Harry R. McCarthy (offline)
@harrymccarthy.bsky.social
Assistant Professor of English at USC. Early modern childhood, race, gender, education, and performance. Book on boy actors with @cambridgeup.bsky.social. Next book sometime, somewhere. https://dornsife.usc.edu/profile/harry-mccarthy/
Me: Why do we think Little Lord Fauntleroy might have fallen out of favour with an American readership?
Student: Is it because it's really boring?
Student: Is it because it's really boring?
September 29, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Me: Why do we think Little Lord Fauntleroy might have fallen out of favour with an American readership?
Student: Is it because it's really boring?
Student: Is it because it's really boring?
BEYOND hyped for this. coinandghost.org/aaron/
The Aaron Play
coinandghost.org
September 27, 2025 at 7:46 PM
BEYOND hyped for this. coinandghost.org/aaron/
Saw the Hamnet trailer last night. Looks wonderful, and sorry to be that guy, but… painted sets at the Globe?!
September 18, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Saw the Hamnet trailer last night. Looks wonderful, and sorry to be that guy, but… painted sets at the Globe?!
Six years as Dr Harry. This guy wouldn’t have believed what’s happening now. Photo by @pascaleexeter.bsky.social minutes after @lucycmunro.bsky.social & Jane Milling gave me my laurels.
September 17, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Six years as Dr Harry. This guy wouldn’t have believed what’s happening now. Photo by @pascaleexeter.bsky.social minutes after @lucycmunro.bsky.social & Jane Milling gave me my laurels.
I’ve come to the conclusion that this really isn’t the site for me - so email for work (link in bio); Instagram for cocktails.
August 17, 2025 at 9:03 PM
I’ve come to the conclusion that this really isn’t the site for me - so email for work (link in bio); Instagram for cocktails.
Reposted by Harry R. McCarthy (offline)
Why is it important to counter the Jane Austen 250th birthday frenzy in this moment? Because she is being used to promote neoimperial Brexit culture under the cover of white feminism as supposedly 'radical' 1/
theconversation.com/jane-austen-...
theconversation.com/jane-austen-...
Jane Austen at 250: Why we shouldn’t exaggerate her radicalism
Examining Austen as a radical genius misunderstands her art and misrepresents the imperial culture that she was part of.
theconversation.com
August 12, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Why is it important to counter the Jane Austen 250th birthday frenzy in this moment? Because she is being used to promote neoimperial Brexit culture under the cover of white feminism as supposedly 'radical' 1/
theconversation.com/jane-austen-...
theconversation.com/jane-austen-...
Deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Peter Erickson - a leading light and the ultimate role model for white scholars working within the field of PCRS—and beyond.
August 11, 2025 at 7:47 AM
Deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Peter Erickson - a leading light and the ultimate role model for white scholars working within the field of PCRS—and beyond.
Reposted by Harry R. McCarthy (offline)
Stop doing this! Whoever is paying @timeshighered.bsky.social for story after story is also funding environmental vandalism on a catastrophic scale. This isn't journalism, it's naive ethical bankruptcy - and intellectually and pedagogically obtuse.
#GenAI is not just for students. Isabel Fischer outlines draft principles to help assessors use AI responsibly in #marking and feedback.
www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/how-s...
www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/how-s...
How should assessors use AI for marking and feedback?
While much attention has focused on students’ use of GenAI, its potential to support assessors has mostly been overlooked. Here, Isabel Fischer shares draft principles co-created at a cross-institutio...
www.timeshighereducation.com
August 5, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Stop doing this! Whoever is paying @timeshighered.bsky.social for story after story is also funding environmental vandalism on a catastrophic scale. This isn't journalism, it's naive ethical bankruptcy - and intellectually and pedagogically obtuse.
I personally am taking this as an invitation never to write anything again 🙏
AI bot scrapers are hitting every site on the web in search of training data. This report is the first good attempt to evaluate the impact of these AI scrapers, especially on smaller institutions that are trying to make their collections open to the public www.404media.co/ai-scraping-...
AI Scraping Bots Are Breaking Open Libraries, Archives, and Museums
"This is a moment where that community feels collectively under threat and isn't sure what the process is for solving the problem.”
www.404media.co
June 17, 2025 at 5:43 PM
I personally am taking this as an invitation never to write anything again 🙏
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety
(32 today 🎈)
Her infinite variety
(32 today 🎈)
June 17, 2025 at 8:34 AM
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety
(32 today 🎈)
Her infinite variety
(32 today 🎈)
Great to see this year's Oxford World's Classics Shakespeare webinars making their way onto YouTube - here's @oldfortunatus.bsky.social and me in conversation about Titus Andronicus www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbQv...
English Faculty / OWC Shakespeare webinar with Professor Emma Smith: Titus Andronicus
YouTube video by Faculty of English, University of Oxford
www.youtube.com
June 16, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Great to see this year's Oxford World's Classics Shakespeare webinars making their way onto YouTube - here's @oldfortunatus.bsky.social and me in conversation about Titus Andronicus www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbQv...
Reposted by Harry R. McCarthy (offline)
What a wonderful event we had at Bristol this evening with alum @harrymccarthy.bsky.social and Jayne Gold talking about their cutting-edge research. Followed by exceptional pasta/pizza at Moltobuono! - thanks to everyone who turned up on a rainy Thursday.
June 12, 2025 at 7:49 PM
What a wonderful event we had at Bristol this evening with alum @harrymccarthy.bsky.social and Jayne Gold talking about their cutting-edge research. Followed by exceptional pasta/pizza at Moltobuono! - thanks to everyone who turned up on a rainy Thursday.
Despite Everything Going On, my nonagenarian grandmother's principle concern about the move to LA is that I'll unconsciously adopt American spelling
June 12, 2025 at 11:32 AM
Despite Everything Going On, my nonagenarian grandmother's principle concern about the move to LA is that I'll unconsciously adopt American spelling
Reading this made my morning - so wonderful to see such thoughtful work on this hot mess of a play 🔥😈
Thrilled that "In Bed with the Pope" – my article on Barnabe Barnes' The Devil's Charter, sodomy & anti-Catholic propaganda – has been published on Renaissance Studies!
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
In Bed with the Pope: Barnabe Barnes' The Devil's Charter (1607) and the Sodomitical Papacy☆
Performed in front of James I amid the anti-Catholic paranoia that followed the Gunpowder Plot, Barnabe Barnes' The Devil's Charter dramatizes the life and pontificate of Alexander VI. Readapting con....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
June 12, 2025 at 10:56 AM
Reading this made my morning - so wonderful to see such thoughtful work on this hot mess of a play 🔥😈
Reposted by Harry R. McCarthy (offline)
Very excited to be hosting Harry and Jayne, two of our esteemed postgraduate alumni, at Bristol next week. Come if you can! www.tickettailor.com/events/unive...
Select tickets – Postgraduate Alumni Event: Jayne Gold and Harry McCarthy – Lecture Room (3.13), Wickham Theatre, Cantock's Close, Bristol
Theatre at Bristol Seminars (TaBS) are delighted to welcome two guest speakers for our final event of this academic year. In th...
www.tickettailor.com
May 29, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Very excited to be hosting Harry and Jayne, two of our esteemed postgraduate alumni, at Bristol next week. Come if you can! www.tickettailor.com/events/unive...
absolutely not.
There's no doubt that editors for academic publishing need more help and support to keep things going.
But my god, this isn't it.
I've published in a number of OUP outlets. This would force me to reconsider. I suspect other #SkyStorians will, too.
But my god, this isn't it.
I've published in a number of OUP outlets. This would force me to reconsider. I suspect other #SkyStorians will, too.
Oxford University Press and Hum sign agreement to pilot Alchemist Review
Oxford University Press partners with Hum to pilot Alchemist Review, an AI-based editorial assistant that will enhance manuscript assessment while reducing a...
www.alpsp.org
June 4, 2025 at 9:06 AM
absolutely not.
Reposted by Harry R. McCarthy (offline)
This past semester was the most stressful of my academic career. I had 180 students and about half cheated at some point in the semester
They submit weekly reflections where the questions are opinion-based, graded only on effort, don't care about grammar
SO MANY students submitted ChatGPT essays
They submit weekly reflections where the questions are opinion-based, graded only on effort, don't care about grammar
SO MANY students submitted ChatGPT essays
I talked to 15 teachers/professors about how AI and ChatGPT is ruining their lives:
www.404media.co/teachers-are...
www.404media.co/teachers-are...
Teachers Are Not OK
AI, ChatGPT, and LLMs "have absolutely blown up what I try to accomplish with my teaching."
www.404media.co
June 2, 2025 at 5:39 PM
This past semester was the most stressful of my academic career. I had 180 students and about half cheated at some point in the semester
They submit weekly reflections where the questions are opinion-based, graded only on effort, don't care about grammar
SO MANY students submitted ChatGPT essays
They submit weekly reflections where the questions are opinion-based, graded only on effort, don't care about grammar
SO MANY students submitted ChatGPT essays
Reposted by Harry R. McCarthy (offline)
I think this is such a major driver of AI use in university assessments. And also just a real… disconnection between why we think students are here (to learn about history!) and why students think they are here (to get good grades, to get a job)
When you're working 3 jobs while going to school full time and just barely making enough to feed yourself, ChatGPT offers an appealing way to make life a little bit easier without feeling like you're REALLY doing something wrong
I'm increasingly getting a double bell curve in my classes
I'm increasingly getting a double bell curve in my classes
June 4, 2025 at 8:52 AM
I think this is such a major driver of AI use in university assessments. And also just a real… disconnection between why we think students are here (to learn about history!) and why students think they are here (to get good grades, to get a job)
Reposted by Harry R. McCarthy (offline)
Last night, the House of Lords defeated the Government for a fourth time by passing an amendment establishing meaningful transparency measures for the use of rightsholders’ works in AI systems, many of which are being used without recognition, permission or remuneration. (1/3)
June 3, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Last night, the House of Lords defeated the Government for a fourth time by passing an amendment establishing meaningful transparency measures for the use of rightsholders’ works in AI systems, many of which are being used without recognition, permission or remuneration. (1/3)
I don't know what I was expecting Helkiah Crooke to compare ejaculate to, but it sure wasn't 'a company of Antickes holding hand in hand' who 'vault upon a stage' [Mikrokosmographia, book IV]
June 2, 2025 at 10:22 AM
I don't know what I was expecting Helkiah Crooke to compare ejaculate to, but it sure wasn't 'a company of Antickes holding hand in hand' who 'vault upon a stage' [Mikrokosmographia, book IV]
Seems a good time to remind that I'm talking about the question of boy actors, 'transvestism', and early modern trans studies in Bristol two weeks from now: www.tickettailor.com/events/unive...
May 29, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Seems a good time to remind that I'm talking about the question of boy actors, 'transvestism', and early modern trans studies in Bristol two weeks from now: www.tickettailor.com/events/unive...
Reposted by Harry R. McCarthy (offline)
On the one hand, Awesome. Sir Ian McKellen is an awesome ally. On the other hand, please read Early Modern Trans Studies (#EMoTrans). 1/2
www.attitude.co.uk/culture/sir-...
www.attitude.co.uk/culture/sir-...
Sir Ian McKellen to open historic all-trans and nonbinary production of Twelfth Night
Director Phoebe Kemp said: "Twelfth Night already toys with gender and performance – it feels like Shakespeare wrote it for us"
www.attitude.co.uk
May 28, 2025 at 4:53 PM
On the one hand, Awesome. Sir Ian McKellen is an awesome ally. On the other hand, please read Early Modern Trans Studies (#EMoTrans). 1/2
www.attitude.co.uk/culture/sir-...
www.attitude.co.uk/culture/sir-...
This coming Monday, at 6pm BST, @oldfortunatus.bsky.social and I take to the webinarwaves to discuss Titus Andronicus. Do join us as we try to make sense of this magnificent play!
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/english-fa...
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/english-fa...
English Faculty/OWC Shakespeare Webinar: Titus Andronicus
In this free webinar, Professor Emma Smith will be discussing the new edition of Titus Andronicus from Oxford World's Classics.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
May 2, 2025 at 8:31 AM
This coming Monday, at 6pm BST, @oldfortunatus.bsky.social and I take to the webinarwaves to discuss Titus Andronicus. Do join us as we try to make sense of this magnificent play!
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/english-fa...
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/english-fa...
The @acmrs.bsky.social RaceB4Race Mentorship Network was transformative for me last year - apply by May 15 to be part of the Fall 2025 cohort: acmrs.asu.edu/RaceB4Race/m...
RaceB4Race Mentorship Network | Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies
acmrs.asu.edu
April 16, 2025 at 7:58 AM
The @acmrs.bsky.social RaceB4Race Mentorship Network was transformative for me last year - apply by May 15 to be part of the Fall 2025 cohort: acmrs.asu.edu/RaceB4Race/m...