Nathan K. Hensley

@nathankhensley

Action without Hope: Victorian Literature after Climate Collapse (Chicago, 2025) • The Barbara Johnson Collective (Northwestern, 2026) Fresno, Silver Spring • • he/him/his • Everything here in personal capacity only

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Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· 8d

annual walla walla fruit picture 🤩 w @anneoneilhenry.bsky.social

Local nectarines at Clicker’s market Walla Walla,
WA

Local peaches at Clicker’s market Walla Walla,
WA

Local blueberries at Clicker’s market Walla Walla,
WA

Local raspberries at Clicker’s market Walla Walla,
WA

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· 16d

I finally have a physical copy of this astonishing book and cried reading the dedication & acknowledgements: what an immense accomplishment. I really do encourage everyone to find a way to read this— it’s unbelievably, inspiringly smart. Thank you, @nicolerizzuto.bsky.social, for writing it.

Cover of Nicole Rizzuto’s 🎉*arresting ecologies: global literature across air land, and sea, 1926-2014* Oxford University press showing an image by Paul Nash, the Rye marshes 1932.

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· 17d

I highly recommend Philip's incredible article that previews this argument abt the discrepant narrative and economic logics of settler-colony accumulation — i can share a PDF w anybody who wants one; muse.jhu.edu/article/633459

Gold and Greater Britain:
Jevons, Trollope, and Settler Colonialism
PHILIP STEER
From VICTORIAN STUDIES

ABSTRACT: The Australian gold rushes of the 1850s provide an exemplary test case for exploring the impact of Greater Britain—the settler colonial empire—on the Victorian novel and political economy. British gold diggers’ nomadism operated in seeming
antithesis to the colonies’ explosive growth, which posed a conceptual challenge both to political economy’s stadial model of societal development and to liberal narratives of labor and land—narratives that underpinned concepts of individual character and civil society. Informed by colonial writing and the experience of gold fields, W. S. Jevons’s Theory of Political Economy (1871) and Anthony Trollope’s John Caldigate (1879) reimagine metropolitan space and subjectivity in settler-colonial terms, helping lay the ground for a deterritorialized, global British identity.

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· 17d

this is gorgeous and haunting

Screen capture of WESTWARD, internet project by Jason Heppler showing tiled photographs of the American West from the Library of Congress and other sources

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· 18d

twined plants as framing device, who wore it better?

Original serial cover of middlemarch, by George Elliot, showing twined ivy and plants

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· 19d

proofs! 💖💖💖 @devingarofalo.bsky.social

Page proofs title page for The Barbara Johnson Collective, Edited by Devin M. Garofalo and Nathan K. Hensley
Northwestern University Press Evanston, Illinois, line numbers running down right side

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· 28d

—& in that sense can never be said to have failed at all, at least not on time horizons anybody who wd offer that commentary has access to. Things you do matter, & temporary, collective actions (Warner Creek blockade, eg) will often matter more than “revolutionary” ones, but who knows they might too

Image of Earth First! Blockade at Warmer Creek OR showing banners and palisades of wood

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· Jul 12

He’s all of us now

Elephant guy from Mo Willems book cover looking at a pig enjoying slop with a look of confused concern, and having a squiggly line / question mark for a thought

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· Jul 10

Sorry I think I must have clipped it from the screenshot, it says: SOURCE: American Association of University Professors (AAUP) 2023-24 Faculty Compensation Survey

SOURCE: American Association of University Professors (AAUP)
2023-24 Faculty Compensation Survey

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· Jul 10

lol I guess this average must include all those full professors of hedge fund managing we all know

TOP 20 COLLEGES WITH THE
HIGHEST AVERAGE PROFESSOR SALARIES
RANKED BY AVERAGE TOTAL COMPENSATION
FOR FULL-TIME FACULTY
RANK
COLLEGE
AVERAGE SALARY
RANK
COLLEGE
AVERAGE SALARY
1
Columbia University
$451,939

Johns Hopkins University
$403,368
2
Stanford University
$441,196
12
Cornell University
$403,276
3
Harvard University
$439,261
13
University of Notre Dame
$400,21
4
Dartmouth College
$437,842
14
University of California,
Berkeley
$397,781
5
University of Chicago
$435,868
15
University of California, Los Angeles
3,038
$395,117
6
Yale University
$433,646
16
University of Southern
California
$393,
7
Princeton University
$428,288
17
Rice University
$39⅔333
8
University of Pennsylvania
$425,902
18
Brown University
$389,436
9
Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
$417,605
19
Vanderbilt University
S38715B
10
Northwestern University
$405,022
20
Emory University
$38f033

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· Jul 9

if anybody doesn't have access but wd like to see this, hit me up and i can send a pdf. we really did have fun doing this: it was fun to think together about what thinking together can do

NH: But students really seem to respond when one helps them see that communing with each other about ideas is, like I said earlier, counter-systemic. There’s something that’s materially resistant, now, about just the taking the time to read something, or to think about something. Does that mean that literature changes the world? Does that mean that literature solves the climate crisis? Like, no, absolutely not. But what it means is that having moments of genuine connection with people, that experiencing thoughts that are not bullshit—that actually does mean something to people. The beauty is that you can’t predict the results of those moments in the future. So that, for me, is that space of incredible, inexhaustible optimism about what people can do, and especially what young people can do.

AG: A space of solidarity, yes. I love it.

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· Jul 9

I also highly recommend @annagk.bsky.social’s essay on *Villete* and the psychic / cognitive structure of first person narration and the “competing forms of personhood” encoded in that unstable form of address muse.jhu.edu/article/657123

Anna Gibson
Charlotte Brontes First Person
ABSTRACT: This essay reads Charlotte Brontes use of first-person narration in Vil-lette as a contribution to a Victorian reassessment of personal identity as material. heterogeneous, and adaptive. Challenging common readings of Brontes first-person fictions as displays of self-definition and authority, I unpack the relationship between the narrated and narrating person in both jane Eyre and Villette to reveal dual operations of narrative-world-making strategies and adaptive tactics—that express competing notions of personhood. By comparing Villette (1853) to Jane Eyre (1847), we can chart a shift from a strategic to a tactical emphasis in narration indicative, 1 argue, of a broader movement in nineteenth-century thought from Cartesian dualism toward associationist and materialist theories of consciousness as adaptive and processual. Vil-lette's narrative tactics demonstrate the potential in novel form to enact processes of being in the world that challenge both traditional concepts of a unified, self-contained consciousness and new Victorian scientific conceptions of a material mind only knowable from sciences "objective" perspective. Positioning Brontes novel form alongside psychological debates about the nature and study of mind, I show how the novel offers alternative methodologies and conclusions about the nature of personhood to those proffered by an emerging Victorian psychology: When Brontes first-person narrative produces (rather than assumes the prior presence of) a "person" narrating, it asks us to read that production of identity and consciousness as an experiment with what it means to experience oneself as, in the words of Jane Eyre, a "heterogeneous thing."
KEYWORDS: Villette, first-person narrative, psychology, plrenology, strategy, tactics

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· Jul 6

wow. what an eye for shape and texture, and (it seems) allegory. this person was a genius. i am really grateful you shared these

image of window sign reading "pictorial encyclopedia of american history," 35mm slides. "Taken primarily by Corita Kent between 1955-1968, CAC’s 35mm slide collection documents Corita's years as a professor and head of the art department at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, California. Depicting a wide range of sites, events, and public figures, the images not only document her life as an artist, teacher, and sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Order but also present a rare view into the diverse student body and extraordinary community of women that were part of the once renown Catholic college."

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· Jul 6

"Taken primarily by Corita Kent between 1955-1968, CAC’s 35mm slide collection documents Corita's years as a professor and head of the art department at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, California." thank you so much @eireannmor.bsky.social for sharing these

image of woman with bowed head and flower ringlet, , 35 mm slide "Taken primarily by Corita Kent between 1955-1968, CAC’s 35mm slide collection documents Corita's years as a professor and head of the art department at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, California. Depicting a wide range of sites, events, and public figures, the images not only document her life as an artist, teacher, and sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Order but also present a rare view into the diverse student body and extraordinary community of women that were part of the once renown Catholic college."

blurred image of woman wearing flowered coronet, , 35 mm slide "Taken primarily by Corita Kent between 1955-1968, CAC’s 35mm slide collection documents Corita's years as a professor and head of the art department at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, California. Depicting a wide range of sites, events, and public figures, the images not only document her life as an artist, teacher, and sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Order but also present a rare view into the diverse student body and extraordinary community of women that were part of the once renown Catholic college."

Image of woman with orange parasol, , 35 mm slide "Taken primarily by Corita Kent between 1955-1968, CAC’s 35mm slide collection documents Corita's years as a professor and head of the art department at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, California. Depicting a wide range of sites, events, and public figures, the images not only document her life as an artist, teacher, and sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Order but also present a rare view into the diverse student body and extraordinary community of women that were part of the once renown Catholic college."

image of woman with back turned, in yellow flowers, , 35 mm slide "Taken primarily by Corita Kent between 1955-1968, CAC’s 35mm slide collection documents Corita's years as a professor and head of the art department at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, California. Depicting a wide range of sites, events, and public figures, the images not only document her life as an artist, teacher, and sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Order but also present a rare view into the diverse student body and extraordinary community of women that were part of the once renown Catholic college."

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· Jul 6

these images are so gorgeous, and make you feel like you are looking into a different world where beauty is real and other futures are possible

Image of maypole, 35 mm slide "Taken primarily by Corita Kent between 1955-1968, CAC’s 35mm slide collection documents Corita's years as a professor and head of the art department at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, California. Depicting a wide range of sites, events, and public figures, the images not only document her life as an artist, teacher, and sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Order but also present a rare view into the diverse student body and extraordinary community of women that were part of the once renown Catholic college."

image of two nuns from behind, one wearing flowers, , 35 mm slide "Taken primarily by Corita Kent between 1955-1968, CAC’s 35mm slide collection documents Corita's years as a professor and head of the art department at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, California. Depicting a wide range of sites, events, and public figures, the images not only document her life as an artist, teacher, and sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Order but also present a rare view into the diverse student body and extraordinary community of women that were part of the once renown Catholic college."

Image of sign, Have a nice tomorrow, , 35 mm slide "Taken primarily by Corita Kent between 1955-1968, CAC’s 35mm slide collection documents Corita's years as a professor and head of the art department at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, California. Depicting a wide range of sites, events, and public figures, the images not only document her life as an artist, teacher, and sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Order but also present a rare view into the diverse student body and extraordinary community of women that were part of the once renown Catholic college."

image of woman's legs, , 35 mm slide "Taken primarily by Corita Kent between 1955-1968, CAC’s 35mm slide collection documents Corita's years as a professor and head of the art department at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, California. Depicting a wide range of sites, events, and public figures, the images not only document her life as an artist, teacher, and sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Order but also present a rare view into the diverse student body and extraordinary community of women that were part of the once renown Catholic college."

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· Jul 2

oh okay

Car thermometer showing 110° at 11:12 am

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· Jul 1

happy birthday america, the heat index in DC is 113°

map of heat indexes in mid atlantic area showing 110-113 degree heat indexes around Washington DC

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· Jun 29

but this part for instance is lazy thinking abt history & basically a nihilistic defeatism, which (i'm saying) is the conceptual flipside to a supercharged fantasy of (masculine) revolutionary agency & alas also a species of self-regard, i.e an individualism & thus unbecoming of movement politics

The world is violent and futile; progress, when it comes, comes neither from revolution nor from ordinary politics but from the boards eroding themselves, the slow, inevitable transformation of all things in the face of technology and contingency.

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· Jun 23

academic labor conditions are an academic freedom issue and vice versa

In May, the university said it would not reappoint Ms. Adams, a lecturer who did not have tenure, “after a careful review” of her work. Her employment will end this month,

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· Jun 21

Was the enlightenment good or bad? Wrong question: it built the disfigured and yet still beautiful world we live in, which means we will need to work through its legacies in the full sense, come a way of living in its ruins then figure out how to build a new world based on what we find there

Freud, on working-through, in Remembering, Repeating, and Working Through

He must find the courage to direct his attention to the phenomena of his illness. His illness itself must no longer seem to him contemptible, but must become an enemy worthy of his mettle, a piece of his personality, which has solid ground for its existence and out of which things of value for his future life have to be derived. The way is thus paved from the beginning for a reconcillation with the repressed material which is coming to expression in his symptoms, while at the same time place is found for a certain tolerance for the state of being ill. If this new attitude towards the illness intensifies the conflicts and brings to the fore symptoms which till then had been indistinct, one can easily console the patient by pointing out that these are only necessary and temporary aggravations and that one cannot overcome an enemy who is absent or not within range. The

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· Jun 19

Straight up wage suppression, cartel stuff

As a result of their early debuts, Harper, Machado and Kershaw were all set to hit free agency at early ages, and they were all expected to set salary records, thus raising the cost of future free agents in the sport. MLB increasing the age at which players can be drafted would eliminate that scenario. It could also lead to more multi-sport athletes gravitating away from baseball once they get to college and potentially get more significant NIL offers to play other sports.

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· Jun 17

If I had a talk show I coulda done numbers with this one

Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensle... • 6d only just dawning on me that the 45 minute half in soccer was a frontier for capital and it has now been broken down by the
"hydration break," ie an excuse to fit in more ads
① 1
O 23
日》…
Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensle... • 6d
Naively l'd thought they just wanted the players to get water! And then in the midst of the new ad blitz realized they are jamming in ads where previously there was continuous sport, dang
2
11

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· Jun 17

Wow the text of this Iran deal is shocking

Diagram from Giovanni Arrighi, The Long Twentieth Century, showing after 2000 the cycling down of the American phase of accumulation and shifting into what Arrighi diagnoses as a dawning Chinese-led phase of accumulation

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· Jun 12

we are just providing leaders with tools to make decisions! will no one rid me of these meddlesome priests

Appiah: Our focus is on providing leaders with tools for deciding how to address this, and we think the right way is to begin with a conversation. Our individual reports, especially for the more problematic areas, provide questions to ask

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· Jun 12

i found the one true part of this whole sorry feature

THERE IS NOTHING BRAVE ABOUT THIS, PARTICULARLY

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· Jun 11

Okay I’m just saying

Mauricio Pochettino says he's not a fan of FIFA's hydration breaks, saying they should only be used when the weather truly dictates it.
At this World Cup, there will be one hydration break in each half for every single game, even the ones that are indoors.

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· Jun 11

oops it appears that even my own academic press, which published my account of all this, is not unentangled in the fossil system's gossamer and far reaching threads of ideological manipulation

Frontispiece information for Bromwich, Disowned by Memory (1998), showing "University of Chicago Press gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the Exxon Education Foundation in the publication of this book"

Cover of David Bromwich, DISOWNED BY MEMORY: Wordsworth's Poetry of the 1790s, U Chicago Press 1998

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· Jun 11

I trace some of these threads in my book, & am grateful to Cambridge UP for sharing archival material including an August 1984 memo that reads like any other item of boring academic paperwork: "We are receiving from Exxon $50,000 over 5 years, towards the costs of the Ideas in Context series."

1984 Cambridge UP memo, in screenshot from N Hensley, Action without Hope:

We are receiving from Exxon $50000 over five years, towards the costs of the Ideas in Context series. It will mainly be put towards manufacturing costs and extending the publicity for the series.
A separate account for the money has been set up. Could we adopt the following accounting procedures:

I or RJM make requisitions to the Fund (at the request of PAM,
CJW or FSS where appropriate); my requisitions to be countersigned
by RJM, CLD or AW; and all requisitions to be sent on to RS to keep
a running total.
I will prepare an annual report on the utilization of the funds at the
beginning of each year. JS-W.

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· Jun 11

ICYMI, pt. 2

Cover of James C Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts (1990)

Excerpt from acknowledgements page, James C Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts (1990), describing a "lunch seminar at MIT's Science, Technology, and Society Program, "where I was an Exxon Fellow in 1984"

Nathan K. Hensley@nathankhensley· Jun 11

ICYMI