Adrienne Ghaly

@aghaly.bsky.social

410 Followers 496 Following

Literature Professor UVA | Novel, 19c-21c, theory, environmental humanities, art, biodiversity, extinction. (views my own) Heidelberg (2026)

Wall of telephones with designs from the early to mid-20th century
Messerschmidt microcar with three wheels
Movie poster with spinoza’s portrait partly effaced by red ink scribbled over it. Subtitle reads: 6 Reasobs for the Excommunication of the Philosopher
Late 19th or early 20th century painting of a young man with his eyes closed and hand pressed to his forehead seated at a desk covered in books and old fashioned writing implements, a dip pen, bottle of ink and blotter, with an open cigarette case, an ashtray and lamp.
An evening sky with textured clouds like rough stone over a 17-18th century building with three metal-roofed turrets and a small human figure in one window with a lush hillside and distant houses behind it
An art installation consisting of a messy unmade bed with a pair of discarded tights on it and a tatty blue rug next to it partially covered by many different objects. On the wall is a neon sign that reads Its Not Me That’s Crying it’s My Soul
Poster for a literary festival that reads Freedom Fries, then the title of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time in French, with six yellow bound books wrapped in a paper cone like French fries/ pommes frites are wrapped for takeaway
Samurai helmet topped with tufted animal ears, gilded antlers and a fierce face
Examples of AI bias in automated credit and housing loan platforms that disproportionately penalize minority applicants and image-to-text generators that show white men when prompted for CEO and women or minorities when prompted for housekeeper or nurse
Bilbo Baggins texting with ChatGPT on a cell phone. Bilbo’s text reads “After all, why not? Why shouldn’t I keep it?” Chat replies, “You’re absolutely right — you found it, it’s been with you a long while, and it’s only natural to feel fond of something that’s served you so well, especially when someone like Gandalf suddenly seems to want it for himself”
Package of German Biscuits called Hobbits
A face with a downcast expression carved on a wooden front door
Sign on the front of an unkempt building that reads ‘Blech Unlimited’
Plastic crumpled biscuit packaging on a cupboard shelf fashioned into the beginnings of a horse head and two front legs
Tracey Emin A Second Life in neon in Emin’s handwriting
Cover of Tracey Emin’s book Strangeland with a photo of the artist’s face upside down
Maggie Nelson quotes Barthes: “Test I is reactive, moved by indignations, fears, unspoken rejoinders, minor paranoias, defenses, scenes. Text II is active, moved by pleasure.” Then says, You have to work on Text I for it to lose its reactive skin to get to Text II.
Giant window filled with cheese wheels from floor to ceiling
Baroque statue in a neoclassical style of a mostly naked and bearded man wearing laurels reclining on a rocky outcrop in the middle of a pool with an algae bloom
Caravaggio’s painting of the Calling of St Matthew with five men in late 15th c clothes and hats seated at a table and illuminated from the right where Christ points in an echo of Michelangelo’s finger of God from the Sistine Chapel ceiling
Japanese print of a waterfall flanked by vegetation covered rocks, with figures below it on a bridge and two houses
Michelangelo’s Pietà sculpture made in Lego bricks
Golden moon with a face against a darkening sky
Two books covers, one John Berger’s Steps Towards a Small Theory of the Visible and the other Slavoj Žižek’s Liberal Fascisms
Bookbag from Roman bookstore with quote from Mikhail Bulgakov, ‘follow me, dear reader’ in Italian
T shirt with the words Italo Disco Calvino on it and the word Disco crossed out. Below is written Ciao. Discotecca Italiana e Libri Belli
Albert Robida’s 19th century image of imagined future transportation as fishlike flying vehicles over a darkened metropolis
The face of a bronze horse statue seen from below makes the muzzle look like an alien’s face
Museum tag about Edo period travel objects with bronze cast small grasshopper, mouse and lizard figures
Mountain with Japanese temple, roofs of houses in the foreground
Hare with long ears and prominent whiskers sitting on hind legs
Japanese woodblock print of three men on the roof of a traditional Japanese building with two kites attached to it and flying in a breeze, throwing bundles down to each other, while Mt Fuji, snow covered, looms in the background
St Matthew sitting at a table with four other men in late 15th century clothing and light illuminating them from the right. Christ’s hand pointed like the famous hand of god in the Sistine chapel. Faces are partly illuminated and partly in shadow.
Mosaic art of a fierce crouching lion with extreme detail in the fur, eyes, whiskers
Dome of St. Peter’s lit up against an evening sky. Apartment balcony, smoke stack and antennas in foreground
Northern Italian house nestled in trees on a hill above a river.
Old stone castle on top of green hill against grey and white clouds
Little lizard or skink on a rough hewn wall near a vertical opening
Heron hunting on riverbank framed by grass and tree branches
Martin Luther mini figure refusing to recant in front of emperor mini figure while mini figure Pope looks on
Illuminated lamps shaped like elbow macaroni and tapered with one end slightly smaller ham the other
Large Lego figure of Martin Luther with a small penned on mustache
Owl in pockmarked stone cave with lichen looking half asleep
Blue footed booby bird on rocks next to the shoreline
19th c German house on a hill with gabled roof and many windows including a bay window and a large wisteria
Picture of the blue plaque describing when Lukács lived at this location 1914-1918
Brutalist concrete library architecture with small vertical windows and jutting bay windows landscaped with trees and grass. Small gargoyle atop Gothic building looks on
Dormer windows with side shingles resembling scales of the pangolin
Lace artwork with lots of textures of classical scene of two female warrior’s figures with swords and shield
Dog with large eyes and elaborate collar vigilantly looking at their person. The brush strokes make the fur very wavy and textured.
Tiles with animals on them including hare, boar, fox, horse, ermine, birds
Description of climate action event
Poster with cracked earth and dead tree that asks, Who Cares About the Climate?
Painting of a 17th century ship in a battle with sails and rigging torn and on fire, masts breaking and men and small pieces of equipment tossed high in the air against a grey sky
Dutch still life painting, a vase with fully open flowers of many types including tulips, morning glories, peonies, on a table
Cat pulling tablecloth with its claw. On the cloth are a loaf of bread, knife, jug, and a ceramic bowl of food.