with us in Loughborough! Save the date for 1-4 July 2026 (also coincides with my birthday!) @lboroenglish.bsky.social @lborouniversity.bsky.social @modernistudies.bsky.social

Modernist Studies Association (MSA) @moderniststudies.bsky.social · Aug 7

In 2026, the MSA Conference will look a bit different-- weird, even! That's because we're having a joint conference with BAMS @modernistudies.bsky.social in Loughborough, UK from July 1- 4, 2026. The CFP will be out soon! But in the meantime, please save the date.

Tarot card image of the empress with a crown of stars. Text reads Weird Modernisms BAMS/ MSA 1- 4 July 2026 Loughborough University, UK

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Loughborough English @lboroenglish.bsky.social · Aug 7

Learn more about the opportunities for a place on our English courses through Clearing. Our phone line will be open from 8am BST on Thursday 14 August. Register your interest in receiving clearing notifications here:

www.lboro.ac.uk/clearing/sub...

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Loughborough English @lboroenglish.bsky.social · Aug 7

An English degree remains an excellent choice for HE study.

"The latest Data for English Degree Graduates shows comparable employment and wage outcomes to Business, Law and STEM subjects and higher wage growth over 3 years."

universityenglish.ac.uk/we-have-a-ne...

Updated infographic and new Facebook page!

universityenglish.ac.uk

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