Brandi K. Adams
@bkadams
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Researcher of Early Modern English Drama, Book history, Race| champion of Parnassus Plays| Asst. Prof @asuEnglish | she/her| Always my own views
Joined April 2008
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Pinned Tweet
You shouldn’t be able to be president of a college or a university without working as a faculty member (tenure or professional track) for at least ten years.
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One of the weirdest things I’ve seen is people saying that Simone Biles should step aside for other gymnasts. What? You didn’t say that about Michael Phelps…
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This is what happens when you don’t teach history properly.
Kamala Harris pretends to be black but her family owned slaves.
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I have some good news to share: in August of 2021, I will be joining the English Department
@ASU
as an Assistant Professor! Thanks to everyone who has supported me in my return to academia from a 10+ year hiatus--especially
@kcartwri
,
@ProfKFH
and
@UMDEnglish
.
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@SuperTerrific3
It’s there. I wouldn’t have commented on the weirdness if I hadn’t seen it.
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It is possible to like, appreciate, or even love something—a country, an author (here’s looking at you, Early Modern Playwrights), field of study, a play, or a musical—and to interrogate the hell out of it, admit that it has faults, and want something better. (Damn my optimism!)
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So, today is my birthday. My request: read and cite Black scholars. In Early Modern Studies, see how this foundational work (particularly on race) challenges fundemental assumptions in and about your subfield. Book History will never be the same for me. It’s better.
#Shakerace
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Today is my birthday! My particular wish: May academia (and academic twitter in particular) be kinder, more supportive, and understanding of people not at its center. For example, if *you want* to be called Professor or Dr. *I* will call you that. If you don’t, I will not.
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Sometimes, in this field, we have collectively accepted sheer cruelty and other horribleness from certain scholars in the name of brilliance. I have accepted this behavior in the past. I will not so any longer. We can do this work and be kind and caring. Break the cycle.
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The syllabus for ENG 332: Literature of Racial Passing is finished. Here’s a photo of the novels we’ll read! I’m happy with the list of books that made the final cut. This early modernist is going to LEARN alongside her students this semester.
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Does anyone else need six more days before Monday, or is that just me?
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Watching one person get very upset because someone else allows students to take and keep books (as a part of Black American radical tradition) is really interesting to me. If you don’t want to give books away don’t, but let the other person do as he wishes.
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A scholarly plea: if you are going to work on race and the early modern, please read the 50+ years of scholarship. Don’t claim in 2022 that scholars have just begun to think about race and the premodern.
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I studied abroad in Lancaster, England. There, I learned the ancient art of waiting in queues. I also learned about going to John Lewis for replacement headphones. Outside of my flat window, I saw a sheep farm. It taught me about the value of wool.
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The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Race is here! There are beautiful, brilliant, essays and interviews in this giant book. I happen to have an article of Editing Shakespeare and Race. It’s one of my favorite essays I’ve ever written. What a joy to be edited by
@pakhimie
!
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When I used to work in communications for computer science
@UofMaryland
, I wrote these kinds of faculty hiring announcements for other people. I never thought that one would ever be for me. And with a wonderful cohort of scholars. What a gift!
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So, a letter went to the Folger letting the library know there were no plans to destroy the library. How much of this has to do with a notion that the materials inside are part of white national identity? Race and print is NOT just about locating EM Black writers and printers.
If you’re an intelligence analyst, btw, the letter to the Folger Library should’ve been a huge red flag that the insurrectionists were serious about their plan.
No one takes time out of their busy day to write an apology letter to the Folger Shakespeare Library just for funsies.
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I just sent off an essay. Sometimes it’s difficult being an academic administrative staff member who nevertheless still wants to have a scholarly life. It is easier thanks to the people of
#Shakerace
and Early Modern
#bookhistory
. My apartment is a mess, but my heart is full.
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@DrDadabhoy
She sounds so heartless here. Like why even go if you’re just going to be like this?
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What do we gain by making such absolute statements and closing off interpretive models? There may be nothing to suggest that there’s a book-flask in this play, but I’ve made the argument and it has led to great conversations. Your Caliban isn’t Black, Sir, but for others he is.
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So this happened. The assumption that I “can’t keep up,” or “cope” and that I was talking exclusively about race. (Did *I* ever say that I couldn’t read the Latin?) I am thinking about the wider scholarly community. You can disagree without making so personal. Cheers!
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Another terrible reality about academia: you and your marginalized friends (non-white, LGBTQ) have experienced either a single or a sustained attack by a well-known person in the field, but she is kind, generous, and helpful to everyone else. You tell yourself to simply endure.
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Dear
@netflix
, I would like an adaptation of The Woman of Color: A Tale. It’s from 1808! It takes place in Jamaica and England! There are experts who can help you produce this like
@triciamatthew
@devoneylooser
@TitaChico1
and more! So many writers would be excellent.
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If I owe you something, please forgive me. I may need a little extra time. I unexpectedly had to say goodbye to my cat, Ollie. I’ll miss him dearly.
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There’s rejection and then there’s gatekeeping. We all need to talk about the differences between the two openly.
Academic life is characterized by rejection. Rejection is more common than adulation, admiration, respect, or deference. If you can’t stand being rejected, then you won’t enjoy trying to make a living as an academic. Most careers never face constant peer review.
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What I am going to say about this matter: coming back to Early Modern Studies after a 10+ year break was wondrous. This community was more open, welcoming and kind than I remembered; many scholars have begun to address some of the systemic problems that have haunted us. 1/
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About Romeo and Juliet, the first Black actress to perform Juliet was in 1821. A white woman first performed the role in 1661. Some white dudes on here are upset because a dark skinned black woman is playing the character. It’s racism not historical precedence. 1/2
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There is so much going on in this astounding photo by Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images (
@wanderinghome
). A Black child—in a Star Wars shirt—raising their right fist in the air as the police in Atlanta embody modern stormtroopers and evil empires.
@PulitzerPrizes
—a contender.
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As ridiculous as it can be, Twitter helped me to return to an unfinished PhD, helped me find y’all, a community of people who support my wonderfully weird approach to book history, and introduced me to scholars in outside fields I never would have known. 1/4
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How do we get to a point in academia where we teach, research, and review with empathy and kindness? When will we learn that being inclusive only makes all of our work better? When will we let go of the abusive practices of the past?
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I passed my third-year tenure review at ASU. Thanks to all of you for your continued friendship and support. I dedicate this academic victory to undergraduates, who continually teach me what empathy matched with brilliance and sacrifice looks like.
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This my new pal Barnabe. You know who he’s named after. Happy Friday!
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It’s time to learn about critical race theory. Also, we’re going to talk about whiteness as identity politics. This last four years taught me so much.
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Since my rent is going up a whopping 15% (I miss living in a place with rent control), I told Barnabe he has to look for part time work. His bow tie is crooked, but I think he’d get hired.
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Please, please, please, be kind and supportive to *your* graduate students—and all graduate students. They are doing excellent work and thinking about the field in ways that you can only imagine. You are amazing grad students! Thank you for being you.
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As a very young graduate student, I was super excited to meet a famous scholar whose work I had referenced for a successful seminar paper. I told him that his work helped me immensely. His response: “no one cares about that work; I certainly don’t anymore.” I walked away crushed.
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Today is my birthday! My wish today is that you be kind to yourselves in whatever way works for you. Also,
take a look at this 18th century prompt book (used/written in 19th century) for The Merry Wives of Windsor!
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For the most part, I love academic twitter (of all kinds) so much. Because scholars have been willing to share so much of their work and themselves, academia became less scary and daunting to me. I have learned how to value my work, and, more importantly, myself. 1/4
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This is a subtweet. If you find yourself accusing or implying that certain black people do not seem/look/think black enough to you or for you, you need to reflect on yourself. Blackness is not for *you* to adjudicate. Shame. Shame on you.
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It took a little while for me to see this in person and it makes me feel a part of the book history community. 😭Everything in here is amazing.
@roaringgirle
is a brilliant editor. A special shout out to
@DrDadabhoy
@ProfKFH
and
@vicorredera
for believing in this work and me.
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At MLA 2020 I gave a paper that argues that listservs are frequently used for tone policing and that scholars who are not a part of the old (white man) guard have Twitter to create community and challenge racist and sexist ideologies. Here is an example in the wild!
Harvard Professor Harvey Mansfield, who scolded a WOC by saying listservs aren't for "political statements", once emailed our entire department to say that he does not adhere to Harvard's Title IX policy because it is an "intrusion from a colony of the Office of Civil Rights".
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I understand that most students don’t ever need to read a Shakespeare play or even part of one. But every time I see “plays were (only) meant to be performed,” I recoil as a book historian. If they were never meant to be read, we wouldn’t have the plays.
1. Reading an entire Shakespearean play isn’t a skill most students need. Even in undergrad, I did it once MAYBE twice and we watched the play.
2. Learning to think and write critically about texts is the skill.
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No more second wave white feminists as debate moderators. Ms. Page cannot reject internalized misogyny nor can she regulate the interruptions because of additional internalized respectability politics. NO MORE.
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One uses self care to preserve strength to fight racism and survive. Audre Lorde constructed this as a way for living as a Black Woman activist. If you need a break from the conflict that happened, that’s fine. But please don’t misuse this term. Please.
@Guerra_Rb
Thanks mate! Trying that "self care" thing Audre Lorde was talking about and that.
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It’s here. My own particular copy of Black Lives in the English Archives. Imtiaz Habib’s work is crucial and important to helping scholars understand the complexities of Black life in Early Modern England. I’m starting to feel like a legitimate
#ShakeRace
scholar.
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Today, to me, representation matters. She's not perfect. No one is. But Kamala Didi, Auntie Kamala, Kamala Akkāḷ Kamala Auntie, Ms. Harris will be the VP. And that, my friends, is a triumph.
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Today, I gave my first in-person paper at EMSI (Early Modern Studies Institute)
@TheHuntington
. What a privilege it was to present to great friends and mentors and to make several new friends! Thanks Debapriya for capturing the moment.
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I just taught my first class
@asuEnglish
. They are all way cooler than I ever was an undergrad and I am so very lucky to be able to talk and work with them this semester. Also, they all wore their masks with no problem.
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This is INCREDIBLE NEWS. Wow. So so wonderful.
Update from
@routledgebooks
about Imtiaz Habib's important monograph: it should be available in paperback mid-August
$38.95
£29.99
Thank you
@PollyDodsonLit
@MichelleSalyga
@routledgebooks
for listening to Twitter
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@TeutonicKnight7
@dlaquarabbit
@olegdulin
@VinoCaPisco
@siennaguitar
@RichardBSpencer
No. That's on you. Any decent compsci major can get a well paying job in tech. There's no shortage in jobs. There's a shortage of people.
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Y’all. I am beyond thrilled (and nervous) to share my first
#ShakeRace
venture with you. Who said twitter rants can’t turn into a learning experience? Thanks to
@gwayvt
for being a wonderful reader and editor. And thanks to
@vicorredera
and
@JustinPShaw
for their brilliance.
"There is no neutral Shakespeare. There never was."
@bkadams
on refusing neutrality and Netflix's The King in The Sundial!
#RaceB4Race
#ShakeRace
#ASUHumanities
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This comes from a place of love: we need more Black, Indigenous,
Latino/a/x, and AsianAmerican/Pacific Islander editors working for academic presses. There are some authors out there who need to be challenged thoroughly (potentially saved) before they write a book.
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I have been thinking about all of the Ted Cruzes, Tom Cottons, and Josh Hawleys I’ve been in classrooms with with my entire career as a student. They were never shut down. They were often allowed (or even encouraged) to bully and shout over everyone.
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I’ve been thinking a lot about scholars in academic fields and persistent collective refusal to self-reflect on the damage and hurt that has been perpetrated with exclusionary practices surrounding publications and scholarship. The damage and hurt are real. 1
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Has anyone else reverted back to paper for organizing and working (on top of reading)? Screen time seems to be more and more miserable at the weeks move on. I've just ordered a paper organizer for the first time in years!
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Does anyone else feel like it takes so much longer to do anything right now? I'm writing about something that I really like(!) and yet, I'm slower than molasses. I'm just not as sharp. Is this because I haven't left Porter Square or Harvard Square, Cambridge, in almost a year?
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Here’s to University and College staff members everywhere—especially in state institutions—who are working tirelessly and beginning to look at bleak department and office finances. Along with non-tenure track faculty, staff are often made redundant in economic crises.
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I just posted final grades and this wraps up my first year on the tenure track. 1) I am so so lucky that I have this job. 2) I taught well and encountered some awesome students. 3) I tried to do too much research/writing and too many talks. I’m behind and sorry! 1/2
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Today, my students and I talked about naming Beowulf. The MS isn’t called Beowulf, so we reimagined a scribal/translator past. We liked Hwaet; Grendel; the Damage to the Mere. Does it change things by decentering the dude my students call meddlesome and annoying? H/t
@MiraAssafK
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Y’all—it has been a chilly 55 degrees in Phoenix today. Barnabe needed a blanket. Then he napped.
I worked and then I fell asleep next to him for a bit.
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This gatekeeping begins in graduate school. Advisors and seminar leaders push students away from work that they don’t think will “make it”—because of complicity w/the system. I left grad school because of it. I returned 10 years later to finish the PhD despite it.
#RaceB4Race
New piece by
#RaceB4Race
board offers specific questions to ask about journal structure & policies: Board structure, Double-blind review, evaluative criteria, all need scrutiny
#AcademicTwitter
#ShakeRace
It’s Time to End the Publishing Gatekeeping!
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I am so very very fortunate to be coediting Merry Wives of Windsor with the brilliant and utterly, utterly cool Jonathan Hope. We’re working with CUP and the genius team of
@soniamassai69
,
@mj_kidnie
, Gillian Woods and Emily Hockley. (Editing is for everyone!)
@DrDadabhoy
@matthewharrison
@KathrynVSantos
Just signed with CUP to do a Merry Wives edition with
@bkadams
!
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It’s only plagiarism when committed by Black people. Otherwise, it’s just sparkling citation infraction.
After an intensive one-day investigation, Bill Ackman has determined that his wife didn’t commit plagiarism when she was lifting multiple passages from Wikipedia
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Two things can certainly be true: 1. Historians of Medieval France might indeed engage with Critical Race Theory. 2. The question posed by the interviewers is still an invasive and terrible one. (Also, don’t forget that whiteness exists.)
I heard from a friend who interviewed for a lecturer position at a now somewhat notorious college in Texas. He said the second question was "what's your stance on critical race theory and do you teach it?" Friends, he's a medieval French historician.
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So Ben Sasse burned through more than 17 million dollars by giving friends admin jobs and is now resigning? I never want to hear about the problems of diversity programs ever again.
This is unbelievably poor from Ben Sasse - hiring ex-Senate staffers to remote work paying them $400k for uni admin positions, spending three times the previous president and now resigning. All the standard GOP complaints about spending and then this...
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I miss coffee shops. I didn’t always get the most work done there, but they often helped me get started on projects. And the people watching was sublime.
#beforetimes
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I just received the kindest note from a senior scholar in the field in which he let me know that he enjoyed something I wrote and would be a happy reader of my work. OMG. 😭 I know he is busy, and it means so much that he took the time. Academia *can* be generous and kind!
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I know who I’m voting for, so I declare Fall 2020 for self-care and getting *a lot* of academic work done. Therefore, I’m muting everything about the election. I leave you to your hot takes and think pieces; your anger at the state of liberalism and the left. Me? I gotta write.
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I saw what appeared to be a nostalgic comment the other day about the old days and ‘hazing’ in bibliographic studies. It really bothered me. Students if *you* are interested in book history, bibliography, or editing, there are people who want you in this field. I am one of them.
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My thoughts are with Mr. Floyd’s loved ones. This will not bring him back, but the verdict is just.
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I am so so pleased to invite all of you to join me,
@vicorredera
,
@MiraAssafK
,
@debapriya__s
, Miles Grier, and
@SRSRenSoc
to honor
@ProfKFH
and her work on Friday, 11/6/20 at 11am EST/ 4pm UK. I’m so lucky to be the moderator of these brilliant papers! 😭
#ShakeRace
#SRSlyGood
First up, join
@bkadams
,
@vicorredera
,
@MiraAssafK
,
@debapriya__s
& Miles Grier as they celebrate
@ProfKFH
's work and its continued influence, 6 Nov 2020 16.00 GMT
#ShakeRace
#SRSlyGood
#EarlyModernVirtualEvents
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@enthusiast_nfl
@dave_doors
where does it say that I work for you? Just don’t engage if you find this assertion unbelievable
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I had to go to campus to get a book from my office to return to the library (recalls are so necessary but sometimes inconvenient), but my name plate is up. I guess it’s super official now. That’s my office!
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My question is this: why does empathy have to be a problem here? Empathy informs my scholarship and reading. Empathy does not need to be antithetical to research and scholarship. Also, why must we compete over hard “technical skills”? They don’t make you special.
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Happy Friday! Barnabe stole a purple pen I was using and broke it! 😭😩
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You know what’s interesting about this? Anne Boleyn wasn’t black, but some court records racialized her as if she were. Instead of being indignant, be curious!
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Now can we start having ethics courses (taught by actual ethicists) in computer science departments? Tech is partially responsible for this. Time to admit it.
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@tressiemcphd
OMG. This is not what I imagined on the Bingo card. This debate is going into my class as we wrap up Passing by Nella Larsen.
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When I see arguments claiming that Shakespeare only read five books in his ENTIRE life, it raises my blood pressure. While there are no extant physical copies of his books it does not mean his reading did not happen. Libraries existed. Also, he didn’t work alone!
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BEST QUOTE of TODAY: My grandma: “Lady Gaga, who is not my favorite, did a wonderful job.”
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Perhaps it’s pandemic emotions, but I just teared up seeing my name on this list. If you had asked me three years ago if I thought this was possible, I would have told you no. How wonderful to be included with such a fantastic group of scholars! Thanks,
@roaringgirle
.
#ShakeRace
i had to pinch myself as i drafted this TOC for SHAKESPEARE / TEXT (forthcoming
@BloomsburyAcad
).
i'll say this 100x more, but thank you to everyone who has supported this project so far. your words, affirmations, & critiques have been invaluable.
time to write the intro!
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@MiraAssafK
He’s a genius! One day I’d love to meet him and ask some burning questions I have.
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I’ve just submitted materials for my third-year review
@asuEnglish
. I’m so grateful for all of the support, kindness, mentorship and friendship from the scholars here on the best part of twitter. Thanks to the undergrads for always reminding me why this work is valuable and fun.
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Shakespeare (and theatrical collaborators) wrote Shakespeare. If you think that those plays had to come from a person of a 'better' class, it says way more about you than about anything else. (Class hatred is so unattractive.) Also,
@OldFortunatus
is the best.
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Challenging a book should have the same schedule and process as academic publications. A fully articulated 4000 word proposal proving clearly explaining why the book should be removed. There should be three reviewers. The process should take 6 weeks to five years.
#bookbans
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I just got an email with “Dear Professor Adams,” to my ASU email account and I…
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I just wrote three paragraphs. Three. It has been weeks. 😭😭😭. The paragraphs aren’t bad. I think I’m on the road back to completing writing projects.
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I wish that Prof. Francesca Royster were on twitter so that I could tell her that her work in Shakespeare and Premodern Critical Race is breathtaking and groundbreaking. If you're teaching Titus Andronicus, have students read at least a little bit of her SQ article.
#ShakeRace
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Shakespeare.
Name something people have strong opinions on, but actually know little about.
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It is such a great honor for me to moderate what I am calling Sugar, Books, Shakespeare, Hall & Smith for
@SAAupdates
. We will get to learn from two of the most generous, amazing, brilliant people in the field
@ProfKFH
and
@OldFortunatus
in the PLENARY!
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Pandemic puppy is always ready to go back inside after a his mandatory training session. 😆
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