Smaran Dayal
@smaran.bsky.social
Assistant Professor of Literature, Stevens Institute of Technology | PhD @nyu.edu | CLAGS
📚: Fictions of America: The Book of Firsts (2020) | Spider-Mother: The Fiction and Politics of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (2024)
📚: Fictions of America: The Book of Firsts (2020) | Spider-Mother: The Fiction and Politics of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (2024)
Pinned
Smaran Dayal
@smaran.bsky.social
· Nov 18
Since we're all reconvening here, I thought I'd reshare some good news here: A project I’ve been working on all year was published this month: Spider-Mother: The Fiction and Politics of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (Warbler Press, 2024). 1/4
This is incredible. I didn’t realize it was this complex.
A total side note, but this German animation of how a Linotype machine works helped me understand it *so much* better—& honestly I kind of thought I did understand it
I always tell students that the Linotype "is the most steampunk machine to have ever really existed" & I stand by that description
I always tell students that the Linotype "is the most steampunk machine to have ever really existed" & I stand by that description
Linotype Setzmaschine - 3D Animation
YouTube video by Sylvia Itzigehl
www.youtube.com
April 4, 2025 at 2:04 AM
This is incredible. I didn’t realize it was this complex.
Reposted by Smaran Dayal
🚨New Episode Alert 🚨
Please check out this latest @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social episode where I speak with @smaran.bsky.social & Ben Baer about their groundbreaking new book, Spider-Mother: The Fiction and Politics of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain.
newbooksnetwork.com/spider-mother
Please check out this latest @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social episode where I speak with @smaran.bsky.social & Ben Baer about their groundbreaking new book, Spider-Mother: The Fiction and Politics of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain.
newbooksnetwork.com/spider-mother
January 31, 2025 at 2:46 AM
🚨New Episode Alert 🚨
Please check out this latest @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social episode where I speak with @smaran.bsky.social & Ben Baer about their groundbreaking new book, Spider-Mother: The Fiction and Politics of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain.
newbooksnetwork.com/spider-mother
Please check out this latest @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social episode where I speak with @smaran.bsky.social & Ben Baer about their groundbreaking new book, Spider-Mother: The Fiction and Politics of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain.
newbooksnetwork.com/spider-mother
Last week, Ben Baer and I spoke to @arnabdr.bsky.social about our book Spider-Mother and Rokeya Hossain for the New Books Network podcast. You can listen to the episode at the link below. 🙂 So grateful for Arnab's excellent questions and planning of the interview.
newbooksnetwork.com/spider-mother
newbooksnetwork.com/spider-mother
January 30, 2025 at 9:03 PM
Last week, Ben Baer and I spoke to @arnabdr.bsky.social about our book Spider-Mother and Rokeya Hossain for the New Books Network podcast. You can listen to the episode at the link below. 🙂 So grateful for Arnab's excellent questions and planning of the interview.
newbooksnetwork.com/spider-mother
newbooksnetwork.com/spider-mother
Reposted by Smaran Dayal
We're a third of the way there!! Thank you so much for your support!! Help us #BuildtheQueensLink by continuing to donate at the link in bio ✨
January 27, 2025 at 6:28 PM
We're a third of the way there!! Thank you so much for your support!! Help us #BuildtheQueensLink by continuing to donate at the link in bio ✨
Reposted by Smaran Dayal
What Southeast Queens Really Needs @mta.info #QueensLink
January 27, 2025 at 2:38 PM
What Southeast Queens Really Needs @mta.info #QueensLink
The @queenslink.org project would reactivate a section of the NYC subway, connecting the M-line down from Queens Blvd to the A-line in Ozone Park, adding four new stops and serving a transit desert. 1/2 #publictransit #walkablecities #urbanism #nyc
Donate to Support Transit Equity! Reconnect Queens with Rails & Trails, organized by Rick Horan
Queens is a divided borough. Traveling between North and South… Rick Horan needs your support for Support Transit Equity! Reconnect Queens with Rails & Trails
www.gofundme.com
January 28, 2025 at 3:08 AM
The @queenslink.org project would reactivate a section of the NYC subway, connecting the M-line down from Queens Blvd to the A-line in Ozone Park, adding four new stops and serving a transit desert. 1/2 #publictransit #walkablecities #urbanism #nyc
Reposted by Smaran Dayal
The present-day parts of Octavia E. Butler’s time-travel classic, KINDRED, take place in Altadena. So devastating to see the Palisades fire’s destruction of the area. 😢 @teenvogue.bsky.social
Black Sci-Fi Writer Octavia Butler Predicted the Dystopia of the LA Fires by Studying History
This week, her hometown of Pasadena has seen at least 5 killed and 5 schools burned to ash.
buff.ly
January 20, 2025 at 10:16 PM
The present-day parts of Octavia E. Butler’s time-travel classic, KINDRED, take place in Altadena. So devastating to see the Palisades fire’s destruction of the area. 😢 @teenvogue.bsky.social
Reposted by Smaran Dayal
RIP David Lodge
‘His books animated academia for me’: how David Lodge inspired my campus novel
‘His books animated academia for me’: how David Lodge inspired my campus novel
His trilogy captured my heart – and while Amis, Bradbury and Jacobson spoke to me, Lodge’s writing had an extra something
* David Lodge, Campus Trilogy novelist and academic, dies aged 89
* ‘It’s largely thanks to him that the British comic novel…
www.theguardian.com
January 4, 2025 at 12:19 AM
RIP David Lodge
Reposted by Smaran Dayal
We Lacanians call it Lack Friday
November 29, 2024 at 5:40 PM
We Lacanians call it Lack Friday
This is aimed at young scholars in the UK (18-30). If you teach on those islands, let your students know.
We invite submissions for the second Stuart Hall Essay Prize. The award aims to stimulate a new generation of thinkers who can offer original, lively and topical contributions to the lines of political, cultural and educational inquiry which Hall pursued. www.stuarthallfoundation.org/projects/the...
The Stuart Hall Essay Prize - Stuart Hall Foundation
The Stuart Hall Foundation is pleased to invite submissions for the second Stuart Hall Essay Prize. Open to submissions from UK-based entrants aged 18 to 30 inclusive, the prize invites new and unpubl...
www.stuarthallfoundation.org
November 28, 2024 at 8:34 PM
This is aimed at young scholars in the UK (18-30). If you teach on those islands, let your students know.
Some photos from this past weekend’s book event for Spider-Mother at Princeton. Thank you (again) to Ben Baer for his excellent translations and collaboration on this project, to @sadafjaffer.bsky.social for being in conversation with us, and to the Center for Global India for hosting us!
November 27, 2024 at 11:38 PM
Some photos from this past weekend’s book event for Spider-Mother at Princeton. Thank you (again) to Ben Baer for his excellent translations and collaboration on this project, to @sadafjaffer.bsky.social for being in conversation with us, and to the Center for Global India for hosting us!
Reposted by Smaran Dayal
Rokeya Sakhawat
Hussain is an absolute legend. She published Sultana’s Dream, the first English language science fiction story by a South Asian woman, in 1905.
Hussain is an absolute legend. She published Sultana’s Dream, the first English language science fiction story by a South Asian woman, in 1905.
Since we're all reconvening here, I thought I'd reshare some good news here: A project I’ve been working on all year was published this month: Spider-Mother: The Fiction and Politics of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (Warbler Press, 2024). 1/4
November 19, 2024 at 2:57 PM
Rokeya Sakhawat
Hussain is an absolute legend. She published Sultana’s Dream, the first English language science fiction story by a South Asian woman, in 1905.
Hussain is an absolute legend. She published Sultana’s Dream, the first English language science fiction story by a South Asian woman, in 1905.
I similarly feel like it helped me get my work out there and meet so many interesting people during the pandemic. It was painful to step away from it when things started to go south in 2022.
Deleting twitter felt fine in the end but it’s hard to overstate how much it mattered in allowing me to make a career. It feels so silly to say.
November 18, 2024 at 4:17 AM
I similarly feel like it helped me get my work out there and meet so many interesting people during the pandemic. It was painful to step away from it when things started to go south in 2022.
Reposted by Smaran Dayal
The first known use of singular “they” is so old that not only does it pre-date singular “you,” it wasn’t even spelled with a “th”
When William and the Werewolf, in 1375 CE, used singular “they,” it was spelled with a Thorn
When William and the Werewolf, in 1375 CE, used singular “they,” it was spelled with a Thorn
November 17, 2024 at 3:28 PM
The first known use of singular “they” is so old that not only does it pre-date singular “you,” it wasn’t even spelled with a “th”
When William and the Werewolf, in 1375 CE, used singular “they,” it was spelled with a Thorn
When William and the Werewolf, in 1375 CE, used singular “they,” it was spelled with a Thorn
We’ll be reading the Parables in my Octavia Butler major authors class in the spring. Hoping against hope that it doesn’t read as any more prescient/prophetic than it already does.
The Handmaid's Tale is a good book. But did you know that there's a book written by a Black woman about a post-apocalyptic Earth heavily affected by climate change and societal decline. The book was published in 1993, but is set in 2024 following a presidential election 👀 #BookSky #BlackBookSky
November 18, 2024 at 1:48 AM
We’ll be reading the Parables in my Octavia Butler major authors class in the spring. Hoping against hope that it doesn’t read as any more prescient/prophetic than it already does.
Since we're all reconvening here, I thought I'd reshare some good news here: A project I’ve been working on all year was published this month: Spider-Mother: The Fiction and Politics of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (Warbler Press, 2024). 1/4
November 18, 2024 at 12:48 AM
Since we're all reconvening here, I thought I'd reshare some good news here: A project I’ve been working on all year was published this month: Spider-Mother: The Fiction and Politics of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (Warbler Press, 2024). 1/4
All my academic faves are gathering here! Rejoice. 🥳
November 17, 2024 at 9:06 PM
All my academic faves are gathering here! Rejoice. 🥳
Reposted by Smaran Dayal
Public disappointment with universities has reached epidemic proportions. Christopher Newfield suggests the answer lies in redefining #HigherEducation around intellectual and social benefits, not monetary ones.
Join us Mon, 11/18, @ 4pm EST on Zoom - register:
websites.umass.edu/feinberg/nov... 🗃️
Join us Mon, 11/18, @ 4pm EST on Zoom - register:
websites.umass.edu/feinberg/nov... 🗃️
WHAT ARE THE HUMANITIES FOR? – WHAT ARE UNIVERSITIES FOR?
websites.umass.edu
November 5, 2024 at 10:13 PM
Public disappointment with universities has reached epidemic proportions. Christopher Newfield suggests the answer lies in redefining #HigherEducation around intellectual and social benefits, not monetary ones.
Join us Mon, 11/18, @ 4pm EST on Zoom - register:
websites.umass.edu/feinberg/nov... 🗃️
Join us Mon, 11/18, @ 4pm EST on Zoom - register:
websites.umass.edu/feinberg/nov... 🗃️
Reposted by Smaran Dayal
I know a platform dying (which in internet terms mostly means not being what it once was anymore) can feel quite tragic, but @smaran.bsky.social remarking on this makes me hopeful: there’s people who will continue to cross your virtual path still!
We have, haven’t we. Pre-Tumblr podcast forums to the decentralized post-Twitter wilds of Mastodon and Bluesky.
November 17, 2024 at 5:11 PM
I know a platform dying (which in internet terms mostly means not being what it once was anymore) can feel quite tragic, but @smaran.bsky.social remarking on this makes me hopeful: there’s people who will continue to cross your virtual path still!
Currently at the American Studies Conf in Baltimore and people keep talking about getting active on Bluesky. All talk? Or does the Twitter crowd finally have a new home?
November 17, 2024 at 2:54 PM
Currently at the American Studies Conf in Baltimore and people keep talking about getting active on Bluesky. All talk? Or does the Twitter crowd finally have a new home?
Extremely grateful that there’s a livestream of the Ella Baker symposium.
www.youtube.com/live/X5N6xGZ...
www.youtube.com/live/X5N6xGZ...
Ella Baker for the 21st Century: Black Women and the Black Radical Tradition
Livestream of panel featuring Robin D.G. Kelley (University of California, Los Angeles), Dayo Gore (Georgetown University), Mariame Kaba (Project Nia), and B...
www.youtube.com
December 1, 2023 at 4:25 PM
Extremely grateful that there’s a livestream of the Ella Baker symposium.
www.youtube.com/live/X5N6xGZ...
www.youtube.com/live/X5N6xGZ...
Reposted by Smaran Dayal
Honored to contribute to this incredible anthology, out now!
BLACK ART & AESTHETICS:
Relationalities, Interiorities, Reckonings
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/black-art-and-aesthetics-9781350294608/
BLACK ART & AESTHETICS:
Relationalities, Interiorities, Reckonings
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/black-art-and-aesthetics-9781350294608/
December 1, 2023 at 1:13 PM
Honored to contribute to this incredible anthology, out now!
BLACK ART & AESTHETICS:
Relationalities, Interiorities, Reckonings
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/black-art-and-aesthetics-9781350294608/
BLACK ART & AESTHETICS:
Relationalities, Interiorities, Reckonings
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/black-art-and-aesthetics-9781350294608/