Cristina León Alfar, PhD 🐈🎭📚🌻💃🏻🐈‍⬛
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cristinalalfar.bsky.social
Cristina León Alfar, PhD 🐈🎭📚🌻💃🏻🐈‍⬛
@cristinalalfar.bsky.social
3.5K followers 2.4K following 2.1K posts
Professor ~ EM English drama ~ Shakespeare ~ feminist ethics ~ parrhesia ~ book series ed. *Late Tudor & Stuart Drama* @MIP ~ https://hcommons.org/members/clalfar/
🌻 amateur gardener ~ childless cat lady 🐈‍⬛~ "I can see a church by daylight."
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cristinalalfar.bsky.social
Mid-November pink.

Gathered leaves from the porch, walkway, and sidewalk where we have tons of leaves (and more will fall) and spread them around the back garden where we need them. Very satisfying. 🌱
The hydrangea has gotten more and more pink through the fall. Leaves, periwinkle with a blueberry bush, with pink leaves, an azalea still quite green, and the hydrangea at the left. A lone pink ice plant bloom that thinks it's still warm enough.
November 14, 2025 at 10:40 PM
cristinalalfar.bsky.social
Describe your cat's personality with one photo.
Paolo, leaning against his scratching post, in the sun.
November 9, 2025 at 1:44 PM
cristinalalfar.bsky.social
You know, I hear people say, "oh so and so is running for president." That's supposed to discredit them, I guess. But you know what? Hurray! Let them run! Newsom, Pritzker, Harris, bring it on. And you know what, throw a couple of Republicans in there, too. Let's have an election! I'm afraid there won't be one. So let everyone run. And listen to them. What they say matters.
October 13, 2025 at 1:15 PM
cristinalalfar.bsky.social
I hope you managed to shake it off.
Our tabby boy lying on the sun on our wood floor, near his scratching post and a large clay pot.
October 7, 2025 at 12:35 PM
cristinalalfar.bsky.social
Late September pink after rain.
A cluster of pink hydrangea blooms nestled in green leaves, still wet after rain. A closeup of the same cluster of pink hydrangea blooms nestled in green leaves, still wet after rain. Another spot of 6 pink hydrangea blooms, with a bit of an azalea at the right of the photo. The stone step in the ground is visible at lower right.
September 28, 2025 at 2:06 PM
cristinalalfar.bsky.social
I am very pleased to announce the publication of my essay, “Feminist Shakespeare Studies,” in *The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare & Early Modern Authorship Studies*, edited by Rory Loughnane and Will Sharpe. Please ask your libraries to order it! global.oup.com/academic/pro...
Picture of the book, on a desk. The cover shows a candle in the right hand foreground on a raised desk and an author in the background, out of focus. The title of the book reads, *The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare & Early Modern Authorship Studies." The editors' names are in the upper right corner, Rory Loughnane and Will Sharpe.
September 22, 2025 at 6:44 PM
cristinalalfar.bsky.social
OpenAI is scanning chats to report content to police.
September 15, 2025 at 12:36 AM
cristinalalfar.bsky.social
Celebrating this boy's 16th birthday! #CatsOfBluesky
Paolo, our brown and black tabby sits at our window next to orchids, the sunlight behind him. He has a white bib, white front paws, with one brown finger, and his eyes are lined in white. A little white diamond is on his forehead.
August 14, 2025 at 2:43 PM
cristinalalfar.bsky.social
Yesterday, we enjoyed the weather by checking out the Brooklyn Flea and the fabulous views of the East River. New Yorkers and tourists all enjoyed the afternoon.
The view down a narrow street to the Manhattan Bridge. Food trucks on the left and vendors on the right. A blue sky with a few high clouds above. A view of the Brooklyn Bridge with Manhattan in the background from the roof of the Time Out NY food mall. People enjoying the day at the left and the river below on the right. The Carousel at the bridge with children and parents.
August 3, 2025 at 12:08 PM
cristinalalfar.bsky.social
Today's beautiful thing. 🦋🌱
A butterfly enjoying petunias o on my porch. It is blue and black when the wings are spread as in this shot. Here, the butterfly reveals that when the wings are closed, it is black with orange marking.
July 25, 2025 at 1:39 PM
cristinalalfar.bsky.social
This is a powder that kills insects by turning the plant itself into poison. I have used it in the past with success. I will use it in this case as well.
A container of Bonide Systemic Houseplant Insect Control.
July 18, 2025 at 3:33 PM
cristinalalfar.bsky.social
I bought a Neanthe Bella palm about two months ago, non-toxic to cats. I noticed in the last week that the leaves weren't happy, kind of striped, dirty looking. So I did some reading, and it looks like it has spider mites.
My palm keeps company with my orchids. It sits on a narrow three teir shelf. And the pot is a blue, yellow, orange Mexican painted pot, not unlike Mexican tile. Two cook books sit on the second shelf. The bottom shelf has a stone frog in a yoga pose, hands clasped together above its head, legs crossed.
July 18, 2025 at 1:56 PM
cristinalalfar.bsky.social
He's gorgeous! I did not know him. You might remember the late Celia Penelope Cruz from the other place. I miss her every day.
A grey car sits on a window sill near orchids. She looks up and is partly in shade, partly in bright light. This was her favorite spot.
July 13, 2025 at 1:26 PM
cristinalalfar.bsky.social
My garden is pretty good. My cat is great.
July 8, 2025 at 12:23 AM
cristinalalfar.bsky.social
Academia dot edu is now mining work for AI summary. To optout, log in to your account. Click on
Account Settings. Click on AI Settings. Unclick the button. You will be warned that this will opt you out of all AI summaries and reviews of your work. Click confirm.

#AcademicSky
From an email I received notifying my that my work had been summarized by AI. The page for opting out in my settings.
July 1, 2025 at 12:37 PM
cristinalalfar.bsky.social
Hap care: "A fragile happiness might be attuned to the fragility of things... Maybe we can reorient caring from caring for someone's happiness to caring what happens to someone or something: caring about what happens, caring whatever happens" (Sara Ahmed, Living Feminist Life, 166).
A photo of page 166 of Living a Feminist Life by Sara Ahmed. She writes about care of one another in this section, something we could use more of.
June 23, 2025 at 8:09 PM
cristinalalfar.bsky.social
Good morning from a garden doing its thing no matter what (more or less, depending on weather conditions). It's comforting. 🌱
Purple clematis in green, green leaves. 💜 New hydrangea flowers in various color development from pale green to blue and purple. Orange and yellow day lilies reaching for morning sun. 🌄
June 23, 2025 at 1:19 PM
cristinalalfar.bsky.social
Splendor Solis, Germany, 16th century.
A sun sets behind a city in the distance a countryside in the foreground.
June 22, 2025 at 12:56 AM
cristinalalfar.bsky.social
And peonies! 🌱
Closeup of one peony. It has a delicate pink outer petal, with a darker pink center and a yellow ring Aaron's the pink. The whole peony plant, 3 in bloom, 3 getting ready. Closeup of a peony, closer to white than pink, with a yellow center.
June 2, 2025 at 1:04 PM
cristinalalfar.bsky.social
My back garden hydrangea is a monster! 😍🌱
The hydrangea with countless blooms, turning blue. A closeup of one of the blooms, is tiny green flowers turning blue.
June 1, 2025 at 1:15 PM
cristinalalfar.bsky.social
I also got a little Neanthe Bella palm for our kitchen greenhouse. It's non-toxic to cats. I'm hoping it will be happy in this spot, where there is the most bright light in the house. 🌱
Little palm in the corner, plants above, orchids to the left on top of a small bookcase, a jade plant and orchids to the right on the window ledge. There are some on the table, too, on the right just out of the shot. Closeup of the little palm.
May 18, 2025 at 5:49 PM
cristinalalfar.bsky.social
Papers don't come in until tomorrow. So yesterday I planted. I was sorry not to find healthy petunias. But I got lavender, Rios, a dahlia, a begonia, & various herbs. I also got a columbine I will plant later if it thrives. Tending flowers keeping me sane. All pictured here in pots on my porch. 🌱
May 18, 2025 at 5:41 PM
cristinalalfar.bsky.social
I relocated some tulip bulbs this morning. They didn't do well because they were crowded by daffodils. This azalea is on fire this year.
A red azalea in full bloom.
May 11, 2025 at 12:44 PM
cristinalalfar.bsky.social
Very important azalea update! 🌱
Pink and white azaleas that have become one. The people we bought from must have planted them too close together. But they are happy.
May 3, 2025 at 12:45 PM
cristinalalfar.bsky.social
The garden is lush. I could feel my blood pressure lowering the longer I was out. 🌱
Lily leaves spanning one side of my garden, with rose of sharon tree trunks emerging. Two red tulips are in the background. A bed of periwinkle, a hydrangea on the left and a blooming azalea on the right, fire red. Periwinkle, purple blooms.
April 29, 2025 at 4:33 PM