Gillian Russell
@gearuss.bsky.social
Professor Emerita at the University of York, UK, living in Canberra, Australia. Author of The Ephemeral Eighteenth Century: Print, Sociability and the Cultures of Collecting (2020). Born and educated in Northern Ireland.
Congratulations James!
Out today! Thanks to everyone who has inspired and supported me over the 12 years I’ve been researching and writing this book. Published open access by @britishacademy.bsky.social and @livunipress.bsky.social so the ebook can be downloaded for free www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....
January 7, 2026 at 11:39 AM
Congratulations James!
Reposted by Gillian Russell
Thanks to @martindoyle.bsky.social and Mary Miniham @irishtimes.com for taking my piece on heavy coats and ragged people for today’s paper - with a shoutout for new @universitypress.cambridge.org book on #IrishRomanticism #speirgorm
January 3, 2026 at 7:21 PM
Thanks to @martindoyle.bsky.social and Mary Miniham @irishtimes.com for taking my piece on heavy coats and ragged people for today’s paper - with a shoutout for new @universitypress.cambridge.org book on #IrishRomanticism #speirgorm
Wow! Congratulations Sophie!
Christmas came early when this pleasingly chunky lad plopped through the letterbox this morning. So good to hold in my hand the proof of, well, the best part of a decade’s work, really. Hope @bsecs.bsky.social members enjoy reading about Mary & gang over a festive tipple.
bsky.app/profile/soph...
bsky.app/profile/soph...
December 21, 2025 at 12:50 AM
Wow! Congratulations Sophie!
Reposted by Gillian Russell
There is no credible evidence that the perpetrators of the Bondi terrorist attack had anything to do with recent protests www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
NSW will move to ban phrase ‘globalise the intifada’ in crackdown on ‘hateful’ rhetoric. Here’s what we know so far
NSW parliament will sit next week to consider legislation to limit protests and ban hate speech in response to the Bondi attack, Chris Minns says
www.theguardian.com
December 20, 2025 at 10:54 AM
There is no credible evidence that the perpetrators of the Bondi terrorist attack had anything to do with recent protests www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
Reposted by Gillian Russell
Summary of the news today
December 20, 2025 at 3:50 AM
Summary of the news today
Reposted by Gillian Russell
“The people who teach you to hate everyone now want to sell you something. The majority of Australians have the right to peacefully protest against Israel & its genocidal policies. Not all Jewish ppl support the actions of Israel. Religious extremism is evil. Hatred creates more hatred.”
#Auspol
#Auspol
December 18, 2025 at 12:25 AM
“The people who teach you to hate everyone now want to sell you something. The majority of Australians have the right to peacefully protest against Israel & its genocidal policies. Not all Jewish ppl support the actions of Israel. Religious extremism is evil. Hatred creates more hatred.”
#Auspol
#Auspol
Reposted by Gillian Russell
Resource announcement: 'Theatronomics: the business of theatre, 1732-1809'
The beta web resource from the Theatronomics project is now live, with a database of eighteenth-century financial records of the Covent Garden and Drury Lane theatres.
www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6235
The beta web resource from the Theatronomics project is now live, with a database of eighteenth-century financial records of the Covent Garden and Drury Lane theatres.
www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6235
Resource Announcement: ‘Theatronomics: the business of theatre, 1732-1809’ – BARS Blog
www.bars.ac.uk
December 8, 2025 at 10:48 PM
Resource announcement: 'Theatronomics: the business of theatre, 1732-1809'
The beta web resource from the Theatronomics project is now live, with a database of eighteenth-century financial records of the Covent Garden and Drury Lane theatres.
www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6235
The beta web resource from the Theatronomics project is now live, with a database of eighteenth-century financial records of the Covent Garden and Drury Lane theatres.
www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6235
Reposted by Gillian Russell
I'm giving a public talk at Universistät Konztanz's ZKF on Wednesday at 5:30pm. I'll be talking about my @researchireland.ie Imperial Minerals project, Illicit Diamond Buyers, Zama Zama, Koleka Putuma, William Kentridge, and more. You can join online! 👇
www.uni-konstanz.de/forschen/for...
www.uni-konstanz.de/forschen/for...
ZKF Public Talk: The Carceral and Geopower Logics of South Africa’s Mining Imaginary
www.uni-konstanz.de
December 8, 2025 at 10:28 AM
I'm giving a public talk at Universistät Konztanz's ZKF on Wednesday at 5:30pm. I'll be talking about my @researchireland.ie Imperial Minerals project, Illicit Diamond Buyers, Zama Zama, Koleka Putuma, William Kentridge, and more. You can join online! 👇
www.uni-konstanz.de/forschen/for...
www.uni-konstanz.de/forschen/for...
Reposted by Gillian Russell
🚨 Help our State Library!
Executives are trying to cut 11 permanent librarian positions, meaning 10 frontline librarians would remain to run Australia's busiest library.
They are proposing to outsource the library's critical information technology team.
www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/ha...
Executives are trying to cut 11 permanent librarian positions, meaning 10 frontline librarians would remain to run Australia's busiest library.
They are proposing to outsource the library's critical information technology team.
www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/ha...
Hands off our State Library!
Library workers deliver essential services to 2.8 million people in our community each year. They run information services, connect people online, hold free workshops, develop community connections an...
www.megaphone.org.au
December 1, 2025 at 4:01 AM
🚨 Help our State Library!
Executives are trying to cut 11 permanent librarian positions, meaning 10 frontline librarians would remain to run Australia's busiest library.
They are proposing to outsource the library's critical information technology team.
www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/ha...
Executives are trying to cut 11 permanent librarian positions, meaning 10 frontline librarians would remain to run Australia's busiest library.
They are proposing to outsource the library's critical information technology team.
www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/ha...
Reposted by Gillian Russell
Interesting article on the Royal Literary Fund, drawing on archival materials I catalogued at the British Library (as well as later papers still held at the Fund's offices): www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n....
From Dylan Thomas’ shopping list to a note from Sylvia Plath’s doctor: newly uncovered case files reveal the hidden lives of famous writers
Exclusive: Hardship grant applications to the Royal Literary Fund, including unseen letters by Doris Lessing and a note from James Joyce saying that he ‘gets nothing in the way of royalties’, show aut...
www.theguardian.com
November 29, 2025 at 1:07 AM
Interesting article on the Royal Literary Fund, drawing on archival materials I catalogued at the British Library (as well as later papers still held at the Fund's offices): www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n....
Congratulations Nikki for a wonderful conference!
Very grateful for the lovely gifts from my RSAA colleagues after we finished up our conference in Wellington. I feel so lucky to have such an amazing group of Romanticists around me in our region.
Looking forward to our next conference in Canberra in 2027!
Looking forward to our next conference in Canberra in 2027!
November 29, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Congratulations Nikki for a wonderful conference!
Reposted by Gillian Russell
New, and very interesting, #OpenAccess article on Early English Books Online:
Opening the black box of EEBO
academic.oup.com/dsh/advance-...
#History 🗃️
Opening the black box of EEBO
academic.oup.com/dsh/advance-...
#History 🗃️
Opening the black box of EEBO
Abstract. Digital archives that cover extended historical periods can create a misleading impression of comprehensiveness while in truth providing access t
academic.oup.com
November 19, 2025 at 10:16 AM
New, and very interesting, #OpenAccess article on Early English Books Online:
Opening the black box of EEBO
academic.oup.com/dsh/advance-...
#History 🗃️
Opening the black box of EEBO
academic.oup.com/dsh/advance-...
#History 🗃️
Reposted by Gillian Russell
I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
The British library is in crisis: why does nobody care?
The widespread indifference to the British Library's crippling cyberattack demonstrates a perilous failure to value the knowledge infrastructure vital for national prosperity
www.cityam.com
November 18, 2025 at 6:27 AM
I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
Reposted by Gillian Russell
I'm told this will be out in early to mid December. Please forgive coming episodes of shameless self-promotion and make a note of launch dates in your diaries!
UCC 19 February
Boston College 11 March
NYU Glucksman House 12 March
Royal Irish Academy 25 March
www.cambridge.org/ie/universit...
UCC 19 February
Boston College 11 March
NYU Glucksman House 12 March
Royal Irish Academy 25 March
www.cambridge.org/ie/universit...
Irish Romanticism | Cambridge University Press & Assessment
www.cambridge.org
November 12, 2025 at 6:22 PM
I'm told this will be out in early to mid December. Please forgive coming episodes of shameless self-promotion and make a note of launch dates in your diaries!
UCC 19 February
Boston College 11 March
NYU Glucksman House 12 March
Royal Irish Academy 25 March
www.cambridge.org/ie/universit...
UCC 19 February
Boston College 11 March
NYU Glucksman House 12 March
Royal Irish Academy 25 March
www.cambridge.org/ie/universit...
Reposted by Gillian Russell
Come visit our excellent Archives & Special Collections! Especially strong in eighteenth-century and Romantic-period books due to the copyright privilege. Awards cover costs up to £2500.
📣Our UofG Library Visiting Research Fellowships are now open for applications!
We’re delighted to invite scholars from across the globe to apply to work with our internationally significant collections.
Apply at: www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li...
📆Closing date: 5 January 2026
#UofGLibraryFellows
We’re delighted to invite scholars from across the globe to apply to work with our internationally significant collections.
Apply at: www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li...
📆Closing date: 5 January 2026
#UofGLibraryFellows
November 13, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Come visit our excellent Archives & Special Collections! Especially strong in eighteenth-century and Romantic-period books due to the copyright privilege. Awards cover costs up to £2500.
Looking forward to this Nikki -- thanks for going through organising hell for us!
I find conference organising super stressful, but it is a chance to imagine the field in ways that interest you.
I'm very proud of the programme we have for our joint Romantic Studies Association of Australasia / David Nichol Smith seminar - you can see it here www.wgtn.ac.nz/fhss/about/e...
I'm very proud of the programme we have for our joint Romantic Studies Association of Australasia / David Nichol Smith seminar - you can see it here www.wgtn.ac.nz/fhss/about/e...
November 9, 2025 at 5:04 AM
Looking forward to this Nikki -- thanks for going through organising hell for us!
Reposted by Gillian Russell
This is quite brilliantly written. A far better piece of journalism than anything you will find in the NYT
I havent read such a banger of an essay in a very long time. This is so well-written!
Maybe Don’t Talk to the New York Times About Zohran Mamdani
It’s remarkable, the people you’ll hear from. Teach for even a little while at an expensive institution—the term they tend to prefer is “elite”—and odds are that eventually someone who was a studen…
lithub.com
November 8, 2025 at 11:44 PM
This is quite brilliantly written. A far better piece of journalism than anything you will find in the NYT
Many congratulations Nikki!
This essay began its life a long time ago, in conversation with an @elccprogramme.bsky.social Summer Scholar, Tuioleloto Laura Toailoa. It’s taken years to bring some of that early thinking to fruition.
Thank you so much to the Defoe Society for this award
Thank you so much to the Defoe Society for this award
Congratulations to Nikki Hessell, whose essay "Robinson Crusoe as a Transpacific Novel: Hospitality, Recognition, Translation," has been selected as the winner of this year's Maximillian E. Novak Essay Prize. Abstract below:
link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...
#defoe #danieldefoe #transpacific #novel
link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...
#defoe #danieldefoe #transpacific #novel
October 30, 2025 at 10:42 AM
Many congratulations Nikki!
Reposted by Gillian Russell
Thanks to @reaktionbooks.bsky.social for making my history of protest in England's public spaces into a beautiful, well produced book with a fab cover.
Buy it here reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/contest...
Buy it here reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/contest...
October 25, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Thanks to @reaktionbooks.bsky.social for making my history of protest in England's public spaces into a beautiful, well produced book with a fab cover.
Buy it here reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/contest...
Buy it here reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/contest...
Reposted by Gillian Russell
The ANU says it's in crisis. Does this look like a financial crisis to you?
October 2, 2025 at 12:51 AM
The ANU says it's in crisis. Does this look like a financial crisis to you?
Reposted by Gillian Russell
Superb news showcasing the wonder of medical science.
Huntingdon's is a brutal terminal disease.
This new gene therapy slows the disease's advance by 75%.
One medically retired patient has now returned to work.
Others, expected to need wheelchairs, are walking.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Huntingdon's is a brutal terminal disease.
This new gene therapy slows the disease's advance by 75%.
One medically retired patient has now returned to work.
Others, expected to need wheelchairs, are walking.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time
One of the most devastating diseases finally has a treatment that can slow its progression and transform lives, tearful doctors tell BBC.
www.bbc.co.uk
September 24, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Superb news showcasing the wonder of medical science.
Huntingdon's is a brutal terminal disease.
This new gene therapy slows the disease's advance by 75%.
One medically retired patient has now returned to work.
Others, expected to need wheelchairs, are walking.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Huntingdon's is a brutal terminal disease.
This new gene therapy slows the disease's advance by 75%.
One medically retired patient has now returned to work.
Others, expected to need wheelchairs, are walking.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Gillian Russell
1/At Macquarie Uni we are losing 50% of our units in my faculty. This is on top of cuts in 2020. We estimate by next year my faculty will be teaching 80% fewer subjects than pre Covid. Disciplines being cut do not have declining enrolments. @jennaprice.bsky.social @michaelwestbiz.bsky.social
September 20, 2025 at 1:10 AM
1/At Macquarie Uni we are losing 50% of our units in my faculty. This is on top of cuts in 2020. We estimate by next year my faculty will be teaching 80% fewer subjects than pre Covid. Disciplines being cut do not have declining enrolments. @jennaprice.bsky.social @michaelwestbiz.bsky.social
Reposted by Gillian Russell
If you’re on academia dot edu, let me suggest that you strongly consider deleting your account.
September 17, 2025 at 7:09 PM
If you’re on academia dot edu, let me suggest that you strongly consider deleting your account.
Reposted by Gillian Russell
You'll be hearing a lot, justifiably, about Redford's classic films today, but don't sleep on his incredible wordless performance in the gripping All Is Lost
All is Lost Official Trailer
YouTube video by Universal Pictures UK
www.youtube.com
September 16, 2025 at 1:58 PM
You'll be hearing a lot, justifiably, about Redford's classic films today, but don't sleep on his incredible wordless performance in the gripping All Is Lost