Courtney Weiss Smith
@cweiss-smith.bsky.social
professor @ Wesleyan, editor @ History & Theory and Norton Anthology of English Literature, mother @ home, lover of poetry and tv and good cheese @ all the times…
Hahaha there’s the whole “post a picture from 2016” happening across the interwebs and my biggest takeaway from considering for a moment participating in that is that I shouldn’t have had bangs in 2016 and I don’t want to share the pictures 😂
January 16, 2026 at 9:18 PM
Hahaha there’s the whole “post a picture from 2016” happening across the interwebs and my biggest takeaway from considering for a moment participating in that is that I shouldn’t have had bangs in 2016 and I don’t want to share the pictures 😂
The pope one is wild! I didn’t know he had weighed in in favor of Matthew McFadyen, pegged him as a Firth guy myself… 😂
January 16, 2026 at 6:08 PM
The pope one is wild! I didn’t know he had weighed in in favor of Matthew McFadyen, pegged him as a Firth guy myself… 😂
This is great! I feel like it should be on @annakornbluh.bsky.social’s super useful against ai crowd sourced platform!
January 14, 2026 at 1:25 PM
This is great! I feel like it should be on @annakornbluh.bsky.social’s super useful against ai crowd sourced platform!
“I went to the wood to live deliberately NO CAP; to front only the SIGMA facts of life…”
“We all need the tonic of SIX SEVEN…”
“We all need the tonic of SIX SEVEN…”
January 9, 2026 at 1:08 PM
“I went to the wood to live deliberately NO CAP; to front only the SIGMA facts of life…”
“We all need the tonic of SIX SEVEN…”
“We all need the tonic of SIX SEVEN…”
7year old this morning: Mama can I look up where brain rot came from?
Me: Oh, sure—I think it’s an internet thing but look it up…
7: It says here it’s from some author, Henry David Thoreau?!
Me: ?!?!?!
Dying laughing—but the OED also cites Walden for the first usage of the word…
Me: Oh, sure—I think it’s an internet thing but look it up…
7: It says here it’s from some author, Henry David Thoreau?!
Me: ?!?!?!
Dying laughing—but the OED also cites Walden for the first usage of the word…
January 9, 2026 at 1:05 PM
7year old this morning: Mama can I look up where brain rot came from?
Me: Oh, sure—I think it’s an internet thing but look it up…
7: It says here it’s from some author, Henry David Thoreau?!
Me: ?!?!?!
Dying laughing—but the OED also cites Walden for the first usage of the word…
Me: Oh, sure—I think it’s an internet thing but look it up…
7: It says here it’s from some author, Henry David Thoreau?!
Me: ?!?!?!
Dying laughing—but the OED also cites Walden for the first usage of the word…
You in turn are making think I can power through In the Woods despite my firm rule against dead children in pleasure reading.
Also I’ve read I think five or six of these since mid-December. I’ve fallen into a rabbit hole LOL…
Also I’ve read I think five or six of these since mid-December. I’ve fallen into a rabbit hole LOL…
January 7, 2026 at 11:41 AM
You in turn are making think I can power through In the Woods despite my firm rule against dead children in pleasure reading.
Also I’ve read I think five or six of these since mid-December. I’ve fallen into a rabbit hole LOL…
Also I’ve read I think five or six of these since mid-December. I’ve fallen into a rabbit hole LOL…
Enjoy! I really liked the searcher / hunter pairing. And do try the witch elm, which I loved: it’s got what I thought was some of the best stuff of the likeness—the incantatory rhythms of a small group in a lovely house—just without the plot holes.
January 7, 2026 at 11:39 AM
Enjoy! I really liked the searcher / hunter pairing. And do try the witch elm, which I loved: it’s got what I thought was some of the best stuff of the likeness—the incantatory rhythms of a small group in a lovely house—just without the plot holes.
I also really love her way with the supernatural stuff—this was especially fun in the secret place I thought!
January 6, 2026 at 9:02 AM
I also really love her way with the supernatural stuff—this was especially fun in the secret place I thought!
Admittedly I can’t / havent read the ones with dead small children—Broken Harbor, eg. But I would rank Witch Elm above The Likeness—I couldn’t get over the improbability of that whole set up…
January 6, 2026 at 8:55 AM
Admittedly I can’t / havent read the ones with dead small children—Broken Harbor, eg. But I would rank Witch Elm above The Likeness—I couldn’t get over the improbability of that whole set up…
Ooooh I’ve been on a Tana French spree this month, this is fun!
Why is Witch Elm not on this list?! (Different series I know but still a TF murder mystery!)
Why is Witch Elm not on this list?! (Different series I know but still a TF murder mystery!)
January 6, 2026 at 8:55 AM
Ooooh I’ve been on a Tana French spree this month, this is fun!
Why is Witch Elm not on this list?! (Different series I know but still a TF murder mystery!)
Why is Witch Elm not on this list?! (Different series I know but still a TF murder mystery!)
Here’s a full table of contents!
January 5, 2026 at 8:56 PM
Here’s a full table of contents!
@ajab.bsky.social Alexander Jabbari, @helgejojo.bsky.social Helge Jordheim, Alexandra Lianeri, David Lurie, Nancy Partner, and Ronit Ricci.
Come think with us about the relationships between and among languages, histories, and methods!
Come think with us about the relationships between and among languages, histories, and methods!
January 5, 2026 at 4:19 PM
@ajab.bsky.social Alexander Jabbari, @helgejojo.bsky.social Helge Jordheim, Alexandra Lianeri, David Lurie, Nancy Partner, and Ronit Ricci.
Come think with us about the relationships between and among languages, histories, and methods!
Come think with us about the relationships between and among languages, histories, and methods!
It’s here! I’m delighted to share a new theme issue of @histandtheojrnl.bsky.social, “Philology Now.” Valeria López Fadul and I edited this issue, featuring smart contributions by Emily Apter, Peter de Bolla, Alan Durston, Cymone Fourshey, Claire Gilbert, Anthony Grafton…
historyandtheory.org/64-4
historyandtheory.org/64-4
Philology Now – Volume 64, Number 4 — History and Theory
History and Theory, Volume 64, Number 4
historyandtheory.org
January 5, 2026 at 4:14 PM
It’s here! I’m delighted to share a new theme issue of @histandtheojrnl.bsky.social, “Philology Now.” Valeria López Fadul and I edited this issue, featuring smart contributions by Emily Apter, Peter de Bolla, Alan Durston, Cymone Fourshey, Claire Gilbert, Anthony Grafton…
historyandtheory.org/64-4
historyandtheory.org/64-4
Tita are you ok? Bwahahahaha
December 9, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Tita are you ok? Bwahahahaha
I’m so excited to learn about this edition!
December 6, 2025 at 1:38 PM
I’m so excited to learn about this edition!
I think Pamela is totally possible!
December 4, 2025 at 7:31 PM
I think Pamela is totally possible!
That’s actually lovely and notable. Smith can sometimes be a real jerk to Smith. 🤪
November 19, 2025 at 4:45 PM
That’s actually lovely and notable. Smith can sometimes be a real jerk to Smith. 🤪
“I deeply appreciate Lynch’s generosity,” said Lynch in response.
November 19, 2025 at 4:14 PM
“I deeply appreciate Lynch’s generosity,” said Lynch in response.
Reposted by Courtney Weiss Smith
CFP: “Embodied Knowledge Practices in the Early Modern World”
Conference at the University of Amsterdam
Monday, 15 June 2026
How do material conditions shape how & what we know about the natural world?
#earlymodern #C18L
1/6
Conference at the University of Amsterdam
Monday, 15 June 2026
How do material conditions shape how & what we know about the natural world?
#earlymodern #C18L
1/6
October 31, 2025 at 3:11 PM
CFP: “Embodied Knowledge Practices in the Early Modern World”
Conference at the University of Amsterdam
Monday, 15 June 2026
How do material conditions shape how & what we know about the natural world?
#earlymodern #C18L
1/6
Conference at the University of Amsterdam
Monday, 15 June 2026
How do material conditions shape how & what we know about the natural world?
#earlymodern #C18L
1/6
I wasn’t criticizing—I found this interesting, the reformatting exercise in particular! I just intuited something implicit in both, thinking about rhyme as something more structural in relation to the line’s meter or rhythm.
November 2, 2025 at 12:31 AM
I wasn’t criticizing—I found this interesting, the reformatting exercise in particular! I just intuited something implicit in both, thinking about rhyme as something more structural in relation to the line’s meter or rhythm.
He says it dismissively but I’d love to read a defense of the logic and the pleasures of that kind of thing, especially in relation to a history unmetrical rhyming that includes Moore and Brooks…
November 2, 2025 at 12:03 AM
He says it dismissively but I’d love to read a defense of the logic and the pleasures of that kind of thing, especially in relation to a history unmetrical rhyming that includes Moore and Brooks…
Oh this is a curious review—quite close really to Hollander’s logic but way more recent.
I’m interested, though, in his suggestion that we can sometimes understand this rhyme as high concept…
I’m interested, though, in his suggestion that we can sometimes understand this rhyme as high concept…
November 2, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Oh this is a curious review—quite close really to Hollander’s logic but way more recent.
I’m interested, though, in his suggestion that we can sometimes understand this rhyme as high concept…
I’m interested, though, in his suggestion that we can sometimes understand this rhyme as high concept…
Ooooh this is an especially good example in relation to Hollander’s!
November 1, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Ooooh this is an especially good example in relation to Hollander’s!
I *knew* you’d had something interesting to say about this—thank you!!! Also I haven’t read that Merrill text and I literally must, immediately….
October 31, 2025 at 8:42 PM
I *knew* you’d had something interesting to say about this—thank you!!! Also I haven’t read that Merrill text and I literally must, immediately….