Megan E. O’Donnell
@meganeodonnell.bsky.social
Communications for the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale. English PhD. Drawn to speculative ecologies and Victorian fairies. Writing, crafting, and composing at the tempo of molasses.
No cheating, reskeet with the most recent photo of your pet
January 1, 2026 at 3:01 PM
No cheating, reskeet with the most recent photo of your pet
Reposted by Megan E. O’Donnell
When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.
Seems like it's worth posting this one again.
Why Do Historians Still Have To Go To Archives?
Why do historians go to archives? Hasn’t everything already been digitized?
contingentmagazine.org
December 22, 2025 at 1:40 AM
When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.
“The reorganization strips away the specialized, tailored advising that our students rely on. It burdens research scientists with reams of paperwork previously handled by experts. It will degrade the quality of our graduate programs, many of which are ranked at the top of their fields.”
USC Faculty have just published a letter in the Chronicle of Higher Ed about recent staff layoffs in our college of arts and sciences. Please read and share! Title: "Giving Thanks by Giving Notice." www.chronicle.com/blogs/letter...
Letter | Giving Thanks by Giving Notice: Decrying Core Staff Firings at USC
The current financial crisis is not of our making — but we are being handed the bill.
www.chronicle.com
December 10, 2025 at 1:45 PM
“The reorganization strips away the specialized, tailored advising that our students rely on. It burdens research scientists with reams of paperwork previously handled by experts. It will degrade the quality of our graduate programs, many of which are ranked at the top of their fields.”
Reposted by Megan E. O’Donnell
The bluegrass virtuoso brings back the spirit of Tiny Desk's early days: fewer microphones to capture "the way these instruments are meant to sound." n.pr/3KD1SiI
Billy Strings: Tiny Desk Concert
The bluegrass virtuoso brings back the spirit of Tiny Desk's early days: fewer microphones to capture "the way these instruments are meant to sound."
n.pr
December 10, 2025 at 11:38 AM
The bluegrass virtuoso brings back the spirit of Tiny Desk's early days: fewer microphones to capture "the way these instruments are meant to sound." n.pr/3KD1SiI
Reposted by Megan E. O’Donnell
I think about the consistently misunderstood case of the Luddites. They were extremely advanced machine users (go try to use a spinning Jenny!), but they recognized a technological regime that displaced expertise (and payment) from the artisan to the tool.
December 7, 2025 at 3:12 PM
I think about the consistently misunderstood case of the Luddites. They were extremely advanced machine users (go try to use a spinning Jenny!), but they recognized a technological regime that displaced expertise (and payment) from the artisan to the tool.
Reposted by Megan E. O’Donnell
In a stroke of good timing, my article excoriating the metaverse (and taking shots at spatial computing) was just accepted at Games & Culture. How do these companies make implausible and undesirable futures seem inevitable? abstract posted here!
December 5, 2025 at 4:42 PM
In a stroke of good timing, my article excoriating the metaverse (and taking shots at spatial computing) was just accepted at Games & Culture. How do these companies make implausible and undesirable futures seem inevitable? abstract posted here!
Happily plunged back into Area X, with its ever-shifting always-porous often-creepy species and spaces, and oops now I’m rereading the whole Southern Reach series.
In other words, if you haven’t already, go read Jeff VanderMeer’s Absolution!
In other words, if you haven’t already, go read Jeff VanderMeer’s Absolution!
December 2, 2025 at 11:21 PM
Happily plunged back into Area X, with its ever-shifting always-porous often-creepy species and spaces, and oops now I’m rereading the whole Southern Reach series.
In other words, if you haven’t already, go read Jeff VanderMeer’s Absolution!
In other words, if you haven’t already, go read Jeff VanderMeer’s Absolution!
Editing this zine was an immense privilege. I work with the most incredible graduate students—John Mollet, Emily Theus, and Dorothy Wu—whose creativity and breadth of knowledge never ceases to amaze me!!
We can’t wait to share this special ephemeral object with y’all 💗
We can’t wait to share this special ephemeral object with y’all 💗
To celebrate Angela Davis’s Tanner Lectures(April 15 & 16), our talented grad student communication fellows made a zine about her impact at Yale.
We’re giving away ~250 of these limited-edition zines at each lecture. Arrive early for a chance to get yours!
📍Battell Chapel 🕞 Doors open at 3:30 pm
We’re giving away ~250 of these limited-edition zines at each lecture. Arrive early for a chance to get yours!
📍Battell Chapel 🕞 Doors open at 3:30 pm
April 12, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Editing this zine was an immense privilege. I work with the most incredible graduate students—John Mollet, Emily Theus, and Dorothy Wu—whose creativity and breadth of knowledge never ceases to amaze me!!
We can’t wait to share this special ephemeral object with y’all 💗
We can’t wait to share this special ephemeral object with y’all 💗
Reposted by Megan E. O’Donnell
posters, stickers, know your rights flyers, lithographs, broadsides, zines, slogans, these little shards of art are our tools too
February 28, 2025 at 2:02 PM
posters, stickers, know your rights flyers, lithographs, broadsides, zines, slogans, these little shards of art are our tools too
Reposted by Megan E. O’Donnell
Don't forget to register for the Yale Gilder Lehman Center's conference next week on Universities + the Histories of Race, Science + Medicine. I'm speaking, along with @ayahnerd.bsky.social, @jowiph.bsky.social, Carolyn Roberts, David Blight + more!
macmillan.yale.edu/glc/2025-ann...
macmillan.yale.edu/glc/2025-ann...
February 23, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Don't forget to register for the Yale Gilder Lehman Center's conference next week on Universities + the Histories of Race, Science + Medicine. I'm speaking, along with @ayahnerd.bsky.social, @jowiph.bsky.social, Carolyn Roberts, David Blight + more!
macmillan.yale.edu/glc/2025-ann...
macmillan.yale.edu/glc/2025-ann...
Reposted by Megan E. O’Donnell
🎉 As the editor of @yalereview.bsky.social, I'm so proud of our team and our brilliant contributors:
This year, we received *two* nominations to the National Magazine Awards, for criticism & fiction. Congrats to @brandyjensen.bsky.social, @dsparis.bsky.social, Ayşegül Savaş, & Anna DeForest! 🎉
This year, we received *two* nominations to the National Magazine Awards, for criticism & fiction. Congrats to @brandyjensen.bsky.social, @dsparis.bsky.social, Ayşegül Savaş, & Anna DeForest! 🎉
February 19, 2025 at 9:17 PM
🎉 As the editor of @yalereview.bsky.social, I'm so proud of our team and our brilliant contributors:
This year, we received *two* nominations to the National Magazine Awards, for criticism & fiction. Congrats to @brandyjensen.bsky.social, @dsparis.bsky.social, Ayşegül Savaş, & Anna DeForest! 🎉
This year, we received *two* nominations to the National Magazine Awards, for criticism & fiction. Congrats to @brandyjensen.bsky.social, @dsparis.bsky.social, Ayşegül Savaş, & Anna DeForest! 🎉
Reposted by Megan E. O’Donnell
this letter in the LRB on Karl Polanyi is a useful quick explainer of the present moment—helpful framing for talking to relatives etc
@londonreview.bsky.social
@londonreview.bsky.social
February 16, 2025 at 1:51 PM
this letter in the LRB on Karl Polanyi is a useful quick explainer of the present moment—helpful framing for talking to relatives etc
@londonreview.bsky.social
@londonreview.bsky.social
Reposted by Megan E. O’Donnell
Today at Yale: Rachel Cusk will deliver the 2025 Finzi-Contini Lecture. Don’t miss your chance to hear this brand new, never-before-presented work!
A revised version of the talk will later grace the pages of @yalereview.bsky.social 🖋️📚
whc.yale.edu/light-woman-...
A revised version of the talk will later grace the pages of @yalereview.bsky.social 🖋️📚
whc.yale.edu/light-woman-...
Into the Light: A Woman Artist Uncovered
Using the life and work of the neglected Norwegian painter Anna Eva Bergman, the lecture examines the problem of justice in the context of female creativity and asks whether biographical and
whc.yale.edu
February 13, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Today at Yale: Rachel Cusk will deliver the 2025 Finzi-Contini Lecture. Don’t miss your chance to hear this brand new, never-before-presented work!
A revised version of the talk will later grace the pages of @yalereview.bsky.social 🖋️📚
whc.yale.edu/light-woman-...
A revised version of the talk will later grace the pages of @yalereview.bsky.social 🖋️📚
whc.yale.edu/light-woman-...
Reposted by Megan E. O’Donnell
Endowment tax + slashing overhead on federal grants is designed to cripple the university. This weakened university is going to be even more susceptible to the efficiency claims of genAI. All of these moves further concentrate wealth and power in the private sector. Don't capitulate in advance.
February 8, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Endowment tax + slashing overhead on federal grants is designed to cripple the university. This weakened university is going to be even more susceptible to the efficiency claims of genAI. All of these moves further concentrate wealth and power in the private sector. Don't capitulate in advance.
Reposted by Megan E. O’Donnell
SECOND: FREEZE THE SENATE.
Call on your Dem senators to engage in political hardball. Blanket opposition and using procedural tools like rejecting unanimous consent and quorum calls to gum up the works.
Call on your Dem senators to engage in political hardball. Blanket opposition and using procedural tools like rejecting unanimous consent and quorum calls to gum up the works.
How Senate Democrats Can Shut Down Trump's Agenda with Procedural Hardball
indivisible.org
February 3, 2025 at 1:30 AM
SECOND: FREEZE THE SENATE.
Call on your Dem senators to engage in political hardball. Blanket opposition and using procedural tools like rejecting unanimous consent and quorum calls to gum up the works.
Call on your Dem senators to engage in political hardball. Blanket opposition and using procedural tools like rejecting unanimous consent and quorum calls to gum up the works.
Libraries and public universities! 📚
Let’s all say what our favorite public goods are. Mine are schools and not dying of treatable illnesses.
January 29, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Libraries and public universities! 📚
Reposted by Megan E. O’Donnell
Looking forward to talking about Thinking With Moss (+ navigating experimental projects with academic work) with Yale's Whitney Humanities Center Grad Fellows in Environmental Humanities today over a happy hour! Moss + drinks - what's better?
Thanks to @meganeodonnell.bsky.social for the invite!
Thanks to @meganeodonnell.bsky.social for the invite!
January 27, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Looking forward to talking about Thinking With Moss (+ navigating experimental projects with academic work) with Yale's Whitney Humanities Center Grad Fellows in Environmental Humanities today over a happy hour! Moss + drinks - what's better?
Thanks to @meganeodonnell.bsky.social for the invite!
Thanks to @meganeodonnell.bsky.social for the invite!
Reposted by Megan E. O’Donnell
Stop letting unfunny men tell you there’s something wrong with you for not getting their “jokes”. Stop fake laughing. Let their reality reflect the truth of how fundamentally they misunderstand humor. Neuter their ability to use “it was a joke” for emotional cover. Make them see nobody laugh.
January 25, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Stop letting unfunny men tell you there’s something wrong with you for not getting their “jokes”. Stop fake laughing. Let their reality reflect the truth of how fundamentally they misunderstand humor. Neuter their ability to use “it was a joke” for emotional cover. Make them see nobody laugh.
Reposted by Megan E. O’Donnell
One thing about me is that I will fight Nazis until I’m six feet in the ground.
January 24, 2025 at 1:24 AM
One thing about me is that I will fight Nazis until I’m six feet in the ground.
“We protest the university’s exploitation of contingent instructors (its creation of the ‘reserve army of labor’ that Marx said was crucial to keeping workers in subjection), but we grossly increase graduate-student labor, *unpaid* labor, which they undertake in the faint hope of a job.”
If you teach in a humanities dept & care about our grad students, please read my piece: “THE HUMANITIES JOB MARKET IS BROKEN BUT THERE'S ONE THING WE CAN EASILY FIX"! Please help by sharing & spreading word! (If you hit paywall, DM or email me for a copy!) www.chronicle.com/article/were...
Opinion | We’re Demanding Way Too Many Documents From Job Candidates
The humanities job market is broken, but there’s one thing we can easily fix.
www.chronicle.com
January 19, 2025 at 4:51 PM
“We protest the university’s exploitation of contingent instructors (its creation of the ‘reserve army of labor’ that Marx said was crucial to keeping workers in subjection), but we grossly increase graduate-student labor, *unpaid* labor, which they undertake in the faint hope of a job.”
Exactly this. I’m sick and tired of critical questions without critical actions. Also, can universities stop boasting about mitigating climate change in one breath and shoveling more than $100 million toward AI engagement in the next?
I'm afraid I'm already sick of the critical questions about AI industry. Universities are fine with critical questions about AI as long as they are never allowed to affect the policy of shoveling all available resources toward private tech companies
"I would like universities to commit to matching every dollar they spend on AI with a dollar spent asking critical questions about AI."
January 11, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Exactly this. I’m sick and tired of critical questions without critical actions. Also, can universities stop boasting about mitigating climate change in one breath and shoveling more than $100 million toward AI engagement in the next?
Reposted by Megan E. O’Donnell
there are pockets of the profession that simply refuse to understand that coming up through PhD programs amid intense precarity radicalized large numbers of historians— many of whom, having “made it” are now approaching mid-career. for many younger historians there never was a “good old days”
January 6, 2025 at 1:42 AM
there are pockets of the profession that simply refuse to understand that coming up through PhD programs amid intense precarity radicalized large numbers of historians— many of whom, having “made it” are now approaching mid-career. for many younger historians there never was a “good old days”
Missed my Khaleesi girl so much when we were away. Just look at those paws on the wall, at that perfect face!!!
January 4, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Missed my Khaleesi girl so much when we were away. Just look at those paws on the wall, at that perfect face!!!
This wonderful, magical city filled me with so much love over the past few days, I thought my heart would burst. But then it broke instead. Grateful that we weren’t on Bourbon Street last night, but my soul is shattered and aching for the victims and their families.
January 2, 2025 at 2:54 AM
This wonderful, magical city filled me with so much love over the past few days, I thought my heart would burst. But then it broke instead. Grateful that we weren’t on Bourbon Street last night, but my soul is shattered and aching for the victims and their families.