Matthew Taunton
@matthewtaunton.bsky.social
Professor of Modern Literature and Director of Research in the School of Literature, Drama, and Creative Writing at UEA. Co-editor “The British Novel of Ideas” (CUP) out now. Writing “The Collective Voice” for Stanford UP. Literature & Politics.
Pinned
Humanities Theory
Abstract. Humanities Theory offers a new framework for understanding the place of the humanities in the culture at large and as a transdisciplinary project
academic.oup.com
"Humanities Theory" by Amanda Anderson & Simon During, is now available as an ebook (bit.ly/4m6XGUU) and out in hardback and paperback on 7th Oct (UK) / 7th Jan (US).This is the first book in a new OUP series, Literature & Politics, ed by Janice Ho, Benjamin Kohlmann, and me: bit.ly/4ntmW9c.
Reposted by Matthew Taunton
My annual post about how the Morning Star reported the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989
hatfulofhistory.com/2014/11/07/h...
hatfulofhistory.com/2014/11/07/h...
November 9, 2025 at 9:02 AM
My annual post about how the Morning Star reported the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989
hatfulofhistory.com/2014/11/07/h...
hatfulofhistory.com/2014/11/07/h...
My commute ❤️
November 6, 2025 at 11:06 PM
My commute ❤️
Reposted by Matthew Taunton
ONLY migrants though, no one else is to study English because it's a rip off and a waste of time, am I getting this right.
October 14, 2025 at 2:16 PM
ONLY migrants though, no one else is to study English because it's a rip off and a waste of time, am I getting this right.
Reposted by Matthew Taunton
NOTHING will prepare you for this 45-second story arc. From "I'm just doing this because I love the flag, it's totally grassroots, and I'm not part of anything political"... to who actually gave him the flags the night before.
Anyone who believes it is an innocent movement needs to see this.
Anyone who believes it is an innocent movement needs to see this.
September 10, 2025 at 11:08 AM
NOTHING will prepare you for this 45-second story arc. From "I'm just doing this because I love the flag, it's totally grassroots, and I'm not part of anything political"... to who actually gave him the flags the night before.
Anyone who believes it is an innocent movement needs to see this.
Anyone who believes it is an innocent movement needs to see this.
"Humanities Theory" by Amanda Anderson & Simon During, is now available as an ebook (bit.ly/4m6XGUU) and out in hardback and paperback on 7th Oct (UK) / 7th Jan (US).This is the first book in a new OUP series, Literature & Politics, ed by Janice Ho, Benjamin Kohlmann, and me: bit.ly/4ntmW9c.
Humanities Theory
Abstract. Humanities Theory offers a new framework for understanding the place of the humanities in the culture at large and as a transdisciplinary project
academic.oup.com
September 10, 2025 at 9:56 AM
"Humanities Theory" by Amanda Anderson & Simon During, is now available as an ebook (bit.ly/4m6XGUU) and out in hardback and paperback on 7th Oct (UK) / 7th Jan (US).This is the first book in a new OUP series, Literature & Politics, ed by Janice Ho, Benjamin Kohlmann, and me: bit.ly/4ntmW9c.
Reposted by Matthew Taunton
"The message to ministers is to pay attention to such connections. Economic growth and higher education policies need to be joined up."
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
"Attempts to make the UK a less welcoming destination are part of an alarming rightward lurch on immigration..."
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
"Attempts to make the UK a less welcoming destination are part of an alarming rightward lurch on immigration..."
The Guardian view on university finances: stop chipping away at a crumbling system | Editorial
Editorial: Economic and academic activity are bound up together. Charging international students more for less will not fix deep-seated problems
www.theguardian.com
September 9, 2025 at 7:01 AM
"The message to ministers is to pay attention to such connections. Economic growth and higher education policies need to be joined up."
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
"Attempts to make the UK a less welcoming destination are part of an alarming rightward lurch on immigration..."
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
"Attempts to make the UK a less welcoming destination are part of an alarming rightward lurch on immigration..."
Reposted by Matthew Taunton
I've not seen this image of H G Wells before: an unpublished sketch by David Low from 1924.
September 6, 2025 at 12:22 PM
I've not seen this image of H G Wells before: an unpublished sketch by David Low from 1924.
Reposted by Matthew Taunton
A huge moment -- Melvyn Bragg steps down from In Our Time after over a quarter of a century. What a programme and what a legacy! Just a model for how to make great, clever, engaging radio, and a twenty-seven-year experiment that proves there's a huge global audience for smart, scholarly programming.
Melvyn Bragg decides to step down from presenting In Our Time
After 26 years on the programme, the legendary presenter bids farewell to the series
www.bbc.co.uk
September 3, 2025 at 10:48 AM
A huge moment -- Melvyn Bragg steps down from In Our Time after over a quarter of a century. What a programme and what a legacy! Just a model for how to make great, clever, engaging radio, and a twenty-seven-year experiment that proves there's a huge global audience for smart, scholarly programming.
Great piece, this.
‘David Graeber upends the familiar history of the species in which primitive societies were egalitarian and the agricultural revolution brought a new order of class and domination. He wanted to show that life wasn’t really like that.’
@leninology.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@leninology.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Richard Seymour · Baseline Communism: David Graeber’s Innovations
Graeber seems to have had most fun as an outsider, a movement anthropologist wending his way among anticapitalist...
www.lrb.co.uk
August 31, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Great piece, this.
Reposted by Matthew Taunton
A campus for all seasons 💙
It's A-Level Results Day and we're open from 8am-8pm to answer your queries about Clearing: 01603 294952
Here's everything you need to know👇
#ALevelResults
It's A-Level Results Day and we're open from 8am-8pm to answer your queries about Clearing: 01603 294952
Here's everything you need to know👇
#ALevelResults
August 14, 2025 at 8:05 AM
A campus for all seasons 💙
It's A-Level Results Day and we're open from 8am-8pm to answer your queries about Clearing: 01603 294952
Here's everything you need to know👇
#ALevelResults
It's A-Level Results Day and we're open from 8am-8pm to answer your queries about Clearing: 01603 294952
Here's everything you need to know👇
#ALevelResults
Reposted by Matthew Taunton
Another great one! 👇 I know Benjamin and he's a stellar scholar!
Cover reveal! “The People in British Literature: Belonging, Exclusion, Democracy”, ed. by Benjamin Kohlmann and me, out this December from CUP.
August 13, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Another great one! 👇 I know Benjamin and he's a stellar scholar!
Cover reveal! “The People in British Literature: Belonging, Exclusion, Democracy”, ed. by Benjamin Kohlmann and me, out this December from CUP.
August 13, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Cover reveal! “The People in British Literature: Belonging, Exclusion, Democracy”, ed. by Benjamin Kohlmann and me, out this December from CUP.
Reposted by Matthew Taunton
Further to this @thetls.bsky.social essay about Una Marson's early work as a publisher, the full run of Marson's 1920s/1930s magazine, The Cosmopolitan, is now freely available on the Digital Library of the Caribbean (@dlocaribbean.bsky.social): www.dloc.com/AA00114844/0...
August 12, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Further to this @thetls.bsky.social essay about Una Marson's early work as a publisher, the full run of Marson's 1920s/1930s magazine, The Cosmopolitan, is now freely available on the Digital Library of the Caribbean (@dlocaribbean.bsky.social): www.dloc.com/AA00114844/0...
Reposted by Matthew Taunton
Excited for this new OUP series on Literature & Politics! Paired authors tackling vital terms and topics of the day, starting with Amanda Anderson and @simoncd.bsky.social on *Humanities Theory*. Next up Doug Mao and @duncanbell.bsky.social on *Utopia*.
global.oup.com/academic/con...
global.oup.com/academic/con...
global.oup.com
August 11, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Excited for this new OUP series on Literature & Politics! Paired authors tackling vital terms and topics of the day, starting with Amanda Anderson and @simoncd.bsky.social on *Humanities Theory*. Next up Doug Mao and @duncanbell.bsky.social on *Utopia*.
global.oup.com/academic/con...
global.oup.com/academic/con...
Reposted by Matthew Taunton
Declamations! is a short documentary that developed out of my @britishacademy.bsky.social mid-career fellowship on the politics of choral speaking. It documents a series of performances in Norwich, written by UEA students, inspired by Jack Lindsay's 1930s Mass Declamations. youtu.be/IY085tFQ7SM?...
Declamations!
YouTube video by Jarman Lab
youtu.be
July 31, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Declamations! is a short documentary that developed out of my @britishacademy.bsky.social mid-career fellowship on the politics of choral speaking. It documents a series of performances in Norwich, written by UEA students, inspired by Jack Lindsay's 1930s Mass Declamations. youtu.be/IY085tFQ7SM?...
Reposted by Matthew Taunton
syllabus time, teaming up for the herculean efforts of reinventing writing assignments. here, some prompts for required weekly low stakes 250-500 word reflections/ process pieces that have proven relatively conducive to real writing in lit class. please share any similar suggestions in thread.
July 21, 2025 at 12:14 PM
syllabus time, teaming up for the herculean efforts of reinventing writing assignments. here, some prompts for required weekly low stakes 250-500 word reflections/ process pieces that have proven relatively conducive to real writing in lit class. please share any similar suggestions in thread.
Reposted by Matthew Taunton
In 2026, the MSA Conference will look a bit different-- weird, even! That's because we're having a joint conference with BAMS @modernistudies.bsky.social in Loughborough, UK from July 1- 4, 2026. The CFP will be out soon! But in the meantime, please save the date.
August 7, 2025 at 12:45 PM
In 2026, the MSA Conference will look a bit different-- weird, even! That's because we're having a joint conference with BAMS @modernistudies.bsky.social in Loughborough, UK from July 1- 4, 2026. The CFP will be out soon! But in the meantime, please save the date.
Reposted by Matthew Taunton
Did you publish your first book in Victorian studies in 2024? If so, submit it for consideration for the Rudikoff Prize. More information here: nvsa.org/rudikoff-pri...
Rudikoff Prize
The Sonya Rudikoff Award for the best first book in Victorian Studies was established by the Robert Gutman family in honor of Mr. Gutman’s late wife. Sonya Rudikoff was an active member of th…
nvsa.org
August 6, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Did you publish your first book in Victorian studies in 2024? If so, submit it for consideration for the Rudikoff Prize. More information here: nvsa.org/rudikoff-pri...
Reposted by Matthew Taunton
Please help me share the CFP for this Literature Compass Special Issue dedicated to the work of Simon J James and covering key Victorian and Edwardian writers like H. G. Wells, George Gissing, Dickens, Wilde, George Du Maurier, and Conan-Doyle on behalf of Hadas Elber-Aviram.
August 6, 2025 at 8:50 AM
Please help me share the CFP for this Literature Compass Special Issue dedicated to the work of Simon J James and covering key Victorian and Edwardian writers like H. G. Wells, George Gissing, Dickens, Wilde, George Du Maurier, and Conan-Doyle on behalf of Hadas Elber-Aviram.
Declamations! is a short documentary that developed out of my @britishacademy.bsky.social mid-career fellowship on the politics of choral speaking. It documents a series of performances in Norwich, written by UEA students, inspired by Jack Lindsay's 1930s Mass Declamations. youtu.be/IY085tFQ7SM?...
Declamations!
YouTube video by Jarman Lab
youtu.be
July 31, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Declamations! is a short documentary that developed out of my @britishacademy.bsky.social mid-career fellowship on the politics of choral speaking. It documents a series of performances in Norwich, written by UEA students, inspired by Jack Lindsay's 1930s Mass Declamations. youtu.be/IY085tFQ7SM?...
Looks brilliant- can’t wait to read!
"A remarkable neighborhood."
Today's forthcoming-book pick from Damn History, a free monthly newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to author @tricksterprince.bsky.social & @manchesterup.bsky.social!
Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe
Today's forthcoming-book pick from Damn History, a free monthly newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to author @tricksterprince.bsky.social & @manchesterup.bsky.social!
Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe
July 31, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Looks brilliant- can’t wait to read!
The replies to this are interesting about the power (and perils) of bluesky for writers (including academics). We write in a moment of media fragmentation, lacking clear rules about what to do (on- and offline), to engage readers in the topics that interest us. Many wise, encouraging thoughts here!
Is there *any* evidence that presence on bsky contributes in any way to book sales? I’ll take anecdotes! Who here has bought a book bc they heard about it on bsky *alone*? Because I’m ready to bounce.
July 31, 2025 at 1:44 PM
The replies to this are interesting about the power (and perils) of bluesky for writers (including academics). We write in a moment of media fragmentation, lacking clear rules about what to do (on- and offline), to engage readers in the topics that interest us. Many wise, encouraging thoughts here!
Reposted by Matthew Taunton
Really a bad mistake to pitch education at 'jobs of the future' which you will almost certainly get wrong. What education gives is maturity, judgement, cognitive skills, trainability, flexibility - almost whatever the subject. For this reason 85% of grad job adverts don't specify a subject.
July 26, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Really a bad mistake to pitch education at 'jobs of the future' which you will almost certainly get wrong. What education gives is maturity, judgement, cognitive skills, trainability, flexibility - almost whatever the subject. For this reason 85% of grad job adverts don't specify a subject.