Links in the Time of Coronavirus, Vol. 26: April 16–May 15, 2022

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Politics and Economics

Josh Gerstein and Alexander Ward, “Supreme Court has Voted to Overturn Abortion Rights, Draft Opinion Shows.”

Roxane Gay, “It’s Time to Rage.”

Matt Gertz, “With Attack on Twitter, the Right Shows It Has Institutionalized Trump’s Corrupt Use of Government Power.”

Anthony Cuthbertson, “NFT Sales Plummet 92% as Market ‘Collapses.'”

David Yaffe-Bellany, Erin Griffith, and Ephrat Livni, “Cryptocurrencies Melt Down in a ‘Perfect Storm’ of Fear and Panic.”

Eric Budish, “The Economic Limits of Bitcoin and Blockchain.”

Nuclear and Environmental

Chris Cameron, “Climate Activist Dies after Setting Himself on Fire at Supreme Court.”

Abrahm Lustgartn, “The Great Climate Migration.”

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Links in the Time of Coronavirus, Vol. 25: March 16–April 15, 2022

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Nuclear and Environmental

Max Fisher, “As Russia Digs In, What’s the Risk of Nuclear War? ‘It’s Not Zero.’”

William J. Broad, “How America Watches for a Nuclear Strike.”

Rod Buntzen, “This Is What It’s Like to Witness a Nuclear Explosion.”

Cara Buckley, “‘OK Doomer’ and the Climate Advocates Who Say It’s Not Too Late.”

Brad Plumer and Raymond Zhong, “Stopping Climate Change Is Doable, but Time Is Short, UN Panel Warns.”

John Vidal, “Energy Efficiency Guru Amory Lovins: ‘It’s the Largest, Cheapest, Safest, Cleanest Way to Address the Crisis.'”

Henry Fountain, “In a First, an Ice Shelf Collapses in East Antarctica.”


Ukraine

Jane Burbank, “The Grand Theory Driving Putin to War.”

Malachy Browne, David Botti, and Haley Willis, “Satellite Images Show Bodies Lay in Bucha for Weeks, Despite Russian Claims.”

“‘At Night I Dream of Mariupol’: Nine Accounts of Surviving a Russian Siege.” Continue reading →

Links in the Time of Coronavirus, Vol. 24: February 16–March 15, 2022

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Ukraine (Ordered by Date of Appearance)

Alexander Gabuev, “On Why Vladimir Putin and His Entourage Want War.”

Edward Wong, Julian E. Barnes, and Anton Troianovski, “US Says Russia Has a List of Ukrainians to Kill or Detain after an Invasion.”

Anton Troianovski, “Moscow Orders Troops to Ukraine’s Separatist Regions after Putin Recognizes Their Independence.”

“Ukrainian Officials Report Missile Attacks in Kyiv.”

Mike McIntire and Michael Forsythe, “Putin Faces Sanctions, but His Assets Remain an Enigma.”

Peter Baker, “Biden and Putin, Children of the Cold War, Face Off in New Conflict.”

Emma Ashford, “It’s Official: The Post-Cold War Era Is Over.”

Manveen Rana, “Volodymyr Zelensky Survives Three Assassination Attempts in Days.”

Michael Schwirtz, Andrew E. Kramer and Michael Levenson, “Russian Forces Pound Civilians, as Putin Likens Sanctions to a ‘Declaration of War.'”

Michael D. Shear, “Biden Bans Oil Imports from Russia, Calling It a ‘Blow to Putin’s War Machine.'”


Nuclear and Environmental

James M. Acton, “The Most Immediate Nuclear Danger in Ukraine Isn’t Chernobyl.”

David E. Sanger and William J. Broad, “Putin Declares a Nuclear Alert, and Biden Seeks De-Escalation.”

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Links in the Time of Coronavirus, Vol. 23: January 16–February 15, 2022

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Screenshot (1)

Nuclear and Environmental

Henry Fountain, “An Extraordinary Iceberg Is Gone, but Not Forgotten.”

Jacob Blumenfeld, “Climate Barbarism: Adapting to a Wrong World.”

Joshua Rothman, “Can Science Fiction Wake Us Up to Our Climate Reality?”


Ukraine

The New York Times, “Moscow Is Pessimistic about Reaching Accord with US on Ukraine, but Talk Continues.”

Julian E. Barnes and Helene Cooper, “US Battles Putin by Disclosing His Next Possible Moves.”

And Max Fisher, “On Ukraine, US, and Russia Wage Signaling War to Avert Actual War.”


Coronavirus

Apoorva Mandavilli, “Yes, Omicron Is Loosening Its Hold. But the Pandemic Has Not Ended.”

Steven Kurutz, “Too Young to Feel So Old.”

Alexander Provan, “The Great Equalizer” (from June 2020).

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“Twenty-First-Century Forms” at MLA 2023

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Richard Grossman, Torah Ball, 2011. Corundum sphere 5″ in diameter inscribed in Hebrew with the Ten Commandments currently buried inside Mount Princeton, Colorado, USA.

Given my ongoing interest in megatexts and other emerging hybrid and transmedia forms, I am organizing a second panel on emergent literary forms of the twenty-first-century for the 2023 Modern Language Association Convention in San Francisco, California (the first was at the 2021 MLA Convention). Please consider submitting an abstract to festb[at]hartwick[dot]edu by March 24, 2022. Here’s the CFP:

Twenty-First-Century Forms

If the novel and lyric poem might be considered residual forms, what literary forms are emerging in the twenty-first century? Panel on emergent literary forms: transmedia, digital, hybrid, remediated, megatexts, other. 250-word abstract, brief bio.

Spring Semester 2022: Syllabi

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Hartwick SpringThis spring semester at Hartwick College, I’m teaching two classes, ENGL 213 Introduction to Creative Writing, as usual, and a brand new course, ENGL 352 Critical Game Studies. I’m especially excited about the latter, as this was a course I developed at the University of Pittsburgh in AY 2015-16 with the aid of a course development grant but that I have not had a chance to teach until now.

The syllabi:

ENGL 213 Introduction to Creative Writing, Spring 2022

ENGL 352 Critical Game Studies, Spring 2022

Links in the Time of Coronavirus, Vol. 22: December 16, 2021–January 15, 2022

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January 15, 2022

Nuclear and Environmental

Elizabeth Weil, “California’s Forever Fire.”

Bill McKibben, “The Year in Climate.”

Jeff Goodell, “‘The Fuse Has Been Blown,’ and the Doomsday Glacier Is Coming for Us All.”

John Levi Barnard, Stephanie Foote, Jessica Hurley, and Jeffrey Insko, eds. “Infrastructures of Emergency,” special issue, part 2, Resilience 8, no. 3 (Fall 2021).

Rebecca Evans, “Is Geoengineering the Only Solution?: Exploring Climate Crisis in Neal Stephenson’s Termination Shock.”

Jack Healy and Mike Baker, “As Miners Chase Clean-Energy Minerals, Tribes Fear a Repeat of the Past.”

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Links in the Time of Coronavirus, Vol. 21: November 16–December 15, 2021

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Kentucky Tornado 2021

Nuclear and Environmental

The New York Times, “Postcards from a World on Fire.”

Keith Collins, Josh Williams, Denise Lu, “Before and after the Tornado: Devastation in a Historic Neighborhood.”

David E. Sanger and William J. Broad, “As China Speeds Up Nuclear Arms Race, the US Wants to Talk.”

Graham Readfearn, “Ocean Scientists Call for Global Tracking of Oxygen Loss That Causes Dead Zones.”

April Anson, “American Apocalyptic: A Conversation with Jessica Hurley.”

Douglas Dowland, review of Infrastructures of Apocalypse: Literature and the Nuclear Complex, by Jessica Hurley.

Matt Williams, “A Sun-Like Star Just Blasted Out a Flare That Would Be Devastating If It Happened Here.”

And Ben Smith, “A Comedy Nails the Media Apocalypse.”

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The Visiting Writers Series at Hartwick College, Spring 2022

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This spring, Hartwick College and the Department of English will present the last two readings of the 2021-22 Visiting Writers Series.  All readings take place at 7 p.m. in Eaton Lounge, Bresee Hall at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York.

Admission to the readings is free and the events are open to the public. Attendees and all campus visitors must be vaccinated for COVID-19 and will be required to provide either their vaccination card or the New York State Excelsior Pass. Any visitor requiring an exception to this requirement must complete this form and receive prior approval from the College. Masks are required in all College buildings.

Krys Malcolm Belc will read on Wednesday, March 2, 2022.

Michael Peters will read on Wednesday, April 13, 2022.

For more information, visit the Visiting Writers Series webpage.