Dr Lauren Cullen

Still a few days left to send in an abstract for what promises to be another brilliant BAVS conference! 👩‍💻

AI is a climate issue. AI is a climate crisis.

British Association for Victorian Studies (BAVS) conference The Centre for Modern and Contemporary History, with the Centre for Port and Maritime History, are delighted to welcome BAVS delegates to Liverpool in 2026.

Check out the BAVS 2026 conference website: www.ljmu.ac.uk/bavs2026

CfP deadline extended until 12th December 2025!

“I don’t doubt that it is a great privilege to be a human being. But may it not be the happier destiny to be an animal or a plant?” — Wilkie Collins (1875)

You can sabotage AI with poetry, pass it on

We’d love to see you! 🙂‍↔️

a woman in a lace top is drinking from a cup ALT: a woman in a lace top is drinking from a cup

Calling @bavs-uk.bsky.social ECRs! Our next BAVS Tea Time will take place tomorrow (Weds 22nd) at 5pm-6pm (UK) on Zoom - join for all or part of an informal catch up about all things Victorian and ECR. DM me for link! We will also welcome our new BAVS ECR Rep @laurenicullen.bsky.social 🎉🫖☕️

The official CFP is a few days off, but I can't wait that long to announce that #BAVS2026 will be held in Liverpool, 27-29 July. We hope that some of the @rs4vp.org crowd will be able to make the trip over from #RSVP2026 and join @bavs-uk.bsky.social for more Victorian stuff. Details to follow.

In about three years the entire university pivot to AI curricula and schools and programs is going to be so deeply embarrassing. We will all pretend it never happened and I will be standing there, looking at people with a mirror in my eyes. This is all so embarrassing.

OpenAI’s New Energy Chief Is a Trump Administration Natural Gas Evangelist The ChatGPT creator hired John McCarrick, a gas-loving former Trump energy official, to guide how the company will source huge quantities of power for its colossal supercomputers.

OpenAI *really* isn't hiding its intention to power the AI boom with fossil fuels.

New from me @desmog.com

www.desmog.com/2025/10/13/o...

Want to attend NAVSA 2025: Aftermaths but can't make it to DC? Want MORE brilliant Victorianist scholarship than you can get at the in-person event? The NAVSA 2025 DIGITAL PRESESSION is free and open to all —registration required for security

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This point is well made. During the prospectus and methods portion of my dissertation, what I realized was that the committee was not there to give you lots of known things but rather to gently steer you away from trying to make entirely unknowable claims. Expertise is understanding limits.

Here are my top 10 fall dogs!

I will say this: if you use the toys of rent-seeking billionaires to do your writing for you, I promise I will never care about a single thing you write or think, ever

Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College ChatGPT has unraveled the entire academic project.

“Massive numbers of students are going to emerge from university with degrees, and into the workforce, who are essentially illiterate…Both in the literal sense and in the sense of being historically illiterate and having no knowledge of their own culture, much less anyone else’s.”

After 100 years, The Great Gatsby still reminds us of the ability of literature to transform everyday life Gatsby has become more than just a novel, but instead an exploration of what literature can mean.

Today is the centenary of the publication of The Great Gatsby! Here's the piece I wrote about the novel: theconversation.com/after-100-ye...

If you’re out this way, please say hi! And, even if you’re not, I’d love to hear from you! (ECR life can get a bit lonely, especially in a new place.) 🫶

Now that I’m (mostly) settled into my new West Coast life, I’m thrilled to write that I’m a postdoctoral research fellow at gorgeous #UBC. It’s wonderful to be back in Canada — and there’s no better place for me to sink my teeth into a new project centring “wild” places in 19thC literature.🏔️🐳

WOW! I cannot wait to read this.