Aran Ward Sell
@aranws.bsky.social
W. B. Yeats Fellow @ Notre Dame. Contemporary Irish lit, modernism, weird fic, environmental lit. Writer and reviewer. Music: Writhe & Succumb, Prophet Rossi. Cite as "Ward Sell, Aran", whatever your citation software may tell you.
October 17, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Rise of the War for the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
September 27, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Rise of the War for the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
Deleted Academia.Edu. Shame, the concept had its merits.
Work still listed on ORCiD at: orcid.org/0000-0001-59...
Work still listed on ORCiD at: orcid.org/0000-0001-59...
September 24, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Deleted Academia.Edu. Shame, the concept had its merits.
Work still listed on ORCiD at: orcid.org/0000-0001-59...
Work still listed on ORCiD at: orcid.org/0000-0001-59...
Nice of Eberi Eze to provide me with some writing feedback 🙏
August 25, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Nice of Eberi Eze to provide me with some writing feedback 🙏
Good question, people. It's actually pronounced "detritus."
August 9, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Good question, people. It's actually pronounced "detritus."
I know "Google AI summaries are bad" is old news now... but what an *extraordinary* response to the search term "Moby Dick"
(this bizarre splatter is returned whether the search term is capitalised or not, but not if I remember to include the hyphen)
(this bizarre splatter is returned whether the search term is capitalised or not, but not if I remember to include the hyphen)
June 25, 2025 at 4:14 PM
I know "Google AI summaries are bad" is old news now... but what an *extraordinary* response to the search term "Moby Dick"
(this bizarre splatter is returned whether the search term is capitalised or not, but not if I remember to include the hyphen)
(this bizarre splatter is returned whether the search term is capitalised or not, but not if I remember to include the hyphen)
9% of parents, completely unhinged, tearing their hair out in the streets at the rise of the velocipede. Bewailing in anguish the plague of penny farthings which has corrupted their sweet progeny beyond recognition.
June 18, 2025 at 6:38 PM
9% of parents, completely unhinged, tearing their hair out in the streets at the rise of the velocipede. Bewailing in anguish the plague of penny farthings which has corrupted their sweet progeny beyond recognition.
That's a wrap on this semester's course at Notre Dame @notredame.bsky.social @artslettersnd.bsky.social , "Energy and the Environment in Fiction". Fab students and a cracking pile of books (not pictured, our new media texts: the Mad Max movies, There Will Be Blood, and Final Fantasy VII)
April 29, 2025 at 9:21 PM
That's a wrap on this semester's course at Notre Dame @notredame.bsky.social @artslettersnd.bsky.social , "Energy and the Environment in Fiction". Fab students and a cracking pile of books (not pictured, our new media texts: the Mad Max movies, There Will Be Blood, and Final Fantasy VII)
Into the last 2 weeks of "Energy and the Environment in Fiction" @notredame.bsky.social. We'll be thinking about ecosystems, terroir, & human/nonhuman agency in @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social and Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing. Psyched to hear what students make of these brain-knotting, brain-unknotting books
April 22, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Into the last 2 weeks of "Energy and the Environment in Fiction" @notredame.bsky.social. We'll be thinking about ecosystems, terroir, & human/nonhuman agency in @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social and Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing. Psyched to hear what students make of these brain-knotting, brain-unknotting books
This is skulbear right?
April 13, 2025 at 7:43 PM
This is skulbear right?
Manifested it, you're welcome everyone.
(Do I need to teach during every CL game now? I don't have a class scheduled next Weds but I could just burst into a classroom and start talking about books)
(Do I need to teach during every CL game now? I don't have a class scheduled next Weds but I could just burst into a classroom and start talking about books)
April 8, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Manifested it, you're welcome everyone.
(Do I need to teach during every CL game now? I don't have a class scheduled next Weds but I could just burst into a classroom and start talking about books)
(Do I need to teach during every CL game now? I don't have a class scheduled next Weds but I could just burst into a classroom and start talking about books)
Teaching these beauties on my "Energy and the Environment in Fiction" course this week.
March 19, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Teaching these beauties on my "Energy and the Environment in Fiction" course this week.
Finally got around to this cold-burning, bright-shining, single-sitting fable. Susanna Clarke is a wonder.
(Northern Indiana, in the background: not a lot of woods, but a surfeit of midwinter)
(Northern Indiana, in the background: not a lot of woods, but a surfeit of midwinter)
February 23, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Finally got around to this cold-burning, bright-shining, single-sitting fable. Susanna Clarke is a wonder.
(Northern Indiana, in the background: not a lot of woods, but a surfeit of midwinter)
(Northern Indiana, in the background: not a lot of woods, but a surfeit of midwinter)
How I think I look when teaching / how I actually look
(I have not developed sufficient theory of mind to suspect that there are significant differences between my perceptions and reality. Also I wanted to post these pictures of a squirrel I met)
(I have not developed sufficient theory of mind to suspect that there are significant differences between my perceptions and reality. Also I wanted to post these pictures of a squirrel I met)
February 6, 2025 at 7:16 PM
How I think I look when teaching / how I actually look
(I have not developed sufficient theory of mind to suspect that there are significant differences between my perceptions and reality. Also I wanted to post these pictures of a squirrel I met)
(I have not developed sufficient theory of mind to suspect that there are significant differences between my perceptions and reality. Also I wanted to post these pictures of a squirrel I met)
Upton Sinclair, writing a whole century ago, on the commercialisation of "the thing called 'college spirit'"
Apropos of nothing, you understand.
Apropos of nothing, you understand.
January 21, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Upton Sinclair, writing a whole century ago, on the commercialisation of "the thing called 'college spirit'"
Apropos of nothing, you understand.
Apropos of nothing, you understand.
Opened up PowerPoint today to find it pushing a "CoPilot" update on me. Wearily, I tested it, using the "Condense" tool.
It garbled both the text and formatting, and the changes were *immune to Ctrl+Z and Edit-Undo*
Congrats Microsoft, you broke your own software ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
#EdTech #AIslop
It garbled both the text and formatting, and the changes were *immune to Ctrl+Z and Edit-Undo*
Congrats Microsoft, you broke your own software ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
#EdTech #AIslop
January 16, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Incredible Bond-villain energy from Ed Miliband, here.
January 16, 2025 at 12:39 AM
Incredible Bond-villain energy from Ed Miliband, here.
First ever MLA panel ✅
January 12, 2025 at 12:22 AM
First ever MLA panel ✅
An(other) neat example of "ai" summaries creating disinformation:
1 - Liverpool v Man Utd is *not* postponed
2 - The Sun and Echo nonetheless run clickbait "postponement decision finalised" headlines
3 - Automated summary translates this as "Liverpool vs Man Utd postponed due to extreme weather"
1 - Liverpool v Man Utd is *not* postponed
2 - The Sun and Echo nonetheless run clickbait "postponement decision finalised" headlines
3 - Automated summary translates this as "Liverpool vs Man Utd postponed due to extreme weather"
January 5, 2025 at 3:53 PM
An(other) neat example of "ai" summaries creating disinformation:
1 - Liverpool v Man Utd is *not* postponed
2 - The Sun and Echo nonetheless run clickbait "postponement decision finalised" headlines
3 - Automated summary translates this as "Liverpool vs Man Utd postponed due to extreme weather"
1 - Liverpool v Man Utd is *not* postponed
2 - The Sun and Echo nonetheless run clickbait "postponement decision finalised" headlines
3 - Automated summary translates this as "Liverpool vs Man Utd postponed due to extreme weather"
Came back to the UK over Christmas specifically to get the most British notification of all time
December 30, 2024 at 8:59 AM
Came back to the UK over Christmas specifically to get the most British notification of all time
Truly incredible work from Dave Stewart's Wikipedia bio.
The lack of a citation after "pirates" is especially 🤌
The lack of a citation after "pirates" is especially 🤌
![Early life:
Stewart was born in 1952 in Sunderland, England, son of John ("Jack") and Sadie Stewart.[6] Distantly related both to the Dukes of Northumberland and to pirates, Stewart was from a middle-class, "well-off family", with accountant parents](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:bxbhbn2g2vw7dpmqt7pf574y/bafkreihcbmxxqsz2bll64ygvfolrd24c2mso2xdf2ppuxjihalwrmmu4qe@jpeg)
December 21, 2024 at 9:27 PM
Truly incredible work from Dave Stewart's Wikipedia bio.
The lack of a citation after "pirates" is especially 🤌
The lack of a citation after "pirates" is especially 🤌
Well that's a wrap on Intro to Irish Lit at @notredame.bsky.social . Fab students and I had a great time designing and teaching my first self-created course. Here's hoping it gets another outing somewhere!
December 12, 2024 at 11:17 PM
Well that's a wrap on Intro to Irish Lit at @notredame.bsky.social . Fab students and I had a great time designing and teaching my first self-created course. Here's hoping it gets another outing somewhere!
Onto the last text of Intro to Modern and Contemporary Irish Literature, and it's this well-thumbed beauty -- a book I've carried from Scotland to America to Ireland and back to America this year, via one journal article and three conference talks.
December 5, 2024 at 4:51 PM
Onto the last text of Intro to Modern and Contemporary Irish Literature, and it's this well-thumbed beauty -- a book I've carried from Scotland to America to Ireland and back to America this year, via one journal article and three conference talks.