DeclanKavanagh.bsky.social
@drdeclankavanagh.bsky.social
Senior Lecturer in 18th-century Studies (Queer & Disability Studies). Author of *Effeminate Years* (2017); co-editor of *The Edinburgh Companion to Queer Reading* (2025). Views my own, not employer’s.
Pinned
Film: Disability in Britain and Ireland – 1714 to 1785
eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com
Really pleased that the lecture I gave on disability in history for @histassoc.bsky.social is now live and #openaccess #DisabilityHistoryMonth #CriptheCurriculum #18C #WilliamHay #LifeWriting Link: eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...
Didn’t think I could love Diane Morgan more but here we are #Uncanny
#UncannyCommunity, GET YOUR XMAS JUMPERS READY! Because the experiences that Diane Morgan will share in tomorrow’s #Uncanny Xmas Special will chill you to the bone🥶
Listen to Case 9: The Uncanny Christmas Casebook TOMORROW on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts!
Listen to Case 9: The Uncanny Christmas Casebook TOMORROW on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts!
December 24, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Didn’t think I could love Diane Morgan more but here we are #Uncanny
Christmas Eve jog (very slow)
December 24, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Christmas Eve jog (very slow)
Reposted by DeclanKavanagh.bsky.social
Not now, haunted Victorian shoes
Mystery as hundreds of Victorian shoes wash up on Ogmore beach
Mystery as hundreds of Victorian shoes wash up on Ogmore beach
More than 400 leather hobnailed boots, thought to date back to the 19th Century, have been found.
www.bbc.com
December 23, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Not now, haunted Victorian shoes
Just watched ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ in its entirety for the first time thanks to @curzon.com loved it!
December 21, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Just watched ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ in its entirety for the first time thanks to @curzon.com loved it!
Reposted by DeclanKavanagh.bsky.social
This book, to be precise. www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....
The Corpse in Modern Irish Literature | Home
Christopher Cusack (Radboud University) has published widely on Irish and Irish-diasporic literature. His monograph The Great Famine in Irish and North American Fiction, 1892-1921 is forthcoming from Liverpool University Press.
www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk
December 21, 2025 at 4:03 PM
This book, to be precise. www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....
Reposted by DeclanKavanagh.bsky.social
"In an era where the authentic written word is under threat....English isn't just about reading the past--it's about understanding the power of words and narratives in the present and future and giving our students the skills to successfully navigate the world".
True of all UK English programmes.
True of all UK English programmes.
Today the Sunday Times discusses the decline in students studying A-level and beyond. I believe this is reversible. I believe it is necessary. And I’m glad to have some of my words on the importance of the discipline and the vibrancy of our degrees in English at York in the article.
December 21, 2025 at 10:23 AM
"In an era where the authentic written word is under threat....English isn't just about reading the past--it's about understanding the power of words and narratives in the present and future and giving our students the skills to successfully navigate the world".
True of all UK English programmes.
True of all UK English programmes.
I’ve been thinking of queer Christmas films and wondered if you could all help me add to the list. So far I’ve got the following… #QueerXmasFilms
December 21, 2025 at 9:16 AM
I’ve been thinking of queer Christmas films and wondered if you could all help me add to the list. So far I’ve got the following… #QueerXmasFilms
My winter solstice #Newgrange poem for the day that’s in it. Published in Drawn to the Light edited by Orla Fay
December 21, 2025 at 7:35 AM
My winter solstice #Newgrange poem for the day that’s in it. Published in Drawn to the Light edited by Orla Fay
Reposted by DeclanKavanagh.bsky.social
An 18th-century treatise by coffee enthusiast Benjamin Moseley, arguing for the drink's multitude of benefits when it was still relatively new to Europe: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/moseley-coffee
December 19, 2025 at 5:46 PM
An 18th-century treatise by coffee enthusiast Benjamin Moseley, arguing for the drink's multitude of benefits when it was still relatively new to Europe: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/moseley-coffee
Reposted by DeclanKavanagh.bsky.social
Amazon has one hardcover of my book left with a 35% discount. Someone must need a Christmas present still… www.amazon.com/Flooded-Past...
Flooded Pasts: UNESCO, Nubia, and the Recolonization of Archaeology
Flooded Pasts: UNESCO, Nubia, and the Recolonization of Archaeology [Carruthers, William] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Flooded Pasts: UNESCO, Nubia, and the Recolonization of Archaeology
www.amazon.com
December 19, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Amazon has one hardcover of my book left with a 35% discount. Someone must need a Christmas present still… www.amazon.com/Flooded-Past...
“So total is the cis woman’s right to safety that she cannot even be asked to stop and think of the other; just as the total right to Jewish safety means that any appeal to the dignity of Palestinian life is already an antisemitic assault”. - powerful piece @lrb.co.uk www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Amia Srinivasan · The Impossible Patient: Return of the Unconscious
You may not wish to commit yourself ontologically to some thing called the ‘unconscious’, and you may reasonably...
www.lrb.co.uk
December 17, 2025 at 9:24 PM
“So total is the cis woman’s right to safety that she cannot even be asked to stop and think of the other; just as the total right to Jewish safety means that any appeal to the dignity of Palestinian life is already an antisemitic assault”. - powerful piece @lrb.co.uk www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
December 16, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Reposted by DeclanKavanagh.bsky.social
Pleased to be interviewed for this much needed piece on the rising transphobia in higher education.
www.timeshighereducation.com/news/trans-s...
(Archive link: archive.is/oYqXS)
www.timeshighereducation.com/news/trans-s...
(Archive link: archive.is/oYqXS)
Trans scholars being ‘pushed out of academia’, researchers warn
Universities ‘afraid to be trans inclusive’ after Supreme Court ruling and OfS Sussex fine, leaving staff fearing ‘hostile environment’
www.timeshighereducation.com
December 15, 2025 at 8:34 AM
Pleased to be interviewed for this much needed piece on the rising transphobia in higher education.
www.timeshighereducation.com/news/trans-s...
(Archive link: archive.is/oYqXS)
www.timeshighereducation.com/news/trans-s...
(Archive link: archive.is/oYqXS)
Ready to be festively spooked 👻 🎄@barbican.bsky.social
December 14, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Ready to be festively spooked 👻 🎄@barbican.bsky.social
Reposted by DeclanKavanagh.bsky.social
They used to "laugh and call him names." Now they're all dead
December 14, 2025 at 1:55 PM
They used to "laugh and call him names." Now they're all dead
Reposted by DeclanKavanagh.bsky.social
Palaeographers: you definitely should consider applying to this illustrious fund:
We are still accepting applications to the Neil Ker Memorial Fund 2026, open to both early career and established scholars of any nationality. Awards are tenable for a maximum of 12 months. Find out more and apply: https://bit.ly/4hO0Oo1
December 11, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Palaeographers: you definitely should consider applying to this illustrious fund:
Regional economies will suffer so much. Where’s the government?
Ongoing 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
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
December 11, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Regional economies will suffer so much. Where’s the government?
Reposted by DeclanKavanagh.bsky.social
🎁 Poem-a-day advent calendar 🎁 Day 10 is 'Elegy for a Corkwoman Who Died in Winter' from 'Quality Control at the Miracle Factory' by Patrick Cotter 💖
December 10, 2025 at 10:11 AM
🎁 Poem-a-day advent calendar 🎁 Day 10 is 'Elegy for a Corkwoman Who Died in Winter' from 'Quality Control at the Miracle Factory' by Patrick Cotter 💖
Reposted by DeclanKavanagh.bsky.social
Great to see the programme for the @long18thsem.bsky.social for next term @ihrlibrary.bsky.social . You can register to attend either in person or online here: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
December 10, 2025 at 9:33 AM
Great to see the programme for the @long18thsem.bsky.social for next term @ihrlibrary.bsky.social . You can register to attend either in person or online here: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
Journey to Manchester by train begins. Looking forward to addressing the University of Manchester’s ‘Queer 18th & 19th century Research Network’. I’ll be speaking about queer/crip bodies in life writing, satire and the sentimental novel #Crip #18thcentury #memoir
December 10, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Journey to Manchester by train begins. Looking forward to addressing the University of Manchester’s ‘Queer 18th & 19th century Research Network’. I’ll be speaking about queer/crip bodies in life writing, satire and the sentimental novel #Crip #18thcentury #memoir
Me during the Q&A
December 9, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Me during the Q&A
Reposted by DeclanKavanagh.bsky.social
The older I get, the more I realize my teenage derision with Mrs. Bennet was naive at best. She has FIVE kids on the brink of pecuniary distress and needs a lie down sometimes. Meanwhile, I had an unpleasant 10 second interaction with a stranger, and I'm done for the day.
December 7, 2025 at 8:53 PM
The older I get, the more I realize my teenage derision with Mrs. Bennet was naive at best. She has FIVE kids on the brink of pecuniary distress and needs a lie down sometimes. Meanwhile, I had an unpleasant 10 second interaction with a stranger, and I'm done for the day.
Reposted by DeclanKavanagh.bsky.social
The most realistic scene in DS9 is when Gul Dukat whined about how the Bajorans never erected a statue in his honor. A prophetic text.
December 6, 2025 at 5:32 PM
The most realistic scene in DS9 is when Gul Dukat whined about how the Bajorans never erected a statue in his honor. A prophetic text.
Working on this talk today!
Finally on 10 December we're delighted to be joined by @drdeclankavanagh.bsky.social who is giving a paper on Michael Clancy and queer/crip life-writing
December 7, 2025 at 10:51 AM
Working on this talk today!