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laurelvhankins.bsky.social
Laurel V. Hankins
@laurelvhankins.bsky.social
210 followers 150 following 140 posts
Teaching and researching c18/c19 American Lit at UMass Dartmouth: https://www.umassd.edu/directory/lhankins/ The Art of Retreat now available from Bucknell UP: https://tinyurl.com/yhunwhzm.
www.umassd.edu
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laurelvhankins.bsky.social
Laurel V. Hankins @laurelvhankins.bsky.social · 1d
Immediately on my reading list……..
ishmaelcallme.bsky.social
Rachel Banner @ishmaelcallme.bsky.social · 1d
I joke that it took me twenty years to figure out how to get this off my chest about Herman Melville, starting from my first encounter as an undergrad in 2005. But it kind of did. So thrilled that this essay has a home at J19: Project MUSE - Melville's Idea of a Wife muse.jhu.edu/article/970112
Project MUSE - Melville's Idea of a Wife
muse.jhu.edu
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Reposted by Laurel V. Hankins
profgardner.bsky.social
Eric Gardner @profgardner.bsky.social · 3d
Chapter One from Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s Civil War and Reconstruction is available for free to all for one more week! Read it online, download it in pdf, share the link, recommend it to libraries, but please don’t feed it to any AI! Check out academic.oup.com/book/60645/c...
The cover of Eric Gardner’s book Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s Civil War and Reconstruction. On a blue background, the largest portion of the cover reproduces a C19 engraving of African American author-activist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper from William Still’s 1872 The Underground Rail Road. The portrait shows her head and upper body. She is wearing traveling clothes, and she is in three-quarters profile, facing to the left. Her hair is pulled back in her signature chignon, and she looks ahead with wisdom and determination. The engraving lines can be seen throughout the portrait, especially on her skin and her dress. A mostly-opaque yellow rectangle rests perhaps two-thirds of the way down the cover below Harper’s chin and neck. Here, inside a thin brown border, the words “Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s” are offered in brown all caps, followed by the words “Civil War and Reconstruction” in smaller white all caps, followed by a partial centered line, followed by the author’s name in smaller brown all caps.
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laurelvhankins.bsky.social
Laurel V. Hankins @laurelvhankins.bsky.social · 18d
Soccer Mommy put on a great show in Boston tonight. color theory was my COVID lockdown soundtrack and it meant a lot to be with friends and a happy crowd tonight. Also thanks to my husband for babysitting on our anniversary so I could go.
laurelvhankins.bsky.social
Laurel V. Hankins @laurelvhankins.bsky.social · 27d
When the moonflowers think they’re morning glories.
Two white moonflowers blooming in the morning sun.
laurelvhankins.bsky.social
Laurel V. Hankins @laurelvhankins.bsky.social · Sep 8
The student in the morning class who saw My Chemical Romance in Boston last night looked much better than the professor in the same class who saw Rilo Kiley in Boston last night.
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laurelvhankins.bsky.social
Laurel V. Hankins @laurelvhankins.bsky.social · Sep 4
very rude of Katabasis to come out last week and not in June.
laurelvhankins.bsky.social
Laurel V. Hankins @laurelvhankins.bsky.social · Aug 20
garden welcomed us home in fine fashion today.
Bouquet of dahlias in magenta and tangerine. Late August bouquet includes dahlias, queen anne’s lace, zinnias, daisies, cat mint, and rudbeckia.
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laurelvhankins.bsky.social
Laurel V. Hankins @laurelvhankins.bsky.social · Aug 14
I just preordered this incredible looking @sunypress.bsky.social book co-edited by @carolinegelmi.bsky.social, one of my favorite writers and teachers, and I hope you will too! sunypress.edu/Books/T/Teac...
Teaching Poetry Now
sunypress.edu
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laurelvhankins.bsky.social
Laurel V. Hankins @laurelvhankins.bsky.social · Aug 9
Spotted: a rogue hollyhock volunteer.
Overgrown summer wildflower garden including pink hollyhock, purple coneflowers, zinnias.
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laurelvhankins.bsky.social
Laurel V. Hankins @laurelvhankins.bsky.social · Aug 7
I’ve been having a Hot James Summer myself.
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laurelvhankins.bsky.social
Laurel V. Hankins @laurelvhankins.bsky.social · Jul 25
My AI bib for students will apparently just remain a living document.

"Premium chatbots provided more confidently incorrect answers than their free counterparts.”

www.cjr.org/tow_center/w...
AI Search Has A Citation Problem
We Compared Eight AI Search Engines. They’re All Bad at Citing News.
www.cjr.org
Reposted by Laurel V. Hankins
ashleyrattner.bsky.social
Ashley Rattner @ashleyrattner.bsky.social · Jul 24
I drafted an email opposing Canvas's partnership with OpenAI and am happy send it to you if you'd like to send such a thing to your institution's instructional designers and faculty senate.
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laurelvhankins.bsky.social
Laurel V. Hankins @laurelvhankins.bsky.social · Jul 24
Thank you, Ashley. You’ve emboldened me to send a similar email this morning.
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Reposted by Laurel V. Hankins
annakornbluh.bsky.social
Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · Jul 21
syllabus time, teaming up for the herculean efforts of reinventing writing assignments. here, some prompts for required weekly low stakes 250-500 word reflections/ process pieces that have proven relatively conducive to real writing in lit class. please share any similar suggestions in thread.
Describe something you learned from lecture this week that you didn’t know just from doing the readings. Connect something you learned in 209 this week to something you are learning in another of your classes this semester. If Monday and Wednesday assigned readings were from two different texts, make connections between the two. Do they share themes? Forms? Tone? Historical context? Do you find them equally interesting? Look at the very first paragraph of one of our texts and discuss how the opening lays the groundwork for the rest of the work. Quote specific lines, phrases, or images. Using quotes from a text, persuade someone (friend or foe, your grandma or your senator) to change their mind about something important. Compose a 5 song playlist to accompany an assigned reading from this week, and write a few sentences for each song, explaining your choices. Describe an idea you had in response to the readings/lecture/discussions for our class this week- any idea, about literature, or the world, or yourself. How might you pursue this idea, in your studies or elsewhere? Choose a passage (no more than 10 lines) from the readings this week and rewrite it, changing at least one of the literary aspects such as: person (change from first to third-person or vice versa), tense (change from past to present etc), focalizing character (i.e. write it from a different character's perspective), style (adjectives, diction, description, tone). Then write 2-3 sentences about the effect of your changes. Compose a yelp review to strangers, or a letter to a specific person, or a booktok style video, recommending a novel/poem/play from this week’s reading. Write a letter to someone who has questioned your choice of majoring or minoring in English, explaining why you value what you’re learning. Include quotes / ideas from this week’s readings.
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Reposted by Laurel V. Hankins
lclaberge.bsky.social
Leigh Claire La Berge @lclaberge.bsky.social · Jul 14
Happy Bastille Day! Feline reminder that philosophical patron saint of the French Revolution, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, put a cat on the cover of "The Social Contract" because cats were his “test of character”; those who don’t enjoy cats “have the despotic instinct of men.”
@dukepress.bsky.social
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Reposted by Laurel V. Hankins
joshrgreenberg.bsky.social
Joshua R Greenberg @joshrgreenberg.bsky.social · Jul 10
Five years ago today my book Bank Notes and Shinplasters: The Rage for Paper Money in the Early Republic came out. Like a lot of books that first Covid summer it got lost a bit at the time. Thanks to all of you who have read it.🗃️

https://www.pennpress.org/9780812252248/bank-notes-and-shinplasters/
Bank Notes and Shinplasters – Penn Press
The colorful history of paper money before the Civil WarBefore Civil War greenbacks and a national bank network established a uniform federal currency in the...
www.pennpress.org
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laurelvhankins.bsky.social
Laurel V. Hankins @laurelvhankins.bsky.social · Jul 10
Increasingly using annual reports to document deteriorating external and institutional conditions that impact my ability to do my job.
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laurelvhankins.bsky.social
Laurel V. Hankins @laurelvhankins.bsky.social · Jul 3
Sour cherry pie, from our very own tree. Should be set up for elevenses tomorrow.
Baked sour cherry pie with red ceramic bird vent decorated with pastry hearts.
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Laurel V. Hankins @laurelvhankins.bsky.social · Jun 30
The rabbits have taken to lounging.
Wild rabbit sprawled out in grass with back leg stretched out.
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Laurel V. Hankins @laurelvhankins.bsky.social · Jun 25
Birds left me a pie’s worth.
Stainless steel bowl of sour cherries.
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laurelvhankins.bsky.social
Laurel V. Hankins @laurelvhankins.bsky.social · Jun 25
Today in personal growth I showered with a house centipede and only did two tiny shrieks.
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Reposted by Laurel V. Hankins
hlmurray.bsky.social
Dr Hannah Murray @hlmurray.bsky.social · Jun 23
Spoiler: it’s me!!! 🥳
ssag.bsky.social
Society for the Study of the American Gothic @ssag.bsky.social · Jun 23
The Society for the Study of the American Gothic is pleased to announce the winner of its 2025 award for Best Scholarly Article or Book Chapter on the American Gothic.
www.mdpi.com
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laurelvhankins.bsky.social
Laurel V. Hankins @laurelvhankins.bsky.social · Jun 14
This is what democracy looks like in Rhode Island.
Poster from No Kings protest that reads “uses for ICE” with a checks next to the Dunkin’ and Del’s logos and a red x next to “inhumane racist government agency.”
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Laurel V. Hankins @laurelvhankins.bsky.social · Jun 10
And I was telling myself not to log in again before dinner.
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Laurel V. Hankins @laurelvhankins.bsky.social · Jun 9
I just vacuumed an actual cobweb out of my box of complimentary copies, so taking inspiration from another great piece by @rcolesworthy.bsky.social and reposting that my book, The Art of Retreat, is out from @bucknellupress.bsky.social, just in time for summer reading. RUP30 for 30% off.
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