Jim Mussell
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jimmussell.bsky.social
Jim Mussell
@jimmussell.bsky.social
1.5K followers 1.1K following 65 posts
Print work; digital work. C19th newspapers, periodicals, and all the rest. Prof University Of Leeds: https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/english/staff/1012/professor-james-mussell
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Reposted by Jim Mussell
inscriptionjournal.bsky.social
Call for papers!

INSCRIPTION 7 (out 2027) will be all about BLANKS. It will be (as ever) a BEAUTIFUL and MAXIMAL object.

Send us your ideas!

Historical / theoretical / creative / creative-critical -- or some strange blend.

First step: 400-word proposal + brief CV by 1 April 2026.

CFP attached.
February 14, 2026 at 9:27 AM
Reposted by Jim Mussell
glennf.com
Happy to pre-announce my upcoming book, Flong Time, No See! www.kickstarter.com/projects/gle... I’ve gathered my most interesting reported stories and essays of the last seven years, and will revise and expand them for this print and ebook collection!
Coming soon: Flong Time, No See: The Hidden Parts of What Sped Printing
Collected essays and reporting on the historical intersection of type, printing, culture, and labor by journalist Glenn Fleishman
www.kickstarter.com
February 13, 2026 at 7:06 PM
Reposted by Jim Mussell
archivetvmusings.bsky.social
The first episode of Bagpuss was originally broadcast on this day in 1974. Created by Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate, the series ran for just 13 episodes (with voices provided by Postgate, Sandra Kerr and John Faulkner).
February 12, 2026 at 4:07 PM
Reposted by Jim Mussell
rs4vp.org
We are thrilled to announce that applications for our 1st round of Microgrant funding are now open! These small seed grants of up to $300 USD support exploratory research or new projects in periodical studies. Applications for this first round of funds are due March 1!
RSVP Microgrants – RSVP
Microgrants are seed grants designed to support new research projects and/or explore ideas in the field of periodical studies. The Microgrants scheme was established in response to the 2025 survey of…
buff.ly
February 12, 2026 at 1:49 PM
Reposted by Jim Mussell
rs4vp.org
Save the dates for our upcoming #RSVPDigiEvents! More details will be shared as dates approach (so watch this space!). Registration links for each of these events can be found by scanning the QR code or visiting our website: rs4vp.org/digital-even... Hope to "see" you there!
February 11, 2026 at 11:08 PM
Reposted by Jim Mussell
drmarylshannon.bsky.social
I'm giving the Leicester Victorian Studies Annual Lecture next week!
Come along and explore fame, race, and disability in the 19th c
@bavs-uk.bsky.social @ukdishisthub.bsky.social @bars.bsky.social @leverhulmetrust.bsky.social @yalebooks.bsky.social @araukie.bsky.social

le.ac.uk/victorian-st...
Annual lecture | The Centre for Victorian Studies | University of Leicester
Find out more about our latest annual public lecture, hosted by the Centre for Victorian Studies at the University of Leicester
le.ac.uk
February 10, 2026 at 8:03 PM
Reposted by Jim Mussell
wvmierlo.bsky.social
New publication!

New Directions in Digital Textual Studies, expertly edited by Christopher Ohge and Kristen Schuster.

My chapter on "Unlocking Literary Heritage: From Cabinets of Curiosity to Digital Storytelling" is surrounded by some really terrific work by a bunch of great scholars.
February 6, 2026 at 2:03 PM
Reposted by Jim Mussell
sarahebull.bsky.social
I really appreciate that the article Matthew is referring to aims to make a start at the difficult job of defining slop. I've been working on a project that grows out of an article I published a while ago on a nineteenth-century category with some striking similarities +

muse.jhu.edu/article/910951
Screenshot of part of the paper reading "The first is an investigation of its formal properties: What separates AI Slop from non-slop? AI Slop is constituted both by formal features and human judgments; any investigation into defining it will require an understanding of both. For example, scalable empirical experiments and qualitative analysis are needed to delineate what people label as AI Slop and the conditions on which those judgments are based, while datasets for AI Slop can help to automate the identification of sloppy content or run large scale analysis of its shared properties."
February 5, 2026 at 11:54 AM
Reposted by Jim Mussell
rhiggitt.bsky.social
Sad news in the UK #histSTM community - my former University of Kent colleague and admired historian of 19thC energy physics and steam ocean navigation, Crosbie Smith, died at the weekend following a short illness. We owe him a great deal.
www.kent.ac.uk/history/peop...
February 2, 2026 at 8:45 PM
Reposted by Jim Mussell
starshapedpress.bsky.social
New Chi skyline on press. Especially pleased with a Bean made of parentheses. #letterpress
Angled image of metal type form showing buildings made from ornaments.
January 30, 2026 at 8:59 PM
Reposted by Jim Mussell
c19thnewshound.bsky.social
It's official! I've been 'doctored'. So many folks to thank - for now, fab supervisors @digivictorian.bsky.social, @bethgaskell.bsky.social, @drbeard79.bsky.social, @miaout.bsky.social, great examiners @jimmussell.bsky.social, @sarahfoxhistory.bsky.social and many friends/colleagues @rs4vp.org.
January 29, 2026 at 6:40 PM
Reposted by Jim Mussell
bethgaskell.bsky.social
The British Library’s PhD placement scheme for 26/27 is now open. My team are offering an exciting placement aiming to raise the profile of our illustrated newspaper collection: www.bl.uk/services/res...
PhD placement scheme
Our annual placement scheme offers doctoral researchers from all disciplines the chance to develop and apply skills and expertise outside the university sector.
www.bl.uk
January 27, 2026 at 9:29 AM
Reposted by Jim Mussell
sarahebull.bsky.social
#DH #BookHistory Postdoc:

printprobability.org
Print & Probability is an interdisciplinary, NEH- and NSF-funded project at the intersection of book history, computer vision, and machine learning. We develop tools and methods for discovering letterpress printers whose identities have eluded scholars for several hundred years.
printprobability.org
January 26, 2026 at 3:31 PM
Reposted by Jim Mussell
rhiggitt.bsky.social
I hadn't realised that Burn's 'Address to a Haggice' first appeared as front-page news!
threadinburgh.scot Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 21d
Not important in the grand scheme of things but the entire internet - from disreputable AI to what should be trustworthy - assert that "Address to a Haggis" was first published 20/12/1786 in the Caledonian Mercury. Except it didn't print that day, it was published 19th but nobody bothered to check
Google "AI Overview" inserted at the top of a search. ""Address to a Haggis" by Robert Burns was first published in The Caledonian Mercury on December 20, 1786. " Grokipedia screenshot for the page on Address to a Haggis - "First published in the Caledonian Mercury on 20 December 1786" BBC Arts webpage for Address to a Haggis. "No matter what the origin of the poem it is notable for being the first of his poems to be published in an Edinburgh periodical, the Caledonian Mercury, on the 20th December 1786." Screenshot of the Caledonian Mercury issue 184, Tuseday December 19th 1786 highlighting the date and the publication of Address to a Haggice (sic) by R. Burns. There was no publication on the 20th, issue 185 came out on the 21st.
January 25, 2026 at 12:30 PM
Reposted by Jim Mussell
matthewchambers.bsky.social
I just signed to edit a new strand for Cambridge Elements Publishing and Book Culture called "Periodicals and Print Matter." More details to follow but I look forward to your ideas on anything connected to periodicals, catalogues, zines, and ephemera.

www.cambridge.org/core/publica...
Publishing and Book Culture
Welcome to Cambridge Core
www.cambridge.org
January 19, 2026 at 4:34 PM
jimmussell.bsky.social
Surely those aren’t back issues of the eminent Victorian Studies being used as decoration in a hotel in Amsterdam?
A pile of issues of Victorian Studies
January 15, 2026 at 3:28 PM
Reposted by Jim Mussell
camlibresearch.bsky.social
Munby Fellowship in Bibliography based @theul.bsky.social in Cambridge - closes on 1 February, so still time to apply.
Munby Fellowship in Bibliography 2026 - 2027 at University of Cambridge
Searching for an academic job? Explore this Munby Fellowship in Bibliography 2026 - 2027 opening on jobs.ac.uk! Click to view more details and browse other academic jobs.
www.jobs.ac.uk
January 14, 2026 at 6:58 PM
Reposted by Jim Mussell
theironroom.bsky.social
#MapOnATuesday Here’s the 1946 Birmingham Corporation Inner Ring Road Key Plan. A map of Birmingham city centre showing the proposed route of the inner ring road in relation to existing streets. Ref : 669062 #LibraryofBham
A base plan of the streets in Birmingham city centre in 1946. Imposed on top of this are a series of coloured lines indicating where the Inner Ring Road is intended for construction. The lines form a circle around the outer part of the map with a set of parallel lines running from the top to bottom right hand side of the circle. Then another set of parallel lines runs from this to join the left hand side of the bigger circle.
December 30, 2025 at 7:15 AM
jimmussell.bsky.social
Obit for Michael Slater in the @theguardian.com: www.theguardian.com/books/2025/d...
Michael Slater obituary
Scholar of Charles Dickens who wrote a definitive biography and shone a light on the writer’s more neglected works
www.theguardian.com
December 26, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Reposted by Jim Mussell
longbarrowpress.bsky.social
First published as a 'digital pamphlet' in 2023, and briefly available as a print edition in 2024, here's the free, downloadable PDF of our 'Winter Songs' mini-anthology, with poems apt for the year's end, and the year to come.
longbarrowpress.com/wp-content/u...
The cover of the 'Winter Songs' mini-anthology: the bare branches of winter trees, just visible in the darkness, with the title and contributors' names in white text.
November 30, 2025 at 11:26 AM
Reposted by Jim Mussell
vicmanch.bsky.social
Well the news is out! I'll be the next Editor of the Curran Index. Thrilled to have the opportunity to take the Curran forwards for the next five years. Looking forward to building on the work of Emily Middleton and Lars Atkin and making the Curran even more central to Victorian scholarhip.
The Curran Index to Nineteenth-Century Periodicals
The Curran Index to Nineteenth-Century Periodicals
www.curranindex.org
December 21, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Reposted by Jim Mussell
averytheoryxmas.bsky.social
I asked Foucault what his top three post-Beatles Paul McCartney albums were, and he said 'Band on the Run', 'Venus and Mars', and 'Back to the Egg.'

That's The Order of Wings.
December 20, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Reposted by Jim Mussell
eve.gd
This is an exciting project on which I am an advisory board member: Uncovering rejects of legal deposit in 19th-century UK libraries. Basically: what did the legal deposit system *reject*.

cordis.europa.eu/project/id/1...
Promiscuous Print: Legal Deposit Libraries, Rejected Texts, and New Methods for Negative Bibliography | PromPrint | Project | Fact Sheet | HORIZON | CORDIS | European Commission
PROMPRINT will uncover and analyze the rejects of legal deposit: the printed texts excluded from the ostensibly universal archive promised by copyright libraries. Legal deposit works to preserve every...
cordis.europa.eu
December 19, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Reposted by Jim Mussell
socialhistarchive.bsky.social
Register here: bit.ly/4qfLt2y

#AcademicWebinar #DigitalHistory #SocialHistory #CriminalJusticeHistory #AcademicSky
December 19, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Reposted by Jim Mussell
sharpnews.bsky.social
Would you consider your passport a book? Not sure about it?

Read Inge Orlowski's FEATURES article, "Passports as Books and Books as Passports" on SHARP News to get you thinking!

Read it here: sharpweb.org/sharpnews/20...

#Travel #BookHistory #WhatIsABook #Materiality #Mobility
a person is holding a passport with a stamp that says passport
Alt: A hand is holding a passport open to a spread with many stamps. In the background, photos of international landmarks and scenery change rapidly.
media.tenor.com
December 17, 2025 at 10:03 PM