Courtney Weiss Smith
@cweiss-smith.bsky.social
professor @ Wesleyan, editor @ History & Theory and Norton Anthology of English Literature, mother @ home, lover of poetry and tv and good cheese @ all the times…
Reposted by Courtney Weiss Smith
CFP: “Embodied Knowledge Practices in the Early Modern World”
Conference at the University of Amsterdam
Monday, 15 June 2026
How do material conditions shape how & what we know about the natural world?
#earlymodern #C18L
1/6
Conference at the University of Amsterdam
Monday, 15 June 2026
How do material conditions shape how & what we know about the natural world?
#earlymodern #C18L
1/6
October 31, 2025 at 3:11 PM
CFP: “Embodied Knowledge Practices in the Early Modern World”
Conference at the University of Amsterdam
Monday, 15 June 2026
How do material conditions shape how & what we know about the natural world?
#earlymodern #C18L
1/6
Conference at the University of Amsterdam
Monday, 15 June 2026
How do material conditions shape how & what we know about the natural world?
#earlymodern #C18L
1/6
Has anyone written about nonmetrical rhyming in contemporary poetry? Like in Maggie Millner’s Couplets? I want to read something about how people (who aren’t carrying around the kind of historical associations I am) understand forms and formings and breakings in this kind of verse…
October 31, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Has anyone written about nonmetrical rhyming in contemporary poetry? Like in Maggie Millner’s Couplets? I want to read something about how people (who aren’t carrying around the kind of historical associations I am) understand forms and formings and breakings in this kind of verse…
Cate Marvin’s “Death of the Humanities”:
October 23, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Cate Marvin’s “Death of the Humanities”:
I’m so excited for this book!
I've lost track of how many people over the past years I've told to watch for Elizabeth Scott-Baumann's next book coming out, and now it's here. Proper good ideas: press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...
Sex and Style
A new literary history that places women writers at the center of poetic theory and practice in English literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
press.princeton.edu
October 7, 2025 at 12:33 AM
I’m so excited for this book!
First sign (literally) on campus of something I’m REALLY looking forward to this fall! www.wesleyan.edu/dac/exhibiti...
August 26, 2025 at 3:37 PM
First sign (literally) on campus of something I’m REALLY looking forward to this fall! www.wesleyan.edu/dac/exhibiti...
Ah! I just saw that Ruth Mack’s new book is out! Forget what I was planning to do today, will be reading instead 🤩 www.sup.org/books/litera...
Handicraft Philosophies | Stanford University Press
The term "Enlightenment" still carries its tie to a grand philosophical tradition that in Britain moves through Bacon, Locke, and Hume. But the literature and philosophy of the Enlightenment was full ...
www.sup.org
August 14, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Ah! I just saw that Ruth Mack’s new book is out! Forget what I was planning to do today, will be reading instead 🤩 www.sup.org/books/litera...
We are hiring a tenure track poet! I’m so excited / spread the word… wesleyan.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/career...
Assistant Professor of English
The Department of English at Wesleyan University seeks a published poet for a tenure-track appointment beginning July 1, 2026. Teaching responsibilities include two courses per semester in introductor...
wesleyan.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com
July 16, 2025 at 11:42 AM
We are hiring a tenure track poet! I’m so excited / spread the word… wesleyan.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/career...
being in Indonesia and having a perfect breakfast is not going to go wasted on me which is why I’m telling you about it… :)
July 5, 2025 at 3:01 AM
being in Indonesia and having a perfect breakfast is not going to go wasted on me which is why I’m telling you about it… :)
Reposted by Courtney Weiss Smith
in CLOSE READING FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I wrote a 36 page three-part introduction: What Close Reading Is, What Close Reading Does, and What Close Reading Has Been
30 pages of it is now online at @princetonupress.bsky.social
press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...
30 pages of it is now online at @princetonupress.bsky.social
press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...
Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century
A user’s guide to the fundamental practice of literary studies, providing context, examples, and practical exercises
press.princeton.edu
June 29, 2025 at 1:09 PM
in CLOSE READING FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I wrote a 36 page three-part introduction: What Close Reading Is, What Close Reading Does, and What Close Reading Has Been
30 pages of it is now online at @princetonupress.bsky.social
press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...
30 pages of it is now online at @princetonupress.bsky.social
press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...
I’m feeling pretty obsessed by @publicdomainrev.bsky.social / CP Cranch’s “literal renderings” of Emerson’s figures. The transparent eyeball! publicdomainreview.org/collection/c...
June 20, 2025 at 5:25 PM
I’m feeling pretty obsessed by @publicdomainrev.bsky.social / CP Cranch’s “literal renderings” of Emerson’s figures. The transparent eyeball! publicdomainreview.org/collection/c...
Writing the introduction to my book and basically trying to be reading and citing all of these books at the same time; gotta keep them all right next to me so I can delusionally attempt to simultaneously treat all of them in coherent sentences, going poorly…
June 9, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Writing the introduction to my book and basically trying to be reading and citing all of these books at the same time; gotta keep them all right next to me so I can delusionally attempt to simultaneously treat all of them in coherent sentences, going poorly…
Cleanth Brooks writing about “the much advertised demise of the Humanities” in 1947 😳
June 5, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Cleanth Brooks writing about “the much advertised demise of the Humanities” in 1947 😳
Reposted by Courtney Weiss Smith
say it again:
4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities
ROI for NIH and NSF for local economies is conservatively 4x, often close to 10x
demolishing higher education is economic sabotage
4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities
ROI for NIH and NSF for local economies is conservatively 4x, often close to 10x
demolishing higher education is economic sabotage
There is a false dichotomy drawn between "the ivory tower" and "the real world," and I'm here to report that in a post-industrial society, your real-world economy absolutely hinges on the university.
University towns are factory towns. Universities drive economic activity, not the other way around.
University towns are factory towns. Universities drive economic activity, not the other way around.
A must read
May 18, 2025 at 1:45 PM
say it again:
4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities
ROI for NIH and NSF for local economies is conservatively 4x, often close to 10x
demolishing higher education is economic sabotage
4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities
ROI for NIH and NSF for local economies is conservatively 4x, often close to 10x
demolishing higher education is economic sabotage
Reposted by Courtney Weiss Smith
The muse of poetry, looking appropriately un-chill.
April 12, 2025 at 5:42 PM
The muse of poetry, looking appropriately un-chill.
Fun etymology in class today as we talk about how the word “vaccine” is from the Latin word for “cow.” Also nice to see 18thc English folks being super chill about vaccination, no modern parallels here… 😳
April 8, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Fun etymology in class today as we talk about how the word “vaccine” is from the Latin word for “cow.” Also nice to see 18thc English folks being super chill about vaccination, no modern parallels here… 😳
Rhyme-lovers, a call for papers! David Caplan is hosting another symposium on poetic form at SMU—the first one was *fabulous*, generating real conversation among scholars & poets. Propose a paper to join us for the second iteration?! www.smu.edu/dedman/acade...
March 28, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Rhyme-lovers, a call for papers! David Caplan is hosting another symposium on poetic form at SMU—the first one was *fabulous*, generating real conversation among scholars & poets. Propose a paper to join us for the second iteration?! www.smu.edu/dedman/acade...
We’ve just started the show but I’m actually cackling at Parker Posey on White Lotus. People are saying it’s a bonkers accent or she’s unrealistic, but let me tell you I’ve MET this woman!
March 25, 2025 at 1:18 PM
We’ve just started the show but I’m actually cackling at Parker Posey on White Lotus. People are saying it’s a bonkers accent or she’s unrealistic, but let me tell you I’ve MET this woman!
I write on Elizabeth Elstob in this book I’m trying to finish—she’s completely fascinating!
Pioneering grammar of Old English? Elizabeth Elstob's * The Rudiments Of Grammar For The English Saxon Tongue * London, 1715.
March 17, 2025 at 11:12 AM
I write on Elizabeth Elstob in this book I’m trying to finish—she’s completely fascinating!
Posting again for the Friday crowd:
What are some interesting models for non-workshop format creative writing courses, as a supplement (not replacement) for small workshops!?
What are some interesting models for non-workshop format creative writing courses, as a supplement (not replacement) for small workshops!?
My department is brainstorming ways to scale up to some larger classes. We have plans on the scholarly side, but I want to ask hive mind: does anyone know of good innovative models for non-workshop style, slightly larger courses in creative writing? (To be taught in addition to small workshops ofc)
March 7, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Posting again for the Friday crowd:
What are some interesting models for non-workshop format creative writing courses, as a supplement (not replacement) for small workshops!?
What are some interesting models for non-workshop format creative writing courses, as a supplement (not replacement) for small workshops!?
My department is brainstorming ways to scale up to some larger classes. We have plans on the scholarly side, but I want to ask hive mind: does anyone know of good innovative models for non-workshop style, slightly larger courses in creative writing? (To be taught in addition to small workshops ofc)
March 6, 2025 at 2:32 PM
My department is brainstorming ways to scale up to some larger classes. We have plans on the scholarly side, but I want to ask hive mind: does anyone know of good innovative models for non-workshop style, slightly larger courses in creative writing? (To be taught in addition to small workshops ofc)
Here are some neat historical resources for teaching if you, like me, are obsessed with Tyehimba Jess’ sonnet crown about the Fisk Jubilee singers! bookshop.org/p/books/olio...
February 2, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Here are some neat historical resources for teaching if you, like me, are obsessed with Tyehimba Jess’ sonnet crown about the Fisk Jubilee singers! bookshop.org/p/books/olio...
Will someone talk to me about this wild moment in Phillis Wheatley’s “On Messrs Hussey and Coffin” when she breaks her couplets with a prose (?) wish? I can’t think of anything like it in period poetry. Can you? Has anyone written on this?!
January 3, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Will someone talk to me about this wild moment in Phillis Wheatley’s “On Messrs Hussey and Coffin” when she breaks her couplets with a prose (?) wish? I can’t think of anything like it in period poetry. Can you? Has anyone written on this?!
I *loved* the tv show “somebody somewhere”—such a beautiful, funny, heartwarming vision of middle America. I have no idea if this’ll make a difference, but just in case: sign the petition! (And, for a move with even surer results, if you haven’t watched it DO THAT IMMEDIATELY !) chng.it/qb9RhhDB6n
Can you spare a minute to help this campaign?
Bring Back HBO's Somebody Somewhere!
chng.it
December 12, 2024 at 12:32 AM
I *loved* the tv show “somebody somewhere”—such a beautiful, funny, heartwarming vision of middle America. I have no idea if this’ll make a difference, but just in case: sign the petition! (And, for a move with even surer results, if you haven’t watched it DO THAT IMMEDIATELY !) chng.it/qb9RhhDB6n
Reposted by Courtney Weiss Smith
#ArticleSnapshot📸: Read Johanna Drucker's "Inventing the Alphabet: The Technologies of Knowledge Production" in our September issue.
This article is a revised version of the lecture Drucker delivered at @RemarqueNYU in Feb. 2024 as the 9th H&T lecture.
doi.org/10.1111/hith...
This article is a revised version of the lecture Drucker delivered at @RemarqueNYU in Feb. 2024 as the 9th H&T lecture.
doi.org/10.1111/hith...
INVENTING THE ALPHABET: THE TECHNOLOGIES OF KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION
Click on the article title to read more.
doi.org
October 2, 2024 at 4:13 PM
#ArticleSnapshot📸: Read Johanna Drucker's "Inventing the Alphabet: The Technologies of Knowledge Production" in our September issue.
This article is a revised version of the lecture Drucker delivered at @RemarqueNYU in Feb. 2024 as the 9th H&T lecture.
doi.org/10.1111/hith...
This article is a revised version of the lecture Drucker delivered at @RemarqueNYU in Feb. 2024 as the 9th H&T lecture.
doi.org/10.1111/hith...