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🜲 James @jamesskeets.blacksky.app · 12d

Through her creative platform, Saint Heron, Solange has launched The Saint Heron Library, a digital archive dedicated to making rare and out-of-print works by Black authors, poets, and artists accessible to all.

🔗 library.saintheron.com

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Modernist Studies Association (MSA) @moderniststudies.bsky.social · Aug 19

Oddballs unite for a Euro summer!

Jess Masters @jessmasters.bsky.social · Aug 19

The CFP for next year's joint MSA/BAMS conference in Loughborough, UK is out! As a longtime oddball, am thrilled for a Euro summer, 'Weird Modernisms'-style

@moderniststudies.bsky.social @modernistudies.bsky.social

Noreen Masud @noreenmasud.bsky.social · Aug 18

pls RT, modernists - CFP now out for 'Weird Modernisms', the collaborative conference between @modernistudies.bsky.social and @moderniststudies.bsky.social !

July 2026, Loughborough University.

www.moderniststudies.org/conference/M...

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Jess Masters @jessmasters.bsky.social · Aug 19

The CFP for next year's joint MSA/BAMS conference in Loughborough, UK is out! As a longtime oddball, am thrilled for a Euro summer, 'Weird Modernisms'-style

@moderniststudies.bsky.social @modernistudies.bsky.social

Noreen Masud @noreenmasud.bsky.social · Aug 18

pls RT, modernists - CFP now out for 'Weird Modernisms', the collaborative conference between @modernistudies.bsky.social and @moderniststudies.bsky.social !

July 2026, Loughborough University.

www.moderniststudies.org/conference/M...

Image of 'The Empress' by Pamela Coleman Smith - figure with long hair, crown of stars, holding sceptre-like object. Two trees (pines?) made up of dots on right-hand side. Text: Weird Modernisms, BAMS/MSA 26, 1-4 July 2026, Loughborough University, UK

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Karen Weingarten @kweingarten.bsky.social · Jul 27

This graduate mentoring program designed by @jessmasters.bsky.social is a new MSA initiative, and I wish existed when I was a grad student. Pass it along to any graduate students working in modernism or modernist-adjacent fields, like the Harlem Renaissance, 20th-century studies, etc.

Modernist Studies Association (MSA) @moderniststudies.bsky.social · Jul 27

Finally, the MSA Board is excited to announce a new graduate mentoring program! Graduate student MSA members have the opportunity to be paired with a senior faculty member for one-on-one mentoring sessions. More info can be found when you register for the conference. @jessmasters.bsky.social

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Modernist Studies Association (MSA) @moderniststudies.bsky.social · Jul 27

Finally, the MSA Board is excited to announce a new graduate mentoring program! Graduate student MSA members have the opportunity to be paired with a senior faculty member for one-on-one mentoring sessions. More info can be found when you register for the conference. @jessmasters.bsky.social

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Andrea Kaston Tange @aktange.bsky.social · Jul 16

Here you go! I'll write some new ones for this semester too. They loved them. The "read without your phone or screens in the room" was a revelation, and many of them decided to keep doing it. They had NO IDEA (& were horrified) how often they interrupt themselves to look at a phone for no reason.

Reading Scenario Experiments. This series of prompts is designed to get you thinking about how the setting for reading affects concentration, comprehension, and even the existential experience of reading. Every week, one of the following prompts will appear on the syllabus. I encourage you to try all of them that you are able. How does a different reading setting affect your mood? Your receptiveness to the prose? Your pleasure or difficulty reading? What are the particular impacts of changing your lighting or surroundings? What do you notice about yourself and about the work you are reading during this experiment?
1. read by candlelight (use a small lamp in dorms where no candles are allowed!)
2. read for one hour without checking any devices, answering texts, etc.
3. walk out into nature (climb a tree, sit on a rock, grab a spot in a hammock) and read
4. host a reading night with friends & food (sit in companionable silence, reading without chatting)
5. read aloud a chapter to someone else
6. climb into bed at night and read by flashlight under the covers for at least 30 minutes, as if you’ve already been told “lights out” as a kid
7. reread a chapter and see what new things you notice the second time through
8. change your ambient-noise level: add music if you normally read in the quiet; or read without music if you are normally a music-listener
9. read with a sketchpad at hand and sketch scenes, characters, or other elements from the story
10. practice focused listening: have someone read to you
11. make yourself a special, fancy snack on a real plate to nibble while eating: pay attention to the cooking or arranging or choosing of ingredients to make it especially appetizing first
12. make tea (even if you’re not usually a tea drinker), and read and sip
13. invent a new reading scenario for yourself, or repeat the one you liked the best from this term

[writing assignment using these prompts follows; text character limit prevents inclusion of it in full]

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Jess Masters @jessmasters.bsky.social · May 20

Further signs of crisis;

www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Marked decline in semicolons in English books, study suggests

Usage of punctuation down almost half in two decades as further research finds 67% of British students rarely use it

www.theguardian.com

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Hell-issa Johnson, PhD 🎃 @ladyhistorian.bsky.social · May 17

EVERYTHING HERE IS EXPIRED

Le Caghoul @lecagle.bsky.social · May 17

make an observation about your pantry that also sounds like the title of a novel:

THE POTATOES HAVE EYES

Captain Awkward @captainawkward.bsky.social · May 17

make an observation about your pantry that also sounds like the title of a novel:

THE MACARONI PROBLEM

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The Melville Society @melville-society.bsky.social · May 16

We’ve run the numbers and seen all the data models. It’s not looking good.

Edited headline about 100 men vs a gorilla that now reads: “Cetology smackdown: could 100 men beat a specific white whale in a fight? Here’s what sub-sub-librarians say”

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Jess Masters @jessmasters.bsky.social · May 7

This is why I went back to grad school (though also not thyroid)

Johanna Winant @johannawinant.bsky.social · May 6

I had a thyroidectomy 6 years ago and when I met with the endocrine surgeon ahead of time, I asked her “how did you decide on this specialization?” And she said “I just really really love the thyroid” — and I totally understood this even though for me it’s not the thyroid.

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Jess Masters @jessmasters.bsky.social · May 3

Happy democracy sausage day to all who celebrate (Australian Federal election, everyone celebrates, it's mandatory)

Jess Masters @jessmasters.bsky.social · Apr 29

Voting is open for several positions on the MSA Exec Board! Have your say here---

Modernist Studies Association (MSA) @moderniststudies.bsky.social · Apr 28

MSA Board elections are now open! All MSA members are eligible to vote. Vote here: vote.press.jhu.edu/msa/elections

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Jess Masters @jessmasters.bsky.social · Apr 8

This looks so good! Wishing I could follow along

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Jess Masters @jessmasters.bsky.social · Apr 7

"That computer, and that software, relied on the skilled, technical, embodied expertise and labor of thousands of women, including women of color."

Abigail Swann, PhD @ecoclimatelab.bsky.social · Apr 6

The Apollo mission relied on skilled weavers to build the computer memory necessary for the spacecraft. www.sciencenews.org/article/core...

Core memory weavers and Navajo women made the Apollo missions possible

The stories of the women who assembled integrated circuits and wove core memory for the Apollo missions remain largely unknown.

www.sciencenews.org

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Modernist Studies Association (MSA) @moderniststudies.bsky.social · Mar 31

The deadline for the 2025 MSA Conference in Boston has been extended to April 15! If you've been thinking of submitting a panel, paper, or roundtable proposal, you now have more time to do so.

It will feel good to gather to talk about modernism, the 20th century, and higher education. Join us!

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John Attridge @johnattridge.bsky.social · Apr 4

Australasian modernists, the abstract deadline for the AMSN guaranteed panel at MSA 2025 is one week away. Join us in Boston! amsn.org.au/events/

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Jess Masters @jessmasters.bsky.social · Mar 24

I cannot wait to read this!!

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Matthew Levay @matthewlevay.bsky.social · Mar 18

Nothing has made me feel more connected to my field, and more proactive in helping to preserve the things I value in it, than serving on the MSA Board. If you’re interested, I cannot recommend it enough.

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

MSA Members! Are you interested in serving on the MSA Board, which runs our organization? We need you! There are four positions open: 2nd VP, Treasurer, Vice Program Chair, and Contingent Faculty Rep. Nominations are open until April 21. More info here: www.moderniststudies.org/about/board-...

Board Nominations

The Modernist Studies Association is devoted to the study of the arts in their social, political, cultural, and intellectual contexts from the later nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century. The o...

www.moderniststudies.org

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Reposted by Jess Masters

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

MSA Members! Are you interested in serving on the MSA Board, which runs our organization? We need you! There are four positions open: 2nd VP, Treasurer, Vice Program Chair, and Contingent Faculty Rep. Nominations are open until April 21. More info here: www.moderniststudies.org/about/board-...

Board Nominations

The Modernist Studies Association is devoted to the study of the arts in their social, political, cultural, and intellectual contexts from the later nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century. The o...

www.moderniststudies.org

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Jess Masters @jessmasters.bsky.social · Mar 18

If there is such as thing as monograph manchester merch, consider me your first buyer

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Jess Masters @jessmasters.bsky.social · Mar 18

The Wallflower Avant-Garde by @glavey.bsky.social is one of those texts I return to, again and again, when thinking about all things shapely excess, multiplicity in motion, living paintings, and how queer ekphrasis bends our notions of word and image. If I could use it as a pillow, I would.

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P. Gabrielle Foreman @profgabrielle.bsky.social · Mar 17

I needed this reminder today. “Attacks on academia show the continued importance of critical intellectual work as a collective endeavor.”

Becca Lewis @beccalew.bsky.social · Mar 16

Individual academic output feels so futile these days—writing silly little articles, giving silly little talks. But the attacks on academia show the continued importance of critical intellectual work as a collective endeavor. Anyone finding ways to work through this tension? I’m struggling with it.

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Jess Masters @jessmasters.bsky.social · Mar 17

Are you affiliated with the Australian Modernist Studies Network? Want to hang with some Australians/New Zealanders/Pacific scholars in Boston? Submit your ideas on "Southern (Infra)Structures" for AMSN's guaranteed panel at MSA 2025!

@moderniststudies.bsky.social @modernism-asia.bsky.social

Tamlyn Avery @tamlynavery.bsky.social · Mar 17

The Australasian Modernist Studies Network exec. (which I recently joined as Treasurer) is delighted to announce a CFP for a guaranteed AMSN panel at this year’s MSA. The panel is on Southern (Infra)Structures. Details below.

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Jess Masters @jessmasters.bsky.social · Mar 15

Last few hours to submit for 'Generous Modernisms' -- have thoughts on the impossibility (or necessity) of generosity in academia? Read a generous modernist text? Thinking about generous scholarship? Resisting or examining scarcity? Consider submitting a paper to us!

@moderniststudies.bsky.social

Jess Masters @jessmasters.bsky.social · Mar 12

CFP MLA 2026: submit an abstract for MSA's guaranteed session at MLA Toronto on:

all things modernism and generosity, excess, 'too much' (or just enough), (free) labour, generous scholarship/writing, etc. etc.

@moderniststudies.bsky.social @modernlanguage.bsky.social @mmodernity.bsky.social

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Jess Masters @jessmasters.bsky.social · Mar 12

Send your abstracts to Jess and Kate at jessica.masters [@] sydney.edu.au

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