Margaret Maurer and I noticed a ream wrapper – a sheet used to package stacks of paper – in a book at UPenn libraries. This raised one of my favorite questions: what can we learn from studying old trash (or old recycling)? uniqueatpenn.wordpress.com/2026/05/13/r...

"As the editors of an important collection on gender-variant saints have argued, medieval records challenge the idea that such identities are a 'modern' phenomenon and 'offer historically grounded refutation of theological transphobia.'" - @malentendre.bsky.social niche-canada.org/2025/04/30/t...

So proud of my smart friend @yrliu.bsky.social for this deservedly glowing review! beforewegoblog.com/spfboxi-revi...

A cat is all the art you need

We are excited to announce the Call for Papers for our new collaborative series with Written in the Waves, Soil and Sea: Environmental Histories of the Atlantic World Proposal deadline: June 30, 2026 Series publication beginning September 2026 niche-canada.org/2026/04/30/c... #envhist

Heyo! - @tinaadcock.bsky.social, Sarah, and I decided to extend the deadline for Succession IV: Queering the Environment – “Queer Joy” to APRIL 13th!! It's hard to focus on joy right now. That's why we chose the theme. niche-canada.org/2026/02/28/c... #envhist #envhum #queerecology

Today in AI: Canada rejected the PR application of a McMaster postdoc from the Sorbonne who works in the immunology of aging because the generative AI being used to process applications (😱) entirely hallucinated her credentials. Everyone involved should be fired. archive.is/ELrCI#select...

In these troubled times, my mental fortitude depends so much on one angry little nugget

So, um... this is bad. Really bad. I looked at the letters that were translated by the AI, and the very first one I found was almost entirely hallucination. Thread:

Years ago our admin did a red and black report. It took salaries & how much $ each instructor made in tuition $ for classes we taught-you were in the red or black. They released numbers once & shut it down bc humanities were producing huge $ for uni & engineers, business and scientists were losing $

extremely relatable

"Alberta’s right-wing Social Credit government fed anti-communist sentiment; the rat, like communism, had the potential to dismantle the province’s economic structure and way of life." - @fvreilly.bsky.social niche-canada.org/2016/09/01/r... #envhist #alberta #cdnhist #animalhistory #coldwar

EXCITING UPDATE: The "Trans Natures" collection is now fully open access! Read it here: scholarworks.wmich.edu/med_ecocriti... #MedievalSky #EnvHum

The Trans Natures special issue (ed by @malentendre.bsky.social and Nat Rivkin) of Medieval Ecocriticisms that I contributed to is available open access ! Enjoy ! scholarworks.wmich.edu/med_ecocriti...

Texas A&M decided to publicly cancel my Ethics class, and share a false statement that I declined to provide information, which made it impossible for [them ] to request an exemption. See for yourself, if this statement is true. They are getting creative!

Applications are open for MA and PhD positions in my department. Quite honestly, I think it’s a great place to do grad school in English. Tell your friends! MA: www.uoguelph.ca/arts/sotec/g... PhD: www.uoguelph.ca/arts/sotec/g... #AcademicSky

Modern researchers know about the cuckoo’s cross-species brood parasitism – but one Roman emperor observed this more than 700 years ago.

Drawing from many items in the U of G archives, Michael Dawson explores Jell-O in Canadian and American history. Curious to learn more? Explore our Archival and Special Collections: www.lib.uoguelph.ca/archives/our.... #UofG

It's weird how nobody describes this as "the craze seducing our daughters" www.nytimes.com/2025/10/22/m...

Taking some jazz lessons is a great way to find out how bad you've been at guitar for 20 years

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o... @laurelfynes.bsky.social

Looks like Canada's approach to "sovereign AI" will involve creating structural dependencies on large US tech companies

I was back at 26 Federal Plaza today, where an ICE agent violently threw this bereft woman to the ground in front of her kids. She had not touched him. She did not pose any threat. She had to be taken to the hospital. (🎥: Elias Eliahu)

3) "Smoke and Mirrors: Medieval Drama Through the Smog" by @malentendre.bsky.social - niche-canada.org/2025/07/05/s... #envhum #medieval #theatre #wildfires #smoke

Our most read articles published in July! Links in the thread below. #envhist #cdnhist

With the organizers' permission, here's a great #icms2026 CFP on "Naturing Bodies, Embodying Nature." I'm not going this year but would def attend this session! Apply: wmich.edu/medievalcong... Contact: Hunter Phillips (hap48[at]cornell.edu), Asher Courtemanche (ac2457[at]cornell.edu) #MedievalSky

The professor has been fired and senior administrators removed from their post. No mention of this in the New York Times, The Free Press, The Atlantic or other outlets who drove the campus speech moral panic.

You have about a week to submit to Dan Reeve and I’s IMC panels on queer and trans temporalities ! #imc2026 #medievalsky @imc-leeds.bsky.social

Going deeper into the non-Euclidean rabbit hole: Googling "I would be lost without restaurant" yields a stunning array of slop sites

Waitlist is up to 50

"The entire (AI) business model: Get people addicted to the thing to the extent they can no longer function without it, and they will simply have to learn to live with it doing a bad job." defector.com/it-took-many...

Canadian writers, there are now a couple of AI class actions for Canadian authors. Please check out both links below. If you have found your books in the Books3 or LibGen DBs, you are likely to be included in the class(es). www.cfmlawyers.ca/class-action... www.cfmlawyers.ca/class-action...

UChicago just axed the Middle Eastern Studies program where I did my MA (along with every other grad program that requires language study). Luckily there isn't anything major happening in the Middle East at the moment, so that should be fine.

Opening at Penn for a Special Collections Accessions Librarian, responsible for acquiring and accessioning all special collections materials for the Kislak Center. The salary range for this position is $66,000 - $89,039. Come work with meeeee! wd1.myworkdaysite.com/recruiting/u...

Was told today that my scholarly brand is "weird little guys" and you know I will wear this label with pride

421,000 bullets shipped from canada since october; 10 million since 2023; 175,000 in april of this year alone Montréal as the key shipping hub armsembargonow.ca/report/

Coming soon to a nation near you: Mad Max "In San Antonio, Microsoft and U.S. Army Corps facilities used a combined 463M gallons of water in 2023 and 2024, according to local water utility SAWS. That’s the equivalent of usage for tens of thousands of households." techiegamers.com/texas-data-c...

This is, no exaggeration, Trump stealing a billion dollars from the United States. There are other planes for POTUS to use. This one will not be functional during his term for long, if at all. But this one he will keep afterwards via his "presidential library."

As @gregpak.net has noted, unless there was a specific clause in all the contracts that allows for this, they can't go back and retroactively amend contracts without the author's consent. This is a class action suit waiting to happen.

Lotta bad stuff has happened in the past few years, but we can all agree that science's trend of "let's shine a UV light at every animal and see what happens" is an unadulterated good.

"Saskatchewan & Manitoba declared states of emergency, while smoke drifted over Toronto & Montreal on its way to Europe. By the afternoon of June 6, Toronto’s air quality had plummeted almost to the bottom of world rankings..." - @malentendre.bsky.social niche-canada.org/2025/07/05/s... #smoke

writing "MORE ARISTOTLE" on every chapter draft because I am a 13th century Dominican

Attention @asle-us.bsky.social‬ members! We are launching an SIG on Ecogothic and Ecohorror. If you're drawn to haunted environments and creepy creatures, join us at #ASLE2025 (Wed. July 9, 5-6 pm)! OR Email Jen Schell ([email protected]) or Eric Anderson ([email protected]) to express interest.

ICYMI: "And the smog overlaying this scene of abundance underscored that there is no longer any 'nature' unaffected by human actions, no place on this planet that pollution cannot touch." - @malentendre.bsky.social niche-canada.org/2025/07/05/s... #medievial #envhum #anthropocene #envhist

I spoke with people in Gaza who've been accused of being scammers or even AI.

Came downstairs to my partner reading the bird field guide…I mentioned ruddy ducks and they said "I haven't gotten to ducks yet" as if they wanted to avoid spoilers

Today @malentendre.bsky.social recounts their recent experience at an all-day outdoor production of fifty medieval plays at the University of Toronto in "Smoke and Mirrors: Medieval Drama Through the Smog." niche-canada.org/2025/07/05/s... #envhum #medieval #theatre #smoke