Aylin Malcolm
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malentendre.bsky.social
Aylin Malcolm
@malentendre.bsky.social
1.2K followers 810 following 140 posts
Literature prof (U of Guelph) | writing about medieval animals | they/them | science before 1700, book history, sci fi, whale facts 🐋
🌐 aylinmalcolm.com 📍Toronto
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malentendre.bsky.social
Aylin Malcolm @malentendre.bsky.social · Oct 11
I am so excited to present our special issue on "Trans Natures" in medieval literature: scholarworks.wmich.edu/med_ecocriti...

The intro is free to read. Thanks to the journal’s flexible policies, some authors have also posted their articles on their personal sites…. #MedievalSky #EnvHum #EcoCrit
Cover of Medieval Ecocriticisms volume 4. Includes a medieval illustration of a half-bird siren looking in a mirror and a centaur looking over their shoulder (from Getty MS Ludwig XV 3, folio 78). Table of contents: Intro by Nat Rivkin and Aylin Malcolm; “Settler Fantasies and Queer Disruptions: A Nonbinary Reading of Gerald’s Wolves” (SARAH LAVOY-BRUNETTE AND JORDAN CHAUNCY); “Birds, Blood, and Nonbinary Bodies in Marie de France’s Yonec” (AYLIN MALCOLM); “Cautious Lion, Canny Woman: Queer Animality in La Response du bestiaire” (TESS WINGARD); “Trans Activisms and Interspecies Entanglement in the Middle English Patience” (ELLIS LIGHT); “Of Giantesses, Greenland, and Trans Ecology in Jökuls þáttr Búasonar” (BASIL A. PRICE); “Trans Antagonisms and Affirmations in Henry Medwall’s Nature” (MICAH JAMES GOODRICH)
Reposted by Aylin Malcolm
aunz.theconversation.com
Modern researchers know about the cuckoo’s cross-species brood parasitism – but one Roman emperor observed this more than 700 years ago.
Bird sex fascinated medieval thinkers as much as people today
theconversation.com
November 26, 2025 at 5:26 AM
Reposted by Aylin Malcolm
mazarine.bsky.social
JOB POSTING!

Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Rare Books and Prints at the @folger.edu

amherst.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/FSL_Em...
Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Rare Books and Prints
The Folger Shakespeare Library knows that an exceptional staff is the backbone of any great organization. We hire exceptionally qualified individuals who are committed to the mission, vision, and valu...
amherst.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com
November 19, 2025 at 1:34 AM
Reposted by Aylin Malcolm
benedictgarman.com
AI misrepresents news 45% of the time. Hasn't stopped every major search provider enthusiastically adopting it www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...
Largest study of its kind shows AI assistants misrepresent news content 45% of the time – regardless of language or territory
An intensive international study was coordinated by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and led by the BBC
www.bbc.co.uk
October 22, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by Aylin Malcolm
uofglibrary.bsky.social
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
October 22, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Reposted by Aylin Malcolm
kissphoria.bsky.social
It's weird how nobody describes this as "the craze seducing our daughters" www.nytimes.com/2025/10/22/m...
‘I’m on Fire’: Testosterone Is Giving Women Back Their Sex Drive — and Then Some
www.nytimes.com
October 22, 2025 at 6:36 PM
malentendre.bsky.social
Taking some jazz lessons is a great way to find out how bad you've been at guitar for 20 years
October 22, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Reposted by Aylin Malcolm
nobleknits2.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

@laurelfynes.bsky.social
Creatures buried in soil for over a century burst back to life in Toronto waterfront
A project to restore coastal wetland leads to astonishing discoveries of a host of life: seeds and plant scraps, as well as water fleas, worms, larvae and plankton
www.theguardian.com
October 9, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Reposted by Aylin Malcolm
blairaf.com
Looks like Canada's approach to "sovereign AI" will involve creating structural dependencies on large US tech companies
Excerpt from an article that reads: Lehane met with AI Minister Evan Solomon on Monday. Solomon told The Logic in June that his mission is to “create sovereign AI.” But “sovereignty is not solitude,” Solomon said, noting that Canada still needs technology and capital from other countries. OpenAI is participating in similar initiatives in other advanced economies. In May, the firm launched OpenAI for Countries, a new program that localizes ChatGPT and its underlying models for a nation’s particular customs and the requirements of its public sector. It is also offering to build data centres for countries that help pay for the infrastructure. Countries are turning to OpenAI because of its “cutting-edge technology,” which can be used to build homegrown tools and applications, and because the firm can help stimulate their domestic AI ecosystems by building or buying compute capacity, Lehane said.
October 9, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Reposted by Aylin Malcolm
bradlander.bsky.social
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)
September 25, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Reposted by Aylin Malcolm
nichecanada.bsky.social
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
Smoke and Mirrors: Medieval Drama Through the Smog
On June 7, 2025, Toronto hosted outdoor medieval plays amid wildfire smoke, blending ecological crisis with theatrical reflection.
niche-canada.org
September 13, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Reposted by Aylin Malcolm
nichecanada.bsky.social
Our most read articles published in July!

Links in the thread below.

#envhist #cdnhist
September 13, 2025 at 7:45 PM
malentendre.bsky.social
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
Poster text is as follows: Call for Papers: ICMS 2026, May 14–16, Western Michigan University. Naturing Bodies, Embodying Nature. This session seeks to explore the intersections of embodiment and environment in the Middle Ages, considering how bodies—organic and inorganic, human and non-human, material and immaterial—constitute, shape, and envelop one another. By “naturing” bodies, we seek to erode neat divisions between humans and the natural world to uncover the earthy entanglements linking humans to the environments they shape and are shaped by. Attuning to John Scotus Eriugena’s claim that nature is the name “for all things, for those that are, and those that are not,” we invite papers that reflect on the fundamentally relational ontology of humans, non-humans, and environments. Abstracts up to 300 words can be submitted to the ICMS proposal portal before September 15.
September 11, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Reposted by Aylin Malcolm
donmoyn.bsky.social
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.
houstonchronicle.com Houston Chronicle @houstonchronicle.com · Sep 10
Texas A&M University System orders audit of all courses after gender identity lesson goes viral

Details: bit.ly/42jauQZ
September 10, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Reposted by Aylin Malcolm
basilaprice.bsky.social
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
basilaprice.bsky.social Dr Basil Arnould Price @basilaprice.bsky.social · Jul 29
Ready for @imc-leeds.bsky.social 2026? Submit an abstract to Dan Reeve and I's CFP: "BEYOND TOUCH: New Queer and Trans Temporalities" We invite submissions for 15-20 minute papers that examine queer and trans temporalities from new and unexpected angles. #IMC2026. Full CFP below 👇
August 22, 2025 at 6:06 PM
malentendre.bsky.social
Going deeper into the non-Euclidean rabbit hole: Googling "I would be lost without restaurant" yields a stunning array of slop sites
tuck.bsky.social tuck woodstock @tuck.bsky.social · Aug 22
my roommate was trying to find the menu for a nearby bagel shop and instead found some of the most iconic slop I've ever seen. thanks food! :)
a green square that says "fast food meals. new phenomenon burger taste. $19.90. order via seamless" and in the corner is a non-euclidean cluster of chicken finger. a very normal 5-star review that says "I would be lost without restaurant. I would like to personally thank you for your outstanding product." - Nina Margaret, CEO apple. another normal review that says "without food, we would have gone bankrupt by now. thanks food! the service was excellent." John Doe, manager. an AI image of a pastrami sandwich. not to overuse the word non-euclidean but what else can I say to describe these layers of meat? this one also has some kind of yellow sauce leaking out of the bottom, and another yellow sauce being sensuously drizzled on top. in the lower right corner are baffling tubes that sort of look like if roasted carrots fucked a soft pretzel.
August 28, 2025 at 12:27 AM
malentendre.bsky.social
Waitlist is up to 50
malentendre.bsky.social Aylin Malcolm @malentendre.bsky.social · Jul 1
My undergrad book history course has 75 students registered and 37 on the waitlist. The students yearn for the books
August 25, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Reposted by Aylin Malcolm
iansociologo.bsky.social
"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...
It Took Many Years And Billions Of Dollars, But Microsoft Finally Invented A Calculator That Is Wrong Sometimes | Defector
It’s not AI winter just yet, though there is a distinct chill in the air. Meta is shaking up and downsizing its artificial intelligence division. A new report out of MIT finds that 95 percent of compa...
defector.com
August 21, 2025 at 12:30 AM
Reposted by Aylin Malcolm
katrinaarcher.bsky.social
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...
Meta AI Copyright - CFM Lawyers
www.cfmlawyers.ca
August 12, 2025 at 12:40 AM
Reposted by Aylin Malcolm
nposegay.bsky.social
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.
theonash.bsky.social Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · Aug 13
This isn’t an impoverished regional school – this is the University of Chicago. Devastating.
August 15, 2025 at 12:27 AM
Reposted by Aylin Malcolm
leoba.bsky.social
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...
Special Collections Accessions Librarian
University Overview The University of Pennsylvania, the largest private employer in Philadelphia, is a world-renowned leader in education, research, and innovation. This historic, Ivy League school co...
wd1.myworkdaysite.com
August 13, 2025 at 8:04 PM
malentendre.bsky.social
Was told today that my scholarly brand is "weird little guys" and you know I will wear this label with pride
August 11, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Reposted by Aylin Malcolm
devyngwynne.bsky.social
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/
Arms Embargo Now!
Canada’s secret arms trade with Israel, exposed: This hard-hitting report exposes the damning data—hundreds of shipments, hundreds of thousands of bullets—and the Canadian government’s web of lies tha...
armsembargonow.ca
July 30, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Reposted by Aylin Malcolm
joshsternberg.com
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...
AI Data Centers in Texas Used 463 Million Gallons of Water, Residents Told to Take Shorter Showers - Techie + Gamers
Texas has long been defined by oil, heat, and huge infrastructure projects. Now, it’s also at the center of a growing environmental debate. Microsoft’s Stargate campus in Abilene is leading a data cen...
techiegamers.com
July 29, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Reposted by Aylin Malcolm
maxkennerly.bsky.social
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."
anne-s-kim.bsky.social Anne S Kim @anne-s-kim.bsky.social · Jul 27
NYT reports that a mysterious, *$984 million* transfer from a Pentagon"black box" account might be paying for the renovation of Trump's "free" Qatari jet.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/u...
What Will It Cost to Renovate the ‘Free’ Air Force One? Don’t Ask.
www.nytimes.com
July 27, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by Aylin Malcolm
scalzi.com
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.
July 26, 2025 at 3:15 PM