theo
@theogray.bsky.social
PhD candidate in literature; spec fic & border studies scholar | artist, film photographer, mamamoo fan | they/them
Pinned
theo
@theogray.bsky.social
· Nov 18
Brief intro:
I’m a PhD candidate working on a dissertation on how speculative fiction represents borders on multiple scales (the multiverse to body borders). I mobilize Critical Border Studies to read SFF and I use SFF to think about border studies.
I dabble in other fields and about 800 hobbies
I’m a PhD candidate working on a dissertation on how speculative fiction represents borders on multiple scales (the multiverse to body borders). I mobilize Critical Border Studies to read SFF and I use SFF to think about border studies.
I dabble in other fields and about 800 hobbies
Reposted by theo
Totally get this.
It’s imperfect, but I think our kind of work has 3 roles right now:
- to document & remember (radical when time feels unmoored)
- to think & speak with precision (when so much noise rejects rigour)
- to see seemingly familiar things anew (articulating alternatives is a way out)
It’s imperfect, but I think our kind of work has 3 roles right now:
- to document & remember (radical when time feels unmoored)
- to think & speak with precision (when so much noise rejects rigour)
- to see seemingly familiar things anew (articulating alternatives is a way out)
March 16, 2025 at 11:42 PM
Totally get this.
It’s imperfect, but I think our kind of work has 3 roles right now:
- to document & remember (radical when time feels unmoored)
- to think & speak with precision (when so much noise rejects rigour)
- to see seemingly familiar things anew (articulating alternatives is a way out)
It’s imperfect, but I think our kind of work has 3 roles right now:
- to document & remember (radical when time feels unmoored)
- to think & speak with precision (when so much noise rejects rigour)
- to see seemingly familiar things anew (articulating alternatives is a way out)
A reminder that if your schedules and goals make you panicky… take a deep breath. Reset. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean that it’s what’s best for you.
(Really, this is a reminder to myself). It’s not flaky to know what will work for you and what will burn you out
(Really, this is a reminder to myself). It’s not flaky to know what will work for you and what will burn you out
January 9, 2025 at 10:00 PM
A reminder that if your schedules and goals make you panicky… take a deep breath. Reset. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean that it’s what’s best for you.
(Really, this is a reminder to myself). It’s not flaky to know what will work for you and what will burn you out
(Really, this is a reminder to myself). It’s not flaky to know what will work for you and what will burn you out
Reposted by theo
Octavia Butler couldn’t see the future. She saw what was happening in front of her and, in addition to studying the past, was able to imagine where it would lead. It’s important to tell the truth about her because mythologizing her is a disservice to her legacy.
January 9, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Octavia Butler couldn’t see the future. She saw what was happening in front of her and, in addition to studying the past, was able to imagine where it would lead. It’s important to tell the truth about her because mythologizing her is a disservice to her legacy.
Gotta say, I’m such a sucker for Strava’s fitness score thing. I can be manipulated so easy just by seeing number go up
December 9, 2024 at 8:40 PM
Gotta say, I’m such a sucker for Strava’s fitness score thing. I can be manipulated so easy just by seeing number go up
Reposted by theo
I've updated the Read Palestinian Speculative Fiction Reading list! If you know of any other fantasy and science fiction works by Palestinian writers around the world, do let me know!
soniasulaiman.com/readpalestin...
soniasulaiman.com/readpalestin...
Read Palestinian Speculative Fiction Reading List
The following is a growing reading list for the #ReadPalestinianSpecFic challenge. This is a work in progress to create a list of all available Palestinian speculative fiction. Novels: Novels by Na…
soniasulaiman.com
December 8, 2024 at 2:45 PM
I've updated the Read Palestinian Speculative Fiction Reading list! If you know of any other fantasy and science fiction works by Palestinian writers around the world, do let me know!
soniasulaiman.com/readpalestin...
soniasulaiman.com/readpalestin...
Reposted by theo
They died because they were women.
Today is the 35th anniversary of the Dec. 6, 1989 Polytechnique Massacre. 14 women, most engineering students, were murdered by a misogynist gunman. December 6 is now the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. www.cbc.ca/montreal/fea...
Today is the 35th anniversary of the Dec. 6, 1989 Polytechnique Massacre. 14 women, most engineering students, were murdered by a misogynist gunman. December 6 is now the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. www.cbc.ca/montreal/fea...
December 6, 2024 at 12:15 PM
They died because they were women.
Today is the 35th anniversary of the Dec. 6, 1989 Polytechnique Massacre. 14 women, most engineering students, were murdered by a misogynist gunman. December 6 is now the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. www.cbc.ca/montreal/fea...
Today is the 35th anniversary of the Dec. 6, 1989 Polytechnique Massacre. 14 women, most engineering students, were murdered by a misogynist gunman. December 6 is now the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. www.cbc.ca/montreal/fea...
Reposted by theo
Poet Vachel Lindsay sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/lindsa... died on this day, so here's some of the artwork (by Lindsay) from his Collected Poems (1923), though I think they'd first appeared in earlier collections:
December 5, 2024 at 4:05 PM
Poet Vachel Lindsay sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/lindsa... died on this day, so here's some of the artwork (by Lindsay) from his Collected Poems (1923), though I think they'd first appeared in earlier collections:
Reposted by theo
Reposted by theo
We (as a culture) have an extremely sophisticated vocabulary for discussing art, but we also have a constant drumbeat of powerful people saying that criticism is useless and stupid and no one should study it, so people are left winging it and relying on the dominant spreadsheet model of everything
We have this impoverished vocabulary to discuss art, so vlogger garbage takes hold out of the ill-equipped desire. It's the same problem in books, where everything—from settings to couplings to narrative structure— is "tropes." Another failure of public education.
November 29, 2024 at 11:20 PM
We (as a culture) have an extremely sophisticated vocabulary for discussing art, but we also have a constant drumbeat of powerful people saying that criticism is useless and stupid and no one should study it, so people are left winging it and relying on the dominant spreadsheet model of everything
Bookish checkpoint!
Last book read: Isaac Asimov’s Caves of Steel
Current read: Yoon Ha Lee’s Ninefox Gambit + Border Aesthetics ed. Schimanski & Wolfe (both rereads for the dissertation)
Last added to the TBR: Yang Shuang-zi’s Taiwan Travelogue
Next up: like 800 books all for the dissertation (😅)
Last book read: Isaac Asimov’s Caves of Steel
Current read: Yoon Ha Lee’s Ninefox Gambit + Border Aesthetics ed. Schimanski & Wolfe (both rereads for the dissertation)
Last added to the TBR: Yang Shuang-zi’s Taiwan Travelogue
Next up: like 800 books all for the dissertation (😅)
Bookish checkpoint!
Last book read: Lost in Living by Halyna Kruk, tr. Ali Kinsella & Dzvinia Orlowsky
Current read: The Book of Questions by Edmond Jabès tr. Rosmarie Waldrop, Gátak by Irene Solà tr. Krisztina Nemes
1/2
Last book read: Lost in Living by Halyna Kruk, tr. Ali Kinsella & Dzvinia Orlowsky
Current read: The Book of Questions by Edmond Jabès tr. Rosmarie Waldrop, Gátak by Irene Solà tr. Krisztina Nemes
1/2
Bookish checkpoint
Last book read: The Secret Skin by Wendy Wagner
Current read: We Are The Crisis by Cadwell Turnbull, Four Lost Cities by Annalee Newitz
Last Book added to TBR: Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq
Next Read: Choking Back the Devil by Donna Lynch
Last book read: The Secret Skin by Wendy Wagner
Current read: We Are The Crisis by Cadwell Turnbull, Four Lost Cities by Annalee Newitz
Last Book added to TBR: Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq
Next Read: Choking Back the Devil by Donna Lynch
November 29, 2024 at 11:55 PM
Bookish checkpoint!
Last book read: Isaac Asimov’s Caves of Steel
Current read: Yoon Ha Lee’s Ninefox Gambit + Border Aesthetics ed. Schimanski & Wolfe (both rereads for the dissertation)
Last added to the TBR: Yang Shuang-zi’s Taiwan Travelogue
Next up: like 800 books all for the dissertation (😅)
Last book read: Isaac Asimov’s Caves of Steel
Current read: Yoon Ha Lee’s Ninefox Gambit + Border Aesthetics ed. Schimanski & Wolfe (both rereads for the dissertation)
Last added to the TBR: Yang Shuang-zi’s Taiwan Travelogue
Next up: like 800 books all for the dissertation (😅)
Reposted by theo
Anti-trans bathroom bills are not "distractions." They are an expansion of the police state targeted at the extermination of trans people. They are an act of state violence that requires confrontation.
November 27, 2024 at 4:54 PM
Anti-trans bathroom bills are not "distractions." They are an expansion of the police state targeted at the extermination of trans people. They are an act of state violence that requires confrontation.
It’s great to be friends with someone in a no-sources-older-than-5-years field when you are in a literally-anything-ever-if-it’s-useful field. Very fun to talk about methodologies to each other and just 😧 😧 back and forth
I like how there are some academic fields in which it would be unthinkable to rely on a source that's more than 5 years old, whereas here I am, an art historian, completely indebted to this article from 1887 that is ON POINT.
November 25, 2024 at 6:11 AM
It’s great to be friends with someone in a no-sources-older-than-5-years field when you are in a literally-anything-ever-if-it’s-useful field. Very fun to talk about methodologies to each other and just 😧 😧 back and forth
I finally get to do that horrible #academic thing: not sure how much I can tell you, but something exciting is going to be coming soon(ish) (emphasis on the ish)
November 23, 2024 at 10:08 PM
I finally get to do that horrible #academic thing: not sure how much I can tell you, but something exciting is going to be coming soon(ish) (emphasis on the ish)
So much of #phdlife is just waiting to hear back. Project proposals… grant proposals… award applications… conference proposals… when will it end??
November 20, 2024 at 9:04 PM
So much of #phdlife is just waiting to hear back. Project proposals… grant proposals… award applications… conference proposals… when will it end??
#PhDSky let’s get to know each other!
Quote this with: 1) your PhD topic & 2) university you are at:
1) How borders are represented and interacted with in speculative fiction; how we imagine borders in non real worlds & imagine border resistance in those spaces
2) University of Alberta
Quote this with: 1) your PhD topic & 2) university you are at:
1) How borders are represented and interacted with in speculative fiction; how we imagine borders in non real worlds & imagine border resistance in those spaces
2) University of Alberta
Humanities represent!
#PhDSky let's get to know each other!
Quote this with: 1) Your PhD topic & 2) University you are at:
1) Understanding use of the Jericho March in Christian Nationalist protests by applying theories of group-based agency and ritual affect
2) University of Ottawa
#PhDSky let's get to know each other!
Quote this with: 1) Your PhD topic & 2) University you are at:
1) Understanding use of the Jericho March in Christian Nationalist protests by applying theories of group-based agency and ritual affect
2) University of Ottawa
November 20, 2024 at 12:54 AM
#PhDSky let’s get to know each other!
Quote this with: 1) your PhD topic & 2) university you are at:
1) How borders are represented and interacted with in speculative fiction; how we imagine borders in non real worlds & imagine border resistance in those spaces
2) University of Alberta
Quote this with: 1) your PhD topic & 2) university you are at:
1) How borders are represented and interacted with in speculative fiction; how we imagine borders in non real worlds & imagine border resistance in those spaces
2) University of Alberta
Consistently below zero temperatures means that it’s the season of dogs in jackets and lil boots, which is a delight for me personally
November 19, 2024 at 11:33 PM
Consistently below zero temperatures means that it’s the season of dogs in jackets and lil boots, which is a delight for me personally
Some passable photos from my latest film roll. First time out with the Olympus AF-1 super… made the mistake of shooting this Kodak Gold in low/indoor light for most of the roll & the cameras auto exposure+focus didn’t like that #filmphotography #35mm
November 18, 2024 at 10:14 PM
Some passable photos from my latest film roll. First time out with the Olympus AF-1 super… made the mistake of shooting this Kodak Gold in low/indoor light for most of the roll & the cameras auto exposure+focus didn’t like that #filmphotography #35mm
Brief intro:
I’m a PhD candidate working on a dissertation on how speculative fiction represents borders on multiple scales (the multiverse to body borders). I mobilize Critical Border Studies to read SFF and I use SFF to think about border studies.
I dabble in other fields and about 800 hobbies
I’m a PhD candidate working on a dissertation on how speculative fiction represents borders on multiple scales (the multiverse to body borders). I mobilize Critical Border Studies to read SFF and I use SFF to think about border studies.
I dabble in other fields and about 800 hobbies
November 18, 2024 at 8:54 PM
Brief intro:
I’m a PhD candidate working on a dissertation on how speculative fiction represents borders on multiple scales (the multiverse to body borders). I mobilize Critical Border Studies to read SFF and I use SFF to think about border studies.
I dabble in other fields and about 800 hobbies
I’m a PhD candidate working on a dissertation on how speculative fiction represents borders on multiple scales (the multiverse to body borders). I mobilize Critical Border Studies to read SFF and I use SFF to think about border studies.
I dabble in other fields and about 800 hobbies
Reposted by theo
Art drawn by people who very rarely make art and think they are “bad at art” is 1000x cooler than AI art. It’s life-affirming. It’s often unexpected. I cannot overemphasize how much I love when people just go for it. You do not need the machine for this human endeavor.
November 18, 2024 at 3:28 PM
Art drawn by people who very rarely make art and think they are “bad at art” is 1000x cooler than AI art. It’s life-affirming. It’s often unexpected. I cannot overemphasize how much I love when people just go for it. You do not need the machine for this human endeavor.
If anyone is not watching Jeongnyeon: The Star is Born, they absolutely need to be watching Jeongnyeon: The Star is Born
Another Kim Tae Ri masterclass in acting & brilliant performances by all of her costars as well
Another Kim Tae Ri masterclass in acting & brilliant performances by all of her costars as well
November 17, 2024 at 5:35 AM
If anyone is not watching Jeongnyeon: The Star is Born, they absolutely need to be watching Jeongnyeon: The Star is Born
Another Kim Tae Ri masterclass in acting & brilliant performances by all of her costars as well
Another Kim Tae Ri masterclass in acting & brilliant performances by all of her costars as well
Reposted by theo
Shunrō Oshikawa sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/oshika... died on this day, so here's some related artwork. The 4th is a poster for the film 'Atragon', based on his series "Kaitei Gunkan". I couldn't identify the artists:
November 16, 2024 at 8:22 PM
Shunrō Oshikawa sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/oshika... died on this day, so here's some related artwork. The 4th is a poster for the film 'Atragon', based on his series "Kaitei Gunkan". I couldn't identify the artists:
#phdsky anyone else feeling like they should be doing way more as a grad student even when current responsibilities are already only being shuffled from the back burner when they start burning?
November 16, 2024 at 7:02 PM
#phdsky anyone else feeling like they should be doing way more as a grad student even when current responsibilities are already only being shuffled from the back burner when they start burning?
Reposted by theo
"We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel… is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.”
Ursula K. Le Guin .
Ursula K. Le Guin .
November 15, 2024 at 3:09 PM
"We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel… is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.”
Ursula K. Le Guin .
Ursula K. Le Guin .
#AcademicSky, let's get to know each other! Quote this & tell me: 1) a project you are working on & 2) an odd idea/theory you aren't working on but keep thinking about:
1. The SFF multiverse as a border artefact (it’s ch1 of the dissertation!)
2. The inability(?) to imagine utopia in contemp sf
1. The SFF multiverse as a border artefact (it’s ch1 of the dissertation!)
2. The inability(?) to imagine utopia in contemp sf
#AcademicSky, let's get to know each other! Quote this & tell me: 1) a project you are working on & 2) an odd idea/theory you aren't working on but keep thinking about:
1. An exhibit on the impact of sci-fi and fantasy on queer identity
2. 90s sci-fi paving the way for queer representation
1. An exhibit on the impact of sci-fi and fantasy on queer identity
2. 90s sci-fi paving the way for queer representation
#AcademicSky, let's get to know each other! Quote this & tell me: 1) a project you are working on & 2) an odd idea/theory you aren't working on but keep thinking about.
1) a book on care-full movement pedagogy
2) that the “post-show blues” is nervous system dysregulation
1) a book on care-full movement pedagogy
2) that the “post-show blues” is nervous system dysregulation
November 16, 2024 at 1:08 AM
#AcademicSky, let's get to know each other! Quote this & tell me: 1) a project you are working on & 2) an odd idea/theory you aren't working on but keep thinking about:
1. The SFF multiverse as a border artefact (it’s ch1 of the dissertation!)
2. The inability(?) to imagine utopia in contemp sf
1. The SFF multiverse as a border artefact (it’s ch1 of the dissertation!)
2. The inability(?) to imagine utopia in contemp sf