Megan VanGorder

A good day for an early career academic historian:
- finished grading for the AY
- submitted a book review
- filled out my book cover art questionnaire for @uncpress.bsky.social
- panel got accepted for AHA 2026!

I’m teaching on military history of the Civil War this week and am so excited to introduce my students to the brilliant work of @cnzander.bsky.social. It’s such an honor to be able to showcase the work of historians who are also fantastic humans. :-)

I’m excited to share some Illinois history next week at Wheaton and contribute to a conversation of what it means to resist legal and societal injustice, both historically and in the present!

Pairs well with my historiophoty/historiography lesson today!

it’s been January for months in both directions

Lots to talk about with my students on Tuesday. Separations of power, corporate regulation, consent of the governed… this moment has it all!

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

7/20

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

Broke the consecutive day streak, but still going!

6/20

Check out my new pedagogy article on experiments teaching history with generative AI! #pedagogy #ai #history

openjournals.bsu.edu/teachinghist...

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

5/20

Ooh. What’s your Karen Russel recommendation? I’m trying to like fiction more…

American TikTok users downloading Xiaohongshu “little red book” or RedNote to spite the government over the TikTok ban is the most modern digital tea dumping ever.

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

4/20

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

3/20

Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s Silencing the Past

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

2/20. Got a streak going!

Tony Horwitz, Confederates in the Attic

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order (I’ll try to remember to do this…). No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

1/20

Happy finals week to those who celebrate. To my students: pursue intellectual risk by applying what you do (or don’t!) know to the work you submit this semester. Don’t let AI do your thinking for you; embrace your limits and continue to expand them.