Diana Bellonby
@dbellonby.bsky.social
Writer. Mother. English PhD. Feminist cultural critic. Philadelphian. Connoisseur of anxiety. Co-editor of *Victorian Gaslighting* (SUNY Press 2026). Working on a memoir / literary history of rape culture from Ovid to You-Know-Who. (she/her)
Pinned
Diana Bellonby
@dbellonby.bsky.social
· Jun 20
Wanna know the history of #gaslighting? My co-edited book of essays, *Victorian Gaslighting*, will make you an expert! This juicy guide, co-created with @noragilbert.bsky.social and @tara-macdonald.bsky.social, is officially in pre-production at @sunypress.bsky.social and slated for pub in 2026!
Reposted by Diana Bellonby
Mamdani went to a small college similar to the one where I work and majored in Africana Studies. From now on my answer to the microaggressive question of “what can one (even) do with a Black Studies degree from a liberal arts college?” is “You can run New York.”
November 6, 2025 at 2:57 AM
Mamdani went to a small college similar to the one where I work and majored in Africana Studies. From now on my answer to the microaggressive question of “what can one (even) do with a Black Studies degree from a liberal arts college?” is “You can run New York.”
Reposted by Diana Bellonby
Socialism starts with me curled up under a blanket on my couch feeling joy for half a second
November 5, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Socialism starts with me curled up under a blanket on my couch feeling joy for half a second
Reposted by Diana Bellonby
Today is the official publication day for POETRY IN GENERAL: How a Literary From Became Public.
✨ Now available wherever books are sold ✨
Use CUP20 for a discount from the press
cup.columbia.edu/book/poetry-...
✨ Now available wherever books are sold ✨
Use CUP20 for a discount from the press
cup.columbia.edu/book/poetry-...
November 4, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Today is the official publication day for POETRY IN GENERAL: How a Literary From Became Public.
✨ Now available wherever books are sold ✨
Use CUP20 for a discount from the press
cup.columbia.edu/book/poetry-...
✨ Now available wherever books are sold ✨
Use CUP20 for a discount from the press
cup.columbia.edu/book/poetry-...
Reposted by Diana Bellonby
A reminder that we're collecting books, chapters, and journal articles by non-TT historians for publication in our year-end lists. Anything with a 2025 pub date is eligible and you can submit for your friends/colleagues! contingentmagazine.org/yearly-pub-l...
Publications by Non-Tenure-Track Historians
Since we began publishing in 2019, Contingent has published end-of-year lists of books and articles by non-tenure-track historians released in the past calendar year. To submit something for inclusion...
contingentmagazine.org
October 24, 2025 at 12:09 AM
A reminder that we're collecting books, chapters, and journal articles by non-TT historians for publication in our year-end lists. Anything with a 2025 pub date is eligible and you can submit for your friends/colleagues! contingentmagazine.org/yearly-pub-l...
Think you're an expert on all things #gaslighting? Check out what my co-editor has to say about the lost ending of *Gaslight*, which I suspect you've never heard about before! @noragilbert.bsky.social
The Lost Ending of “Gaslight” That You Didn’t Know You Needed - Public Books
The only way to really understand the term is to sit down and watch the harrowing psychological film from which it got its name.
www.publicbooks.org
October 28, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Think you're an expert on all things #gaslighting? Check out what my co-editor has to say about the lost ending of *Gaslight*, which I suspect you've never heard about before! @noragilbert.bsky.social
Reposted by Diana Bellonby
I couldn’t listen to the survivors of Epstein’s abuse without thinking about my own rape - questions unanswered by his enablers, reports unreleased by Stanford. But I’m glad I did listen, and I’m grateful for their astounding courage, eloquence, and generosity. Solidarity and #MeToo
September 5, 2025 at 4:48 PM
I couldn’t listen to the survivors of Epstein’s abuse without thinking about my own rape - questions unanswered by his enablers, reports unreleased by Stanford. But I’m glad I did listen, and I’m grateful for their astounding courage, eloquence, and generosity. Solidarity and #MeToo
Reposted by Diana Bellonby
I can’t believe my life is being affected by the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment
newrepublic.com/article/2013...
newrepublic.com/article/2013...
Why This Essay Could Cause the University of Virginia to Shut Down
How Linda McMahon’s latest “compact” would do deep and permanent harm to American higher education
newrepublic.com
October 7, 2025 at 11:06 AM
I can’t believe my life is being affected by the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment
newrepublic.com/article/2013...
newrepublic.com/article/2013...
Happy Pub Day, @donikakelly.bsky.social! This book, like its author, is gorgeous. Go treat yourself to a copy.
The Natural Order of Things: Poems
Poems
bookshop.org
October 7, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Happy Pub Day, @donikakelly.bsky.social! This book, like its author, is gorgeous. Go treat yourself to a copy.
Look what has a website now! If you teach at a university, please tell your library to order a copy. I promise you'll enjoy teaching this book!
Victorian Gaslighting
sunypress.edu
September 30, 2025 at 10:51 PM
Look what has a website now! If you teach at a university, please tell your library to order a copy. I promise you'll enjoy teaching this book!
Reposted by Diana Bellonby
It is, far and away, the most challenging thing I’ve encountered since entering the academy. And that is saying a lot. I might be working on this but I keep putting it aside because I’m not medicated enough to describe how demoralizing it all is.
We have allowed the lazy, grifting Silicon Valley charlatans into the front door, & in doing so, we have learned just how many of our own colleagues & administrators simply are not interested in the actual business of education. It's incredibly demoralizing.
bsky.app/profile/mcop...
bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Thanks so much for your reporting on this, Ben. I just got an email from my campus's IT office triumphantly advertising free student access to four different AI models -- at the same time as we have a hiring freeze, caps on grad enrollment, and a 7% budget cut -- and wanted to scream.
September 27, 2025 at 9:29 PM
It is, far and away, the most challenging thing I’ve encountered since entering the academy. And that is saying a lot. I might be working on this but I keep putting it aside because I’m not medicated enough to describe how demoralizing it all is.
Reposted by Diana Bellonby
Reading books is becoming an act of resistance.
September 6, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Reading books is becoming an act of resistance.
Reposted by Diana Bellonby
One double bind of anti-rape feminism: women’s experiences of sexual violence are no guarantee of their feminist solidarity, and women’s loyalty to men or tolerance for their violence against other women is no guarantee of their personal safety.
August 26, 2025 at 2:54 PM
One double bind of anti-rape feminism: women’s experiences of sexual violence are no guarantee of their feminist solidarity, and women’s loyalty to men or tolerance for their violence against other women is no guarantee of their personal safety.
My 8-year-old calls cell phones "skinny rectangles of doom." I mean. He's not wrong.
August 25, 2025 at 10:05 PM
My 8-year-old calls cell phones "skinny rectangles of doom." I mean. He's not wrong.
Cover design is in! Nobody has a better "fuck you" face than Ingrid Bergman. #coverdesign #bookcover #gaslighting @sunypress.bsky.social @tara-macdonald.bsky.social @noragilbert.bsky.social
August 24, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Cover design is in! Nobody has a better "fuck you" face than Ingrid Bergman. #coverdesign #bookcover #gaslighting @sunypress.bsky.social @tara-macdonald.bsky.social @noragilbert.bsky.social
This Shakespeare-to-Millais-to-Swift gem is the unexpected literary allusion I needed today! Yes, there's a bathtub story behind Millais's 1852 painting AND Swift's album cover. Can't WAIT to hear "The Fate of Ophelia." (Images by Wikimedia Commons) #thelifeofashowgirl #taylorswift #lizziesiddal
August 15, 2025 at 6:09 PM
This Shakespeare-to-Millais-to-Swift gem is the unexpected literary allusion I needed today! Yes, there's a bathtub story behind Millais's 1852 painting AND Swift's album cover. Can't WAIT to hear "The Fate of Ophelia." (Images by Wikimedia Commons) #thelifeofashowgirl #taylorswift #lizziesiddal
If you like this fabulous essay, check out Grace's chapter in the forthcoming collection on Victorian Gaslighting (out March 2026, available for preorder Sept 2025), coedited by @tara-macdonald.bsky.social, @noragilbert.bsky.social, and me!
67.1 Essay Spotlight: "Gaslighting: The Material History of a Metaphor"
Read Grace Franklin's essay on the material history underpinning the concept of psychological gaslighting: muse.jhu.edu/pub/3/articl...
Read Grace Franklin's essay on the material history underpinning the concept of psychological gaslighting: muse.jhu.edu/pub/3/articl...
August 15, 2025 at 5:29 PM
If you like this fabulous essay, check out Grace's chapter in the forthcoming collection on Victorian Gaslighting (out March 2026, available for preorder Sept 2025), coedited by @tara-macdonald.bsky.social, @noragilbert.bsky.social, and me!
"One reason this violence is so unacknowledged is that it is in the most literal sense not news – there are tides of hatred and violence against other groups that ebb and flow, but violence against women is global and enduring, a constant rather than an event."
Epstein Is Only the Tip of the Iceberg: The Trump Protection Machine and the Epidemic of Violence Against Women
On July 2, the jury delivered a guilty verdict on some of the charges against music mogul Sean Combs for his decades of horrific sexual abuse of women with the help of his extensive staff and deep poc...
www.meditationsinanemergency.com
August 1, 2025 at 12:43 AM
"One reason this violence is so unacknowledged is that it is in the most literal sense not news – there are tides of hatred and violence against other groups that ebb and flow, but violence against women is global and enduring, a constant rather than an event."
Reposted by Diana Bellonby
As Epstein is back up in the news, reminder:
-1 in 9 girls* &
-1 in 20 boys* under the age of 18 experience SA
-Female ppl* aged 16-19 are 4x more likely than the general population to be victims of SA or attempted SA
Some of those survivors read your skeets.
*& presumably nonbinary & gnc ppl
-1 in 9 girls* &
-1 in 20 boys* under the age of 18 experience SA
-Female ppl* aged 16-19 are 4x more likely than the general population to be victims of SA or attempted SA
Some of those survivors read your skeets.
*& presumably nonbinary & gnc ppl
July 18, 2025 at 2:33 AM
As Epstein is back up in the news, reminder:
-1 in 9 girls* &
-1 in 20 boys* under the age of 18 experience SA
-Female ppl* aged 16-19 are 4x more likely than the general population to be victims of SA or attempted SA
Some of those survivors read your skeets.
*& presumably nonbinary & gnc ppl
-1 in 9 girls* &
-1 in 20 boys* under the age of 18 experience SA
-Female ppl* aged 16-19 are 4x more likely than the general population to be victims of SA or attempted SA
Some of those survivors read your skeets.
*& presumably nonbinary & gnc ppl
Summer highlight: partying w Jacques Pépin, who has a new book coming out in Sept. As we perused his memoir, he joked that it'd make me fall asleep. We chatted about Victorian Gaslighting and my memoir. He issued judgments on food and wine gently, never imperiously. This man is a national treasure.
July 17, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Summer highlight: partying w Jacques Pépin, who has a new book coming out in Sept. As we perused his memoir, he joked that it'd make me fall asleep. We chatted about Victorian Gaslighting and my memoir. He issued judgments on food and wine gently, never imperiously. This man is a national treasure.
Reposted by Diana Bellonby
This is #BookHistory too. Of a heartbreaking kind.
Tho' I imagine they haven't succeeded in accessing ICE detention facilities, this seems a good time to remind people to support the Prison Book Program (prisonbookprogram.org), which does amazing work compensating for the cruelties Öztürk describes
Tho' I imagine they haven't succeeded in accessing ICE detention facilities, this seems a good time to remind people to support the Prison Book Program (prisonbookprogram.org), which does amazing work compensating for the cruelties Öztürk describes
July 17, 2025 at 3:03 PM
This is #BookHistory too. Of a heartbreaking kind.
Tho' I imagine they haven't succeeded in accessing ICE detention facilities, this seems a good time to remind people to support the Prison Book Program (prisonbookprogram.org), which does amazing work compensating for the cruelties Öztürk describes
Tho' I imagine they haven't succeeded in accessing ICE detention facilities, this seems a good time to remind people to support the Prison Book Program (prisonbookprogram.org), which does amazing work compensating for the cruelties Öztürk describes
Reposted by Diana Bellonby
My textbook is finally available! 'Writing on Fire: A Fierce Yet Friendly Guide to Writing Humanities Essays in College.' There are chapters on close reading, thesis statements, all the good stuff. If you teach writing via a humanities subject, check it out! broadviewpress.com/product/writ...
Writing on Fire - Broadview Press
Writing on Fire -
broadviewpress.com
October 26, 2024 at 4:51 PM
My textbook is finally available! 'Writing on Fire: A Fierce Yet Friendly Guide to Writing Humanities Essays in College.' There are chapters on close reading, thesis statements, all the good stuff. If you teach writing via a humanities subject, check it out! broadviewpress.com/product/writ...
Reposted by Diana Bellonby
I wrote about Adriana Smith, the Georgia woman whose corpse was used to incubate a fetus, and the moral horror of seeing a human body treated as a instrument for the agendas of people more powerful than the woman who inhabited it. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
July 9, 2025 at 2:02 PM
I wrote about Adriana Smith, the Georgia woman whose corpse was used to incubate a fetus, and the moral horror of seeing a human body treated as a instrument for the agendas of people more powerful than the woman who inhabited it. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Jamie Hood is coming to Philly Aug 26th! #traumaplot
XVII. Post-op
; or, Three Months of Trauma Plot + A Tour
proustproject.substack.com
July 7, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Jamie Hood is coming to Philly Aug 26th! #traumaplot
Yep. These villains even appear *proud* of their unskilled, unoriginal evildoing.
The propaganda of my youth made me believe villains were invested in being skilled at something. These days, the evil-doers can’t DO anything but publicly suck. They can’t make anything. They don’t build anything. It’s not even innovative evil. Just the same old mess with a new loser at the helm.
July 7, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Yep. These villains even appear *proud* of their unskilled, unoriginal evildoing.
Reposted by Diana Bellonby
Re the Q of “brands” & reading cultural production institutionally: there was a fascinating write-up in PW abt an Apr panel of indie publishers arguing that small/indie presses have MORE “brand” ID/recognition than big corp publishers and I’d agree—re UPs too www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...
Small Ships in Big Waters: How Indie Publishers Navigate the World
Europa Editions and New Directions from the U.S., as well as publishers from Brazil and Uruguay, discussed the advantages and opportunities of working free from corporate demands at a day-long seminar...
www.publishersweekly.com
July 4, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Re the Q of “brands” & reading cultural production institutionally: there was a fascinating write-up in PW abt an Apr panel of indie publishers arguing that small/indie presses have MORE “brand” ID/recognition than big corp publishers and I’d agree—re UPs too www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...