Rebecca Anne Barr
@rabarr.bsky.social
Reading, writing, thinking about the long 18th Century at the Faculty of English @cam.ac.uk. Irish woman baffled by the fens and the English middle classes. Emotional support/ emotional manipulation provided by a terrier.
Erudite, eloquent, and moving lecture on Shakespeare & the textile imagination by the magnificent @starcrossed2018.bsky.social this evening. The hall was packed with admirers. Good to be reminded how enthralling the best scholarship can be. #Cambridge
December 1, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Erudite, eloquent, and moving lecture on Shakespeare & the textile imagination by the magnificent @starcrossed2018.bsky.social this evening. The hall was packed with admirers. Good to be reminded how enthralling the best scholarship can be. #Cambridge
#Google blurbs RF Brissenden's 'Virtue in Distress'. 'Coco Crocodile is rehearsing her song & Billie the Pig has a dance to perfect & all in time for the evening show! But the Fox Clowns are in a muddle & Magician has made his assistant vanish, COMPLETELY!" Is that #Clarissa or Sade? #18thcentury
November 26, 2025 at 3:42 PM
#Google blurbs RF Brissenden's 'Virtue in Distress'. 'Coco Crocodile is rehearsing her song & Billie the Pig has a dance to perfect & all in time for the evening show! But the Fox Clowns are in a muddle & Magician has made his assistant vanish, COMPLETELY!" Is that #Clarissa or Sade? #18thcentury
New issue of The Shandean is out: @livunipress.bsky.social inc. an essay on 43 unpublished letters of Sarah Scott & Lady Barbara Montagu and my review @stephaniedegooyer.bsky.social's compelling Before Borders. #18thcentury @bsecs.bsky.social www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/toc/shandean...
November 18, 2025 at 12:37 PM
New issue of The Shandean is out: @livunipress.bsky.social inc. an essay on 43 unpublished letters of Sarah Scott & Lady Barbara Montagu and my review @stephaniedegooyer.bsky.social's compelling Before Borders. #18thcentury @bsecs.bsky.social www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/toc/shandean...
Editors of the collected #poems of Seamus Heaney, Rosie Laven & Bernard O'Donoghue, in conversation with Josie O'Donoghue this evening @irishstudiescam.bsky.social. Moved to (discreet) tears by BOD's gentle reading of Heaney's 'At the WellHead'. #irishstudies
October 28, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Editors of the collected #poems of Seamus Heaney, Rosie Laven & Bernard O'Donoghue, in conversation with Josie O'Donoghue this evening @irishstudiescam.bsky.social. Moved to (discreet) tears by BOD's gentle reading of Heaney's 'At the WellHead'. #irishstudies
Peak #Cambridge at the Equiano Bridge.
October 18, 2025 at 12:41 PM
Peak #Cambridge at the Equiano Bridge.
*Clarissa* changes another life! There's hope for the world. #18thcentury #reading
October 9, 2025 at 4:19 PM
*Clarissa* changes another life! There's hope for the world. #18thcentury #reading
A particularly well-placed #dragon today in North front 3. @theul.bsky.social
August 21, 2025 at 4:36 PM
A particularly well-placed #dragon today in North front 3. @theul.bsky.social
Today's @jesuscollegecam.bsky.social #deer sighting. Under the shade of a tree, contemplating the day.
August 12, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Today's @jesuscollegecam.bsky.social #deer sighting. Under the shade of a tree, contemplating the day.
My first @theul.bsky.social #dragon of 2025.
August 5, 2025 at 3:36 PM
My first @theul.bsky.social #dragon of 2025.
An article about small penis jokes...by Neil Cocks.
July 21, 2025 at 10:01 AM
An article about small penis jokes...by Neil Cocks.
Here's my dog, blissfully unaware of how terrible the world is, on his evening walk round Midsummer Common. It's comforting to think how good his life in the middle of human horror.
July 10, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Here's my dog, blissfully unaware of how terrible the world is, on his evening walk round Midsummer Common. It's comforting to think how good his life in the middle of human horror.
The OED updated their KILLJOY entry! Tobias Smollett is now cited as the 1st known instance of the term. 🎉 #C18thcentury #18thcenturyist (I might quibble at the description of it being Lord Vane's 'nickname, but I'll take it.) See Notes & Queries, academic.oup.com/nq/article/7... for my flag waving.
June 23, 2025 at 9:58 AM
The OED updated their KILLJOY entry! Tobias Smollett is now cited as the 1st known instance of the term. 🎉 #C18thcentury #18thcenturyist (I might quibble at the description of it being Lord Vane's 'nickname, but I'll take it.) See Notes & Queries, academic.oup.com/nq/article/7... for my flag waving.
It's hot & humid & I am lobotomized by marking so here's a reminder that I once did some research & writing. My chapter on male virgins in Sir Charles Grandison. Start reading for the 18thc gender insights, stay for the surprising finish on sexy male virgin fantasies in contemporary romance. #C18th
June 13, 2025 at 9:59 AM
It's hot & humid & I am lobotomized by marking so here's a reminder that I once did some research & writing. My chapter on male virgins in Sir Charles Grandison. Start reading for the 18thc gender insights, stay for the surprising finish on sexy male virgin fantasies in contemporary romance. #C18th
Slowly digesting the info from the pump clinic at #Addenbrooke's hospital on Friday. Incredible educators, everyone so grateful to be finally getting an insulin pump. Now to decide which one. Thanks #NHS: it's an incredible opportunity. #Type1 #T1D
April 6, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Slowly digesting the info from the pump clinic at #Addenbrooke's hospital on Friday. Incredible educators, everyone so grateful to be finally getting an insulin pump. Now to decide which one. Thanks #NHS: it's an incredible opportunity. #Type1 #T1D
My batteries are 💀 so I'm missing #ASECS2025 this year. Me & my dogge are convalescing in the sunne—which is finally shining. I salute everyone keeping going in these dark times. Consider using yr discount on me & Bonnie Latimer's ed collection 'Revisiting Richardson' @bucknellupress.bsky.social
April 5, 2025 at 2:44 PM
My batteries are 💀 so I'm missing #ASECS2025 this year. Me & my dogge are convalescing in the sunne—which is finally shining. I salute everyone keeping going in these dark times. Consider using yr discount on me & Bonnie Latimer's ed collection 'Revisiting Richardson' @bucknellupress.bsky.social
E.J. Thribb's lines on the anniversary of the Covid Pandemic. #PrivateEye
March 20, 2025 at 10:46 PM
E.J. Thribb's lines on the anniversary of the Covid Pandemic. #PrivateEye
Very much enjoying The Proof of my Innocence by @jonathancoe.bsky.social. Pitch perfect evocation of studying English at #Cambridge in the (ahem) not too distant past. The adulation of that particular don and his incomprehensible verse has toned down a tad, but the fetish for Difficulty remains.
February 16, 2025 at 10:57 PM
Very much enjoying The Proof of my Innocence by @jonathancoe.bsky.social. Pitch perfect evocation of studying English at #Cambridge in the (ahem) not too distant past. The adulation of that particular don and his incomprehensible verse has toned down a tad, but the fetish for Difficulty remains.
2 more hours of teaching and then the week staggers to a close. Thank goodness it's Friday. #RIPDavidLynch
January 31, 2025 at 2:56 PM
2 more hours of teaching and then the week staggers to a close. Thank goodness it's Friday. #RIPDavidLynch
Back when I was a baby academic, I wrote an essay on David Lynch's gothic phantasmagorias for a book edited by my friend FX Gleyzon. The world is sadder and shoddier without Lynch in it.
January 17, 2025 at 1:55 AM
Back when I was a baby academic, I wrote an essay on David Lynch's gothic phantasmagorias for a book edited by my friend FX Gleyzon. The world is sadder and shoddier without Lynch in it.
Thanks to the editors of The Shandean for including my article 'Gin Lane in Lockdown: @coldwarsteve.bsky.social's Hogarth' in the revamped journal. A labour of love & rage, the article makes an argument for why the #18thcentury matters now & why art matters for everyone. DM me if you'd like a copy.
December 17, 2024 at 1:04 PM
Thanks to the editors of The Shandean for including my article 'Gin Lane in Lockdown: @coldwarsteve.bsky.social's Hogarth' in the revamped journal. A labour of love & rage, the article makes an argument for why the #18thcentury matters now & why art matters for everyone. DM me if you'd like a copy.
Show me a picture on your phone that has your energy but isn't a selfie.
November 28, 2024 at 3:31 PM
Show me a picture on your phone that has your energy but isn't a selfie.