Amardeep Singh
LightNews LightNews
banner
electrostani.bsky.social
Amardeep Singh
@electrostani.bsky.social
2.7K followers 1.4K following 440 posts
Professor of English at Lehigh University. Anglophone Postcolonial; Modernism; African American Literature; Digital Humanities.

https://www.electrostani.com/
Posts Replies Media Videos
electrostani.bsky.social
Lehigh English is having a Graduate Open House: Tuesday October 28 @ noon ET.

Please forward to students interested in fully-funded M.A. or Ph.D. programs. Prospective applicants can register at the link below; feel free to DM me with questions.

lehigh.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Lehigh's graduate program in English will be holding a virtual (Zoom) open house on Tuesday, October, 28th, 12:00-1:00 pm. Recommended for people interested in pursuing an M.A. or Ph.D. in English. Highlights of the program include: Small classes led by research-active faculty engaged in both traditional and public-facing scholarship. A focus on literature and social justice, designed to provide our students with critical frameworks for evaluating the ethical, political, and formal aspects of texts within and across diverse historical contexts. Fully funded degree (i.e. you pay no tuition) plus an annual stipend of approximately $28,000/year. Intensive pedagogical training and hands-on experience teaching first year writing. Opportunities for student collaboration with faculty on research and public humanities projects. Post-graduate career-planning assistance from both departmental faculty and Lehigh staff.
October 17, 2025 at 12:05 PM
electrostani.bsky.social
A few notes and highlights from my MSA 2025. The Baroness and Djuna Barnes; Marianne Moore; H.D. and Bryher; Anticolonial manifestoes; South Asian modernism. And: remembering Sejal Sutaria.

@moderniststudies.bsky.social @ria4983.bsky.social

www.electrostani.com/2025/10/note...
Marianne Moore Tricorner hat and cape
October 14, 2025 at 4:56 PM
electrostani.bsky.social
Looking forward to the MSA @moderniststudies.bsky.social later this week in Boston! I'll be giving a talk on one panel, chairing another, and participating in a really cool workshop.

My talk is on Wallace Thurman and Richard Bruce Nugent, two amazing authors I'm writing about for the first time.
Panel: Queer Print Infrastructures in Literary Modernism I Fairfax A Chair: Sophie Yates, University of British Columbia Amardeep Singh, Lehigh University, “Queer Frenemies and the making of Fire!!: On Infants of the Spring and Gentleman Jigger” Eliza Browning, Princeton University, “Doubled Forms of Editorial Collaboration in Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven’s Poetry” Eleonora Guidi, University of Bologna, “Adrienne Monnier’s Mesures, from Paris, 1935”
October 7, 2025 at 5:05 PM
electrostani.bsky.social
With all the depressing news this week, seems good to take a minute to enjoy the Alaskan Fat Bear competition story, which I translate as "middle age life goals," as I eat an extra slice of my kid's birthday cake for second breakfast.

www.usatoday.com/story/pets-a...
Image from USA Today of bears gaining weight. Shows bears 32 Chunk and 856, both gaining considerable weight during the feeding period in Alaska in preparation for hibernation.
October 1, 2025 at 2:27 PM
electrostani.bsky.social
Was at Cornell this past weekend -- giving a talk on Toni Morrison in the new *Toni Morrison Hall*. Pretty cool & a nice conference overall.

I also drove down to Penn State for the Frances Harper 200 conference.

A few highlights from both conferences here:

www.electrostani.com/2025/09/two-...
Photo of Toni Morrison Hall at Cornell.
September 22, 2025 at 1:26 PM
electrostani.bsky.social
Historical orthography question: In the poem below, published in 1858, is it "coffle-gang" or "coffie-gang" ?

I have been reading it as "coffie," but semantically it makes more sense as "coffle." Maryemma Graham (1988) had it as "coffle" in her edition, but many other anthologies have "coffie."
Screen grab of a poem by Frances Harper: Make me a grave where'er you will, In a lowly plain, or a lofty hill, Make it among earth's humblest graves, But not in a land where men are slaves. I could not rest if around my grave I heard the steps of a trembling slave: His shadow above my silent tomb Would make it a place of fearful gloom. I could not rest if I heard the tread Of a coffie [coffle?] gang to the shambles led, And the mother's shriek of wild despair Rise like a curse on the trembling air.
June 11, 2025 at 3:08 PM
electrostani.bsky.social
Random ngram data-point: Sometime in the 1950s, we started to *shiver* more than *shudder*.
Chart from Google Ngram viewer, with three search terms, "shiver," "shudder," and "flutter," applied to English fiction 1800-2022. For most of the time depicted in the chart, "shudder" is used more frequently, but in the 1950s, "shiver" passes it. By the 2020s, it is found significantly more often in English fiction than "shudder" or "flutter."
June 4, 2025 at 1:22 PM
electrostani.bsky.social
As I've been diving more deeply into African American literature for digital projects, my Af-Am Bibliography and Biography bookshelves have steadily been growing, especially as I visit used bookstores in the Philly area.

(What are some I might be missing?)
Bookshelf with African American literature collections, including Norton Anthology of African American Literature, a biography of W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes' autobiography, and others. Bookshelf with a variety of African American literature texts, including the Complete Poems of Claude McKay, the Oxford Anthology of African American Poetry, The Life of Langston Hughes, Maureen Honey's Shadowed Dreams anthology, and others.
March 12, 2025 at 12:16 PM
electrostani.bsky.social
So we went skiing yesterday while it was snowing pretty heavily...
Self-portrait at a ski resort, with fully ice-encrusted beard. This person needs to invest in a balaclava and proper ski jacket.
January 20, 2025 at 12:38 PM
electrostani.bsky.social
"Ms." -- and her name is Nespresso.
Promotional photo of a red Nespresso coffee machine.
January 13, 2025 at 6:45 PM
electrostani.bsky.social
Virginia Woolf:

"“Hamlet” or a Beethoven quartet is the truth about this vast mass that we call the world. But there is no Shakespeare, there is no Beethoven; certainly and emphatically there is no God; we are the words; we are the music; we are the thing itself." (From "A Sketch of the Past")
Quote from Virginia Woolf: "Perhaps this is the strongest pleasure known to me. It is the rapture I get when in writing I seem to be discovering what belongs to what; making a scene come right; making a character come together. From this I reach what I might call a philosophy; at any rate it is a constant idea of mine; that behind the cotton wool is hidden a pattern; that we —I mean all human beings—are connected with this; that the whole world is a work of art; that we are parts of the work of art. “Hamlet” or a Beethoven quartet is the truth about this vast mass that we call the world. But there is no Shakespeare, there is no Beethoven; certainly and emphatically there is no God; we are the words; we are the music; we are the thing itself. And I see this when I have a shock."
December 4, 2024 at 5:47 PM
electrostani.bsky.social
Brilliant and necessary NYT column today from Roxane Gay @roxanegay.bsky.social.

"We must refuse to participate in a mass delusion. We must refuse to accept that the ignorance on display is a congenital condition rather than a choice."

www.nytimes.com/2024/11/17/o...
Quote from Roxane Gay: "Mr. Trump’s voters are granted a level of care and coddling that defies credulity and that is afforded to no other voting bloc. Many of them believe the most ludicrous things: babies being aborted after birth and children going to school as one gender and returning home surgically altered as another gender even though these things simply do not happen. Time and again, we hear the wild lies these voters believe and we act as if they are sharing the same reality as ours, as if they are making informed decisions about legitimate issues. We act as if they get to dictate the terms of political engagement on a foundation of fevered mendacity. We must refuse to participate in a mass delusion. We must refuse to accept that the ignorance on display is a congenital condition rather than a choice. "
November 17, 2024 at 3:00 PM
electrostani.bsky.social
100K+ users over the past year at "African American Poetry: A Digital Anthology"!

Some top pages people are visiting include:

Zora Neale Hurston, "Sweat"
Alain Locke, "The New Negro"
T. Thomas Fortune, "Dreams of Life"
Langston Hughes, "The Weary Blues"
Bruce Nugent, "Smoke, Lilies, and Jade"
Google Analytics chart showing active users average over the course of a year (October 2023-2024) for Amardeep Singh's digital anthology, "African American Poetry." The total active users listed are at 104,000.
October 18, 2024 at 2:29 PM
electrostani.bsky.social
RIP to Fred Jameson.

Here he is on Parody vs. Pastiche (from "Postmodernism")...
Pastiche is, like parody, the imitation of a peculiar or unique style, the wearing of a stylistic mask, speech in a dead language: but it is a neutral practice of such mimicry, without parody's ulterior motive, without the satirical impulse, without laughter, without that still latent feeling that there exists something normal compared to which what is being imitated is rather comic. Pastiche is blank parody, parody that has lost its sense of humor: pastiche is to parody what that curious thing, the modern practice of a kind of blank irony, is to what Wayne Booth calls the stable and comic ironies of, say, the 18th century.
September 22, 2024 at 6:04 PM
electrostani.bsky.social
Saw this on Indian WhatsApp; thought it was cool.

(She's going to win.)
Black and white image of Kamala Harris, with the text, "In Sanskrit, Kamala means LOTUS. In America, Kamala means POTUS." Meme circulating on Desi (South Asian) WhatsApp groups today; I did not create it.
July 24, 2024 at 2:40 PM
electrostani.bsky.social
I didn’t know about these, and Googled to find out….

My first thought is that Jesus is being super-demanding here (“gouge out your own eye”?) so they just conveniently ignore him.

(But more generally I think it’s because there was a Hollywood movie about the 10 Commandments… )
June 24, 2024 at 2:38 AM
electrostani.bsky.social
My colleagues in the English department and I put together this statement expressing support for students' right to protest without fear of retaliation.

In short: students have a right to protest. Debating complex issues and learning to handle disagreement is part of our educational mission.
We, the undersigned faculty members at Lehigh University, wish to express our support for our students who are exercising their First Amendment rights on campus related to the War in Gaza. They should be able to engage in such activity without fear of retaliation. American university campuses have long been well-known as places where students can express challenging and sometimes controversial views. As long as these views are expressed respectfully and do not constitute harassment of other individuals or groups, we believe that student engagement in the most urgent social and political questions of our day can be an important part of the educational experience they have while on our campus. We support our students’ right to engage in peaceful protest consistent with the University’s Student Code of Conduct and Principles of Our Equitable Community. Secondly, we believe that encouraging education and dialogue regarding the history of the Israel-Palestinian conflict is and should be
May 2, 2024 at 9:25 PM
electrostani.bsky.social
UPDATE: mystery solved! "John Strong" was a printer's error.

The poem, it appears, was actually by Georgia Douglas Johnson. (Kudos to Neal Caren on Twitter for spotting this correction from the June 1927 issue of The Crisis)
March 9, 2024 at 10:08 PM
electrostani.bsky.social
Academic friends, help requested. This remarkable protest poem was printed in the April 1927 issue of "The Crisis," and is credited to a poet named John Strong.

My graduate student and I have been trying to find out more about the identity of the poet. Any sleuths out there who could help us out?
America, here is your son, born of your iron heel, Black blood and red and white contend along this frame of steel. The thorns deep in his brow are set and yet he does not cower, He goes with neither fears nor tears to crucifixion hour. Nor yet does hatred blur his view of mankind’s frail parade, From his commanding triple coign, all prejudices fade. The ebbing nations coalesce in him and flow as one, The bright shining rainbow sweeping back to God at set of sun! Mark well the surety of tread, the new song high in air, The new note in the nation’s throat, as permanent as prayer. America, regard your son, The Cosmopolitan, The pattern of posterity, The True American.
March 9, 2024 at 8:14 PM
electrostani.bsky.social
It started as a bit of a side project, but over the past two years it has picked up steam, mainly through Google searches.

This February, my African American Poetry digital anthology project had 15,000 new users, the most I've had for any of my digital projects.

scalar.lehigh.edu/african-amer...
February 29, 2024 at 6:38 PM
electrostani.bsky.social
I'm excited about the new course on AI & science fiction I'm teaching this spring.

(Admittedly, the enrollment is a little lighter than I was expecting -- perhaps I need a better / different title next time...)
lack Mirrors: Science Fiction, AI, and Ethics Instructor: Professor Amardeep Singh (“Deep”) Mondays and Wednesdays, 12:10-1:25 (Drown 019) This course will survey 20th- and 21st-century science fiction and film with an emphasis on representations of Artificial Intelligence. Though many think of this as a topic especially relevant to the present moment, in fact, writers and filmmakers have been considering AI in various ways since the late 1800s. For the present course, we will focus on contemporary science fiction representations of AI by writers like Martha Wells, Kazuo Ishiguro, Sean Michaels, and Jeanette Winterson. We'll also look closely at how AIs have been represented in contemporary media, in shows like Black Mirror and films like Her and Ex Machina. What are the ethical issues surrounding the creation and use of AIs? What tools do scientists, philosophers, and social theorists offer us to help make sense of the rapidly changing landscape regarding AI? What are some likely
January 23, 2024 at 1:14 AM
electrostani.bsky.social
I'm excited about the new course on AI & science fiction I'm teaching this spring.

(Admittedly, the enrollment is a little lighter than I was expecting -- perhaps I need a better / different title next time...)
lack Mirrors: Science Fiction, AI, and Ethics Instructor: Professor Amardeep Singh (“Deep”) Mondays and Wednesdays, 12:10-1:25 (Drown 019) This course will survey 20th- and 21st-century science fiction and film with an emphasis on representations of Artificial Intelligence. Though many think of this as a topic especially relevant to the present moment, in fact, writers and filmmakers have been considering AI in various ways since the late 1800s. For the present course, we will focus on contemporary science fiction representations of AI by writers like Martha Wells, Kazuo Ishiguro, Sean Michaels, and Jeanette Winterson. We'll also look closely at how AIs have been represented in contemporary media, in shows like Black Mirror and films like Her and Ex Machina. What are the ethical issues surrounding the creation and use of AIs? What tools do scientists, philosophers, and social theorists offer us to help make sense of the rapidly changing landscape regarding AI? What are some likely
January 23, 2024 at 1:14 AM
electrostani.bsky.social
I'm excited about the new course on AI & science fiction I'm teaching this spring.

(Admittedly, the enrollment is a little lighter than I was expecting -- perhaps I need a better / different title next time...)
lack Mirrors: Science Fiction, AI, and Ethics Instructor: Professor Amardeep Singh (“Deep”) Mondays and Wednesdays, 12:10-1:25 (Drown 019) This course will survey 20th- and 21st-century science fiction and film with an emphasis on representations of Artificial Intelligence. Though many think of this as a topic especially relevant to the present moment, in fact, writers and filmmakers have been considering AI in various ways since the late 1800s. For the present course, we will focus on contemporary science fiction representations of AI by writers like Martha Wells, Kazuo Ishiguro, Sean Michaels, and Jeanette Winterson. We'll also look closely at how AIs have been represented in contemporary media, in shows like Black Mirror and films like Her and Ex Machina. What are the ethical issues surrounding the creation and use of AIs? What tools do scientists, philosophers, and social theorists offer us to help make sense of the rapidly changing landscape regarding AI? What are some likely
January 23, 2024 at 1:14 AM
electrostani.bsky.social
Poetics friends -- what poetic *form* would you say this is? (I've been wondering if it might be a sestain?)

Full poem here:

scalar.lehigh.edu/african-amer...
First stanza of a Jessie Fauset poem. Click the link to read the whole poem.
January 12, 2024 at 5:49 PM
electrostani.bsky.social
Coding friends:

Does anyone know of a good "RegEx" trick for removing carriage returns in a text file -- while maintaining paragraph breaks?
January 3, 2024 at 1:55 PM