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Olga Byrska

@obyrska.bsky.social
9.8K followers 6.4K following 1.1K posts

PhD researcher in post-WW2 intellectual history at the @EUI_EU. Teaching history at @sciencespo Reims campus. Sometimes making theatre. 🏳️‍🌈 she/her 📍Paris/Warsaw/elsewhere

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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The current use of violence against the French kids is appealing. The classes have 35 pupils. In certain buildings, there are rats. During winter, they sit in their outer clothes; in summer, they faint from the heat. Instead, the state chooses preemptive violence and contempt. It's disgusting.
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
New skill (temporarily) unlocked!
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Writers from Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, the V4 Literary Residency opened its application for 2027. Apply! www.visegradfund.org/literary-res...
visegradfund.org
Apply - Literary Residency Program | International Visegrad Fund
The International Visegrad Fund promotes regional cooperation among the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia through grants, scholarships, and cultural exchange.
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This is a disastrous news for Edinburgh and the entire higher education system in the UK.
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Between this and @nbcnews.com's news on Pentagon considering pulling out of Europe, we are to a very happy Friday morning.
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Reposted by Olga Byrska
Christine Kooi @christinekooi.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Friends, if you've ever worked in the Dutch National Archives, consider signing this petition. Its administrators want to completely shut down its public educational programs and turn it into a repository of exclusively government records. #skystorians 🗃️
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Historians! An amazing postdoc in Propaganda Studies in Finland is available:
academicpositions.com
Postdoctoral Researcher, History, Culture and Communication Studies - Academic Positions
3-year postdoc to lead independent research on 21st‑century propaganda in Northern Europe; publish articles/monograph, collaborate in SafeEarth, seek funding...
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Last week's death of Wendell Berry, the Kentucky poet of everyday life, was likely overshadowed by Dolly Parton and Tim Curry. If you don't know him, I suggest you take some time to meditate on this poem.
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Ned points out at one of the most important aspects of the growing influence of the far-right in Germany: in short, it is a civilisational project that aims to really change the reality, juridicially and symbolically.
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
A worrisome and symptomatic attack in Paris: last weekend, a man leaving a queer bar was attacked and beaten in Le Marais, historically a queer district (mostly catering to cis gay men). The victim is a policeman and a queer rights activist. The attacker is 20 yo. tetu.com/2026/08/31/p...
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
This year, I teach an introductory course called "Paris in literature" to a group of American students on exchange in Paris, which brings me back to my first love: literature. Today, we are going to talk about François Villon and his Testament. As of 2026, ubi sunt is very much à la mode.
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
A dla OKO.press napisałam o akademickiej apokalipsie, która dzieje się bez mała na całym świecie. // For the Polish media outlet, oko.press, I wrote an op-ed about the worldwide academic apocalypse that has been taking place for the past couple of years. oko.press/akademia-cza...
oko.press
Akademia. Czas apokalipsy
Neoliberalne z ducha nastawienie na zysk i wąsko rozumianą praktykę doprowadza właśnie do masowych cięć w naukach humanistycznych i społecznych. Kryzys krytycznego myślenia i wtórny analfabetyzm niedł...
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Today I learnt that already as early as 1229, the Ancienne université de Paris experienced its first strike (and riots), and somehow it makes perfect sense
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
NOOOOOOOOOO
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Yes and no, and I am speaking from the past 5 months of a rather hellish experience of searching a full-time job in Europe (still seaerching!). On the one hand, HR should be able to see the actual skills behind the application rather than searching for a 150% fit that doesn't exist 1/3
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Last night I realised that this summer marks 15 (!) years since my first piece was published in the country-wide media outlet, Tygodnik Powszechny. It was an interview with a legendary editor and publisher, Beata Stasińska, I was not yet 20, and very thrilled to see my name in print back then!
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Reposted by Olga Byrska
Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Great piece, @currentaffairs.bsky.social "In a cultural landscape dominated by the attention economy and defined by precarious labor and existential dread, Fallon presents play not as an escape from work, but as an obligatory task that must be performed, a contractual obligation to a marketing team"
currentaffairs.org
The Banal Horror of Jimmy Fallon
Under the sterile blue lights of his studio, Fallon laughs endlessly at the same pseudo-jokes, rubs elbows with Trump and Sam Altman, and ushers in the death of culture.
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Great piece, @currentaffairs.bsky.social "In a cultural landscape dominated by the attention economy and defined by precarious labor and existential dread, Fallon presents play not as an escape from work, but as an obligatory task that must be performed, a contractual obligation to a marketing team"
currentaffairs.org
The Banal Horror of Jimmy Fallon
Under the sterile blue lights of his studio, Fallon laughs endlessly at the same pseudo-jokes, rubs elbows with Trump and Sam Altman, and ushers in the death of culture.
012
Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
This might be, unironically, the best LinkedIn post I have ever read:
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
This semester, I teach a fun course at the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) in Paris: "Paris in literature". Aaand, I almost put this into the readings folder, instead of Proust:
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Yesterday, over 20 NATO planes were spotted in the Polish airspace, which can be treated as a sign sent to Russia not to risk any excursion into the alliance’s territory. Here’s a link to the news in Polish, as I have not seen, so far, any foreign media talking about this.
forsal.pl
Ogromny ruch samolotów wojskowych nad Polską. Sygnał dla Rosji - Forsal.pl
NATO przeprowadziło 18 sierpnia szeroko zakrojone działania lotnicze w rejonie państw bałtyckich i Polski. W pobliżu obwodu królewieckiego pojawiło się około 25 samolotów z różnych państw NATO, a częś...
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
One of the most impressive investigative journalism podcasts I have listened to in recent months has been @theobserveruk.bsky.social's and @tortoisemedia.bsky.social's 6-episode "We call her Emma" on Asma al-Assad. It is a deep dive into the non-obvious ways of wielding power. Listen to it!
observer.co.uk
We call her Emma | The Observer
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Yesterday I had a tutoring session with a teenage Chinese student who pivoted towards the humanities after years of schoolwork spent pursuing a STEM degree. She also said that the majority of her peers are doing this or considering it, since with AI, they see many of their career plans unravel. 1/3
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Back to my fav place.
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Cannot wait to read it!
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Happy birthday to James Baldwin, born #otd in 1924. Photo: Michael Ochs
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Reposted by Olga Byrska
Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Edward Hopper, Study for August in the City, 1945 whitney.org/collection/w...
Composition for a painting, with building and trees
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Yet another argument against AI-optimists, painting this technology as curing the cancer. If the Nobel Prize is not enough to avoid dismantling a team in the name of "changing the strategy", what else is left?
giftarticle.ft.com
Google DeepMind dismantles Nobel-winning AlphaFold team in strategy shift
Landmark project that solved protein folding gives way to a wider race to build AI systems for scientific discovery
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Don’t wanna talk about it more than sharing this post, just pointing out ridiculousness of it all.
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
And another bitter layer of this tragic event: the victim was Polish. It doesn't make this death any more or less important, but it does make me even sadder, as we Poles still don't enjoy even the most basic rights in our home country.
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
My two cents on #Berlin.
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Heartbreaking news.
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Sigh.
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Reposted by Olga Byrska
Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Senior colleagues, apply for the position of a Chair in Intellectual History at my alma mater!
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
I will also gladly talk to people personally touched by those changes, especially outside of Europe/UK and the US.
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Curious to see if the cause of death was "cardiac arrest"
lemonde.fr
Affaire Epstein : Daniel Siad, rabatteur présumé du pédocriminel américain, retrouvé mort chez lui près de Paris
L’homme, âgé de 69 ans, a été retrouvé mort à son domicile de Colombes, dans les Hauts-de-Seine. Visé par plusieurs plaintes, notamment pour viols, ce recruteur de mannequins faisait l’objet d’une enq...
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Senior colleagues, apply for the position of a Chair in Intellectual History at my alma mater!
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Ah, the coolness of the National Library of France (both in the sense of its AC and excellent working conditions) @labnf.bsky.social
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Yikes
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Reposted by Olga Byrska
Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Friends and colleagues, will be visiting Brussels for a couple of days at the end of the month. Want to meet up around coffee? Let me know!
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Dangerous disiformation campaign targeting Poland and inciting anti-Ukrainian sentiments. The timing is important, as the recent Polish-Ukrainian historical tensions came up once again, and a wave of violence towards Ukrainian citizens - a symptom of how prone to the said propaganda Poles are.
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Waking up tomorrow morning I’m expecting to hear on new tariffs put on Spain
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Never heard Parisians celebrating the team that isn’t theirs. Well done, Spain!
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Reposted by Olga Byrska
ArtButMakeItSports @artbutmakeitsports.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Mephisto, by Joaquín Espalter y Rull, 1872, 📸 by Dan Mullan
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
static.klipy.com
Tyra Banks Finger Snap
ALT: Tyra Banks Finger Snap
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Also the French commentators are quite deplorable
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
I hope they didn’t prepare an extra time half time show
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Okay Shakira gets a free pass because of Waka Waka
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Muppets x Chinese choreo x Seven Nations Army? WHOSE ACOD TRIP IS THIS
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Olga Byrska @obyrska.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
What in Madonna is this
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