Mercedes Sheldon
@mercedessheldon.bsky.social
19th Century Studies Scholar. Literature Lover. Enthusiastic Educator. Persnickety Parent. {she/her}
Pinned
How to Add Emergency Info to Your Phone's Lock Screen
This simple tip could save your life: Make your emergency medical information and contact numbers visible on your locked phone.
www.pcmag.com
Just a friendly reminder to be sure that you have emergency contacts where first responders can find them.
Reposted by Mercedes Sheldon
Hundreds honored the 29 men who perished aboard the Edmund Fitzgerald in a ceremony along the North Shore marking the tragedy’s 50th anniversary.
The historic beacon at Split Rock Lighthouse, which the famous ship passed on its final trip, was lit for the occasion.
Photos by Alex Kormann
The historic beacon at Split Rock Lighthouse, which the famous ship passed on its final trip, was lit for the occasion.
Photos by Alex Kormann
November 11, 2025 at 2:53 AM
Hundreds honored the 29 men who perished aboard the Edmund Fitzgerald in a ceremony along the North Shore marking the tragedy’s 50th anniversary.
The historic beacon at Split Rock Lighthouse, which the famous ship passed on its final trip, was lit for the occasion.
Photos by Alex Kormann
The historic beacon at Split Rock Lighthouse, which the famous ship passed on its final trip, was lit for the occasion.
Photos by Alex Kormann
Reposted by Mercedes Sheldon
I admit to having a different Victorian studies conference occupying my mind just this week, but man am I psyched for this, and deeply honored to be part of it. MVSA rules. I can’t wait.
CINCY!
CINCY!
If you or anyone you know would be interested in a GREAT Victorian studies conference in the spring, here's the CFP. Proposals due Dec 6. Especially let anyone within driving distance of Cincinnati know! The lovely @nathankhensley.bsky.social will be keynote speaker. midwestvictorian.org/conference/
Conference
“The Underground: Prohibition, Abolition, Expression”2026 Call for Papers April 10-12, 2026, hosted by Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio. Baker Street Station on the Metropolitan Railway, 1863 &#…
midwestvictorian.org
November 11, 2025 at 1:11 AM
I admit to having a different Victorian studies conference occupying my mind just this week, but man am I psyched for this, and deeply honored to be part of it. MVSA rules. I can’t wait.
CINCY!
CINCY!
Reposted by Mercedes Sheldon
If you or anyone you know would be interested in a GREAT Victorian studies conference in the spring, here's the CFP. Proposals due Dec 6. Especially let anyone within driving distance of Cincinnati know! The lovely @nathankhensley.bsky.social will be keynote speaker. midwestvictorian.org/conference/
Conference
“The Underground: Prohibition, Abolition, Expression”2026 Call for Papers April 10-12, 2026, hosted by Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio. Baker Street Station on the Metropolitan Railway, 1863 &#…
midwestvictorian.org
November 10, 2025 at 9:31 PM
If you or anyone you know would be interested in a GREAT Victorian studies conference in the spring, here's the CFP. Proposals due Dec 6. Especially let anyone within driving distance of Cincinnati know! The lovely @nathankhensley.bsky.social will be keynote speaker. midwestvictorian.org/conference/
Reposted by Mercedes Sheldon
When students get to college they generally don’t know what college is and that’s an incredible pedagogical opportunity. My freshman comp class did Morrison, Pope, Dickinson, Shakespeare, and Johnny Cash all swirled together in a frenzy of discovery. Education is what we make it.
November 10, 2025 at 11:35 PM
When students get to college they generally don’t know what college is and that’s an incredible pedagogical opportunity. My freshman comp class did Morrison, Pope, Dickinson, Shakespeare, and Johnny Cash all swirled together in a frenzy of discovery. Education is what we make it.
Reposted by Mercedes Sheldon
I want Oscar Isaac to play a different version of the Victor Frankenstein character every three years for the rest of his life
November 10, 2025 at 3:00 PM
I want Oscar Isaac to play a different version of the Victor Frankenstein character every three years for the rest of his life
Last night, @dessadarling.bsky.social & the @minnesotaorchestra.org were spectacular! Her narrative thread was, as always, philosophical, insightful, humorous, and profound. Topic? Dreams and existentialism.
November 10, 2025 at 1:43 AM
Last night, @dessadarling.bsky.social & the @minnesotaorchestra.org were spectacular! Her narrative thread was, as always, philosophical, insightful, humorous, and profound. Topic? Dreams and existentialism.
Reposted by Mercedes Sheldon
Seeing @dessadarling.bsky.social perform with the MN Orchestra is so so good
November 8, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Seeing @dessadarling.bsky.social perform with the MN Orchestra is so so good
As the parent of a middle school kiddo, this resonates deeply. The playful nothingness. The slight cringe of parents using kids' slang {including saying "cringe"}. The wonderful strangeness of this liminal between-ness. It's all so, well, 6-7.
#GiftArticle
#GiftArticle
Yuen: They said ‘6-7’ — and somehow, so did I
How a nonsense phrase from Gen Alpha snuck into our adult vocabularies.
www.startribune.com
November 9, 2025 at 11:06 PM
As the parent of a middle school kiddo, this resonates deeply. The playful nothingness. The slight cringe of parents using kids' slang {including saying "cringe"}. The wonderful strangeness of this liminal between-ness. It's all so, well, 6-7.
#GiftArticle
#GiftArticle
Reposted by Mercedes Sheldon
Into the wild with you.
lnk.to/ToughCallCam...
lnk.to/ToughCallCam...
November 5, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Into the wild with you.
lnk.to/ToughCallCam...
lnk.to/ToughCallCam...
Reposted by Mercedes Sheldon
A new special issue of English Studies I'm really keen to put together! Please consider submitting and circulate widely! @drchrislouttit.bsky.social bookshoplit.com/cfp-booksell...
CFP: Bookselling and Literature
Bookselling and LiteratureA Special Issue of English Studies Guest Editor: Matthew Chambers (matthew.chambers@uj.edu.pl) One of the best-known literary friendships was formed in a bookshop, and one…
bookshoplit.com
November 3, 2025 at 10:28 AM
A new special issue of English Studies I'm really keen to put together! Please consider submitting and circulate widely! @drchrislouttit.bsky.social bookshoplit.com/cfp-booksell...
If you’re driving distance to Minneapolis, then seriously consider scrapping your weekend plans and snagging one of the few lingering tickets. @dessadarling.bsky.social with the @minnesotaorchestra.org will not disappoint! Narrative and lyricism that pack a heavy punch to the heart and gut.
Dessa Returns - Minnesota Orchestra
With a style based on humor, tenderness and curiosity, Dessa is adept at crafting unlikely metaphors—finding connections between seemingly unrelated corners of human experience: philosophy and dental ...
www.minnesotaorchestra.org
November 4, 2025 at 5:02 PM
If you’re driving distance to Minneapolis, then seriously consider scrapping your weekend plans and snagging one of the few lingering tickets. @dessadarling.bsky.social with the @minnesotaorchestra.org will not disappoint! Narrative and lyricism that pack a heavy punch to the heart and gut.
Just pause here a sec: 1 in 8 US residents means that 12.5% of our population are not able to earn enough money without assistance from the government. Those who are able to work, should be able to afford food. The rest of us should pay the right price for goods & services to enable them to do so.
JUST IN: Courts ordered SNAP payments to restart, and the Trump administration said Monday the food benefits would be half the normal payment. About 1 in 8 U.S. residents get an average of $187 a month per person on SNAP.
SNAP benefits will restart, but it will be half the normal payment
Courts ordered SNAP payments to restart, and the Trump administration said Monday the food benefits would be half the normal payment. About 1 in 8 U.S. residents get an average of $187 a month per person on SNAP.
n.pr
November 3, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Just pause here a sec: 1 in 8 US residents means that 12.5% of our population are not able to earn enough money without assistance from the government. Those who are able to work, should be able to afford food. The rest of us should pay the right price for goods & services to enable them to do so.
Reposted by Mercedes Sheldon
Your friend came to you because they respect your knowledge and opinion, and outsourcing the answer to a machine is lazy and rude. Just answer them yourself.
Your Friend Asked You a Question. Don't Copy and Paste an Answer From a Chatbot
Your friend came to you because they respect your knowledge and opinion, and outsourcing the answer to a machine is lazy and rude. Just answer them yourself.
wrd.cm
November 3, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Your friend came to you because they respect your knowledge and opinion, and outsourcing the answer to a machine is lazy and rude. Just answer them yourself.
Reposted by Mercedes Sheldon
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
November 3, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
Reposted by Mercedes Sheldon
Got to talk about Byron's skull cup today. I've been trying to find out who bought it at auction in 2017.
October 31, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Got to talk about Byron's skull cup today. I've been trying to find out who bought it at auction in 2017.
Reposted by Mercedes Sheldon
I think a danger with social media is to thoroughly mix your sense of agency & consequential powerlessness with the catastrophic goings on in the world. It strikes me that the inverse of this phenomenon is to shift your focus to the incremental and enormously meaningful good you can do where you are
October 30, 2025 at 8:07 PM
I think a danger with social media is to thoroughly mix your sense of agency & consequential powerlessness with the catastrophic goings on in the world. It strikes me that the inverse of this phenomenon is to shift your focus to the incremental and enormously meaningful good you can do where you are
Reposted by Mercedes Sheldon
The fact that Cambridge University is out here charging £35 to a current student to get a copy of an already-digitized thesis is wild to me.
Unrelated, if anyone knows Dr Jennifer D Melville or has a copy of her 1999 thesis they'd be willing to send on gender and space in 17c England...
Unrelated, if anyone knows Dr Jennifer D Melville or has a copy of her 1999 thesis they'd be willing to send on gender and space in 17c England...
October 30, 2025 at 10:18 AM
The fact that Cambridge University is out here charging £35 to a current student to get a copy of an already-digitized thesis is wild to me.
Unrelated, if anyone knows Dr Jennifer D Melville or has a copy of her 1999 thesis they'd be willing to send on gender and space in 17c England...
Unrelated, if anyone knows Dr Jennifer D Melville or has a copy of her 1999 thesis they'd be willing to send on gender and space in 17c England...
Reposted by Mercedes Sheldon
final project guidelines for both grad and undergrad seminars:
1. pick a topic you care about
2. don’t use ai
3. get smarter
1. pick a topic you care about
2. don’t use ai
3. get smarter
October 30, 2025 at 1:27 PM
final project guidelines for both grad and undergrad seminars:
1. pick a topic you care about
2. don’t use ai
3. get smarter
1. pick a topic you care about
2. don’t use ai
3. get smarter
Came here to check this... @andreauponavon.bsky.social & I are delighted to have a few more weeks to sort out our topics for #RSVP2026. And you have a wee bit more time to decide to toss your hat into this fabulous ring! 😉
📣BREAKING NEWS! We've extended our CFP deadline for #RSVP2026 "Movements and Migrations"! Proposals now due 21 November 2025. Full CFP and more details about all things conference on our website: rs4vp.org/rsvp-confere...
October 29, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Came here to check this... @andreauponavon.bsky.social & I are delighted to have a few more weeks to sort out our topics for #RSVP2026. And you have a wee bit more time to decide to toss your hat into this fabulous ring! 😉
Reposted by Mercedes Sheldon
The full line up for our 2025/2026 #EHU19SeminarSeries is available to book now in the thread below!
Join us for a free, online, and friendly discussion about cutting-edge research in nineteenth-century studies!
Join us for a free, online, and friendly discussion about cutting-edge research in nineteenth-century studies!
October 17, 2025 at 8:50 AM
The full line up for our 2025/2026 #EHU19SeminarSeries is available to book now in the thread below!
Join us for a free, online, and friendly discussion about cutting-edge research in nineteenth-century studies!
Join us for a free, online, and friendly discussion about cutting-edge research in nineteenth-century studies!
Drawing on V21 Collective's call to presentism as a pedagogical device, @drreznicek.bsky.social points to how moments of care in novels like Persuasion offer students a means of discussing the world as it is today, leading to a nuanced back & forth with @drbeard79.bsky.social.
First up is:
29/10/25: Matthew Reznicek, 'Too Bodily: Disability, Care, and Belonging in Romantic Novels', 6-7 pm
us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
#EHU19SeminarSeries
29/10/25: Matthew Reznicek, 'Too Bodily: Disability, Care, and Belonging in Romantic Novels', 6-7 pm
us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
#EHU19SeminarSeries
October 29, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Drawing on V21 Collective's call to presentism as a pedagogical device, @drreznicek.bsky.social points to how moments of care in novels like Persuasion offer students a means of discussing the world as it is today, leading to a nuanced back & forth with @drbeard79.bsky.social.
Reposted by Mercedes Sheldon
Looking forward to talking about Eliza Haywood's Tattle Life on 7 November at the GIS Interdisciplinary seminar on Gossip, Scandal, & Sociabilities. Excited to hear Matthew Kinservik's paper on The Duchess of Kingston's 1776 Bigamy Trial as a Social Media Event. Plus, PARIS. 💘 #18thcentury.
GIS Interdisciplinary Seminar: 'Gossip, Scandal and Sociabilities' | gissociabilite
GIS Sociabilités seminar 'The Politics of the ‘Sociable Self: Theories and Practices (1650-1850)' - Seventh thematic session on 'Gossip, Scandal and Sociabilities', 7 November 2025 (17:00 - 19:00) at ...
gis-sociabilites.org
October 28, 2025 at 12:07 PM
Looking forward to talking about Eliza Haywood's Tattle Life on 7 November at the GIS Interdisciplinary seminar on Gossip, Scandal, & Sociabilities. Excited to hear Matthew Kinservik's paper on The Duchess of Kingston's 1776 Bigamy Trial as a Social Media Event. Plus, PARIS. 💘 #18thcentury.
We talk in our house about when expletives are contextual appropriate. As the kiddo tests this, we discuss if it’s fine or if he should be more creative with his language.
⬇️THIS is 100% appropriate usage of multiple f-bombs.
11/10 - no notes.
⬇️THIS is 100% appropriate usage of multiple f-bombs.
11/10 - no notes.
"I DON'T NEED YOU TO FUCKING REWRITE WHAT I'VE JUST WRITTEN!"
October 28, 2025 at 6:13 PM
We talk in our house about when expletives are contextual appropriate. As the kiddo tests this, we discuss if it’s fine or if he should be more creative with his language.
⬇️THIS is 100% appropriate usage of multiple f-bombs.
11/10 - no notes.
⬇️THIS is 100% appropriate usage of multiple f-bombs.
11/10 - no notes.
Reposted by Mercedes Sheldon
Just announced: Macaulay and English in India www.routledge.com/Macaulay-and... @routledgebooks.bsky.social
Macaulay and English in India
This book traces how the English language emerged from the nineteenth century as not only an imperial and bureaucratic language but also as a global one. It highlights the role of Thomas Babington Mac...
www.routledge.com
October 28, 2025 at 1:52 AM
Just announced: Macaulay and English in India www.routledge.com/Macaulay-and... @routledgebooks.bsky.social