Charlotte Boyce

I love handwritten C19th recipe books - absolute treasure troves of information! 🥰 #19thcentury

And there Wales go again, giving me a tiny spark of hope before inevitably throwing it away in the second half. Thanks, Rhys Carré!

#IREvWAL

The BAVS/Rosemary Mitchell Prize for a Second Monograph 2026 is now open! If you published your second scholarly monograph in Victorian studies between 17 February 2025 and 17 February 2026, please do consider submitting! You can find more information here: bavs.ac.uk/book-prize-2/

Just like the goal for the elite is to accumulate wealth without labor (various forms of extraction and exploitation), the goal here is to accumulate “knowledge” without thinking (also various forms of extraction and exploitation)

Yeah, it’s the hope that kills you 😩

I keep telling myself this but the little glimmer of hope refuses to die!

Let’s just stop the match at half time - end on a high 😂

Congratulations Hannah! 🥳

100% this 👇

This makes for incredibly - if predictably - depressing reading.

UK Govt, if you want to upskill everyone, why not invest in your tertiary education sector rather than pushing this slop?!?

I mean, given your research interests it was a plausible guess! 😂

This sounds amazing! 🤩 What kinds of objects do you cover?

We're now accepting applications for our 2026 Patrick Leary Resource Development Grants and Mitchell Dissertation Prize! Both awards offer 💵 for tools and research relating to the #19thC periodical press. More information about each award can be found in the thread below.

Is neo-Victorian Fiction getting more unhinged? Helena Esser ponders three new and three upcoming offerings from the popular fiction shelfIs it me, or is neo-Victorian fiction getting darker and more unhinged?I mean, not that I’m complaining. Ma…

Looking for some unusual neo-Victorian reads? The @vpfa.bsky.social blog's got you: victorianpopularfiction.org/is-neo-victo...

The risks of AI in schools outweigh the benefits, report says A new report warns that AI poses a serious threat to children's cognitive development and emotional well-being.

An invaluable new report. A "premortem" is exactly what we need.

Incredible article which points out that it often collectively costs more to apply for scarce research funding than the funds awarded to the successful proposals.

What an absurd system we've built in the service of efficiency and competition.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Students overwhelmingly want more choice and optionality, even as managers impose compulsory programmes and limit choice due to cost.

And in 3 to 5 years when those students go elsewhere, managers will ask us wh our numbers have declined, shortly before they shitcan us.

I once had tulip bulb soup at a conference on hunger in Amsterdam - they didn’t charge us €10.50 for the privilege though!

A Victorian-style collage including a sitting woman in 19th century dress with her hand on her hip, some flowers, and words ‘Re-articulating the third sex: Victorian and Neo Victorian engagements with LGBTQIA+, edited by Helena Esser and Claire O’Callaghan’. The artwork is by Helena Esser.

A Victorian-style collage with a picture of George Sand, and the words ‘The Search for a Liveable Life: George Sand, Scandal and Queer Possibility in Briefly, A Delicious Life’ by Charlotte Boyce. The artwork is by Helens Esser.

In the pre-Christmas excitement, I forgot to mention that I have a new article out in a special issue of VPFJ. If you’re interested in neo-Victorian representations of George Sand and queer possibility check it out! victorianpopularfiction.org/publications...

🙋‍♀️

I mean, let’s hope so!

A promotional still from the BBC’s new adaptation of the story The Room in the Tower, starring Tobias Menzies and Joanna Lumley.

Nearly time for one of my favourite Christmas traditions - wrapping some last minute presents while watching the BBC’s latest Ghost Story for Christmas.

This year it’s E F Benson’s The Room in the Tower, starring Tobias Menzies and Joanna Lumley - can’t wait!!

#Gothic

Many congratulations! 🥳

Indulging Passion for Private Lives of Notable Men and Women:  Victorian Readers, Writers, and the Allure of Biographies The Bookman, a trade organ of booksellers and publishers, announced in December 1892 how reminiscences were “Among the most successful books of the month” and “Memories of living men” were more suc…

Be like the Victorians and read a biography or two during the holidays 📚🎄
cliosfootnotes.wordpress.com/2025/12/22/i...

My mum’s verdict on Amber’s show dance: well that was a lot of throwing around 🤣 #Strictly

A flyer for the paperback edition of The Edinburgh Companion to Romanticism and the Arts, with a 30% discount (use code PAPER30 at the EUP website)

Exciting news - The Edinburgh Companion to Romanticism and the Arts is out in paperback! And EUP are offering a 30% discount! Why not treat yourself??

Oh, I literally just used this in a Narrative Medicine session for dentistry students to introduce them to how to do a close reading! So helpful!

A twofold plight: for researchers and for Library staff (some of whom are also researchers). Past time for DCMS to take note.

If that changes as AI becomes more adept, I might switch to an accompanying reflective conversation (sort of like a mini viva - but hopefully not as intimidating!)

I’m also grappling with this, Lucie. I’m hoping (maybe naively?) that having students submit a reflective piece with their creative artefact will help root out AI - or, at least, make it easier to identify? In my experience, AI (so far) is not great at reproducing authentic self-reflection …