Efram Sera-Shriar
@dreframss.bsky.social
Historian of occultism and science, Victorianist, anthropologist, associate professor at the University of Copenhagen, and bass player. Lover of classic videogames. 🎮 Views own. (https://www.eframserashriar.com)
Pinned
Efram Sera-Shriar
@dreframss.bsky.social
· Aug 21
It is my great pleasure to share the cover for my new book **PSYCHIC INVESTIGATORS** which was published in June 2022 with the University of Pittsburgh Press.
More details here: https://upittpress.org/books/9780822947073/
More details here: https://upittpress.org/books/9780822947073/
I'm extremely excited that the Forum section I'm co-organising with the amazing @enwright.bsky.social on British historical game studies has been green lit by a journal. More details to come in due course. What a nice way to end the semester.
a green approved stamp with a black background
ALT: a green approved stamp with a black background
media.tenor.com
December 19, 2025 at 1:29 PM
I'm extremely excited that the Forum section I'm co-organising with the amazing @enwright.bsky.social on British historical game studies has been green lit by a journal. More details to come in due course. What a nice way to end the semester.
I've finished Stray. What a game! If you are looking for a great escape this holiday season, I highly recommend it. I enjoyed it so much, it is going straight into teaching.
December 19, 2025 at 9:56 AM
I've finished Stray. What a game! If you are looking for a great escape this holiday season, I highly recommend it. I enjoyed it so much, it is going straight into teaching.
After a series of delays, my article "Harry Price and the Crawley Poltergeist" has finally been published in the Magazine of the Society for Psychical Research. A big thanks to @emmamerkling.bsky.social, who originally directed me to the case and digitised the requisite archival material.
December 19, 2025 at 8:12 AM
After a series of delays, my article "Harry Price and the Crawley Poltergeist" has finally been published in the Magazine of the Society for Psychical Research. A big thanks to @emmamerkling.bsky.social, who originally directed me to the case and digitised the requisite archival material.
Reposted by Efram Sera-Shriar
🗃️ My History Department is hiring for a tenure track position in Native American history. See link for details!
jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDeta...
jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDeta...
Assistant or Associate Professor of History
jobs.colorado.edu
December 16, 2025 at 9:33 PM
🗃️ My History Department is hiring for a tenure track position in Native American history. See link for details!
jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDeta...
jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDeta...
We won! We bloody won! Woooooooo! 🥳
December 17, 2025 at 8:15 AM
We won! We bloody won! Woooooooo! 🥳
I forgot about this advert for Pelikan's cough medicine. What a list of ingredients 😂 "The best and safest cough remedy"
December 16, 2025 at 10:10 AM
I forgot about this advert for Pelikan's cough medicine. What a list of ingredients 😂 "The best and safest cough remedy"
Aren't these woodcuts from my 1920 edition of Lewis Carroll's Alice stories delightful? It is the Red Queen being shaken into a kitten. 💕
December 12, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Aren't these woodcuts from my 1920 edition of Lewis Carroll's Alice stories delightful? It is the Red Queen being shaken into a kitten. 💕
Genuine question, is it too much to assign both Alice stories in a single week for an upper-level BA course? I wouldn't say they are heavy reads, but there is a lot to discuss. Thoughts? Normally, I would spread it over two weeks.
a cartoon of alice from alice in wonderland with her hand on her chin
ALT: a cartoon of alice from alice in wonderland with her hand on her chin
media.tenor.com
December 12, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Genuine question, is it too much to assign both Alice stories in a single week for an upper-level BA course? I wouldn't say they are heavy reads, but there is a lot to discuss. Thoughts? Normally, I would spread it over two weeks.
It is the end of the semester and this is my current state of health. It hurts to just sit and stare into the void right now... 🤧
a painting of a woman laying in a bed with a blue blanket and a white pillow
ALT: a painting of a woman laying in a bed with a blue blanket and a white pillow
media.tenor.com
December 10, 2025 at 9:47 AM
It is the end of the semester and this is my current state of health. It hurts to just sit and stare into the void right now... 🤧
My awesome friend (and colleague) @sharonchoe.bsky.social is organising a cool conference @ucph.bsky.social. Check out the call 👇
CfP: Networks of Antiquity, University of Copenhagen, 7-8th May 2026. Abstracts due 31st January!
www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6237...
www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6237...
Call for Papers: Networks of Antiquity – BARS Blog
www.bars.ac.uk
December 9, 2025 at 1:51 PM
My awesome friend (and colleague) @sharonchoe.bsky.social is organising a cool conference @ucph.bsky.social. Check out the call 👇
It still blows my mind that in the 1980s we played videogame off of cassette tapes. Everything about it makes so little sense. Yet when you read about how it worked, you discover how bloody brilliant the process truly was. Also, the cover art for Ghosts n Goblins port on the Spectrum was awful!
December 9, 2025 at 1:49 PM
It still blows my mind that in the 1980s we played videogame off of cassette tapes. Everything about it makes so little sense. Yet when you read about how it worked, you discover how bloody brilliant the process truly was. Also, the cover art for Ghosts n Goblins port on the Spectrum was awful!
An exciting opportunity to do some important groundwork for a growing museological interest in video games at the National Museum of Scotland.
Are you a scholar in Games Studies, Museum Studies and/or Digital Humanities and want to help NMS develop research in Collecting Video Game Heritage? Come and apply to be an IASH Fellow at the University of Edinburgh!
Applications
Opens - Dec 25
Closes - April 26
www.iash.ed.ac.uk/iash-nationa...
Applications
Opens - Dec 25
Closes - April 26
www.iash.ed.ac.uk/iash-nationa...
IASH-National Museums Scotland Fellowship | IASH
www.iash.ed.ac.uk
December 1, 2025 at 10:25 AM
An exciting opportunity to do some important groundwork for a growing museological interest in video games at the National Museum of Scotland.
You know what song's a banger? "It Won't Be Long" It is such an under-discussed Beatles gem.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOTv...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOTv...
It Won't Be Long (Remastered 2009)
YouTube video by The Beatles - Topic
www.youtube.com
December 1, 2025 at 7:39 AM
You know what song's a banger? "It Won't Be Long" It is such an under-discussed Beatles gem.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOTv...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOTv...
Reposted by Efram Sera-Shriar
What makes historic collections difficult? And how do researchers work with “difficult” collections?
New CFP from Paper Trails here:
blogs.ucl.ac.uk/special-coll...
Deadline for proposals 31/1/2026
🗃️
New CFP from Paper Trails here:
blogs.ucl.ac.uk/special-coll...
Deadline for proposals 31/1/2026
🗃️
Call for Papers: Difficult Collections | UCL UCL Special Collections
UCL Homepage
blogs.ucl.ac.uk
November 27, 2025 at 6:21 PM
What makes historic collections difficult? And how do researchers work with “difficult” collections?
New CFP from Paper Trails here:
blogs.ucl.ac.uk/special-coll...
Deadline for proposals 31/1/2026
🗃️
New CFP from Paper Trails here:
blogs.ucl.ac.uk/special-coll...
Deadline for proposals 31/1/2026
🗃️
Reposted by Efram Sera-Shriar
“Parlor Ornament”. Postcard from my collection, 1906.
November 26, 2025 at 6:25 AM
“Parlor Ornament”. Postcard from my collection, 1906.
Reposted by Efram Sera-Shriar
Important role - new Chair of the Board of @ukri.org
£33k for one day a week. Closes 11 Jan. Would be good from my perspective to get someone who understands higher education and the value of the arts, humanities and social sciences!
plusportal.perrettlaver.com/VacancyDetai...
£33k for one day a week. Closes 11 Jan. Would be good from my perspective to get someone who understands higher education and the value of the arts, humanities and social sciences!
plusportal.perrettlaver.com/VacancyDetai...
Perrett Laver - Leading Global Executive Search Firm
plusportal.perrettlaver.com
November 24, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Important role - new Chair of the Board of @ukri.org
£33k for one day a week. Closes 11 Jan. Would be good from my perspective to get someone who understands higher education and the value of the arts, humanities and social sciences!
plusportal.perrettlaver.com/VacancyDetai...
£33k for one day a week. Closes 11 Jan. Would be good from my perspective to get someone who understands higher education and the value of the arts, humanities and social sciences!
plusportal.perrettlaver.com/VacancyDetai...
Still working through my chapter on Henry Slade's alleged exposure by E Ray Lankester in 1876. There are so many wonderful woodcuts from the trial, including this one from The Graphic in October of that year.
November 25, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Still working through my chapter on Henry Slade's alleged exposure by E Ray Lankester in 1876. There are so many wonderful woodcuts from the trial, including this one from The Graphic in October of that year.
Do I have any contacts on here interested in the history of the Gamboy?
a white nintendo game boy with a game on the screen
ALT: a white nintendo game boy with a game on the screen
media.tenor.com
November 25, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Do I have any contacts on here interested in the history of the Gamboy?
If you missed our online seminar for @royalsocietypublishing.org yesterday on British-Japanese science in the nineteenth century, you can now watch the recording here: cassyni.com/events/RGh39...
Cassyni | Science starts with a seminar
Seamlessly organise, run and publish academic research seminars. Get started in minutes.
cassyni.com
November 19, 2025 at 9:31 AM
If you missed our online seminar for @royalsocietypublishing.org yesterday on British-Japanese science in the nineteenth century, you can now watch the recording here: cassyni.com/events/RGh39...
Reposted by Efram Sera-Shriar
Mystified by how to approach an academic journal editor? Need help getting through the "revise and resubmit" doldrums? Our next #RSVPDigiEvent can help! Join us next Friday, Nov. 21 and hear from the editors of top #Victorian journals on "How to Get Published in a Academic Journal": buff.ly/ydJkKAK
How to Get Published in an Academic Journal – RSVP
Join us Friday, November 21 for a special professional development session on how to get published in an academic journal!
buff.ly
November 14, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Mystified by how to approach an academic journal editor? Need help getting through the "revise and resubmit" doldrums? Our next #RSVPDigiEvent can help! Join us next Friday, Nov. 21 and hear from the editors of top #Victorian journals on "How to Get Published in a Academic Journal": buff.ly/ydJkKAK
I'm saddened to learn of the death of the legendary game designer Rebecca Heineman - who was the O.G. of video game competitions. Heineman won the Space Invaders championship in 1980! RIP 🪦
www.pcgamer.com/gaming-indus...
www.pcgamer.com/gaming-indus...
Legendary game designer, programmer, Space Invaders champion, and LGBTQ trailblazer Rebecca Heineman has died
Heineman's cancer fundraiser is now collecting for her funeral.
www.pcgamer.com
November 18, 2025 at 1:11 PM
I'm saddened to learn of the death of the legendary game designer Rebecca Heineman - who was the O.G. of video game competitions. Heineman won the Space Invaders championship in 1980! RIP 🪦
www.pcgamer.com/gaming-indus...
www.pcgamer.com/gaming-indus...
What the auctioneers don't know is that Gladys is possessed by an evil spirit and every evening awakens to abduct a new victim to drag down to the underworld... 😈
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Rare Victorian mannequin to be auctioned in Banbury
The doll, known to the family as Gladys, belonged to renowned sculptor James Butler MBE.
www.bbc.com
November 18, 2025 at 8:50 AM
What the auctioneers don't know is that Gladys is possessed by an evil spirit and every evening awakens to abduct a new victim to drag down to the underworld... 😈
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
I'm giving a talk tomorrow for @royalsocietypublishing.org. It's on the Japanese anthropologist Baba Tatsui who worked with E.B. Tylor on the first English-language translation of the Kojiki. Baba also wrote an amazing book on Japanese ethnographic impressions of the British in Japan in 1875.
November 17, 2025 at 2:35 PM
I'm giving a talk tomorrow for @royalsocietypublishing.org. It's on the Japanese anthropologist Baba Tatsui who worked with E.B. Tylor on the first English-language translation of the Kojiki. Baba also wrote an amazing book on Japanese ethnographic impressions of the British in Japan in 1875.
This sounds super cool, and what a lineup!
This Saturday I'll be assisting at the wonderful @ForteanLondon 'Haunted Landscape VII: Ghosts, Magic and Folklore' at @ConwayHall. Speakers include @IcySedgwick @folklorepod @magicnotwitches @TheProfRog @odavies9 @CeriHoulbrook. Join us! forteanlondon.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-...
The Haunted Landscape 2025: Ghosts, Magic and Lore
Whose claws are scratching at the church door? What’s that ghost tumbling over the moor? Who’s that figure cut into the earth? What can I do...
forteanlondon.blogspot.com
November 17, 2025 at 9:24 AM
This sounds super cool, and what a lineup!