Alexander Thom
@alex-thom.bsky.social
Lecturer in Early Modern Drama | Leverhulme ECF | University of Leeds (views my own)
Shakespeare • duty and service • exile and imperialism • English Renaissance drama (1575-1625) • law and literature
Shakespeare • duty and service • exile and imperialism • English Renaissance drama (1575-1625) • law and literature
Reposted by Alexander Thom
Happy birthday to @bodleian.ox.ac.uk, which first opened its doors #otd in 1602. 423 years young today!
November 8, 2025 at 9:14 AM
Happy birthday to @bodleian.ox.ac.uk, which first opened its doors #otd in 1602. 423 years young today!
Reposted by Alexander Thom
sometimes an Oxford comma can make all the difference
November 8, 2025 at 12:36 PM
sometimes an Oxford comma can make all the difference
Reposted by Alexander Thom
Genuinely delighted to download a PhD thesis from a university repository where the author has neglected to remove the words "BITCH THIS IS YOUR THESIS" from the filename.
October 30, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Genuinely delighted to download a PhD thesis from a university repository where the author has neglected to remove the words "BITCH THIS IS YOUR THESIS" from the filename.
Watching John Carpenter's The Thing for the first time tonight.
I don't think I'll have lasagne anytime soon.
I don't think I'll have lasagne anytime soon.
October 31, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Watching John Carpenter's The Thing for the first time tonight.
I don't think I'll have lasagne anytime soon.
I don't think I'll have lasagne anytime soon.
Reposted by Alexander Thom
Looking to publish a salty monograph or edited collection? 'Maritime Humanities, 1400-1800' - now published by
@routledgehistory.bsky.social - welcomes proposals on globalization, post-colonialism, eco-criticism, environmentalism & histories of science & technology routledge.com/Maritime-Hum... ⚓️
@routledgehistory.bsky.social - welcomes proposals on globalization, post-colonialism, eco-criticism, environmentalism & histories of science & technology routledge.com/Maritime-Hum... ⚓️
October 16, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Looking to publish a salty monograph or edited collection? 'Maritime Humanities, 1400-1800' - now published by
@routledgehistory.bsky.social - welcomes proposals on globalization, post-colonialism, eco-criticism, environmentalism & histories of science & technology routledge.com/Maritime-Hum... ⚓️
@routledgehistory.bsky.social - welcomes proposals on globalization, post-colonialism, eco-criticism, environmentalism & histories of science & technology routledge.com/Maritime-Hum... ⚓️
Reposted by Alexander Thom
Graduate seminar did a deep dive on Thomas Paine’s Common Sense yesterday. At the line, “in America the law is king,” they (14 students from 6 countries) burst out laughing. I've been doing this for 35 years and this is the first time that was a laugh line.
October 22, 2025 at 10:21 AM
Graduate seminar did a deep dive on Thomas Paine’s Common Sense yesterday. At the line, “in America the law is king,” they (14 students from 6 countries) burst out laughing. I've been doing this for 35 years and this is the first time that was a laugh line.
Reposted by Alexander Thom
great bedtime story!
September 30, 2025 at 6:16 AM
great bedtime story!
Truly one of the greats. Nobody articulated the mixed potential of 'high' culture—both repressive and liberatory—quite like Tony. It was a particular relief to learn from his work that my teenage fascination with classics wasn't necessarily early-onset Conservativism.
Extremely sad that my much-loved friend and ally of over thirty-five years, the great poet, dramatist, socialist and acerbic wit Tony Harrison, died yesterday morning, peacefully, with his devoted partner, actress Sian Thomas, at his side. I'm so glad I visited them last week.
September 27, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Truly one of the greats. Nobody articulated the mixed potential of 'high' culture—both repressive and liberatory—quite like Tony. It was a particular relief to learn from his work that my teenage fascination with classics wasn't necessarily early-onset Conservativism.
Reposted by Alexander Thom
this exists it is called thinking
September 20, 2025 at 12:15 PM
this exists it is called thinking
Reposted by Alexander Thom
'“It looks awful now....says Carl Sayer, a professor of geography at UCL, who is dancing with glee around the bleak-looking, freshly dug hole. “The colonisation is so quick. Within a year, it is full of water plants. Within two years, it looks like it’s been there forever".'
Some hopeful weekend reading.
“This is nature’s emergency recovery mechanism. We’ve buggered almost everything up but this will still bring them back.”
“This is nature’s emergency recovery mechanism. We’ve buggered almost everything up but this will still bring them back.”
‘Just add water’: how to bring back ancient plants in a Norfolk ghost pond
An expert team are resurrecting ice age ponds and finding rare species returning from a ‘perfect time capsule’
www.theguardian.com
September 20, 2025 at 7:34 AM
'“It looks awful now....says Carl Sayer, a professor of geography at UCL, who is dancing with glee around the bleak-looking, freshly dug hole. “The colonisation is so quick. Within a year, it is full of water plants. Within two years, it looks like it’s been there forever".'
Can anyone recommend good work on Renaissance conceptions of volition and/or coercion?
September 9, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Can anyone recommend good work on Renaissance conceptions of volition and/or coercion?
Reposted by Alexander Thom
I've been away from social media for a while. Thanks to everybody who has followed me here despite my silence. I'll launch my first bsky post with news about my new book: Shakespeare,St Paul, and Dramatic Emancipation: disability, gender, race, ecology academic.oup.com/book/60795.
August 29, 2025 at 2:59 PM
I've been away from social media for a while. Thanks to everybody who has followed me here despite my silence. I'll launch my first bsky post with news about my new book: Shakespeare,St Paul, and Dramatic Emancipation: disability, gender, race, ecology academic.oup.com/book/60795.
Reposted by Alexander Thom
This is just textbook 1930’s fascism
August 23, 2025 at 4:25 AM
This is just textbook 1930’s fascism
Reposted by Alexander Thom
hoping that when they say the LLM talks like a Ph.D.-level expert, they mean "holds indecipherable decades-long academic grudges expressed largely in the form of questions that are actually more of a comment"
August 7, 2025 at 8:43 PM
hoping that when they say the LLM talks like a Ph.D.-level expert, they mean "holds indecipherable decades-long academic grudges expressed largely in the form of questions that are actually more of a comment"
Reposted by Alexander Thom
This book was tremendous fun to research. As an added bonus, you can try and guess which of us wrote which chapters. @euanroger.bsky.social @nejohnst.bsky.social
Today has been pondering treason A LOT, and I'm greatly enjoying the recent article by Sophie Ambler in A Journal of Legal History and this fab book 'A History of Treason' by Chris Day, @thegozfather.bsky.social, Neil Johnson and @euanroger.bsky.social - highly recommend both!
August 5, 2025 at 7:41 PM
This book was tremendous fun to research. As an added bonus, you can try and guess which of us wrote which chapters. @euanroger.bsky.social @nejohnst.bsky.social
For a blissful moment, I thought this was satire.
Introducing the first AI prototype of a British MP🇬🇧🤖
When constituent and local business owner, Jeremy Smith, approached me with this idea, I was very excited to work with him. The AI revolution is happening and we must embrace it to see how it can be useful, in all sectors.
When constituent and local business owner, Jeremy Smith, approached me with this idea, I was very excited to work with him. The AI revolution is happening and we must embrace it to see how it can be useful, in all sectors.
Speak to Mark Sewards 24/7
Connect with Mark Sewards, your AI assistant, anytime.
www.neural-voice.ai
August 5, 2025 at 8:05 PM
For a blissful moment, I thought this was satire.
Reposted by Alexander Thom
That panicked feeling you get when you suddenly find yourself stuck in the super tight jumper you were trying to take off - 14th century, The Morgan Library & Museum, MS G.24, f. 139v
August 5, 2025 at 4:41 AM
That panicked feeling you get when you suddenly find yourself stuck in the super tight jumper you were trying to take off - 14th century, The Morgan Library & Museum, MS G.24, f. 139v
Reposted by Alexander Thom
Friday #morningread
It’s 1 August, the beginning of the harvest season. We are halfway between the summer solstice and autumn equinox. Happy Lughnasadh!
& Happy Yorkshire Day!
It’s 1 August, the beginning of the harvest season. We are halfway between the summer solstice and autumn equinox. Happy Lughnasadh!
& Happy Yorkshire Day!
August 1, 2025 at 6:13 AM
Friday #morningread
It’s 1 August, the beginning of the harvest season. We are halfway between the summer solstice and autumn equinox. Happy Lughnasadh!
& Happy Yorkshire Day!
It’s 1 August, the beginning of the harvest season. We are halfway between the summer solstice and autumn equinox. Happy Lughnasadh!
& Happy Yorkshire Day!
Reposted by Alexander Thom
It’s Melbourne Rare Books Fair time! 🙂
A book Walter Raleigh had with him in the Tower, anyone…?
(Maggs brought it out; I didn’t ask the price.)
rarebookfair.com
A book Walter Raleigh had with him in the Tower, anyone…?
(Maggs brought it out; I didn’t ask the price.)
rarebookfair.com
July 31, 2025 at 10:11 AM
It’s Melbourne Rare Books Fair time! 🙂
A book Walter Raleigh had with him in the Tower, anyone…?
(Maggs brought it out; I didn’t ask the price.)
rarebookfair.com
A book Walter Raleigh had with him in the Tower, anyone…?
(Maggs brought it out; I didn’t ask the price.)
rarebookfair.com
Really well-put. Fascism isn't a debatable politics. It is sadism fuelled by mediocrity.
I watched the @mehdirhasan.bsky.social debate video and came away with the sense that these people are having a good time being callous and malicious, and that they have no real politics.
badfaithtimes.com/its-one-long...
badfaithtimes.com/its-one-long...
It's One Long Joke
"[Fascists] are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words."
badfaithtimes.com
July 22, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Really well-put. Fascism isn't a debatable politics. It is sadism fuelled by mediocrity.
If you have an interest in the weird and horrible, fill your head-jelly with Dr King's Curiosities—celebrating an authorial anniversary today! One of the handful of regular emails I actually enjoy reading.
Tell Carmela to please shut the door, bring the gabagool over here and don’t stop believing because…
It’s time for horror moments: The Sopranos edition.
open.substack.com/pub/rebekahk...
It’s time for horror moments: The Sopranos edition.
open.substack.com/pub/rebekahk...
'Something bad is gonna happen' - How The Sopranos captures the horror of nightmares
Horror Moments, The Sopranos Edition
open.substack.com
July 21, 2025 at 5:39 PM
If you have an interest in the weird and horrible, fill your head-jelly with Dr King's Curiosities—celebrating an authorial anniversary today! One of the handful of regular emails I actually enjoy reading.
Reposted by Alexander Thom
Tell Carmela to please shut the door, bring the gabagool over here and don’t stop believing because…
It’s time for horror moments: The Sopranos edition.
open.substack.com/pub/rebekahk...
It’s time for horror moments: The Sopranos edition.
open.substack.com/pub/rebekahk...
'Something bad is gonna happen' - How The Sopranos captures the horror of nightmares
Horror Moments, The Sopranos Edition
open.substack.com
June 26, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Tell Carmela to please shut the door, bring the gabagool over here and don’t stop believing because…
It’s time for horror moments: The Sopranos edition.
open.substack.com/pub/rebekahk...
It’s time for horror moments: The Sopranos edition.
open.substack.com/pub/rebekahk...
Reposted by Alexander Thom
Pretty thoroughly depressing to live in a country where big, important institutions — like universities, the BBC, the Labour party — seem only ever to be run by people who seem to really dislike them.
July 20, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Pretty thoroughly depressing to live in a country where big, important institutions — like universities, the BBC, the Labour party — seem only ever to be run by people who seem to really dislike them.
Reposted by Alexander Thom
Schrödinger's academic humanities: Both so irrelevant in the modern world that no one wants to take our classes, and so powerful that we can singlehandedly convert our students to cultural Marxism.
July 17, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Schrödinger's academic humanities: Both so irrelevant in the modern world that no one wants to take our classes, and so powerful that we can singlehandedly convert our students to cultural Marxism.