DeclanKavanagh.bsky.social

Really pleased that the lecture I gave on disability in history for @histassoc.bsky.social is now live and #openaccess #DisabilityHistoryMonth #CriptheCurriculum #18C #WilliamHay #LifeWriting Link: eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

My contributor copy of Éire-Ireland (Spring/Summer 2026) has arrived, with my essay "Dying to Be Seen: AIDS, Diaspora, and the Queer Irish Novel" inside. It is a pleasure to hold it in print, and the cat has already given it her approval. 🍀

A poem for the #spookyseason 👻🎃🦇 #samhain #newpoetry #class #halloweeen #Ireland

My article "Disability and Queer Fiction" is now out in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Disability Studies. It reads Radclyffe Hall and Truman Capote on sexual inversion and the queer-crip body, and on queer fiction's unspoken ableism. doi.org/10.1093/9780... #DisabilityStudies #Queerlit #acwri

Thrilled to have a new poem coming out in @aftershockpoetry Issue Four and to be amongst such stellar poets. Many thanks to @maxwallis Pre-order available now: www.aftershockreview.com/product-page... #newpoetry

To mark 300 years of Gulliver's Travels, I am leading a free creative writing workshop at the University of Kent, exploring unique materials from Special Collections & Archives. Wed 28 Oct, 2-4pm, Templeman Library A108. All levels welcome, materials provided. Please share! #Swift #Gulliver

Calling all Yahoos! This workshop led by Dr Declan Kavanagh invites participants to consider items from Special Collections & Archives that evoke this play on perspective to write other worlds into existence. Sign up here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/writing-bi... All welcome! #AfterGulliver #CreativeW

Congratulations @drdeclankavanagh.bsky.social on winning 1st place at the Maidstone Literary Festival Poetry Competition! Brilliant news! Well done! #AcademicSky

Excited to speak about *Gulliver’s Travels* and scotomaphobia (fear of sight loss) at the Centre for Eighteenth-Century-Studies Research Seminar, University of York. I look forward to being among eighteenth-centuryists en masse! Thanks for the invitation CECS colleagues.

I had a wonderful evening at the Maidstone Literary Festival last night, where I was fortunate enough to win the 2026 poetry competition and to read the winning poem. Many thanks to the judges and the organisers. I am very grateful for my work being recognised in this way #nationalpoetryday

It was such an honour to read my poetry at Maidstone Literature Festival tonight on #nationalpoetryday and to be among so many gifted poets at the sold out poetry night. Many thanks to everyone involved in organising the event. #MaidstoneLitFest

Think I asked this a while back but it anyone has any reading on auctioning the goods of the dead in 16th- and 17th-century London, and/or the role of bellmen and criers around deaths and auctions, I'd be very grateful for recommendations!

Crazed Viking era

New article just published in ‘Èire-Ireland’ Journal on the queer Irish novel and death in the Irish diaspora #IrishStudies #queerliterature #queernovel #Irishdiaspora

I turned up at Waterstones in Worthing to sign some new stock of QUEER ORIGINS and was absolutely bowled over to be greeted by this in prime position in the shop window! It's so uplifting when booksellers get behind one's book. 💜🌈📚🦋🗃️ #book #books #booksky #authors #reading #histsci #queerhistory

I’ve been wrestling with the villanelle form and am afraid it has broken me! It really doesn’t allow for any give! Anyway, here’s a poem about the oldest tree in Ireland (or so I was told). #villanelle #Kildare #Maynooth #Cromabú #poetry

What a nice surprise - my contributor copy of Eighteenth-Century Ireland / Iris an dá chultúr Volume 41 2026 arrived. Belinda wants me to read it all in one go! #18thcentury #irishstudies

Fancy coming to work with me at the British Library? Part time for 18 months, collecting oral histories about covid and thinking about covid commemoration. www.nationalmuseums.org.uk/jobs/job/228...

Of course AI could wipe out humans. Just look at who created it.

It's happening! 'Killjoy Comedy: Willful Women and 1750s Fiction' is coming out with @uvapress.bsky.social in February 2027. @sinsleyh.bsky.social says it is 'a ROMP'. I am *floored* @bsecs.bsky.social @asecsoffice.bsky.social #18thcentury #c18th www.upress.virginia.edu/title/10256/

Solidarity with this Piddington resident ♥️✊ #Newsnight

The new issue of Eighteenth-Century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr is out now and open access (not sure if this is temporary or not). Use the link below to view the special anniversary issue. www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/toc/10.3828/...

Leading a creative writing workshop on Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726) in Special Collections at Kent, writing objects and subjects big and small. Wed 28 Oct, 2pm until 4pm, Templeman Library. Email D.kavanagh@kent.ac.uk to reserve a place. #CreativeWriting #GulliversTravels

***BREAKING NEWS*** We have extended the deadline on our #CFP by 5 days to give those of you that missed our early deadline another chance! New deadline: 20 September 2026 Get writing! #skystorians #18thC 🗃️ www.bsecs.org.uk/conferences/...

Completely wild

We're hiring in the long eighteenth century at LSU. Please spread the word and let me know if you have any questions. It's a wonderful department to work in! lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/LSU/job/0210...

The five-decade love story of a forgotten Irish literary power couple

New article out now in Eighteenth-Century Ireland (vol. 41): '"A picture presented to all our Senses": Vision in Gulliver's Travels and Michael Clancy's Memoirs'. doi.org/10.3828/eci....

Launch for Issue 19 of The Alchemy Spoon: www.eventbrite.com/e/the-launch... Register for a ticket. Online event. September 17th 7.30pm GMT #newpoetry #poetryreadings @thealchemyspoon.bsky.social

Truly wild to have lived through moral panics about teenagers wearing hoodies and Muslim women wearing the head dress to now experience 'but is a large group of organised far right activists in balaclavas really that scary'

A very quick turn around because of paperwork, but we're hiring a one year post in Modern British History! Please have a look and share widely with anyone interested! Happy to take informal queries at the email in the job posting! www.winchester.ac.uk/About-Us/Wor...

www.instagram.com/reel/Dcx-PvN...

I just received my copy of issue 19 of @thealchemyspoon.bsky.social , which features my poem ‘A Stranger’s Gift’ amongst stellar company. It is a poem about organ donation and if you have time to reflect upon it please do consider your own wishes and let these wishes be known to your next of kin.

Let’s try again: I’d like to hear about new research from Scottish historians. Especially ECRs whose work may not get much attention. This is because I have a newspaper column where I publicise new work by Scottish historians! Tell me about your research!

Israeli restrictions on food entry are stalling recovery from famine in Gaza as malnutrition cases climb, an IPC report finds. Two-year-old Hashem Abu Mustafa, born hungry in a Rafah tent, may already be beyond saving. mondoweiss.net/2026/08/gaza...

It’s quite something seeing the (long) list of people who claim to work on social justice issues in archaeology who are prepared to go to EAA in Athens this year, sometimes sharing sessions with people involved in illegal excavations in the West Bank. bdsmovement.net/news/europea...

CFP for the Brontes and the Supernatural symposium for next September in Haworth - deadline New Year’s Eve

Delighted that my poem ‘Red Kite’ has found a home in ‘The AfterShock Review’ #poetry #TheAfterShockReview #disabilitypoetics @maxwallis.bsky.social

in a world of JK Rowlings be a Dolly Parton

So sad to hear the news. Dolly was one of a kind.