Sarah Bull
@sarahebull.bsky.social
English professor, book historian. 19th C, mainly. Interested in histories of medicine, sexuality, and print culture, text reuse, IP, letterpress, DH/computational approaches
Book: Selling Sexual Knowledge (CUP, 2025). Working on MANUFACTURING LITERATURE
Book: Selling Sexual Knowledge (CUP, 2025). Working on MANUFACTURING LITERATURE
Pinned
Sarah Bull
@sarahebull.bsky.social
· Jun 27
The open access version of Selling Sexual Knowledge is out (hardcopies coming shortly)! Reposting this little thread from December where I take a break from chowing down on holiday treats to talk a little about what it's actually about and why I wrote it.
Reposted by Sarah Bull
It's still useful that Gemini can incorporate this knowledge. But this is also why open models whose data you can check for train-test contamination are important. allenai.org/olmo
Olmo from Ai2
Our fully open language model and complete model flow.
allenai.org
November 26, 2025 at 3:15 PM
It's still useful that Gemini can incorporate this knowledge. But this is also why open models whose data you can check for train-test contamination are important. allenai.org/olmo
Reposted by Sarah Bull
Dan's post is great, as usual! It's exciting to move to full-page models that allow us to engage with the text and avoid mucking around with image processing. But we don't need to pronounce a eulogy on paleographers yet. The War Department and Jane Austen examples are likely known to the LM. 1/
New issue of my newsletter: "The Writing Is on the Wall for Handwriting Recognition" — One of the hardest problems in digital humanities has finally been solved, and it's a good use of AI newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...
The Writing Is on the Wall for Handwriting Recognition
One of the hardest problems in digital humanities has finally been solved
newsletter.dancohen.org
November 26, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Dan's post is great, as usual! It's exciting to move to full-page models that allow us to engage with the text and avoid mucking around with image processing. But we don't need to pronounce a eulogy on paleographers yet. The War Department and Jane Austen examples are likely known to the LM. 1/
Reposted by Sarah Bull
one or two best essays on SINNERS?
(bonus: an academic article - on genre or film industry or black cultural production or - that helps think about the movie even though not analyzing the movie?)
(bonus: an academic article - on genre or film industry or black cultural production or - that helps think about the movie even though not analyzing the movie?)
November 26, 2025 at 1:02 PM
one or two best essays on SINNERS?
(bonus: an academic article - on genre or film industry or black cultural production or - that helps think about the movie even though not analyzing the movie?)
(bonus: an academic article - on genre or film industry or black cultural production or - that helps think about the movie even though not analyzing the movie?)
Reposted by Sarah Bull
"“Middle Class”- roughly 45% of the country—is actually the Working Poor. These are the families earning enough to lose their benefits but not enough to pay for childcare and rent. They are the ones trapped in the Valley of Death."
This is an insightful but deeply upsetting article about why everyone in the US feels poor, and why the current political situation emerges as a direct result.
www.yesigiveafig.com/p/part-1-my-...
www.yesigiveafig.com/p/part-1-my-...
Part 1: My Life Is a Lie
How a Broken Benchmark Quietly Broke America
www.yesigiveafig.com
November 26, 2025 at 11:29 AM
"“Middle Class”- roughly 45% of the country—is actually the Working Poor. These are the families earning enough to lose their benefits but not enough to pay for childcare and rent. They are the ones trapped in the Valley of Death."
Reposted by Sarah Bull
I meant to grade papers today, I swear I did, but then I got distracted by a group of Harvard Divinity School students who spent 1834 buying pornography and then turning in the people who sold it to them. One of them, Frederick W. Holland, also ended up with a copy of Walker's Appeal around then 🗃️
November 26, 2025 at 1:40 AM
I meant to grade papers today, I swear I did, but then I got distracted by a group of Harvard Divinity School students who spent 1834 buying pornography and then turning in the people who sold it to them. One of them, Frederick W. Holland, also ended up with a copy of Walker's Appeal around then 🗃️
Still reflecting on this. @ryancordell.org 's "Taking Dirty OCR Seriously" was assigned reading in one of my classes recently, and while artifacts like the one in the title are produced less and less, we all agreed that the argument that these transcriptions are +
muse.jhu.edu/article/674968
muse.jhu.edu/article/674968
November 26, 2025 at 5:15 AM
Still reflecting on this. @ryancordell.org 's "Taking Dirty OCR Seriously" was assigned reading in one of my classes recently, and while artifacts like the one in the title are produced less and less, we all agreed that the argument that these transcriptions are +
muse.jhu.edu/article/674968
muse.jhu.edu/article/674968
Reposted by Sarah Bull
Excellent job alert!!!
🚨We're hiring! A tenure track position at McGill University in the area of #bioethics and / or philosophy of science, with a special focus on the ethics of medical technologies. Please share widely. #philsky #ethics #philsci philjobs.org/job/show/30402
Assistant Professor (Tenure Track), Department of Equity, Ethics, and Policy and Department of Philosophy, McGill University
- PhilJobs:JFP
Assistant Professor (Tenure Track), Department of Equity...
An international database of jobs for philosophers
philjobs.org
November 26, 2025 at 2:46 AM
Excellent job alert!!!
It was a remarkable feeling, working on a recent project, to have access to software that transcribed the marginalia as well as the printed text.
Nearly-perfect printed and handwritten text recognition is the most consequential technical contribution to the study of human culture of the last fifteen years, and it's not even close.
It fundamentally changes our (both lay and expert) relationship with the written past.
It fundamentally changes our (both lay and expert) relationship with the written past.
New issue of my newsletter: "The Writing Is on the Wall for Handwriting Recognition" — One of the hardest problems in digital humanities has finally been solved, and it's a good use of AI newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...
November 25, 2025 at 7:19 PM
It was a remarkable feeling, working on a recent project, to have access to software that transcribed the marginalia as well as the printed text.
Reposted by Sarah Bull
Nearly-perfect printed and handwritten text recognition is the most consequential technical contribution to the study of human culture of the last fifteen years, and it's not even close.
It fundamentally changes our (both lay and expert) relationship with the written past.
It fundamentally changes our (both lay and expert) relationship with the written past.
New issue of my newsletter: "The Writing Is on the Wall for Handwriting Recognition" — One of the hardest problems in digital humanities has finally been solved, and it's a good use of AI newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...
The Writing Is on the Wall for Handwriting Recognition
One of the hardest problems in digital humanities has finally been solved
newsletter.dancohen.org
November 25, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Nearly-perfect printed and handwritten text recognition is the most consequential technical contribution to the study of human culture of the last fifteen years, and it's not even close.
It fundamentally changes our (both lay and expert) relationship with the written past.
It fundamentally changes our (both lay and expert) relationship with the written past.
Reposted by Sarah Bull
Question for data visualization experts: is there a simple way to create a visualization that looks like a sphere? I have a vision for a diagram, but unsure of how to technically achieve it. There would only be words appearing on the sphere, no numerical data. Please DM if you might be able to help!
November 25, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Question for data visualization experts: is there a simple way to create a visualization that looks like a sphere? I have a vision for a diagram, but unsure of how to technically achieve it. There would only be words appearing on the sphere, no numerical data. Please DM if you might be able to help!
Reposted by Sarah Bull
Anyone else have "shop worms"? Like earworms, but it's bits of vintage clothing you didn't or couldn't buy at the time but which stick with you for years, even decades? And they'll pop back in your brain, you'll search again, and still, they elude?
November 25, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Anyone else have "shop worms"? Like earworms, but it's bits of vintage clothing you didn't or couldn't buy at the time but which stick with you for years, even decades? And they'll pop back in your brain, you'll search again, and still, they elude?
Reposted by Sarah Bull
Have you recently published a book history, publishing, or otherwise bookish book and want to have it reviewed?
Consider SHARP News!
Submit your book to be considered for review in SHARP News at this link: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
#BookHistory #BookReview
Consider SHARP News!
Submit your book to be considered for review in SHARP News at this link: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
#BookHistory #BookReview
Suggest a Book for Review in SHARP News
If there's a book you think should be reviewed in SHARP News, please provide the details below.
docs.google.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Have you recently published a book history, publishing, or otherwise bookish book and want to have it reviewed?
Consider SHARP News!
Submit your book to be considered for review in SHARP News at this link: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
#BookHistory #BookReview
Consider SHARP News!
Submit your book to be considered for review in SHARP News at this link: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
#BookHistory #BookReview
Reposted by Sarah Bull
Thackeray trying his absolutely damnedest to make me hate Becky Sharp and failing is why I love this book so much.
I don't ever agree with that "there must be someone to root for/a likeable character" shit (I love Wuthering Heights) but damn, everyone in this book is highly unpleasant. Or rather the author is, since he makes them so, despite his insistence on truth and reportage #vanityfair
November 25, 2025 at 2:37 AM
Thackeray trying his absolutely damnedest to make me hate Becky Sharp and failing is why I love this book so much.
Reposted by Sarah Bull
I love this interview and the parallels between what he discovered as a historian making a thing and realizing all the little decisions a weaver makes in the process, and all the many things DH staff know about doing projects that just don't get written into the record of scholarship. #DHmakes
An interview with a historian who set out to weave a textile of the type that would have been sold to plantations for use by enslaved people, using period equipment.
www.publicbooks.org/cloth-and-co...
www.publicbooks.org/cloth-and-co...
Cloth and Complicity: Seth Rockman on Plantations, Textiles, and the Art of Weaving - Public Books
“But I had found a set of instructions in the archives of one of New England's leading manufacturers of low-end woollen cloth for enslaved wearers.”
www.publicbooks.org
November 22, 2025 at 3:58 AM
I love this interview and the parallels between what he discovered as a historian making a thing and realizing all the little decisions a weaver makes in the process, and all the many things DH staff know about doing projects that just don't get written into the record of scholarship. #DHmakes
Reposted by Sarah Bull
BLUE HUMANITIES MOTHERFUCKERS!
[reads job ad]
Oh, I see
[reads job ad]
Oh, I see
November 21, 2025 at 5:58 PM
BLUE HUMANITIES MOTHERFUCKERS!
[reads job ad]
Oh, I see
[reads job ad]
Oh, I see
I would really love to see word limits (especially for articles, where policies tend it be stricter than for books) *not* include notes. I want your notes on every little detail!* I want to give you notes on every little detail!
*I spent hours this week trying to figure out the source for a +
*I spent hours this week trying to figure out the source for a +
November 21, 2025 at 3:03 PM
I would really love to see word limits (especially for articles, where policies tend it be stricter than for books) *not* include notes. I want your notes on every little detail!* I want to give you notes on every little detail!
*I spent hours this week trying to figure out the source for a +
*I spent hours this week trying to figure out the source for a +
Reposted by Sarah Bull
MajinBook is a badly-needed catalog for shadow libraries. It provides metadata (e.g., date of first publication, popularity on Goodreads) for over half a million English-language books. arxiv.org/abs/2511.11412 +
MajinBook: An open catalogue of digital world literature with likes
This data paper introduces MajinBook, an open catalogue designed to facilitate the use of shadow libraries--such as Library Genesis and Z-Library--for computational social science and cultural analyti...
arxiv.org
November 21, 2025 at 2:24 PM
MajinBook is a badly-needed catalog for shadow libraries. It provides metadata (e.g., date of first publication, popularity on Goodreads) for over half a million English-language books. arxiv.org/abs/2511.11412 +
Reposted by Sarah Bull
Lorraine Daston can take any topic and make it profound and exciting. Even insurance. This was a wonderful lecture
How much risk is too much for the world’s top insurers?
Did you miss Lorraine Daston’s lecture in September on how the insurance industry confronts catastrophic risk?
👀You can watch the full recording on our YouTube channel: youtu.be/BEqrapJURxI?...
Did you miss Lorraine Daston’s lecture in September on how the insurance industry confronts catastrophic risk?
👀You can watch the full recording on our YouTube channel: youtu.be/BEqrapJURxI?...
November 21, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Lorraine Daston can take any topic and make it profound and exciting. Even insurance. This was a wonderful lecture
Reposted by Sarah Bull
Open specialty. Ability to teach central topics at u/g and p/g level in ethics is essential. Also desirable, e.g. Political Philosophy, History of Philosophy (including post-Kantian Philosophy up to Nietzsche), Aesthetics, Epistemology, Philosophy of Mind. Closing date Dec 21 2025 #philsky #philjob
Assistant Professor in Philosophy
The Faculty of Philosophy is seeking to appoint an Assistant Professor in Philosophy with effect from 1 September 2026. This post requires teaching expertise at a level that is at the forefront of
www.cam.ac.uk
November 20, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Reposted by Sarah Bull
Y’all, I think we did it
we found the most pathetic document in human history
I truly don’t think it could be surpassed
we found the most pathetic document in human history
I truly don’t think it could be surpassed
*laughs in historian* “… ranks among the 10 minds in history, rivalling polymaths like da Vinci or Newton…”
November 20, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Y’all, I think we did it
we found the most pathetic document in human history
I truly don’t think it could be surpassed
we found the most pathetic document in human history
I truly don’t think it could be surpassed
Reposted by Sarah Bull
I’m reminded of how, thirty odd years ago, I applied for AHRC funding for a project on science and culture in nineteenth century Ireland. The reviewers were unanimous that there was nothing there to study. Good to see that times have changed!
Fabulous PhD opportunity at Queen's University Belfast and Armagh Observatory:
Observing the Heavens from the 'Periphery': Astronomy in Ireland 1640-1830
www.qub.ac.uk/courses/post... Deadline 13 Jan #histSTM #histastro
Observing the Heavens from the 'Periphery': Astronomy in Ireland 1640-1830
www.qub.ac.uk/courses/post... Deadline 13 Jan #histSTM #histastro
November 20, 2025 at 1:16 PM
I’m reminded of how, thirty odd years ago, I applied for AHRC funding for a project on science and culture in nineteenth century Ireland. The reviewers were unanimous that there was nothing there to study. Good to see that times have changed!
Reposted by Sarah Bull
Just gave a talk to the English Teachers’ Association of Denmark on recent fantasy literature, and this is the stack of books I brought with me! It was the loveliest audience 💕
November 20, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Just gave a talk to the English Teachers’ Association of Denmark on recent fantasy literature, and this is the stack of books I brought with me! It was the loveliest audience 💕
Reposted by Sarah Bull
Happening today in a few hours!
Amsterdam friends, I am talking about Jameson, pipelining infrastructures, graphical rendering, and supply chain ecologies tomorrow at 1700 at the University of Amsterdam. www.uva.nl/en/shared-co...
Notes on the Infrastructural Unconscious: Computers, Pipelines, and Material Metaphors
Why does our media infrastructure today run on pipelines, both real (oil and gas) and symbolic (instruction, data, rendering)? This guest lecture by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal focuses on the emergence, pr...
www.uva.nl
November 20, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Happening today in a few hours!
Reposted by Sarah Bull
Post-doc applications for next year's seminar on "Translation" at Rutgers' Center for Cultural Analysis are "live"! The seminar will be co-ed by Preetha Mani and Jeff Lawrence. Fellow academics: let your early-career colleagues, students, and former students know! jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/263...
November 19, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Post-doc applications for next year's seminar on "Translation" at Rutgers' Center for Cultural Analysis are "live"! The seminar will be co-ed by Preetha Mani and Jeff Lawrence. Fellow academics: let your early-career colleagues, students, and former students know! jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/263...
Reposted by Sarah Bull
Now that our edition of Ursula K. Le Guin's "A Rant About 'Technology'" is (finally!) printed, bound, packed, & with campus mail, on its way to folks, we’re making approximately 60 of the internal poster available separately
If you’d like to claim one see the order form at forms.gle/BKJQWSmcnuq8...
If you’d like to claim one see the order form at forms.gle/BKJQWSmcnuq8...
November 12, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Now that our edition of Ursula K. Le Guin's "A Rant About 'Technology'" is (finally!) printed, bound, packed, & with campus mail, on its way to folks, we’re making approximately 60 of the internal poster available separately
If you’d like to claim one see the order form at forms.gle/BKJQWSmcnuq8...
If you’d like to claim one see the order form at forms.gle/BKJQWSmcnuq8...