Sally Barnden
Early modern drama enthusiast. Lecturer in Literature and Visual Culture at Swansea University. Aspiring climber and successful cat person.
- Reposted by Sally BarndenBeyond a tiny hardcore of rich universities, if you are an employee in UK Higher Ed you will be somewhere on the treadmill/ slippery slope below. You'll recognise exactly which step you are on at this moment. Take a look. 👇
- trying to give appropriate focus to a very interesting research meeting while Howl's tail wiggles back and forth through my Zoom window and everyone politely ignores it
- Reposted by Sally BarndenThis is just going to always be my go-to response to this kind of thing anthonymoser.github.io/writing/ai/h...
- Erin Underwood: Open Letter to the Science Fiction Writers Association and Community on AI file770.com/erin-underwo... Erin's core thesis is "There are responsible ways to use AI that support creators without replacing creative labor."
- a seasonal research query: does anyone know of any sources on the cultural history of snowmen? what's the earliest reference we have to temporary snow-sculptures? (humanoid especially, but also more generally!)
- Reposted by Sally BarndenBritish Library staff asked for a decent pay. Instead they got ‘a few money-saving present ideas’, such as ‘consider not giving presents this holiday season’. They are on strike this week. I wrote about it for @lrb.co.uk. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...
- Reposted by Sally BarndenOngoing decimation of British universities part 252: Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email. Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk
- Reposted by Sally BarndenAttention #EarlyModern and #Shakespeare friends: join me on this Giving Tuesday in donating to an Open Access fund for Meghan C. Andrews’s book. Cancer took Meghan from us in 2023, but her legacy can live on. Share widely!
- my student has decided completely unprompted that she wants to write about Lust’s Dominion (or, the lascivious queen, etc). Suspect I know the answer here but—is there a decent edition?
- Reposted by Sally BarndenWell worth a read. It’s so sad what AI is doing to students’ ability to think for themselves👇
- To “my students and to anyone who might listen, I say: Don’t surrender to AI your ability to read, write and think when others once risked their lives and died for the freedom to do so.” www.huffpost.com/entry/histor...
- Reposted by Sally BarndenMary Baldwin University is embarking on drastic cuts of its liberal arts programme and of humanities subjects more generally. A bad case of mishandled management, and colleagues and students will suffer as a result (including #AmericanShakespeareCenter!) Sign the petition here: c.org/VmXd75Pf7h
- Reposted by Sally BarndenON STRIKE AGAIN BECAUSE THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH REFUSES TO RULE OUT COMPULSORY REDUNDANCIES!
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- Reposted by Sally BarndenYour electricity bill is going up because data centers are raising demand, not because your utility started scaling out some renewables. Pass it on.
- going to write a paragraph in my Two Gents review about how Lossi is unconventional casting for Crab because she's so elegant and has a mournful long greyhound face and generally seems like she might be the wisest character on stage
- further disincentive for international students is of course *just* what the sector needs at the moment
- Asking for a student: what is the figure on the right holding in the title-page woodcut to the Haec Vir pamphlet? my first thought was a badminton racket and shuttlecock, but a bit of cursory research into the history of badminton suggests this is unlikely! A handful of feathers and... a spoon?
- Reposted by Sally Barnden- 400 jobs to go at Lancaster University - 1 in 4 people will be made redundant But where's the financial evidence for this extreme action? Please read 👇 Sign the petition 👇 chng.it/7F52bThYqn
- Does anyone have institutional access to AM Digital's 'Eighteenth Century Drama' repository? I'm hoping to read Samson Penley's 1818 adaptation of 'The Jew of Malta'
- Rediscovered an offcut from the ‘Royal Actor’ book about Coriolanus, the French Revolution and George IV misunderstanding satires about himself, and I’m tempted to polish it up as a short-ish article. I am technically meant to be doing several other things instead, though
- the University of Warwick rebrand is deeply embarrassing, but the sad thing is I can also imagine our Head of School showing it off in a meeting as something that we should emulate
- suddenly wondering if Sabrina Ghayour is making an Andrew Marvell reference
- Reposted by Sally BarndenWe're advertising two artist's residencies at Thin Ice Press: the York Centre for Print. Please share! www.thinicepress.org/research/pri...
- Series of personal and professional knock-backs lately, gonna go walk the Salt path* *wales coast path, I’m not facing the M4 in this mood
- Lovely Cymbeline at the Willow Globe this evening, worth the lengthy round trip to mid Wales
- Reposted by Sally BarndenSeems important.
- Reposted by Sally Barndenstaging a show-and-tell about a fake genocide during a real genocide to the government that has done the most to seek justice for that real genocide is designed to break our brains. They know what they are doing. www.cnn.com/2025/05/21/w...
- Very honoured and excited to learn that 'Shakespeare and the Royal Actor' is shortlisted for the Theatre Book Prize for 2024!
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- I was vaguely planning to jettison Volpone from my 3rd year module, but this year's cohort have written such excellent essays about it that I'm going to have to rethink. A victory for Ben!
- Reposted by Sally BarndenA contributor has had to withdraw from something I'm editing, late in the day. I'm looking for a sprightly 10,000 book historical words on the broad theme of 'consumers/consumption' and the period 1450-1650 (not necessarily all of it).
- Students: Leontes is an old man. Me: But we know he's in his early 30s at the beginning of the play ("unbreeched" 23 years ago) and therefore only in his late 40s at the end. Students: Like we said, old.
- Reposted by Sally BarndenThe Prime Minister imitating Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech is sickening. That speech fuelled decades of racism and division. Echoing it today is a disgrace. It adds to anti-migrant rhetoric that puts lives at risk. Shame on you, Keir Starmer.
- My copies of “Shakespeare’s Afterlife in the Royal Collection” have reached sunny south Wales! 23 essays by 23 amazing scholars, plus colour pictures, for an unusually reasonable £30 global.oup.com/academic/pro...
- Lovely final seminars with my Shakespeare second years on The Winter’s Tale. We talked in details about the pros and cons of different bears (CbJ’s startling projection, the Royal Ballet’s bear blanket, the RSC’s incredible puppet from 2009…)
- automatic captions are hearing 'Leontes' as 'the aunties'
- Postdoctoral vacancy at Swansea, working with Dr Laura Seymour on her AMEND project researching neurodivergence in early modern Europe www.swansea.ac.uk/jobs-at-swan...
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- This collection is out today! Featuring 23 essays about weird and/or wonderful objects in (or formerly in!) the Royal Collection. Mine is on this bizarre Victorian photomontage
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[Not loaded yet] - Reposted by Sally BarndenOh yes, Homer’s famous “Tes Thdpssssps.” 👍🏻
- Panopto's automatic captions are v insistent that The White Devil is about 'the Duke of Bracknell'
- Taylor and Francis ebooks treating page numbers as if they're some kind of state secret 😭
