Alice Wickenden
@awickenden.bsky.social
Currently: theorising early modern book history & provenance… with some literature thrown in for good measure
Volunteer for Abortion Support Network, sometime poet, always emo
Book: Hans Sloane’s Library Collection and the Production of Knowledge (CUP)
Volunteer for Abortion Support Network, sometime poet, always emo
Book: Hans Sloane’s Library Collection and the Production of Knowledge (CUP)
Pinned
Alice Wickenden
@awickenden.bsky.social
· Jun 30
Hans Sloane's Library Collection and the Production of Knowledge | Cambridge University Press & Assessment
www.cambridge.org
hello. if you work at a university please ask your library to buy my book. it is all about books and libraries and also plants, museums, the Royal Society, and the ways we learn. I think it will be interesting to lots of people, hopefully. thank you www.cambridge.org/gb/universit...
Reposted by Alice Wickenden
If Edinburgh Uni, with no operational deficit, gets to sack 1800 people, imagine what this will signal to more fiscally challenged Scottish universities?
MSPs need to realise that this is more than a local crisis – we need urgent public scrutiny of Edinburgh’s governance.
MSPs need to realise that this is more than a local crisis – we need urgent public scrutiny of Edinburgh’s governance.
November 17, 2025 at 1:02 PM
If Edinburgh Uni, with no operational deficit, gets to sack 1800 people, imagine what this will signal to more fiscally challenged Scottish universities?
MSPs need to realise that this is more than a local crisis – we need urgent public scrutiny of Edinburgh’s governance.
MSPs need to realise that this is more than a local crisis – we need urgent public scrutiny of Edinburgh’s governance.
Writing about teaching book history:
November 17, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Writing about teaching book history:
the question is, as someone who read her ex-girlfriend's copy of Wuthering Heights at 18 whilst in the midst of an intense interconnected set of devastating and fundamentally traumatising toxic relationships... will my memory of it be ruined when I finally reread it?
November 17, 2025 at 1:02 PM
the question is, as someone who read her ex-girlfriend's copy of Wuthering Heights at 18 whilst in the midst of an intense interconnected set of devastating and fundamentally traumatising toxic relationships... will my memory of it be ruined when I finally reread it?
Reposted by Alice Wickenden
If you're looking for illustrations for "AI", don't use robots, glowing disembodied brains, or computer code in empty space. Here are a some alternative suggestions:
November 17, 2025 at 10:45 AM
If you're looking for illustrations for "AI", don't use robots, glowing disembodied brains, or computer code in empty space. Here are a some alternative suggestions:
Reposted by Alice Wickenden
What do you give someone who has everything? A purpose-built room in which to put their stuff?
A while back I wrote about Ole Worm's 17th-century curiosity cabinet for @smarthistory.bsky.social. 1/n
🗃 #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #arthistory #materialculture
smarthistory.org/ole-worm-mus...
A while back I wrote about Ole Worm's 17th-century curiosity cabinet for @smarthistory.bsky.social. 1/n
🗃 #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #arthistory #materialculture
smarthistory.org/ole-worm-mus...
November 16, 2025 at 7:45 PM
What do you give someone who has everything? A purpose-built room in which to put their stuff?
A while back I wrote about Ole Worm's 17th-century curiosity cabinet for @smarthistory.bsky.social. 1/n
🗃 #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #arthistory #materialculture
smarthistory.org/ole-worm-mus...
A while back I wrote about Ole Worm's 17th-century curiosity cabinet for @smarthistory.bsky.social. 1/n
🗃 #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #arthistory #materialculture
smarthistory.org/ole-worm-mus...
Reposted by Alice Wickenden
My latest cartoon for @theguardian.com books pages.
November 16, 2025 at 4:15 PM
My latest cartoon for @theguardian.com books pages.
Me: maybe I will go and sit in the comfy chair and read.
Cordy:
Cordy:
November 16, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Me: maybe I will go and sit in the comfy chair and read.
Cordy:
Cordy:
Reposted by Alice Wickenden
My favourite year for oppressed literary masculinity was 2023 when the number of women on the Booker shortlist was smaller than the number of men named Paul
Exactly one woman has won the Booker in the past six years www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
November 16, 2025 at 3:14 PM
My favourite year for oppressed literary masculinity was 2023 when the number of women on the Booker shortlist was smaller than the number of men named Paul
👀
Cursed shelves and ghoulish libraries... 👻
Dive into fourteen tales featuring bewitched books in The Haunted Library, for lovers of the weird and the written word.
Available now: shop.bl.uk/products/the-haunted-library-tales-of-cursed-books-and-forbidden-shelves
Dive into fourteen tales featuring bewitched books in The Haunted Library, for lovers of the weird and the written word.
Available now: shop.bl.uk/products/the-haunted-library-tales-of-cursed-books-and-forbidden-shelves
November 15, 2025 at 5:44 PM
👀
I mean, it's certainly a title
November 14, 2025 at 2:14 PM
I mean, it's certainly a title
Really enjoying the epigraph choices for Christopher Hill’s biography of Cromwell.
November 12, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Really enjoying the epigraph choices for Christopher Hill’s biography of Cromwell.
wrote a villanelle! the perfect form
November 12, 2025 at 2:31 PM
wrote a villanelle! the perfect form
‘What about AI’ is an incredibly boring question to ask after basically any paper, but especially when a) it has no relevance to anything said in the talk and b) you can’t even be bothered to shape the question beyond that!
November 11, 2025 at 6:39 PM
‘What about AI’ is an incredibly boring question to ask after basically any paper, but especially when a) it has no relevance to anything said in the talk and b) you can’t even be bothered to shape the question beyond that!
Milton was so right when he said that "a fool will be a fool with the best book"
The far right is obsessed with Lord of the Rings and Musk keeps posting about "hobbits" because modern scientific racism owes more to fantasy worlds and gaming systems than genetic science, and they see both as effective mediums for right-wing propaganda www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Why Elon Musk Needs Dungeons and Dragons to Be Racist
The fantastical roots of “scientific racism”
www.theatlantic.com
November 11, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Milton was so right when he said that "a fool will be a fool with the best book"
Reposted by Alice Wickenden
Attributed to Frans Snyders b. #otd 11 Nov 1579 - d. 19 Aug 1657 Head of a Bear c. 1625-1640
I love that this has been done on a sheet of accounts. (The Morgan)
I love that this has been done on a sheet of accounts. (The Morgan)
November 11, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Attributed to Frans Snyders b. #otd 11 Nov 1579 - d. 19 Aug 1657 Head of a Bear c. 1625-1640
I love that this has been done on a sheet of accounts. (The Morgan)
I love that this has been done on a sheet of accounts. (The Morgan)
Reposted by Alice Wickenden
Today is the OFFICIAL publication day for TEXTILE SHAKESPEARE! Please indulge me: I want to say a little (perhaps rather a lot) about it and share my acknowledgements - and a discount code! Appropriately,🧵1/10
November 11, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Today is the OFFICIAL publication day for TEXTILE SHAKESPEARE! Please indulge me: I want to say a little (perhaps rather a lot) about it and share my acknowledgements - and a discount code! Appropriately,🧵1/10
Maybe we should bring back wearing "a Choice Sort of Black Inck in Hard Balls, with that Conveniency, that you may wear them about you, without any Damage to the Inck, or your Linnen." just mix with any water or wine (except red)!
November 10, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Maybe we should bring back wearing "a Choice Sort of Black Inck in Hard Balls, with that Conveniency, that you may wear them about you, without any Damage to the Inck, or your Linnen." just mix with any water or wine (except red)!
Reposted by Alice Wickenden
Hobbes must’ve felt like a fucking god telling the illustrator about this insane cover concept
November 9, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Hobbes must’ve felt like a fucking god telling the illustrator about this insane cover concept
Anyone here keen on SF & has a suggestion on a) whether Iain M Banks’ Culture series is worth reading & b) if so, where to start?
November 9, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Anyone here keen on SF & has a suggestion on a) whether Iain M Banks’ Culture series is worth reading & b) if so, where to start?
Reposted by Alice Wickenden
Great news! This is out: Opening the black box of EEBO academic.oup.com/dsh/advance-...
Opening the black box of EEBO
Abstract. Digital archives that cover extended historical periods can create a misleading impression of comprehensiveness while in truth providing access t
academic.oup.com
November 9, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Great news! This is out: Opening the black box of EEBO academic.oup.com/dsh/advance-...
Reposted by Alice Wickenden
can anyone who has had library fellowships or similar in the US recommend a tax accountant who can help with claiming back the $$$ that are taken pre-payment? i have tried the self-service route and have hit several brick walls (social security numbers, mailed-in documents, etc etc)
November 8, 2025 at 2:22 PM
can anyone who has had library fellowships or similar in the US recommend a tax accountant who can help with claiming back the $$$ that are taken pre-payment? i have tried the self-service route and have hit several brick walls (social security numbers, mailed-in documents, etc etc)
Reposted by Alice Wickenden
Call me controversial, but technology that leads vulnerable people into crisis and even holds their hand as they die by suicide should not be endorsed by schools and universities, we should not be giving discounted subscriptions to this monstrous tech to young people AT ALL
The boyfriend of a friend of my son's has spent several weeks in a psych ward due to Chat GPT induced psychosis. He isn't suicidal but AI encouraged him down a toxic and paranoid wormhole until he became completely delusional. Evil stuff.
1.This is not the only known example we know of ChatGPT cheering on a vulnerable young person to die by suicide, this time it is a recent Texas A&M grad
2. Every single university that has invited OpenAI into our midst should be asked to account for their choices.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
2. Every single university that has invited OpenAI into our midst should be asked to account for their choices.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
November 7, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Call me controversial, but technology that leads vulnerable people into crisis and even holds their hand as they die by suicide should not be endorsed by schools and universities, we should not be giving discounted subscriptions to this monstrous tech to young people AT ALL
Reposted by Alice Wickenden
How to Do Things with Condiments - JL Austin
is a sandwich a speech act
November 6, 2025 at 8:35 PM
How to Do Things with Condiments - JL Austin
It’s my birthday! My book has finally entered production! I severely hurt my hip at the gig! Not from the pit, just from bad posture! This morning a charity knocker apologised because she only wanted to speak to people over 30 and I did not correct her!
November 6, 2025 at 3:51 PM
It’s my birthday! My book has finally entered production! I severely hurt my hip at the gig! Not from the pit, just from bad posture! This morning a charity knocker apologised because she only wanted to speak to people over 30 and I did not correct her!
I joke that I’m becoming radicalised against digitisation for a number of reasons (AI scraping; false assumptions of some sort of innate accessibility; increased cyberattacks) but this is the main reason
Today, I'm trying to work with a digital humanities project. I would love to use it and share it widely, but unfortunately, it has decayed badly since it was launched (in 2017), and it tough to use. Longevity (even relatively short-term!) is such a problem in digital humanities.
November 5, 2025 at 7:11 PM
I joke that I’m becoming radicalised against digitisation for a number of reasons (AI scraping; false assumptions of some sort of innate accessibility; increased cyberattacks) but this is the main reason