Sarah Bull
@sarahebull.bsky.social
English professor, book historian. 19th C, mainly. Interested in histories of medicine, sexuality, and print culture, text reuse, IP, letterpress, DH/computational approaches
Book: Selling Sexual Knowledge (CUP, 2025). Working on MANUFACTURING LITERATURE
Book: Selling Sexual Knowledge (CUP, 2025). Working on MANUFACTURING LITERATURE
Pinned
Sarah Bull
@sarahebull.bsky.social
· Jun 27
The open access version of Selling Sexual Knowledge is out (hardcopies coming shortly)! Reposting this little thread from December where I take a break from chowing down on holiday treats to talk a little about what it's actually about and why I wrote it.
Reposted by Sarah Bull
I love this interview and the parallels between what he discovered as a historian making a thing and realizing all the little decisions a weaver makes in the process, and all the many things DH staff know about doing projects that just don't get written into the record of scholarship. #DHmakes
An interview with a historian who set out to weave a textile of the type that would have been sold to plantations for use by enslaved people, using period equipment.
www.publicbooks.org/cloth-and-co...
www.publicbooks.org/cloth-and-co...
Cloth and Complicity: Seth Rockman on Plantations, Textiles, and the Art of Weaving - Public Books
“But I had found a set of instructions in the archives of one of New England's leading manufacturers of low-end woollen cloth for enslaved wearers.”
www.publicbooks.org
November 22, 2025 at 3:58 AM
I love this interview and the parallels between what he discovered as a historian making a thing and realizing all the little decisions a weaver makes in the process, and all the many things DH staff know about doing projects that just don't get written into the record of scholarship. #DHmakes
Reposted by Sarah Bull
BLUE HUMANITIES MOTHERFUCKERS!
[reads job ad]
Oh, I see
[reads job ad]
Oh, I see
November 21, 2025 at 5:58 PM
BLUE HUMANITIES MOTHERFUCKERS!
[reads job ad]
Oh, I see
[reads job ad]
Oh, I see
I would really love to see word limits (especially for articles, where policies tend it be stricter than for books) *not* include notes. I want your notes on every little detail!* I want to give you notes on every little detail!
*I spent hours this week trying to figure out the source for a +
*I spent hours this week trying to figure out the source for a +
November 21, 2025 at 3:03 PM
I would really love to see word limits (especially for articles, where policies tend it be stricter than for books) *not* include notes. I want your notes on every little detail!* I want to give you notes on every little detail!
*I spent hours this week trying to figure out the source for a +
*I spent hours this week trying to figure out the source for a +
Reposted by Sarah Bull
MajinBook is a badly-needed catalog for shadow libraries. It provides metadata (e.g., date of first publication, popularity on Goodreads) for over half a million English-language books. arxiv.org/abs/2511.11412 +
MajinBook: An open catalogue of digital world literature with likes
This data paper introduces MajinBook, an open catalogue designed to facilitate the use of shadow libraries--such as Library Genesis and Z-Library--for computational social science and cultural analyti...
arxiv.org
November 21, 2025 at 2:24 PM
MajinBook is a badly-needed catalog for shadow libraries. It provides metadata (e.g., date of first publication, popularity on Goodreads) for over half a million English-language books. arxiv.org/abs/2511.11412 +
Reposted by Sarah Bull
Lorraine Daston can take any topic and make it profound and exciting. Even insurance. This was a wonderful lecture
How much risk is too much for the world’s top insurers?
Did you miss Lorraine Daston’s lecture in September on how the insurance industry confronts catastrophic risk?
👀You can watch the full recording on our YouTube channel: youtu.be/BEqrapJURxI?...
Did you miss Lorraine Daston’s lecture in September on how the insurance industry confronts catastrophic risk?
👀You can watch the full recording on our YouTube channel: youtu.be/BEqrapJURxI?...
November 21, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Lorraine Daston can take any topic and make it profound and exciting. Even insurance. This was a wonderful lecture
Reposted by Sarah Bull
Open specialty. Ability to teach central topics at u/g and p/g level in ethics is essential. Also desirable, e.g. Political Philosophy, History of Philosophy (including post-Kantian Philosophy up to Nietzsche), Aesthetics, Epistemology, Philosophy of Mind. Closing date Dec 21 2025 #philsky #philjob
Assistant Professor in Philosophy
The Faculty of Philosophy is seeking to appoint an Assistant Professor in Philosophy with effect from 1 September 2026. This post requires teaching expertise at a level that is at the forefront of
www.cam.ac.uk
November 20, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Reposted by Sarah Bull
Y’all, I think we did it
we found the most pathetic document in human history
I truly don’t think it could be surpassed
we found the most pathetic document in human history
I truly don’t think it could be surpassed
*laughs in historian* “… ranks among the 10 minds in history, rivalling polymaths like da Vinci or Newton…”
November 20, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Y’all, I think we did it
we found the most pathetic document in human history
I truly don’t think it could be surpassed
we found the most pathetic document in human history
I truly don’t think it could be surpassed
Reposted by Sarah Bull
I’m reminded of how, thirty odd years ago, I applied for AHRC funding for a project on science and culture in nineteenth century Ireland. The reviewers were unanimous that there was nothing there to study. Good to see that times have changed!
Fabulous PhD opportunity at Queen's University Belfast and Armagh Observatory:
Observing the Heavens from the 'Periphery': Astronomy in Ireland 1640-1830
www.qub.ac.uk/courses/post... Deadline 13 Jan #histSTM #histastro
Observing the Heavens from the 'Periphery': Astronomy in Ireland 1640-1830
www.qub.ac.uk/courses/post... Deadline 13 Jan #histSTM #histastro
November 20, 2025 at 1:16 PM
I’m reminded of how, thirty odd years ago, I applied for AHRC funding for a project on science and culture in nineteenth century Ireland. The reviewers were unanimous that there was nothing there to study. Good to see that times have changed!
Reposted by Sarah Bull
Just gave a talk to the English Teachers’ Association of Denmark on recent fantasy literature, and this is the stack of books I brought with me! It was the loveliest audience 💕
November 20, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Just gave a talk to the English Teachers’ Association of Denmark on recent fantasy literature, and this is the stack of books I brought with me! It was the loveliest audience 💕
Reposted by Sarah Bull
Happening today in a few hours!
Amsterdam friends, I am talking about Jameson, pipelining infrastructures, graphical rendering, and supply chain ecologies tomorrow at 1700 at the University of Amsterdam. www.uva.nl/en/shared-co...
Notes on the Infrastructural Unconscious: Computers, Pipelines, and Material Metaphors
Why does our media infrastructure today run on pipelines, both real (oil and gas) and symbolic (instruction, data, rendering)? This guest lecture by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal focuses on the emergence, pr...
www.uva.nl
November 20, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Happening today in a few hours!
Reposted by Sarah Bull
Post-doc applications for next year's seminar on "Translation" at Rutgers' Center for Cultural Analysis are "live"! The seminar will be co-ed by Preetha Mani and Jeff Lawrence. Fellow academics: let your early-career colleagues, students, and former students know! jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/263...
November 19, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Post-doc applications for next year's seminar on "Translation" at Rutgers' Center for Cultural Analysis are "live"! The seminar will be co-ed by Preetha Mani and Jeff Lawrence. Fellow academics: let your early-career colleagues, students, and former students know! jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/263...
Reposted by Sarah Bull
Now that our edition of Ursula K. Le Guin's "A Rant About 'Technology'" is (finally!) printed, bound, packed, & with campus mail, on its way to folks, we’re making approximately 60 of the internal poster available separately
If you’d like to claim one see the order form at forms.gle/BKJQWSmcnuq8...
If you’d like to claim one see the order form at forms.gle/BKJQWSmcnuq8...
November 12, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Now that our edition of Ursula K. Le Guin's "A Rant About 'Technology'" is (finally!) printed, bound, packed, & with campus mail, on its way to folks, we’re making approximately 60 of the internal poster available separately
If you’d like to claim one see the order form at forms.gle/BKJQWSmcnuq8...
If you’d like to claim one see the order form at forms.gle/BKJQWSmcnuq8...
Reposted by Sarah Bull
I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
The British library is in crisis: why does nobody care?
The widespread indifference to the British Library's crippling cyberattack demonstrates a perilous failure to value the knowledge infrastructure vital for national prosperity
www.cityam.com
November 18, 2025 at 6:27 AM
I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
Reposted by Sarah Bull
More on the British Library crisis:
This explains why British Library staff are on strike
The union says - managers take home up to £170k with £15k bonuses, while staff offered below-inflation pay rise
Meanwhile, frontline staff take abuse for the massive data breach - which managers failed to foresee
@pcsunion.bsky.social
The union says - managers take home up to £170k with £15k bonuses, while staff offered below-inflation pay rise
Meanwhile, frontline staff take abuse for the massive data breach - which managers failed to foresee
@pcsunion.bsky.social
November 18, 2025 at 7:01 AM
More on the British Library crisis:
Reposted by Sarah Bull
Had a great time consulting with the “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” team over the past couple months, and they kindly gave my book a shoutout during the episode.
November 17, 2025 at 4:33 AM
Had a great time consulting with the “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” team over the past couple months, and they kindly gave my book a shoutout during the episode.
Reposted by Sarah Bull
Specially useful for early-career Victorianists. Register to get a Zoom link.
Mystified by how to approach an academic journal editor? Need help getting through the "revise and resubmit" doldrums? Our next #RSVPDigiEvent can help! Join us next Friday, Nov. 21 and hear from the editors of top #Victorian journals on "How to Get Published in a Academic Journal": buff.ly/ydJkKAK
How to Get Published in an Academic Journal – RSVP
Join us Friday, November 21 for a special professional development session on how to get published in an academic journal!
buff.ly
November 18, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Specially useful for early-career Victorianists. Register to get a Zoom link.
Reposted by Sarah Bull
Even as someone whose philosophical work is intrinsically historical, I would not know how to be a philosopher in a School of Human Narratives and Creative Expressions. Our disciplines are not just words we can switch out of for marketing purposes.
"The plan would reorganize the departments and their faculty members into an array of “schools,” “centers” and “institutes.” Among those that administrators have floated are the School of Human Narratives and Creative Expressions & the Institute for Complex Systems and Algorithmic Infused Societies"
"[admin]...who regard the...students of their own universities with such contempt as to be undeserving of the education that in many cases those administrators themselves, or their parents, or their children received...are an enemy of the educational enterprise"
🎁 link
www.wsj.com/opinion/mont...
🎁 link
www.wsj.com/opinion/mont...
November 17, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Even as someone whose philosophical work is intrinsically historical, I would not know how to be a philosopher in a School of Human Narratives and Creative Expressions. Our disciplines are not just words we can switch out of for marketing purposes.
Reposted by Sarah Bull
For Canadian academics: Writing an email just now and “tri-council grants” was autocorrected to “trivial grants.”
November 17, 2025 at 7:02 PM
For Canadian academics: Writing an email just now and “tri-council grants” was autocorrected to “trivial grants.”
Reposted by Sarah Bull
The deadline to apply for the SHARP News Editor-in-Chief position has been extended through November 28th. This is such a great opportunity for any one interested in public-facing book history work!
sharpweb.org/sharpnews/20...
sharpweb.org/sharpnews/20...
November 17, 2025 at 7:06 PM
The deadline to apply for the SHARP News Editor-in-Chief position has been extended through November 28th. This is such a great opportunity for any one interested in public-facing book history work!
sharpweb.org/sharpnews/20...
sharpweb.org/sharpnews/20...
Reposted by Sarah Bull
Has anyone written the etymological history of “compute” as a noun?
November 17, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Has anyone written the etymological history of “compute” as a noun?
Reposted by Sarah Bull
I have LOTS of stories to tell about individual copies that I learned/put together from tracking down copies and figuring out what's up with them. Also things I could only know by structuring data about them. I plan to share those stories on here every now and again!
Pleased to announce the Wheatley Census is ready for 1.0 public release! As detailed a census as possible (right now) of the first six editions - those printed in the 18th century - of Phillis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, is available here: www.wheatleycensus.org.
Wheatley Census
www.wheatleycensus.org
November 17, 2025 at 5:01 PM
I have LOTS of stories to tell about individual copies that I learned/put together from tracking down copies and figuring out what's up with them. Also things I could only know by structuring data about them. I plan to share those stories on here every now and again!
Reposted by Sarah Bull
Death in an egg-box
November 17, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Death in an egg-box
Reposted by Sarah Bull
I am making this book my entire personality right now
November 17, 2025 at 3:02 PM
I am making this book my entire personality right now
Feeling love for two books today: @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and @johannawinant.bsky.social's CLOSE READING FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, which I'm definitely teaching from next semester (I was already planning on this, but n.b. an undergrad I lent it to recently enthusiastically endorsed it) +
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
November 17, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Feeling love for two books today: @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and @johannawinant.bsky.social's CLOSE READING FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, which I'm definitely teaching from next semester (I was already planning on this, but n.b. an undergrad I lent it to recently enthusiastically endorsed it) +
Reposted by Sarah Bull
A nice White dead nettle in Cambridge. #WildflowerHour
November 16, 2025 at 8:40 PM
A nice White dead nettle in Cambridge. #WildflowerHour