Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Dr Jen Baker

@jendeavour.bsky.social

1.3K followers 680 following 530 posts

Lecturer in c19th and c20th Literature. #Gothic #DeathStudies #Childhood Assoc Editor @ Gothic Studies

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Dr Jen Baker @jendeavour.bsky.social · Aug 6

Join me online with the Viktor Wynd museum on 26th October, 8pm (GMT) for a talk on "Spectral Embodiments: Manifesting and Visualising the Ghost Child" 👻🖤

LOADS of other amazing talks available throughout the year too; check out The Last Tuesday Society!

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/manifestin...

Manifesting and Visualising the Ghost Child - Dr Jen Baker - Zoom

This talk examines the transformation of the ghost-child figure from oral folklore and legends to their literary incarnations in culture

www.eventbrite.co.uk

1 19 47

Dr Jen Baker @jendeavour.bsky.social · 11h

Honestly, I could trawl out real data of the "worth" (employability / economic, since that's all they care about) of an English (and similar) degree(s), but I know the value goes *way* beyond their bullshit metrics.
But if anyone else wants a starter pack: universityenglish.ac.uk/the-value-of...

The Value of English

universityenglish.ac.uk

1 4

Dr Jen Baker @jendeavour.bsky.social · 11h

Ha ha! From the party who spelt "Britain" incorrectly on their campaign products 🤣🖕🖕🖕

Martin Paul Eve @eve.gd · 12h

This makes me so angry. These people view all life as training for lifelong servitude/work. There's no room for interest, enjoyment, and culture in their bleak vision of education. At least she'll never be in power to see it through. Though Reform are probably worse.

Badenoch: Curb students taking "rip-off" degrees such as English. The performing arts, sociology and anthropology are among the subjects the Conservatives would like to cut

2 9

Dr Jen Baker @jendeavour.bsky.social · 2d

Returning to work on the monograph after a (fairly significant) hiatus and various bouts of random new discoveries and research tangents:

a woman is making a funny face with her mouth wide open

ALT: a woman is making a funny face with her mouth wide open

media.tenor.com

Dr Jen Baker @jendeavour.bsky.social · 2d

🖤🖤

it is a silhouette of a black cat sitting down .

ALT: it is a silhouette of a black cat sitting down .

media.tenor.com

Dr Jen Baker @jendeavour.bsky.social · 2d

All of them!

1 1

Reposted by Dr Jen Baker

SuzyQ @suzyqfit4u.bsky.social · Nov 17

Family includes everyone! ❤️

800 22K 33K

Reposted by Dr Jen Baker

endeeekay.bsky.social @endeeekay.bsky.social · 2d

Loved the production of Troilus & Cressida at The Globe, and was pleased to have contributed an essay to the programme!

programme for production of Troilus & Cressida

essay in the programme on the play in the context of the Global Renaissance

1 3

Reposted by Dr Jen Baker

Sarah C E Ross @sarahceross.bsky.social · 3d

Job alert! University of Auckland, lectureship in English, in the long 19th century:

jobs.smartrecruiters.com/TheUniversit...

Lecturer - English

Company Description: Waipapa Taumata Rau | The University of AucklandThe University of Auckland is New Zealand’s pre-eminent University, with a turnover of $1.1bn, including research revenue of over $...

jobs.smartrecruiters.com

27 20

Dr Jen Baker @jendeavour.bsky.social · 3d

That cat's so life-like! 😉🖤

1 1

Dr Jen Baker @jendeavour.bsky.social · 3d

Catching up with #Strictly and my long-standing girl crush on Elizabeth Corday / River Song / Alex Kingston fully reaffirmed 😍

a woman with curly hair is smiling in front of a red light .

ALT: a woman with curly hair is smiling in front of a red light .

media.tenor.com

1 3

Dr Jen Baker @jendeavour.bsky.social · 3d

Mwahahaaaaaaaaa 🤪🤪🤪

Dr Jen Baker @jendeavour.bsky.social · 3d

Made a break through!

And now doing what I have never done before in my years of jigsawing- I have divided the remaining pieces into *shape* categories rather than colour/image 😱🤯😉

Reposted by Dr Jen Baker

Scarlett Butchers @scarlettbutchers1.bsky.social · 3d

Picked up these beauties by @icysedgwick.bsky.social after the Fantastic Folklore event on Friday. The TBR list is getting unreasonable 😅

1 2 6

Dr Jen Baker @jendeavour.bsky.social · 3d

Loving the BBC Radio 2 cast episode of #TheWeakestLink 🤣🤣
Comedy Gold.
#Duckette

a man with a beard is standing on a stage with a microphone .

ALT: a man with a beard is standing on a stage with a microphone .

media.tenor.com

Dr Jen Baker @jendeavour.bsky.social · 4d

Willow has decided to help with the jigsaw problem by lying on a load of the stray pieces so I don't have to see them 🙄

Dr Jen Baker @jendeavour.bsky.social · 4d

Having only really known the bigger Zeppelin hits, I was very surprised at all the LoTR references when "Ramble On" was played on the radio recently and I accidentally found myself listening to the lyrics 🤣
"Did he just reference Gollum?!"

a close up of a gollum from the lord of the rings with big blue eyes and a beard .

ALT: a close up of a gollum from the lord of the rings with big blue eyes and a beard .

media.tenor.com

Dr Jen Baker @jendeavour.bsky.social · 4d

OMG THANK YOU. I am not an expert on him by any means but we did dissect one of his anthologies (especially the introduction) in my tales of terror class to think about the variations in "approaches" to anthologising...

1 2

Dr Jen Baker @jendeavour.bsky.social · 4d

Trapped in jigsaw purgatory.

Was all fun and games until I got to the ceiling and now ready to throw it across the room 😁

Dr Jen Baker @jendeavour.bsky.social · 4d

New reads 🖤
#Spooktober

Photo of Noah Angell's "Ghosts of the British Museum" and E. Jay Gilbert's "Haunted: The Ghost Stories and folklore of the British Isles" on a grey halloween pumpkins blanket

Dr Jen Baker @jendeavour.bsky.social · 4d

😮

waltydunlop @waltydunlop.bsky.social · 4d

Vincent Price and Patricia Routledge, in rehearsal for 1968's "Darling of the Day". Some photos just leave you going "Awwwww." This is one of them.

Vincent Price and Patricia Routledge, rehearsing in 1968. Vincent stans with one arm round Patricia, the other raised. Both are in mid-song.

1 8

Dr Jen Baker @jendeavour.bsky.social · 5d

Yes! Sorry, was waiting until I finished them all to comment. Hers was definitely my favourite, probably followed by the Le Fanu-ish one by Hurley (Mr Lanyard's Last Case) but some of the others...hmmm

1 1

Reposted by Dr Jen Baker

Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · 6d

🚨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…

1 17 21

Dr Jen Baker @jendeavour.bsky.social · 6d

One of my faves ❤️ and it's the illustration from the original periodical version in 1916 which is nice!

1 1

Reposted by Dr Jen Baker

BLPublishing @blpublishing.bsky.social · 6d

🌊 Dive into myths and folklore of the sea. Serpent, Siren, Maelstrom & Myth explores ancient stories from Polynesia to Scandinavia, alongside stunning British Library illustrations.

Out now in paperback shop.bl.uk/products/ser....

Serpent, Siren, Maelstrom & Myth: Sea Stories & Folktales from around the World, against a stormy sea background.

2 22

Dr Jen Baker @jendeavour.bsky.social · 6d

Oh no, those faces on yours are *very* striking!

1 1