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2025-01-10   

Ally Louks could be considered the antithesis of “extremely online.” The low-key literature scholar is generally more focused on her research and supervising undergrads at Cambridge University than on growing her once-small social media following or posting on X more than a few times a year. But last week, the 26-year-old shared a happy photo and a breezy caption on X, unaware that her post - and the niche focus of her PhD thesis - would become a lightning rod in the sprawling culture war against elite institutions and the nebulous concept of “woke.” Louks had successfully defended her thesis months earlier, but the results were made official in late November when she decided to share a post celebrating an important final step in earning her PhD. She shared the photo of her smiling and hugging the bound volume of her research and wrote, “Thrilled to say I passed my viva with no corrections and am officially PhDone.” “Honestly, I mostly shared it just so that my colleagues in academia would know that I’m finished and open for [postdoctorate opportunities],” Louks told The Washington Post on Thursday. “I didn’t do it for any other reason than that, and I didn’t expect it to be seen by anyone outside of my close circle.” The attention to Louks’s thesis, both from people looking to read it and trash it, has had the singular effect of pushing her obscure academic research to a massive audience. Louks shared the abstract to her thesis, which has been viewed more than 8 million times on X. More than 600 people have contacted her through her university to request a preview to read her pre-published work. With her thesis still under embargo, Louks said it’s too early to know exactly what this sudden strike of social media interest will yield. “What I will say is that the 600 people in my inbox requesting my thesis doesn’t even scratch the surface of all of the people who have expressed interest in reading my [work],” Louks said. “I have thousands and thousands of people across loads of different platforms saying that they would love to read the thesis or anything that I write about it, so I think that can only bode well.” That rosy outlook wasn’t as clear in the days after Louks’s post jumped from her small circle of followers to the vast expanse of the internet. Immediately, the post started to draw more traction than Louks said she ever anticipated. A round of congratulations followed from people acknowledging the challenge of earning a PhD, and Louks’s even rarer achievement of defending a thesis without drawing corrections. Soon after, Louks began receiving a flood of replies from total strangers who were alternately intrigued and incensed by the subject of her research, titled “Olfactory ethics: The politics of smell in modern and contemporary prose.” Louks traced the moment that her replies flipped from positive to negative to when she noticed her post had been re-shared by a several right-wing accounts. A new crop of overwhelmingly hostile responses emerged. Critics denigrated Louks’s intelligence, called her work “pretentious” and lobbed sexist digs about the worthlessness of a woman burnishing academic credentials rather than having babies. A common thread in the criticism, almost entirely from men, argued Louks’s research topic was too “woke,” and somehow made society worse off. While Louks took the unprovoked backlash via social media in stride, one man tracked down her personal email address (“it’s not freely available online,” she notes) to threaten her with gang rape. “I felt that was so severely inappropriate that it needed to be reported,” Louks said. The experience has been at times bewildering, even as Louks is keenly aware of the social media hive-mind and of the culture of misogyny that is especially intense for high-achieving women. She also understands that her thesis will be misinterpreted, especially since no one apart from her advisers and a few friends has read it in its entirety while it remans under embargo. The thesis itself looks at how the importance of smell is represented in modern literature, and more specifically how literary works invoke smell to communicate attitudes of desire and disgust, Louks said. An example is the notion of “funk,” which Louks said she briefly mentions in her paper, which invokes a smell with different varying interpretations. “It can mean both: a kind of negative smell, but also a sense of coolness,” Louks said, noting how “funk” conjures different ideas when, for instance, associated with Black communities. “I really don’t feel that my work is above criticism,” Louks said. “It’s just that the criticisms levied at me were not based in reality.” With her PhD secured, Louks said she is looking ahead to her graduation ceremony next year, as well as writing a book proposal and articles on her research more suitable for a nonacademic audience. She may pursue a postdoctorate program, but at the moment is still marveling at how the random lightning strike of social media fame ultimately exposed her work to a far bigger audience than she could have ever imagined. Alex Zawacki, a fellow academic who lectures on medieval history at the University of Göttingen in Germany, summed up Louks’s achievement with a post on X: “Congratulations both for finishing and for very possibly being the first person in recorded history whose dissertation will be read by someone who is not their mom or on their committee.” Related Contentbb777 。

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MUNICH (AP) — Harry Kane is the quickest player to score 50 goals in the Bundesliga after scoring a hat trick on his 43rd appearance on Friday. Kane’s three goals – including two penalties – gave Bayern a 3-0 win over Augsburg , stretching the Bavarian powerhouse’s lead to eight points ahead of the rest of the 11th round. Kane scored 36 goals in 32 league appearances last season, his first for Bayern after joining from Tottenham. It was also the first season since 2012 that Bayern failed to win the title, as Bayer Leverkusen went undefeated to snap Bayern's winning run. As well as 14 league goals this season, Kane has scored five in the Champions League and one in the German Cup. Against Augsburg, he had to be patient as Augsburg goalkeeper Nediljko Labrović and his defenders stood firm. “It was somehow typical Harry Kane,” Bayern coach Vincent Kompany said. “It was close in the first half, close, close, close, and then it happens, I think three goals in 15 minutes. Of course, he can do that. But for such a player, I have to say, he had a lot of chances that he could maybe make more of. Then, in an instant, everything is perfect and he can score many goals.” AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccerTweet Facebook Mail There's a bird nesting on a remote pacific island which has seen the Cuban revolution, 9/11, JFK's assassination and the arrival of TV in Australia in its lifetime. Wisdom the Laysan albatross is the oldest known wild bird in the world at the ripe old age of 74. The seabird lives on the isolated island of Midway Atoll in the Pacific Ocean and has laid another egg after finding a new mating partner. READ MORE: Disgusting discovery at Aussie beach sparks warning to dog owners Wisdom the Laysan albatross is the oldest known wild bird in the world. (X/@USFWSPacific) US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced Wisdom has returned to Midway Atoll to lay an egg a week after interacting with a new male bird. "Like other Laysan albatross, or mōlī in Hawaiian, Wisdom returns to the same nesting site each year to reunite with her mate and if able, lay one egg," USFWS said on X. "For decades she did this with the same partner, Akeakamai, but that bird has not been seen for several years." The deadliest animal in Australia over the past 20 years revealed View Gallery If the egg successfully hatches it would mark Wisdom's 30th chick. It's her first egg in four years and biologists weren't sure Wisdom was still able to reproduce. Jon Plissner, supervisory wildlife biologist at Midway Atoll NWR, described Wisdom's new egg as "a special joy". READ MORE: CEO killed in 'brazen, targeted attack' outside New York Hilton She found a new mating partner and laid a fresh egg. (X/@USFWSPacific) READ MORE: Two more Melbourne school children targeted in 'white van' kidnapping attempts "We are optimistic that the egg will hatch," he said. Wisdom first caught the attention of biologists back in 1956 when she laid an egg and was first tagged with the identifying number Z333. "The large seabirds aren't known to breed before age five," USFWS said. Laysan albatross can have lifespans of more than 50 years. DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP : Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play .South Korea president escapes impeachment over martial law fiasco

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