Andrew Fergus Wilson
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afwilson.bsky.social
Andrew Fergus Wilson
@afwilson.bsky.social
820 followers 580 following 40 posts
Undisciplined academic. Currently writing about inland mermaids, wetlands, politics, nationalism, and the environment. Sociology|Criminology|Folklore. Regular human, too. In spite of the current profile pic not much of a beer drinker.
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afwilson.bsky.social
Cromford Bridge. If you try and cross it after dark Crooker might take you to feed the River Derwent. I mentioned it writing about Derbyshire & Lincolnshire wetlands & the connecting rivers. The article is partly abt folklore, politics & ecological consciousness; hopefully published soon in Revenant
A photograph of a low, arched bridge over a river. Three arches are visible with a fourth arch concealed behind low hanging tree branches. The sky is a mostly cloud ranging in colour from white to dark grey. The river is low with the stony riverbed reveaaled in the left of the foreground. Current can be seen in the river between the two central arches.
September 9, 2025 at 12:19 PM
afwilson.bsky.social
I am really happy to have signed a contract with Bloomsbury Academic for Mermaids, Waters, Places: Folklore, Politics, and Cultural Landscapes in England. (The 'cover' below is a fake I made while I was celebrating - the mermaid image is an open source image made by GDJ and distributed via Pixabay).
Fake book cover
February 6, 2025 at 12:13 PM
afwilson.bsky.social
CFP for Midlands Conference in Critical Thought extended to Monday 20 January. It is a free, non-hierarchical conference being held in Derby in April, 2025. Please see the linked document for more details.

static1.squarespace.com/static/64468...
January 15, 2025 at 10:25 AM
afwilson.bsky.social
Image of a description of the ethos of the MCCT it reads: The MCCT is an annual interdisciplinary conference that provides a forum for emergent critical scholarship, broadly construed. The conference is free for all to attend and follows a non-hierarchical model that seeks to foster opportunities for intellectual critical exchanges where all are treated equally regardless of affiliation or seniority. There are no plenaries, and the conference is envisaged as a space for those who share intellectual approaches and interests but who may find themselves at the margins of their academic department or discipline. The MCCT is an offshoot of the London Conference in Critical Thought (LCCT) and shares its approach and ethos.
January 2, 2025 at 12:42 PM
afwilson.bsky.social
It was good to be on 'the other side' of a lecture theatre last week. I really enjoyed @br00kes.bsky.social Mick Aston lecture on Assemblies in the Early Middle Ages. All of it was very engaging but I was especially interested in the role of folklore of preserving some memories of assembly locations
December 5, 2024 at 9:08 PM
afwilson.bsky.social
I have just got tickets for the daughter and myself; I am amazed there are any left. £15 for Nosferatu lived score by one of the best soundtrack groups? Can't say no. www.ticketsource.co.uk/booking/conf...
Screen shot of the webpage linked to in the post. It advertises 'Nosferatu with Live Score' - only used because BlueSky wasn't giving a very good preview of the link.
November 23, 2024 at 11:09 AM
afwilson.bsky.social
If anyone is close to Derby and fancies joining a chat about humans' troubled relationship to/with/in nature, feel free to drop in to tonight's Research Café at the Quad - 7pm.
www.derbyquad.co.uk/events/resea...
November 21, 2024 at 3:05 PM
afwilson.bsky.social
The Gray Ladies aka Nine Stones Close. A site of fairy music and dancing women come midnight and midday. I went straight after the school run and missed out on the festivities.
An image of the Gray Ladies, a stone circle in Derbyshire. It consists of four large, slender stones, each roughly 2 metres tall. In the photograph their site is covered in snow with a blue sky banded by creamy white clouds. A tall tree stands to the left of the stones.
November 20, 2024 at 3:35 PM
afwilson.bsky.social
I have just spent a hugely enjoyable and productive two days with the Folklore Without Borders network - our theme and goal being strategies for polyvocal recognition, representation and contribution in the folk cultures of England.
November 15, 2024 at 10:00 PM
afwilson.bsky.social
I also saw the loneliness of the long distance runner.
November 10, 2024 at 8:42 PM
afwilson.bsky.social
I walked through the mist to find the Doxey Pool in the wet and marshy ground above the Roaches in Staffordshire. Its name is said to derive from a slur and it is fenced off to keep humans and dogs away to encourage life to return to it. Folklore tells us that will not happen.
Image of a small pool with wet and unstable ground in front of it
November 10, 2024 at 8:41 PM