dr. meg smith
@megsmith.bsky.social
• Interim Director & Research Asst Prof of Digital Humanities at @siueiris.bsky.social
• Medieval/early modern Irish historian
• Public transit enthusiast & urban cyclist
• Die-hard Packers fan
• Avid quilter/xstitcher
• Margaret, not Megan
• She/her
• STL
• Medieval/early modern Irish historian
• Public transit enthusiast & urban cyclist
• Die-hard Packers fan
• Avid quilter/xstitcher
• Margaret, not Megan
• She/her
• STL
My new favorite fact about the archaeological chronology of the American Bottom. What other names should we give to archaeological periods? Our current moment gives strong Chad energy.
November 5, 2025 at 2:18 PM
My new favorite fact about the archaeological chronology of the American Bottom. What other names should we give to archaeological periods? Our current moment gives strong Chad energy.
CFP alert! If you're working on digitization, replicas and reproductions, living history practices, or other forms of surrogate sources, we'd love to see a proposal for organized sessions at the 2026 Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies. #DigitalHumanities #LivingHistory #CFP #MedievalSky
November 4, 2025 at 4:31 PM
CFP alert! If you're working on digitization, replicas and reproductions, living history practices, or other forms of surrogate sources, we'd love to see a proposal for organized sessions at the 2026 Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies. #DigitalHumanities #LivingHistory #CFP #MedievalSky
Happy Halloween from the definitely-not-haunted lamp that appeared at my metro station this morning!
October 31, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Happy Halloween from the definitely-not-haunted lamp that appeared at my metro station this morning!
People think coding is a sedentary job, but when you’re trying to debug a user location feature, it can involve a lot of steps.
October 13, 2025 at 5:21 PM
People think coding is a sedentary job, but when you’re trying to debug a user location feature, it can involve a lot of steps.
When the people demand donuts for Friday morning meetings, who am I to deny them? This morning’s border-crossing baked goods are brought to you by Donut Drive-in, Metrolink, and Madison County Transit.
October 10, 2025 at 1:08 PM
When the people demand donuts for Friday morning meetings, who am I to deny them? This morning’s border-crossing baked goods are brought to you by Donut Drive-in, Metrolink, and Madison County Transit.
“Dusty archives” aside, this is what really got my goat. 1) DH is a sprawling field that comprehends a huge number of qualitative approaches, and 2) a facial recognition algorithm is absolutely a quantitative method. Don’t conflate how you would handle a task with what happens in the machine.
October 2, 2025 at 1:19 PM
“Dusty archives” aside, this is what really got my goat. 1) DH is a sprawling field that comprehends a huge number of qualitative approaches, and 2) a facial recognition algorithm is absolutely a quantitative method. Don’t conflate how you would handle a task with what happens in the machine.
lol what a day for Josh Hawley to finally write me back about FY26 appropriations with a bullshit “don’t blame me 🤷♂️” email. I can’t even remember when I sent it.
October 1, 2025 at 7:37 PM
lol what a day for Josh Hawley to finally write me back about FY26 appropriations with a bullshit “don’t blame me 🤷♂️” email. I can’t even remember when I sent it.
Well, uh, psa: the trail at Saint Stanislaus is blocked, and if you try to go around the blockage, you might just slide down into Cowmire Creek and spend 15 minutes trying to claw your way back out of the 3ft deep muck. But at least my shorts will dry out as I bike back to the bus!
September 28, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Well, uh, psa: the trail at Saint Stanislaus is blocked, and if you try to go around the blockage, you might just slide down into Cowmire Creek and spend 15 minutes trying to claw your way back out of the 3ft deep muck. But at least my shorts will dry out as I bike back to the bus!
Ok, I did do a little poking around. One relevant and damning take is this one, condemning priests who through light penance "do not cure the wounds of sinners but rather bathe and stroke them," "making pillows to catch souls." Feels like an apt metaphor for the sycophantic soothing we see here.
September 26, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Ok, I did do a little poking around. One relevant and damning take is this one, condemning priests who through light penance "do not cure the wounds of sinners but rather bathe and stroke them," "making pillows to catch souls." Feels like an apt metaphor for the sycophantic soothing we see here.
Had she actually sought out readily available answers from wildlife rehabbers, she’d have found that newborn rabbits can’t be safely moved, and doing so is in fact illegal in some jurisdictions. Convenience culture kills, and not just bunnies.
September 26, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Had she actually sought out readily available answers from wildlife rehabbers, she’d have found that newborn rabbits can’t be safely moved, and doing so is in fact illegal in some jurisdictions. Convenience culture kills, and not just bunnies.
By adding experimental and experiential methods to archival, art historical, and archaeological research, living history practitioners produce artifacts and practices that, like digital surrogates, are generative through (not despite) their limitations.
September 26, 2025 at 1:33 PM
By adding experimental and experiential methods to archival, art historical, and archaeological research, living history practitioners produce artifacts and practices that, like digital surrogates, are generative through (not despite) their limitations.
Yesterday, medieval historian Dr. Thomas Morin visited Digital Curation& Storytelling to talk about living history practices as a material surrogates with their own affordances: silences, ambiguities, and contradictions provide opportunities for scholarly choices and generate new research questions.
September 26, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Yesterday, medieval historian Dr. Thomas Morin visited Digital Curation& Storytelling to talk about living history practices as a material surrogates with their own affordances: silences, ambiguities, and contradictions provide opportunities for scholarly choices and generate new research questions.
What’s medieval armor doing in a #DigitalHumanities class? Opening up questions about the role of surrogate sources! We often talk about the affordances of digital surrogates: gains like access and linked data, as well as limits like the inability to convey material, multisensory knowledge.
September 26, 2025 at 1:33 PM
What’s medieval armor doing in a #DigitalHumanities class? Opening up questions about the role of surrogate sources! We often talk about the affordances of digital surrogates: gains like access and linked data, as well as limits like the inability to convey material, multisensory knowledge.
What’s the term for corporations using grants and charitable giving to launder their reputations? (Maybe greenwashing works here too 💵)
September 10, 2025 at 1:28 PM
What’s the term for corporations using grants and charitable giving to launder their reputations? (Maybe greenwashing works here too 💵)
Finished my first century ride! 100 miles (and a little more) on a circuit of Door County, Wisconsin’s thumb. My dad and I did a good 25 miles together before he peeled off for the 70 mile route. It was windy and unseasonably cold, but we got it done!
September 7, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Finished my first century ride! 100 miles (and a little more) on a circuit of Door County, Wisconsin’s thumb. My dad and I did a good 25 miles together before he peeled off for the 70 mile route. It was windy and unseasonably cold, but we got it done!
My sister and her family are getting cats, and I am a good cat aunt but maybe a bad sister.
September 6, 2025 at 11:33 PM
My sister and her family are getting cats, and I am a good cat aunt but maybe a bad sister.
After some required reading this week that I did not enjoy, it’s so pleasant to turn to @jeffmanuel.bsky.social’s faculty book club pick! @biblioracle.bsky.social’s critiques of both AI and reductive writing pedagogies are thoughtful, generative, and (blessedly) engaging. #DigitalHumanities
August 27, 2025 at 1:02 PM
After some required reading this week that I did not enjoy, it’s so pleasant to turn to @jeffmanuel.bsky.social’s faculty book club pick! @biblioracle.bsky.social’s critiques of both AI and reductive writing pedagogies are thoughtful, generative, and (blessedly) engaging. #DigitalHumanities
Hitting all the transit modes this morning, across a pretty good swath of the Metro East! It’s a sleepy, early morning bus-train-bus-bike from STL to Edwardsville, where I’ll pick up a university vehicle to drive students to a partner visit in Cahokia Heights. There, we’ll talk about libraries! #stl
August 27, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Hitting all the transit modes this morning, across a pretty good swath of the Metro East! It’s a sleepy, early morning bus-train-bus-bike from STL to Edwardsville, where I’ll pick up a university vehicle to drive students to a partner visit in Cahokia Heights. There, we’ll talk about libraries! #stl
One of many advantages to making your own clothes: cavernous pockets ensuring you’ll never be without a whiteboard marker again! #DHMakes
August 26, 2025 at 3:57 PM
One of many advantages to making your own clothes: cavernous pockets ensuring you’ll never be without a whiteboard marker again! #DHMakes
More handmade palazzos, freshly hemmed this morning for the CODES Welcome Reception! (Photo taken after a very long day, hence the name tag still dangling around my neck) These were made from some secondhand chambray purchased from City Sewing Room, a local #StLouis reuse studio. #DHMakes #sewing
August 13, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Today, #DigitalHumanities looks like arts & crafts, as I trim down student research posters for our CODES welcome reception on Wednesday!
Later, it’ll also look like writing DH training materials for faculty, setting up more eportfolio pilots, and evaluating tool sustainability for a new project.
Later, it’ll also look like writing DH training materials for faculty, setting up more eportfolio pilots, and evaluating tool sustainability for a new project.
August 11, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Today, #DigitalHumanities looks like arts & crafts, as I trim down student research posters for our CODES welcome reception on Wednesday!
Later, it’ll also look like writing DH training materials for faculty, setting up more eportfolio pilots, and evaluating tool sustainability for a new project.
Later, it’ll also look like writing DH training materials for faculty, setting up more eportfolio pilots, and evaluating tool sustainability for a new project.
9. This one’s part of my broader project of developing students’ tech ethics. We use readily available tools to analyze access to resources in the local area. My goal is to equip students to 1) recognize injustice in their communities, 2) analyze its sources, and 3) advocate for effective change.
August 6, 2025 at 2:35 PM
9. This one’s part of my broader project of developing students’ tech ethics. We use readily available tools to analyze access to resources in the local area. My goal is to equip students to 1) recognize injustice in their communities, 2) analyze its sources, and 3) advocate for effective change.
7. Here’s another one that empowers students to be more critical consumers of news. They work in groups to investigate and analyze the data sources of supposedly data-driven reporting. This is especially important in the STL region, which is victim to all kinds of problematic stats regarding crime.
August 6, 2025 at 2:10 PM
7. Here’s another one that empowers students to be more critical consumers of news. They work in groups to investigate and analyze the data sources of supposedly data-driven reporting. This is especially important in the STL region, which is victim to all kinds of problematic stats regarding crime.
1. I do not use AI myself on ethical grounds, and one of my commitments is that I will never require students to use it — not even to critique it. I talk about this on day 1, and students often express some relief at that. They are TIRED of the “ask ChatGPT to see well or badly it does” assignments.
August 6, 2025 at 12:56 PM
1. I do not use AI myself on ethical grounds, and one of my commitments is that I will never require students to use it — not even to critique it. I talk about this on day 1, and students often express some relief at that. They are TIRED of the “ask ChatGPT to see well or badly it does” assignments.