Alix Beeston
@alixbeeston.bsky.social
Reader in Literature and Visual Culture at Cardiff University | Author of In and Out of Sight (Oxford UP) | Co-editor of #Incomplete (U California P) and #Visualities (Modernism/modernity) | Working on a critical–creative book about women in photography
Pinned
Alix Beeston
@alixbeeston.bsky.social
· Apr 6
#Incomplete (@ucpress.bsky.social) wins the 2025 @scmstudies.bsky.social Award for Best Edited Collection!! And is accepted by a gorgeous gaggle of contributors - a fitting expression of the book's collective feminist ethos 💫💫💫 @stefansolomon.bsky.social #SCMS25
Open access for one more week folks x
What are the risks—and opportunities—of drawing close to one's objects of study as a feminist scholar? Alix Beeston reflects on her experience of writing a critical–creative account of women and girls in photography history. @alixbeeston.bsky.social
Open access now: doi.org/10.1525/fmh....
Open access now: doi.org/10.1525/fmh....
November 21, 2025 at 10:57 AM
Open access for one more week folks x
Reposted by Alix Beeston
My latest essay is available open access for the next two weeks! Pls read and share x
What are the risks—and opportunities—of drawing close to one's objects of study as a feminist scholar? Alix Beeston reflects on her experience of writing a critical–creative account of women and girls in photography history. @alixbeeston.bsky.social
Open access now: doi.org/10.1525/fmh....
Open access now: doi.org/10.1525/fmh....
November 14, 2025 at 10:49 AM
My latest essay is available open access for the next two weeks! Pls read and share x
Reposted by Alix Beeston
The first methodological note in FMH 11.4 is Alix Beeston's profound and personal meditation on the ethics of photographic encounter. It is an extraordinary piece of writing and thinking. I hope you will read it, share it, teach it.
What are the risks—and opportunities—of drawing close to one's objects of study as a feminist scholar? Alix Beeston reflects on her experience of writing a critical–creative account of women and girls in photography history. @alixbeeston.bsky.social
Open access now: doi.org/10.1525/fmh....
Open access now: doi.org/10.1525/fmh....
November 14, 2025 at 2:45 PM
The first methodological note in FMH 11.4 is Alix Beeston's profound and personal meditation on the ethics of photographic encounter. It is an extraordinary piece of writing and thinking. I hope you will read it, share it, teach it.
Reposted by Alix Beeston
What are the risks—and opportunities—of drawing close to one's objects of study as a feminist scholar? Alix Beeston reflects on her experience of writing a critical–creative account of women and girls in photography history. @alixbeeston.bsky.social
Open access now: doi.org/10.1525/fmh....
Open access now: doi.org/10.1525/fmh....
November 12, 2025 at 11:39 PM
What are the risks—and opportunities—of drawing close to one's objects of study as a feminist scholar? Alix Beeston reflects on her experience of writing a critical–creative account of women and girls in photography history. @alixbeeston.bsky.social
Open access now: doi.org/10.1525/fmh....
Open access now: doi.org/10.1525/fmh....
My latest essay is available open access for the next two weeks! Pls read and share x
What are the risks—and opportunities—of drawing close to one's objects of study as a feminist scholar? Alix Beeston reflects on her experience of writing a critical–creative account of women and girls in photography history. @alixbeeston.bsky.social
Open access now: doi.org/10.1525/fmh....
Open access now: doi.org/10.1525/fmh....
November 14, 2025 at 10:49 AM
My latest essay is available open access for the next two weeks! Pls read and share x
✨ Years in the making, submitted to the press today, out in early 2027 ✨
November 3, 2025 at 8:42 PM
✨ Years in the making, submitted to the press today, out in early 2027 ✨
Reposted by Alix Beeston
Eminently reasonable proposed principles for professors’ use of AI, from a student refusinggenai.wordpress.com/2025/08/29/a...
October 31, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Eminently reasonable proposed principles for professors’ use of AI, from a student refusinggenai.wordpress.com/2025/08/29/a...
Reposted by Alix Beeston
Sort of in connection with this piece by @alixbeeston.bsky.social I read yesterday - and highly recommend! - I've spent today wondering how different photography might seem if it had been considered similarly to creative non-fiction (rather than inherently mendacious etc)
doi.org/10.1525/fmh....
doi.org/10.1525/fmh....
Images Dreamed from the InsideThe Ethics of Encounter in Feminist Photography Studies
This article reflects on the process of researching and writing a critical-creative account of women and girls in photography history. It contemplates the challenges of drawing close to one’s objects ...
doi.org
October 31, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Sort of in connection with this piece by @alixbeeston.bsky.social I read yesterday - and highly recommend! - I've spent today wondering how different photography might seem if it had been considered similarly to creative non-fiction (rather than inherently mendacious etc)
doi.org/10.1525/fmh....
doi.org/10.1525/fmh....
Reposted by Alix Beeston
If I could offer students one bit of…advice: be brutally traditional about what is printed on your degree.
If you are first-gen or in any way non traditional, this goes double. Let rich kids get degrees in AI. You get something called “English”.
If you are first-gen or in any way non traditional, this goes double. Let rich kids get degrees in AI. You get something called “English”.
The danger is that degrees are regarded as worthless as nobody believes students have acquired any skills any more, at least not ones they couldn't have hot from just going into an office job from school.
In about three years the entire university pivot to AI curricula and schools and programs is going to be so deeply embarrassing. We will all pretend it never happened and I will be standing there, looking at people with a mirror in my eyes. This is all so embarrassing.
October 17, 2025 at 3:24 PM
If I could offer students one bit of…advice: be brutally traditional about what is printed on your degree.
If you are first-gen or in any way non traditional, this goes double. Let rich kids get degrees in AI. You get something called “English”.
If you are first-gen or in any way non traditional, this goes double. Let rich kids get degrees in AI. You get something called “English”.
Reposted by Alix Beeston
Indeed, this issue enters the world at a different moment from the one in which it began. In my introduction, I try to make sense of the histories embedded within the issue itself and clarify my own understanding of just what methods we might require from here. 5/ online.ucpress.edu/fmh/article/...
On Historical Methods, or Trying Not to Lose So Much
I had planned to write a different kind of introduction to this special issue on feminism’s contemporary historical methods and metahistorical concerns. That one—imagined, drafted, never completed—wou...
online.ucpress.edu
October 30, 2025 at 1:15 AM
Indeed, this issue enters the world at a different moment from the one in which it began. In my introduction, I try to make sense of the histories embedded within the issue itself and clarify my own understanding of just what methods we might require from here. 5/ online.ucpress.edu/fmh/article/...
This one is a bit special. I feel very lucky to have been invited to contribute an essay to a special issue of dream journal Feminist Media Histories on new methods in feminist film and media studies, edited by one of my very favourite scholars @katherinegroo.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1525/fmh....
Images Dreamed from the InsideThe Ethics of Encounter in Feminist Photography Studies
This article reflects on the process of researching and writing a critical-creative account of women and girls in photography history. It contemplates the challenges of drawing close to one’s objects ...
doi.org
October 30, 2025 at 8:10 AM
This one is a bit special. I feel very lucky to have been invited to contribute an essay to a special issue of dream journal Feminist Media Histories on new methods in feminist film and media studies, edited by one of my very favourite scholars @katherinegroo.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1525/fmh....
Reposted by Alix Beeston
I find it v difficult to put into words how honored and lucky i feel to have edited this issue on feminist historical methods, to have had so many important pieces of writing and thinking entrusted to me over these last few years. 1/
online.ucpress.edu/fmh/issue/11/4
online.ucpress.edu/fmh/issue/11/4
Volume 11 Issue 4 | Feminist Media Histories | University of California Press
online.ucpress.edu
October 30, 2025 at 1:15 AM
I find it v difficult to put into words how honored and lucky i feel to have edited this issue on feminist historical methods, to have had so many important pieces of writing and thinking entrusted to me over these last few years. 1/
online.ucpress.edu/fmh/issue/11/4
online.ucpress.edu/fmh/issue/11/4
Reposted by Alix Beeston
Finally had time to listen to this excellent interview with Mark Goble about his new book, DOWNTIME: THE 20TH CENTURY IN SLOW MOTION, with Alix Beeston on the @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social: tinyurl.com/333dere5. @goblemark.bsky.social @alixbeeston.bsky.social @columbiaup.bsky.social
October 13, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Finally had time to listen to this excellent interview with Mark Goble about his new book, DOWNTIME: THE 20TH CENTURY IN SLOW MOTION, with Alix Beeston on the @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social: tinyurl.com/333dere5. @goblemark.bsky.social @alixbeeston.bsky.social @columbiaup.bsky.social
Reposted by Alix Beeston
I almost only listen to leftist baseball podcasts but that’s just me. So many thanks to @alixbeeston.bsky.social and @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social for letting me talk about Downtime. Alix is the best reader and not surprisingly the best here too. Book is available from @columbiaup.bsky.social.
Mark Goble, "Downtime: The Twentieth Century in Slow Motion" (Columbia UP, 2025) - New Books Network
newbooksnetwork.com
September 17, 2025 at 4:06 PM
I almost only listen to leftist baseball podcasts but that’s just me. So many thanks to @alixbeeston.bsky.social and @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social for letting me talk about Downtime. Alix is the best reader and not surprisingly the best here too. Book is available from @columbiaup.bsky.social.
Reposted by Alix Beeston
History professor Cate Denial says, “There is nothing that I ask my students to do in my classes that benefits from being done by generative AI.”
Saying No to Generative AI – Cate Denial
catherinedenial.org
June 27, 2025 at 11:09 AM
History professor Cate Denial says, “There is nothing that I ask my students to do in my classes that benefits from being done by generative AI.”
Reposted by Alix Beeston
Even allowing that GenAI/LLMs might have valid uses, it doesn't matter bc they are inherently unethical bc they're trained on stolen work. Period. Any use of it condones that.
Until they undo that (which would mean rebuilding it from scratch) and fix the environmental impact, it's a no go. Period.
Until they undo that (which would mean rebuilding it from scratch) and fix the environmental impact, it's a no go. Period.
June 17, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Even allowing that GenAI/LLMs might have valid uses, it doesn't matter bc they are inherently unethical bc they're trained on stolen work. Period. Any use of it condones that.
Until they undo that (which would mean rebuilding it from scratch) and fix the environmental impact, it's a no go. Period.
Until they undo that (which would mean rebuilding it from scratch) and fix the environmental impact, it's a no go. Period.
Reposted by Alix Beeston
‘Most of the opprobrium aimed at universities is fantastical. I only wish that academic life was as radical and subversive as its detractors believe.’
Ed Kiely on UK university finances: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Ed Kiely on UK university finances: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Ed Kiely · Short Cuts: University Finances
Universities’ reliance on international students is only the most recent attempt to solve a broader problem, one that...
www.lrb.co.uk
May 31, 2025 at 11:30 AM
‘Most of the opprobrium aimed at universities is fantastical. I only wish that academic life was as radical and subversive as its detractors believe.’
Ed Kiely on UK university finances: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Ed Kiely on UK university finances: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Alix Beeston
If your business model doesn’t work without breaking the law, then you’re not in business.
You’re in organized crime.
You’re in organized crime.
Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry
Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry
Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.
buff.ly
May 26, 2025 at 9:09 PM
If your business model doesn’t work without breaking the law, then you’re not in business.
You’re in organized crime.
You’re in organized crime.
Reposted by Alix Beeston
Written for writing studies but definitely more broadly applicable across the humanities and other disciplines.
refusinggenai.wordpress.com
refusinggenai.wordpress.com
Refusing Generative AI in Writing Studies
Visit the post for more.
refusinggenai.wordpress.com
May 16, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Written for writing studies but definitely more broadly applicable across the humanities and other disciplines.
refusinggenai.wordpress.com
refusinggenai.wordpress.com
Reposted by Alix Beeston
this is a letter to the editor from a high school track runner who came in second to a trans girl in a race. her state house rep in maine started talking about it. so she wrote this: www.pressherald.com/2025/05/14/r...
May 16, 2025 at 3:25 AM
this is a letter to the editor from a high school track runner who came in second to a trans girl in a race. her state house rep in maine started talking about it. so she wrote this: www.pressherald.com/2025/05/14/r...
Reposted by Alix Beeston
"Women are PIs on 58% of the canceled grants, although they are PIs on only 34% of all active NSF grants.
Similarly, Blacks are PIs on 17% of the terminated grants, although they make only 4% of the total pool. Hispanic PIs and those with disabilities were twice as likely to lose a grant."
Similarly, Blacks are PIs on 17% of the terminated grants, although they make only 4% of the total pool. Hispanic PIs and those with disabilities were twice as likely to lose a grant."
Another scoop from Jeff Mervis (@policyhound.bsky.social): NSF's ~1400 grant terminations have disproportionately affected PIs from groups underrepresented in science: women, racial & ethnic minorities, & those with disabilities. 1/3
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
Trump officials take steps toward a radically different NSF
Efforts to shrink staff, budget, and focus have alarmed members of Congress
www.science.org
May 13, 2025 at 10:09 PM
"Women are PIs on 58% of the canceled grants, although they are PIs on only 34% of all active NSF grants.
Similarly, Blacks are PIs on 17% of the terminated grants, although they make only 4% of the total pool. Hispanic PIs and those with disabilities were twice as likely to lose a grant."
Similarly, Blacks are PIs on 17% of the terminated grants, although they make only 4% of the total pool. Hispanic PIs and those with disabilities were twice as likely to lose a grant."
Reposted by Alix Beeston
Apart from all the other miseries of the Immigration White Paper, it’s depressing to see an actual government uncritically relying on the unbelievably flawed media-driven university rankings.
May 12, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Apart from all the other miseries of the Immigration White Paper, it’s depressing to see an actual government uncritically relying on the unbelievably flawed media-driven university rankings.
Reposted by Alix Beeston
It's so revealing that this government has spent a year ignoring the crisis in higher ed, and the first time it offers any serious policy proposals they are intended to make the UK a *less* attractive place for international students
May 12, 2025 at 10:11 AM
It's so revealing that this government has spent a year ignoring the crisis in higher ed, and the first time it offers any serious policy proposals they are intended to make the UK a *less* attractive place for international students
Reposted by Alix Beeston
Our NEA grant was canceled.
Here’s a letter from our development director about what’s happening.
Here’s a letter from our development director about what’s happening.
May 4, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Our NEA grant was canceled.
Here’s a letter from our development director about what’s happening.
Here’s a letter from our development director about what’s happening.
Reposted by Alix Beeston
STATEMENT: 'Not In Our Name: Feminist Academics and Educators Speak Out Against Transphobia'
Read the statement online here: tinyurl.com/mud7va29
Co-sign the statement, fill in this form: forms.gle/oDYgnobrMiSc...
Read the statement online here: tinyurl.com/mud7va29
Co-sign the statement, fill in this form: forms.gle/oDYgnobrMiSc...
Not In Our Name: Feminist Academics and Educators Speak Out Against Transphobia
We call on all trans-inclusive feminist academics and educators to sign this statement:
‘Not In Our Name’
We are non-trans feminist academics and educators. We write in support of trans rights, tran...
forms.gle
April 30, 2025 at 7:25 AM
STATEMENT: 'Not In Our Name: Feminist Academics and Educators Speak Out Against Transphobia'
Read the statement online here: tinyurl.com/mud7va29
Co-sign the statement, fill in this form: forms.gle/oDYgnobrMiSc...
Read the statement online here: tinyurl.com/mud7va29
Co-sign the statement, fill in this form: forms.gle/oDYgnobrMiSc...