Jess Masters
@jessmasters.bsky.social
English PhD & sessional academic, U Sydney | Modernist Studies Association Grad Student Rep | co-editor Book Reviews Space Between journal | never not thinking about form |
The nested narratives in this
this is how you become an English literature academic
October 15, 2025 at 9:45 PM
The nested narratives in this
Reposted by Jess Masters
Believe it or not, it's already time to think about MSA 2026 in Loughborough, UK. The conference will meet July 1-4, and proposals for panels, papers, roundtables, workshops, and seminars is December 1. Please note this MUCH earlier deadline. The CFP is here: www.moderniststudies.org/conference/M...
October 13, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Believe it or not, it's already time to think about MSA 2026 in Loughborough, UK. The conference will meet July 1-4, and proposals for panels, papers, roundtables, workshops, and seminars is December 1. Please note this MUCH earlier deadline. The CFP is here: www.moderniststudies.org/conference/M...
The first rule of NYC is obviously mind your business, but the second one appears to be that now it's legal to jaywalk, it's stupid not to
October 13, 2025 at 4:52 PM
The first rule of NYC is obviously mind your business, but the second one appears to be that now it's legal to jaywalk, it's stupid not to
Now that the amazing and insanely full MSA Boston conference is over, I'm just making sure the place in NYC where EE Cummings would bellow YOU ALRIGHT DJUNA to Barnes across the way is still there (it's there)
@moderniststudies.bsky.social
@moderniststudies.bsky.social
October 13, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Now that the amazing and insanely full MSA Boston conference is over, I'm just making sure the place in NYC where EE Cummings would bellow YOU ALRIGHT DJUNA to Barnes across the way is still there (it's there)
@moderniststudies.bsky.social
@moderniststudies.bsky.social
MSA friends! Come watch me read a (too hastily-written) paper on ekphrastic accumulation at 10.15 on Friday and perhaps, if you're lucky, you may even see me butcher @glavey.bsky.social 's amazing work! The potential for fun is endless @moderniststudies.bsky.social
October 10, 2025 at 7:59 AM
MSA friends! Come watch me read a (too hastily-written) paper on ekphrastic accumulation at 10.15 on Friday and perhaps, if you're lucky, you may even see me butcher @glavey.bsky.social 's amazing work! The potential for fun is endless @moderniststudies.bsky.social
Reposted by Jess Masters
Through her creative platform, Saint Heron, Solange has launched The Saint Heron Library, a digital archive dedicated to making rare and out-of-print works by Black authors, poets, and artists accessible to all.
🔗 library.saintheron.com
🔗 library.saintheron.com
September 26, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Through her creative platform, Saint Heron, Solange has launched The Saint Heron Library, a digital archive dedicated to making rare and out-of-print works by Black authors, poets, and artists accessible to all.
🔗 library.saintheron.com
🔗 library.saintheron.com
Reposted by Jess Masters
Oddballs unite for a Euro summer!
The CFP for next year's joint MSA/BAMS conference in Loughborough, UK is out! As a longtime oddball, am thrilled for a Euro summer, 'Weird Modernisms'-style
@moderniststudies.bsky.social @modernistudies.bsky.social
@moderniststudies.bsky.social @modernistudies.bsky.social
pls RT, modernists - CFP now out for 'Weird Modernisms', the collaborative conference between @modernistudies.bsky.social and @moderniststudies.bsky.social !
July 2026, Loughborough University.
www.moderniststudies.org/conference/M...
July 2026, Loughborough University.
www.moderniststudies.org/conference/M...
August 19, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Oddballs unite for a Euro summer!
The CFP for next year's joint MSA/BAMS conference in Loughborough, UK is out! As a longtime oddball, am thrilled for a Euro summer, 'Weird Modernisms'-style
@moderniststudies.bsky.social @modernistudies.bsky.social
@moderniststudies.bsky.social @modernistudies.bsky.social
pls RT, modernists - CFP now out for 'Weird Modernisms', the collaborative conference between @modernistudies.bsky.social and @moderniststudies.bsky.social !
July 2026, Loughborough University.
www.moderniststudies.org/conference/M...
July 2026, Loughborough University.
www.moderniststudies.org/conference/M...
August 19, 2025 at 3:02 AM
The CFP for next year's joint MSA/BAMS conference in Loughborough, UK is out! As a longtime oddball, am thrilled for a Euro summer, 'Weird Modernisms'-style
@moderniststudies.bsky.social @modernistudies.bsky.social
@moderniststudies.bsky.social @modernistudies.bsky.social
Reposted by Jess Masters
This graduate mentoring program designed by @jessmasters.bsky.social is a new MSA initiative, and I wish existed when I was a grad student. Pass it along to any graduate students working in modernism or modernist-adjacent fields, like the Harlem Renaissance, 20th-century studies, etc.
Finally, the MSA Board is excited to announce a new graduate mentoring program! Graduate student MSA members have the opportunity to be paired with a senior faculty member for one-on-one mentoring sessions. More info can be found when you register for the conference. @jessmasters.bsky.social
July 27, 2025 at 3:28 PM
This graduate mentoring program designed by @jessmasters.bsky.social is a new MSA initiative, and I wish existed when I was a grad student. Pass it along to any graduate students working in modernism or modernist-adjacent fields, like the Harlem Renaissance, 20th-century studies, etc.
Reposted by Jess Masters
Finally, the MSA Board is excited to announce a new graduate mentoring program! Graduate student MSA members have the opportunity to be paired with a senior faculty member for one-on-one mentoring sessions. More info can be found when you register for the conference. @jessmasters.bsky.social
July 27, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Finally, the MSA Board is excited to announce a new graduate mentoring program! Graduate student MSA members have the opportunity to be paired with a senior faculty member for one-on-one mentoring sessions. More info can be found when you register for the conference. @jessmasters.bsky.social
Reposted by Jess Masters
Here you go! I'll write some new ones for this semester too. They loved them. The "read without your phone or screens in the room" was a revelation, and many of them decided to keep doing it. They had NO IDEA (& were horrified) how often they interrupt themselves to look at a phone for no reason.
![Reading Scenario Experiments. This series of prompts is designed to get you thinking about how the setting for reading affects concentration, comprehension, and even the existential experience of reading. Every week, one of the following prompts will appear on the syllabus. I encourage you to try all of them that you are able. How does a different reading setting affect your mood? Your receptiveness to the prose? Your pleasure or difficulty reading? What are the particular impacts of changing your lighting or surroundings? What do you notice about yourself and about the work you are reading during this experiment?
1. read by candlelight (use a small lamp in dorms where no candles are allowed!)
2. read for one hour without checking any devices, answering texts, etc.
3. walk out into nature (climb a tree, sit on a rock, grab a spot in a hammock) and read
4. host a reading night with friends & food (sit in companionable silence, reading without chatting)
5. read aloud a chapter to someone else
6. climb into bed at night and read by flashlight under the covers for at least 30 minutes, as if you’ve already been told “lights out” as a kid
7. reread a chapter and see what new things you notice the second time through
8. change your ambient-noise level: add music if you normally read in the quiet; or read without music if you are normally a music-listener
9. read with a sketchpad at hand and sketch scenes, characters, or other elements from the story
10. practice focused listening: have someone read to you
11. make yourself a special, fancy snack on a real plate to nibble while eating: pay attention to the cooking or arranging or choosing of ingredients to make it especially appetizing first
12. make tea (even if you’re not usually a tea drinker), and read and sip
13. invent a new reading scenario for yourself, or repeat the one you liked the best from this term
[writing assignment using these prompts follows; text character limit prevents inclusion of it in full]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:rfs7afx6ue4mknbhhpnrzkyz/bafkreiel77b25truczj372qokmg5p3apa2dphux3jtplpz3dv35jul6wdu@jpeg)
July 16, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Here you go! I'll write some new ones for this semester too. They loved them. The "read without your phone or screens in the room" was a revelation, and many of them decided to keep doing it. They had NO IDEA (& were horrified) how often they interrupt themselves to look at a phone for no reason.
Reposted by Jess Masters
EVERYTHING HERE IS EXPIRED
make an observation about your pantry that also sounds like the title of a novel:
THE POTATOES HAVE EYES
THE POTATOES HAVE EYES
make an observation about your pantry that also sounds like the title of a novel:
THE MACARONI PROBLEM
THE MACARONI PROBLEM
May 17, 2025 at 11:29 PM
EVERYTHING HERE IS EXPIRED
Reposted by Jess Masters
We’ve run the numbers and seen all the data models. It’s not looking good.
May 16, 2025 at 11:30 PM
We’ve run the numbers and seen all the data models. It’s not looking good.
This is why I went back to grad school (though also not thyroid)
I had a thyroidectomy 6 years ago and when I met with the endocrine surgeon ahead of time, I asked her “how did you decide on this specialization?” And she said “I just really really love the thyroid” — and I totally understood this even though for me it’s not the thyroid.
May 7, 2025 at 2:30 PM
This is why I went back to grad school (though also not thyroid)
Happy democracy sausage day to all who celebrate (Australian Federal election, everyone celebrates, it's mandatory)
May 3, 2025 at 1:53 AM
Happy democracy sausage day to all who celebrate (Australian Federal election, everyone celebrates, it's mandatory)
Voting is open for several positions on the MSA Exec Board! Have your say here---
MSA Board elections are now open! All MSA members are eligible to vote. Vote here: vote.press.jhu.edu/msa/elections
April 29, 2025 at 1:52 AM
Voting is open for several positions on the MSA Exec Board! Have your say here---
"That computer, and that software, relied on the skilled, technical, embodied expertise and labor of thousands of women, including women of color."
The Apollo mission relied on skilled weavers to build the computer memory necessary for the spacecraft. www.sciencenews.org/article/core...
Core memory weavers and Navajo women made the Apollo missions possible
The stories of the women who assembled integrated circuits and wove core memory for the Apollo missions remain largely unknown.
www.sciencenews.org
April 7, 2025 at 9:19 AM
"That computer, and that software, relied on the skilled, technical, embodied expertise and labor of thousands of women, including women of color."
Reposted by Jess Masters
The deadline for the 2025 MSA Conference in Boston has been extended to April 15! If you've been thinking of submitting a panel, paper, or roundtable proposal, you now have more time to do so.
It will feel good to gather to talk about modernism, the 20th century, and higher education. Join us!
It will feel good to gather to talk about modernism, the 20th century, and higher education. Join us!
March 31, 2025 at 6:53 PM
The deadline for the 2025 MSA Conference in Boston has been extended to April 15! If you've been thinking of submitting a panel, paper, or roundtable proposal, you now have more time to do so.
It will feel good to gather to talk about modernism, the 20th century, and higher education. Join us!
It will feel good to gather to talk about modernism, the 20th century, and higher education. Join us!
Reposted by Jess Masters
Australasian modernists, the abstract deadline for the AMSN guaranteed panel at MSA 2025 is one week away. Join us in Boston! amsn.org.au/events/
April 4, 2025 at 6:29 AM
Australasian modernists, the abstract deadline for the AMSN guaranteed panel at MSA 2025 is one week away. Join us in Boston! amsn.org.au/events/
Reposted by Jess Masters
Nothing has made me feel more connected to my field, and more proactive in helping to preserve the things I value in it, than serving on the MSA Board. If you’re interested, I cannot recommend it enough.
MSA Members! Are you interested in serving on the MSA Board, which runs our organization? We need you! There are four positions open: 2nd VP, Treasurer, Vice Program Chair, and Contingent Faculty Rep. Nominations are open until April 21. More info here: www.moderniststudies.org/about/board-...
Board Nominations
The Modernist Studies Association is devoted to the study of the arts in their social, political, cultural, and intellectual contexts from the later nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century. The o...
www.moderniststudies.org
March 18, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Nothing has made me feel more connected to my field, and more proactive in helping to preserve the things I value in it, than serving on the MSA Board. If you’re interested, I cannot recommend it enough.
Reposted by Jess Masters
MSA Members! Are you interested in serving on the MSA Board, which runs our organization? We need you! There are four positions open: 2nd VP, Treasurer, Vice Program Chair, and Contingent Faculty Rep. Nominations are open until April 21. More info here: www.moderniststudies.org/about/board-...
Board Nominations
The Modernist Studies Association is devoted to the study of the arts in their social, political, cultural, and intellectual contexts from the later nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century. The o...
www.moderniststudies.org
March 7, 2025 at 11:10 PM
MSA Members! Are you interested in serving on the MSA Board, which runs our organization? We need you! There are four positions open: 2nd VP, Treasurer, Vice Program Chair, and Contingent Faculty Rep. Nominations are open until April 21. More info here: www.moderniststudies.org/about/board-...
The Wallflower Avant-Garde by @glavey.bsky.social is one of those texts I return to, again and again, when thinking about all things shapely excess, multiplicity in motion, living paintings, and how queer ekphrasis bends our notions of word and image. If I could use it as a pillow, I would.
March 18, 2025 at 12:33 AM
The Wallflower Avant-Garde by @glavey.bsky.social is one of those texts I return to, again and again, when thinking about all things shapely excess, multiplicity in motion, living paintings, and how queer ekphrasis bends our notions of word and image. If I could use it as a pillow, I would.
Reposted by Jess Masters
I needed this reminder today. “Attacks on academia show the continued importance of critical intellectual work as a collective endeavor.”
Individual academic output feels so futile these days—writing silly little articles, giving silly little talks. But the attacks on academia show the continued importance of critical intellectual work as a collective endeavor. Anyone finding ways to work through this tension? I’m struggling with it.
March 17, 2025 at 12:15 AM
I needed this reminder today. “Attacks on academia show the continued importance of critical intellectual work as a collective endeavor.”
Are you affiliated with the Australian Modernist Studies Network? Want to hang with some Australians/New Zealanders/Pacific scholars in Boston? Submit your ideas on "Southern (Infra)Structures" for AMSN's guaranteed panel at MSA 2025!
@moderniststudies.bsky.social @modernism-asia.bsky.social
@moderniststudies.bsky.social @modernism-asia.bsky.social
The Australasian Modernist Studies Network exec. (which I recently joined as Treasurer) is delighted to announce a CFP for a guaranteed AMSN panel at this year’s MSA. The panel is on Southern (Infra)Structures. Details below.
March 17, 2025 at 4:46 AM
Are you affiliated with the Australian Modernist Studies Network? Want to hang with some Australians/New Zealanders/Pacific scholars in Boston? Submit your ideas on "Southern (Infra)Structures" for AMSN's guaranteed panel at MSA 2025!
@moderniststudies.bsky.social @modernism-asia.bsky.social
@moderniststudies.bsky.social @modernism-asia.bsky.social