Dr. Melissa Schuh
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melissaschuh.bsky.social
Dr. Melissa Schuh
@melissaschuh.bsky.social
1.8K followers 580 following 250 posts
Lecturer in English Literature at Kiel University, deputy editor for @c21literature.bsky.social , contemporary life writing/fiction, English & German, seriality, modernism • she/her •
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melissaschuh.bsky.social
Dr. Melissa Schuh @melissaschuh.bsky.social · Feb 7
My favourite publication to date has dropped! The brilliant Anneke Schewe and I are part of this LWU special issue on ‘Dark Academia’ with a piece on ‘Exploring the Dark Side of Dark Academia: Postcolonial Criticism and Genre Hybridity in R. F. Kuang‘s Babel’. So happy to see this in print 🎉
Cover image of a special issue on ‘Dark Academia’ of the academic journal ‘LWU Literatur in Wissenschaft und Unterricht’ edited by Nicola Glaubitz and Martin Klepper. It shows an abstract image with various shades of dark brown and black circles. Photograph of a hard paper copy of a special issue on ‘Dark Academia’ of the academic journal ‘LWU Literatur in Wissenschaft und Unterricht’ edited by Nicola Glaubitz and Martin Klepper. The cover shows an abstract image with various shades of dark brown and black circles. The journal is set up on a windowsill with a succulent and a cactus on either side and the black hardbound book ‘Babel’ by R.F. Kuang next to it. DARK ACADEMIA is a social media trend devoted to the nostalgic stylization of academic life in the humanities that may never have existed in this form. Its visual hallmark is a subdued colour palette – the hues of leatherbound books, wood-panelled libraries, ivy-covered façades of elite universities and (mostly white) tweed-clad academics. Literary examples of dark academia, such as the texts discussed in this theme issue, often explore the ‚dark sides‘ of bookishness, learning and academic culture: violence, sexism, competition, impostor syndrome and complicity with institutional structures that shore up inequality. Dark academia thus responds to the neoliberal restructuration of higher education since the 1990s and its consequences, such as the student loan crisis in the US, expensive tuition fees in the UK, underfunded departments and increasing pressure to study the humanities for employability. Nicola Glaubitz & Martin Klepper: Introduction: Dark Academia Marie-Claire Steinkraus: Between Idealisation and Subversion: Dark Academia in The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Secret History Lucas Mattila: “We think of it as art meets life, Bunny.“ Cruel Optimism in Mona Awad‘s Bunny Sydni Zastre: Secret History, No Future: Gender Failure and Reproductive Futurity at Hampden College Rainer Emig: Dark Academia in Philip Pullman‘s His Dark Materials Katja Anderson, Natasha Anderson: Death, Deceit and Detective Work in Dark Academia Anneke Schewe, Melissa Schuh: Exploring the Dark Side of Dark Academia: Postcolonial Criticism and Genre Hybridity in R. F. Kuang‘s Babel Carolin Wachsmann: BookTok and Dark Academia
melissaschuh.bsky.social
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, because my book is out now, fresh off the press!
Happy book birthday to “Literary Autobiography: Contemporary Novelists and their Self-Representations” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025) 📕🎉! doi.org/10.1007/978-... @hss.springernature.com
Book cover: Melissa Schuh, Literary Autobiography: Contemporary No Elises and their Self-Representations (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025) Flyer: Melissa Schuh Literary Autobiography Contemporary Novelists and their Self-Representations -Explores the narrative strategies developed by novelists as they cross generic boundaries of �ction and non-fiction -Presents case studies of works by canonical contemporary authors -Develops de�nitions and concepts to analyse forms of autobiographical writing that �flaunt their �fictionality Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Life Writing Get 20% off with this code: PALAUT PALGRAVE STUDIES IN LIFE WRITING Series Editors: Clare Brant • Max Saunders "Melissa Schuh's Literary Autobiography offers a theoretically elegant and literarily sensitive rethinking of the fraught relationship between the novel and autobiography. Central to the book is the concept of performative contradiction, which Schuh develops as the defining aesthetic strategy of literary autobiography—a strategy that embraces fictionality not to undermine life writing, but to open it toward deeper questions of truth, identity, and narrative ethics. Schuh's analyses of Roth, Coetzee, and Grass persuasively show how these works form an aesthetic lineage that contemporary autofiction continues to draw from. This book will be indispensable for scholars across life writing studies, narratology, and literary ethics." —Stefan Kjerkegaard, Aarhus University, Denmark Why do novelists write about themselves? What modes do novelists use to manipulate representations of their personality? Why is it often late in their career that novelists write about their own lives? This book develops the concept of literary autobiography as a genre responding to a profound uncertainty about the knowability of the self, often negotiated through a particular concern with the writing life. Comprising a particular sub-genre and style of contemporary life writing, the autobiographies examined in this book foreground their formal 'literariness' through the explicit use of fictionality, disrupting established (auto) biographical tropes by employing narrative innovations associated with postmodern fiction and prefigured by modernist experimentation. Taken together, they exemplify an aesthetics of performative contradiction, in which novelistic strategies cast doubt on the veracity of the life represented. Exploring works by canonical and popular novelists - J.M. Coetzee, Philip Roth, Günter Grass, Elena Ferrante, and Karl Ove Knausgard - this book addresses the increasing novelisation of contemporary life w…
November 29, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Reposted by Dr. Melissa Schuh
biggreenbooks.bsky.social
It's #buyastrangerabook day & @melissaschuh.bsky.social
is offering to buy someone a book.

So if you'd like a book but aren't sure what, let Melissa know the kinda stuff you like reading.

She will then give you a choice of 4 books.

Pick your favourite & Melissa will pay for it!

UK only

GO!
melissaschuh.bsky.social Dr. Melissa Schuh @melissaschuh.bsky.social · 3d
I’ll #BuyAStrangerABook
🤗

Personalised recommendations are my thing, so don’t forget to mention what kinds of things you like to read and I’ll suggest accordingly 📚

@biggreenbooks.bsky.social
November 26, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Reposted by Dr. Melissa Schuh
biggreenbooks.bsky.social
IT'S WEDNESDAY!

It's #buyastrangerabook day.

The grooviest of all the days.

I'll give out TWO books.

FOR FREE.

If you'd like one, let me know.

Also, if you'd like to #BuyAStrangerABook too, let me know.

It's a thing! Look.

www.biggreenbookshop.com/stuff-you-mi...

UK only.
Buy A Stranger A Book. #buyastrangerabook - Stuff you might like... - Big Green Bookshop. @biggreenbooks on Twitter. Cheese fan. My Mum says hi.
The Big Green Bookshop an independent online bookshop in selling awesome titles by awesome authors to awesome people
www.biggreenbookshop.com
November 26, 2025 at 12:19 PM
melissaschuh.bsky.social
Thanks to @femsista.bsky.social recommendation from her keynote at #BritCult2025 , I’ve got a local snack to try on my way home, the pepper pretzel 🥨 (Tiny conference duck, though overshadowed by it in size but not in cuteness, travels with me 🦆). @susannegruss.bsky.social @jennyleetsch.bsky.social
Pepper pretzel photographed on a red paper bag with a tiny pink resin duck nestled in the middle.
November 22, 2025 at 1:23 PM
melissaschuh.bsky.social
On my way home from a sunny Bamberg after an amazing, rich #BritCult2025 conference, where I got to share in a collaborative panel discussing queer romance and queer happy endings with the all together brilliant Anneke Schewe, @jennyleetsch.bsky.social , and Amanda Boyce. @susannegruss.bsky.social
Presentation slide featuring the cast of the Heartstopper Netflix series with the title: Why are we like this? : Seriality, Genre, and Queer Joy in Alice Oseman‘s Heartstoppet (2022-), by Anneke Schewe and Melissa Schuh Photograph of a bridge in Bamberg with the rising sun in the background. Photograph of a sunlit river back in Bamberg.
November 22, 2025 at 1:10 PM
melissaschuh.bsky.social
Who could say no to a conference duck 🦆? I chose a pink one to match my outfit 😍

@susannegruss.bsky.social #BritCult2025 @jennyleetsch.bsky.social
Glass bowl full of a colourful assortment of small resin ducks, with a pink one set next to the bowl University of Bamberg tote bag in navy with white lettering, with a yellow name Tag including pronouns and a small pink resin duck on it.
November 20, 2025 at 10:45 PM
melissaschuh.bsky.social
Some pretty Bamberg sights on the first day of the #BritCult2025 conference…

@susannegruss.bsky.social @jennyleetsch.bsky.social
Photograph of a tree in front of some rooftops and a cloudy sunset sky Photograph from a bridge onto a bank of south German houses. Photograph of a bridge with locks on the bannister with a river and houses in the background. Photograph of a church with a white sandstone front.
November 20, 2025 at 10:04 PM
melissaschuh.bsky.social
The #BritCult2025 conference in Bamberg is off to a great start, including the most beautiful (and massive) cheese platter I have ever seen 😋🧀
@susannegruss.bsky.social @jennyleetsch.bsky.social
Annual Conference of the German Association for the Study of British Cultures Re-Orientating Gender (Studies): Feminism, Queerness, Trans* in Cultural Studies Today Bamberg, 20-22 November 2025 After a period of seeming consolidation, feminist politics, queer and trans* identities as well as gender studies as a programme field are, once again, under threat. Taking its cue from the inherently political nature of cultural studies, this conference will take stock and re-orientate the position and importance of gender (studies) in cultural studies today. keynote speakers: Greta Olson & Elisabeth Lechner, Colby Gordon location: An der Universität 2, room 00.25 organisation: Chair of English Literature (Susan Brähler, Sarah Busch, Susanne Gruß, Allison Lemley, Theo Lupprian, Kerstin-Anja Münderlein) Round cheese platter with cubes and wedges artfully arranged Charcuterie platter with hams and Salami artfully arranged Antipasto platter
November 20, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Reposted by Dr. Melissa Schuh
jtrkrt.bsky.social
🚨Job Alert🚨

@hhu.de is offering a permanent 80% position as a member of the academic staff in architectural history. Come work with us in our Medieval art history team! #academia #architecturalhistory #arthistory #kunstgeschichte #earlymodern #medievalsky
Link to ad: karriere.hhu.de/index.php?ac...
Wissenschaftliche*r Mitarbeiter*in (m/w/d)
karriere.hhu.de
November 19, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Reposted by Dr. Melissa Schuh
biggreenbooks.bsky.social
It's #buyastrangerabook day, and @melissaschuh.bsky.social will buy someone a book.

Here are the rules.

Do you want a book?
Not sure what?

Let Melissa know the kinda stuff you like reading.

She will then give you a choice of 4 books.

Pick your favourite & Melissa will pay for it!

UK only

GO!
melissaschuh.bsky.social Dr. Melissa Schuh @melissaschuh.bsky.social · 11d
I’ll #BuyAStrangerABook
🤗

Personalised recommendations are my thing, so don’t forget to mention what kinds of things you like to read and I’ll suggest accordingly 📚

@biggreenbooks.bsky.social
November 19, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Reposted by Dr. Melissa Schuh
biggreenbooks.bsky.social
"The Festive Big Green Book Swap" is back!

Let me know the kind of stuff you like reading.

I'll match you up with someone with similar tastes.

I'll post you both a book I think you'll like (+ choc & tea)!

Read, chat & eat choc!

Just £15

DETAILS HERE!

biggreenbookshop.com/index.php
Two books, wrapped in festive paper, with a bar of chocolate and a packet of tea on each of them.
November 1, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Reposted by Dr. Melissa Schuh
biggreenbooks.bsky.social
IT'S WEDNESDAY!

It's #buyastrangerabook day.

The grooviest of all the days.

I'll give out TWO books.

FOR FREE.

If you'd like one, let me know.

Also, if you'd like to #BuyAStrangerABook too, let me know.

It's a thing! Look.

www.biggreenbookshop.com/stuff-you-mi...

UK only.
Buy A Stranger A Book. #buyastrangerabook - Stuff you might like... - Big Green Bookshop. @biggreenbooks on Twitter. Cheese fan. My Mum says hi.
The Big Green Bookshop an independent online bookshop in selling awesome titles by awesome authors to awesome people
www.biggreenbookshop.com
November 19, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Reposted by Dr. Melissa Schuh
steffenlinguist.bsky.social
If you have any questions about the department or working at Uni Greifswald, feel free to reach out. I'm also on the Grundschule English team. 😊
November 18, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Reposted by Dr. Melissa Schuh
katrinhorn.bsky.social
Come work with us!
#JobPosting #HigherEd #Anglistik #Amerikanistik
part-time, permanent
Screenshot: Job Ad 25/E17 University of Greifswald Department British and North American Studies, Teaching Associate, starting April 1, 2016. part-time, permanent position, focus on "primary education"
November 18, 2025 at 10:05 AM
Reposted by Dr. Melissa Schuh
madeleinemcq.bsky.social
I'm honored to have my article, "Counterfactuals and the Tumblr Aesthetic: Allegories of Reading in _Frankenstein_ and _The Locked Tomb_" included in this special issue!
openlibhums.org Open Library of Humanities @openlibhums.org · 13d
New issue of @c21literature.bsky.social: Journal of 21st-century Writings, Volume 12, Issue 2, is out now! Novel Media/Media Novel, edited by Dong Xia and Sandro Eich: c21.openlibhums.org/issue/1286/i...
Cover image for C21 vol. 12, no. 2 (Autumn 2025). A smartphone on a book.
November 17, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Reposted by Dr. Melissa Schuh
openlibhums.org
New issue of @c21literature.bsky.social: Journal of 21st-century Writings, Volume 12, Issue 2, is out now! Novel Media/Media Novel, edited by Dong Xia and Sandro Eich: c21.openlibhums.org/issue/1286/i...
Cover image for C21 vol. 12, no. 2 (Autumn 2025). A smartphone on a book.
November 17, 2025 at 12:27 PM
melissaschuh.bsky.social
It has taken some time due to the usual customs issues, but my order of the brilliant @heyitsdenisew.bsky.social ‘s monograph “Shame in Contemporary You-Narration: Time, Gender and Race” has made it to my desk and is such a beautiful book. Congratulations, Denise!! 🎉📚
Photograph of a book on a white desk, Denise Wong: Shame in contemporary you-narration: time, gender and race
November 17, 2025 at 11:09 AM
Reposted by Dr. Melissa Schuh
openlibhums.org
Universities want new business models, not just discounts.

As @theblochian.bsky.social (OLH Exec. Director) writes: Together we can move our university funding away from obscene commercial extractivists and back into scholar-led non-profit models

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...
Chaos is coming for scholarly publishing - Research Professional News
Buckling of commercial models alongside maturing of community-led efforts promises major shifts, says Caroline Edwards
www.researchprofessionalnews.com
November 12, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Reposted by Dr. Melissa Schuh
c21literature.bsky.social
graphic designers are essential and under-appreciated!! huge thanks to @sjzavala.bsky.social for helping us with our most recent cover.
Cover image for C21 vol. 12, no. 2 (Autumn 2025). A smartphone on a book.
November 16, 2025 at 1:04 PM
melissaschuh.bsky.social
Feeling inspired after the rich discussions of today’s medical humanities workshop on “Viral?! Gender, Medicine, and the Popular”, organised by @jenniferhenke.bsky.social and Johannes Schlegel at Hamburg University. @kyliecrane.bsky.social @ninavoigt.bsky.social
Photograph of a projected slide with the title: Viral?! Gender, medicine and the popular Workshop Poster on a seminar room door: title: Viral?! Gender, Medicine, and the popular. Program 11:15-11:30: Welcome & Introduction Jennifer S. Henke (Lüneburg) Johannes Schlegel (Hamburg) 11:30-12:30: Impulses I Sophie Witt (Hamburg): Medical & Health Humanities im Studiengang Liberal Arts & Sciences (UHH) Melissa Schuh (Kiel): The Model Minority: Mental Illness and (Dis)Affection in Asian American Women's Life Writing Heike Hartung (Potsdam): Writing, Walking and Grief: Male Embodiment at the End of Life Christoph Singer (Innsbruck): Playing Depression? Hegemonic Masculinity and Mental Distress in the The Longest Walk and Actual Sunlight 12:45-14:00: Lunch Break 14:00-15:00: Impulses II Davina Höll (Tübingen): ‘Call the Midwife!’– Reproductive Vulnerability between Pop Culture and Public Discourse Nina Voigt (Bremen): The Abortive Doctor: Medical Authority and Conceptions of Nonreproduction in 19th-Century England Kylie Crane (Rostock): Purity Pos(t)ing: Health, Social Media and Gender Julia Wurr (Oldenburg): Situating Gender in the Postcolonial Medical and Health Humanities Picture Credit: jannoon028/www.freepik.com 15:00-15:15: Coffee Break 15:15-17:30: Workshop Sessions 17:30-18:00: Outlook & Farewell Photograph of Hamburg university campus Photograph of a street lamp in front of a tree full of autumn leaves
November 15, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Reposted by Dr. Melissa Schuh
biggreenbooks.bsky.social
It's #buyastrangerabook day, and @melissaschuh.bsky.social will buy someone a book.

Here are the rules.

Wanna book?
Not sure what?

Let Melissa know the kinda stuff you like reading.

She will then give you a choice of 4 books.

Pick your favourite & Melissa will pay for it!

UK only

GO!
melissaschuh.bsky.social Dr. Melissa Schuh @melissaschuh.bsky.social · 17d
I’ll #BuyAStrangerABook
🤗

Personalised recommendations are my thing, so don’t forget to mention what kinds of things you like to read and I’ll suggest accordingly 📚

@biggreenbooks.bsky.social
November 12, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Reposted by Dr. Melissa Schuh
biggreenbooks.bsky.social
IT'S WEDNESDAY!

It's #buyastrangerabook day.

The grooviest of all the days.

I'll give out TWO books.

FOR FREE.

If you'd like one, let me know.

Also, if you'd like to #BuyAStrangerABook too, let me know.

It's a thing! Look.

biggreenbookshop.com/stuff-you-mi...

UK only.
Buy A Stranger A Book. #buyastrangerabook - Stuff you might like... - Big Green Bookshop. @biggreenbooks on Twitter. Cheese fan. My Mum says hi.
The Big Green Bookshop an independent online bookshop in selling awesome titles by awesome authors to awesome people
biggreenbookshop.com
November 12, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Reposted by Dr. Melissa Schuh
c21literature.bsky.social
Thrilled to announce our new issue, Novel Media/Media Novel, edited by Dong Xia and Sandro Eich:
c21.openlibhums.org/issue/1286/i...
C21 Literature: Journal of 21st-Century Writings | Issue: Issue: 2(12) Novel Media / Media Novel (Autumn 2025) (2025)
c21.openlibhums.org
November 11, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Reposted by Dr. Melissa Schuh
c21literature.bsky.social
In conjunction with @bacls.bsky.social, we are looking for some proposals for panels at BAAS and MSA! Read more here:
Call for C21/BACLS Panel Proposals
BACLS members are warmly invited to submit proposals for panels for the upcoming British Association for American Studies (BAAS) and British Association of Modernist Studies (BAMS) conferences in coll...
c21.openlibhums.org
November 10, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Reposted by Dr. Melissa Schuh
c21literature.bsky.social
One of our reviews editors @heyitsdenisew.bsky.social has a book out! Congratulations Denise!
bendavies.bsky.social Ben Davies @bendavies.bsky.social · 23d
Very happy to have received a physical copy of @heyitsdenisew.bsky.social fantastic new book. @edinburghup.bsky.social @bacls.bsky.social
November 7, 2025 at 9:49 AM