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
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
malentendre.bsky.social
The team from @centennialcollege.bsky.social really nailed the York Crucifixion yesterday. High emotions #medievalsky
@uoft.bsky.social
Four layabout soldiers stand on the left. Far down the road on the right, Jesus kneels beneath his cross. The air is hazy with wildfire smoke
June 8, 2025 at 3:15 PM
malentendre.bsky.social
So ready to teach my fave Canterbury Tale today, with mountains of medieval chick pics
Cover slide for a lecture titled "Chick Lit: Parody in The Nun's Priest's Tale," with a fifteenth-century image of a hen and rooster eating grain
March 31, 2025 at 12:36 PM
malentendre.bsky.social
Abstract (which may not be posted anywhere else):
The thirteenth-century Roman de Silence depicts climate and gender as materially entangled, linking the titular character’s (trans)masculinity to wind and heat. I argue that this poem envisions nonhuman nature as enabling resistance to gender binaries while bolstering racial and class hierarchies. I trace the effects of climate on the protagonist Silence’s skin tone, showing how epidermal whiteness underlies their fluid gender and indelible aristocratic identity. I then consider how Silence’s interactions with Merlin represent gender and species as unstable and intertwined. Finally, I interpret Merlin’s description of a grafted plant as an emblem of interspecies collaboration and trans thriving.
December 14, 2024 at 6:48 PM
malentendre.bsky.social
And if you want to read about a bleeding, sexy, pious hawk-man, there's my article, "Birds, Blood, and Nonbinary Bodies in Marie de France’s 'Yonec'": www.english.upenn.edu/sites/defaul...
Woman and hawk; detail from Bodleian Library, MS. Bodley 764, folio 76v
October 11, 2024 at 4:11 PM
malentendre.bsky.social
Basil A. Price, "Of Giantesses, Greenland, and Trans Ecology in 'Jökuls þáttr Búasonar'": t.co/2mCHTNfBCB @basilaprice.bsky.social
October 11, 2024 at 4:01 PM
malentendre.bsky.social
Not sure whether @ellislight.bsky.social has posted their article, but I'm sure they'd help if you DM'd them. There's a whale in it! "Trans Activisms and Interspecies Entanglement in the Middle English 'Patience'"
Jonah getting dunked in the ocean by his fellow sailors, from the medieval manuscript of "Patience" (Cotton Nero A.x)
October 11, 2024 at 4:00 PM
malentendre.bsky.social
Tess Wingard,‬ ‪"Cautious Lion, Canny Woman: Queer Animality in 'La response du bestiaire'": tesswingard.wordpress.com/wp-content/u... @tswingard.bsky.social‬
October 11, 2024 at 3:57 PM
malentendre.bsky.social
Sarah LaVoy-Brunette and Jordan Chauncy, "Settler Fantasies and Queer Disruptions: A Nonbinary Reading of Gerald’s Wolves": static1.squarespace.com/static/66a7e...
Priest administering the host to a wolf; from manuscript of Gerald of Wales's Topography of Ireland
October 11, 2024 at 3:56 PM
malentendre.bsky.social
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)
October 11, 2024 at 3:55 PM
malentendre.bsky.social
A sneak peak at the table of contents! Minor changes are still possible, but we're coming closer to seeing this in the world. @tswingard.bsky.social @ellislight.bsky.social @basilaprice.bsky.social
Title page for a forthcoming issue of Medieval Ecocriticisms with: 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)
June 21, 2024 at 2:26 PM
malentendre.bsky.social
If you'll be at Kzoo on Thurs, please consider coming to our panel on "Premodern Digital Ecologies." Of special interest for digital medievalists, archaeologists, and – coincidentally – scholars of Ireland. tinyurl.com/yvp4nwuh

#icms2024 #MedievalSky @digitalmedievalist.bsky.social
Screenshot of the details for Panel 58, "Premodern Digital Ecologies," on Thursday May 9 at 1:30 PM. https://icms.confex.com/icms/2024/meetingapp.cgi/Session/5128
May 2, 2024 at 8:25 PM
malentendre.bsky.social
Starting work on proofs for a longstanding passion project, due out this summer 🎉 #MedievalSky
Title page of a "Medieval Trans Natures" issue of Medieval Ecocriticisms
April 29, 2024 at 6:38 PM
malentendre.bsky.social
Giving my students some medieval labor for homework this week. In February, we: keep warm and persist
Several medieval images of contented-looking people holding limbs dangerously close to lit fireplaces
February 7, 2024 at 3:23 AM
malentendre.bsky.social
One day left to submit to our New Chaucer Society panel, "Ecological Change and Social Consequence in the Late-Medieval World"!

Text and details here: call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2023/08/...
Screenshot of abstract. See the link in the post for full text.
September 21, 2023 at 9:33 PM
malentendre.bsky.social
The last picture I took of Philly is exactly how I want to remember the city. Excited to visit this week
A round, hand-painted wooden sign imitating an oreo and advertising "FRIED OREO" in front of a butcher shopfront with an array of neon lights
August 24, 2023 at 12:26 AM
malentendre.bsky.social
People sure have interesting gardens in Toronto
A semicircle of five white toilets, backs to the center, on a patch of weeds
August 22, 2023 at 1:52 PM
malentendre.bsky.social
I'll start by cross-posting my Kalamazoo CFP for the medievalists on here: "Premodern Digital Ecologies," w/a linked special issue of Digital Philology.

Full text: https://tinyurl.com/4yvhadrb

Submit by Sep 15: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2024/cfp.cgi
Image of CFP text. See https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2023/08/04/premodern-digital-ecologies-59th-international-congress-on-medieval-studies-may-9-11.
August 15, 2023 at 2:34 PM