Elise A. Mitchell
@bydreamphd.bsky.social
Assistant Professor in Swarthmore’s History Department studying how Africans survived enslavement, epidemics, and empires in the early modern Atlantic World.
Insta: @bydreamphd
Insta: @bydreamphd
Reposted by Elise A. Mitchell
I want to say a bit more about our initiative to hire scholars to 3yr Research Associate positions.
None of us know what the twinning of humanities research support and employment will look like in another 5(?) years. But we do know that we need it. As a matter of social and cultural health. 1/
None of us know what the twinning of humanities research support and employment will look like in another 5(?) years. But we do know that we need it. As a matter of social and cultural health. 1/
Please share widely!
The JCB is hiring two three-year research associates for collaborative work on religions and freedoms in the early Americas.
Details at jcblibrary.org!
The JCB is hiring two three-year research associates for collaborative work on religions and freedoms in the early Americas.
Details at jcblibrary.org!
January 28, 2026 at 12:27 PM
I want to say a bit more about our initiative to hire scholars to 3yr Research Associate positions.
None of us know what the twinning of humanities research support and employment will look like in another 5(?) years. But we do know that we need it. As a matter of social and cultural health. 1/
None of us know what the twinning of humanities research support and employment will look like in another 5(?) years. But we do know that we need it. As a matter of social and cultural health. 1/
As a commuter, I want the historical record to reflect that Mayor Parker did not sufficiently clear snow in Philadelphia. As a person with relatively minor physical disabilities, navigating on public transit rn is treacherous.
January 28, 2026 at 12:40 PM
As a commuter, I want the historical record to reflect that Mayor Parker did not sufficiently clear snow in Philadelphia. As a person with relatively minor physical disabilities, navigating on public transit rn is treacherous.
Ok, I have a book manuscript draft that’s almost ready to send off and an article manuscript that needs some work and snowpocalypse preparations. I am done ranting about our hell for the long weekend. See you on social media again in a few days, when the sky clears. Drink water and take breaks!
January 24, 2026 at 7:37 PM
Ok, I have a book manuscript draft that’s almost ready to send off and an article manuscript that needs some work and snowpocalypse preparations. I am done ranting about our hell for the long weekend. See you on social media again in a few days, when the sky clears. Drink water and take breaks!
The U.S. has been a lot like this for the last 50 years. The U.S. has been repressive and violent (in different ways) for hundreds of years. If you are now realizing this place has a problem, despite the 20th-cent social movements. Welcome! Listen to folks who have been screaming it since the 1970s.
January 24, 2026 at 7:23 PM
The U.S. has been a lot like this for the last 50 years. The U.S. has been repressive and violent (in different ways) for hundreds of years. If you are now realizing this place has a problem, despite the 20th-cent social movements. Welcome! Listen to folks who have been screaming it since the 1970s.
We aren’t seeing Nazi Germany. We aren’t seeing American slavery. As many on the left and many in vulnerable Black and Brown communities know we are seeing post-1970s US quotidian state violence unveiled before our eyes.
January 24, 2026 at 6:34 PM
We aren’t seeing Nazi Germany. We aren’t seeing American slavery. As many on the left and many in vulnerable Black and Brown communities know we are seeing post-1970s US quotidian state violence unveiled before our eyes.
ICE is borrowing from the police’s playbook. The impact of ICE on immigrant communities is terrifyingly similar to the impact of police on Black and Brown citizen communities in the 20th and 21st centuries. Also these communities frequently overlap.
January 24, 2026 at 6:31 PM
ICE is borrowing from the police’s playbook. The impact of ICE on immigrant communities is terrifyingly similar to the impact of police on Black and Brown citizen communities in the 20th and 21st centuries. Also these communities frequently overlap.
Someone should write the oped connecting policies related to ICE, the increased requirement of cash bail, and over policing of domestic life in communities of color under this administration and how it all amounts to targeted family separations. One wouldn’t need to harken back to slavery to do it.
January 23, 2026 at 8:27 PM
Someone should write the oped connecting policies related to ICE, the increased requirement of cash bail, and over policing of domestic life in communities of color under this administration and how it all amounts to targeted family separations. One wouldn’t need to harken back to slavery to do it.
Reposted by Elise A. Mitchell
Interested in the history of enslaved people, Black history, and George Washington?
Download this report, which is still on the NPS site (for now).
My research team spent 3 years collaborating with descendants of people enslaved at the Washington's Headquarters site and the wonderful NPS staff:
Download this report, which is still on the NPS site (for now).
My research team spent 3 years collaborating with descendants of people enslaved at the Washington's Headquarters site and the wonderful NPS staff:
Black History at the Vassall Estate Special History Study (U.S. National Park Service)
www.nps.gov
January 23, 2026 at 3:46 PM
Interested in the history of enslaved people, Black history, and George Washington?
Download this report, which is still on the NPS site (for now).
My research team spent 3 years collaborating with descendants of people enslaved at the Washington's Headquarters site and the wonderful NPS staff:
Download this report, which is still on the NPS site (for now).
My research team spent 3 years collaborating with descendants of people enslaved at the Washington's Headquarters site and the wonderful NPS staff:
Reposted by Elise A. Mitchell
The exhibits about slavery at the President’s House in Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park have been removed amid pressure from the Trump admin www.inquirer.com/politics/nat...
January 23, 2026 at 1:56 AM
The exhibits about slavery at the President’s House in Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park have been removed amid pressure from the Trump admin www.inquirer.com/politics/nat...
There’s a lot being said about ICE paralleling fugitive slave patrols. As a historian of slavery, I think it’s far more complicated than most are articulating. A lot of historical context and power dynamics are being mashed up in the process.
January 23, 2026 at 4:09 PM
There’s a lot being said about ICE paralleling fugitive slave patrols. As a historian of slavery, I think it’s far more complicated than most are articulating. A lot of historical context and power dynamics are being mashed up in the process.
Reposted by Elise A. Mitchell
I did an interview with Robin Kelley about the murder if Renee Good — and what we know from history about strategies of resistance to armed agents of the state. www.bostonreview.net/articles/ren...
Renee Good's Murder and Other Acts of Terror
An interview with Robin D. G. Kelley on how to think about ICE—and the broader history of police violence.
www.bostonreview.net
January 17, 2026 at 7:02 PM
I did an interview with Robin Kelley about the murder if Renee Good — and what we know from history about strategies of resistance to armed agents of the state. www.bostonreview.net/articles/ren...
As educators in the U.S., if there’s a future to be had, we’ve got to be pedagogically prepared for generations of deeply traumatized youths who grew up amid ubiquitous political repression, widespread state racial, gender, and sexual violence, and awash in disinformation. That’s the job now.
January 15, 2026 at 2:35 PM
As educators in the U.S., if there’s a future to be had, we’ve got to be pedagogically prepared for generations of deeply traumatized youths who grew up amid ubiquitous political repression, widespread state racial, gender, and sexual violence, and awash in disinformation. That’s the job now.
There’s a lot going on… what a mess we are in… what a bloody, morbid, deadly mess…
January 15, 2026 at 2:18 PM
There’s a lot going on… what a mess we are in… what a bloody, morbid, deadly mess…
Reposted by Elise A. Mitchell
If you, a 🧪, know a scientist involved in this, sit them down and explain the Nuremberg trials and the Doctors’ trial
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctors...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctors...
January 15, 2026 at 1:46 PM
If you, a 🧪, know a scientist involved in this, sit them down and explain the Nuremberg trials and the Doctors’ trial
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctors...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctors...
Just got my author copy of Black Atlantic Worlds! I’m honored and delighted to be a part of this volume.
www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978088...
www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978088...
Black Atlantic Worlds — Harvard University Press
Landscapes are key to the Black Atlantic. The history of how Africans and their descendants populated and transformed nations, regions, and ecosystems has always been attentive to the multiple meaning...
www.hup.harvard.edu
January 5, 2026 at 5:59 PM
Just got my author copy of Black Atlantic Worlds! I’m honored and delighted to be a part of this volume.
www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978088...
www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978088...
One thing Venezuelans have generously taught me (among many things) is that all U.S. media companies (progressive and otherwise) have a strong set of investments in Venezuelan politics. Be mindful of this as you inform yourself. All the media is very, very biased in some way on this.
January 3, 2026 at 2:38 PM
One thing Venezuelans have generously taught me (among many things) is that all U.S. media companies (progressive and otherwise) have a strong set of investments in Venezuelan politics. Be mindful of this as you inform yourself. All the media is very, very biased in some way on this.
A several people and orgs have said, the U.S. does not have a good track record in South America nor have its interventions ever led to peace and stability. Regardless of how you feel about Maduro, the U.S. strikes and activity in the Venezuela and the region ought to be disturbing in the least.
January 3, 2026 at 2:29 PM
A several people and orgs have said, the U.S. does not have a good track record in South America nor have its interventions ever led to peace and stability. Regardless of how you feel about Maduro, the U.S. strikes and activity in the Venezuela and the region ought to be disturbing in the least.
@insurrecthistory.bsky.social Undergraduate Summer Internship Applications are open! Many thanks to @mcneilcenter.bsky.social for supporting our summer intern. Please share widely!
www.mceas.org/index.php/co...
www.mceas.org/index.php/co...
C. Dallett Hemphill Summer Internship Program | The McNeil Center for Early American Studies
www.mceas.org
December 19, 2025 at 7:28 PM
@insurrecthistory.bsky.social Undergraduate Summer Internship Applications are open! Many thanks to @mcneilcenter.bsky.social for supporting our summer intern. Please share widely!
www.mceas.org/index.php/co...
www.mceas.org/index.php/co...
On 2/18 I’ll be joining an amazing group of historians of care work to discuss the history of nursing in the era of the American Revolution!
Join us!
www.nursing.upenn.edu/calendar/eve...
Join us!
www.nursing.upenn.edu/calendar/eve...
Nursing the Revolution: Care Work in Revolutionary America
In 2026 the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania will open its year-long exhibition, Nurs...
www.nursing.upenn.edu
December 18, 2025 at 7:36 PM
On 2/18 I’ll be joining an amazing group of historians of care work to discuss the history of nursing in the era of the American Revolution!
Join us!
www.nursing.upenn.edu/calendar/eve...
Join us!
www.nursing.upenn.edu/calendar/eve...
Reposted by Elise A. Mitchell
WE JUST KEEP WINNING. (UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program RESTORED!!!!)
![On official UC letterhead:
UNIVERSITY
OF
CALIFORNIA
James B. Milliken President
Office of the President
1111 Franklin Street Oakland, CA 94607
universityofcalifornia.edu
CAMPUSES Berkeley
Davis
Irvine
UCLA
Merced
Riverside San Diego San Francisco
Santa Barbara Santa Cruz
MEDICAL CENTERS
Davis
Irvine
UCLA
San Diego
San Francisco
NATIONAL LABORATORIES Lawrence Berkeley Lawrence Livermore Los Alamos
DIVISION OF AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES
November 18, 2025
Dear Chancellors:
I'm writing with regard to the President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (PPFP) and the program's associated faculty hiring incentive.
As you know, for more than 40 years, PPFP has provided postdoctoral research fellowships, professional development, and faculty mentoring to scholars in all fields whose research, teaching, and service advance the academic and research missions of the University of California.
Since 2003, UC campuses that hire current and former PPFP fellows into ladder-rank positions have been eligible for a hiring incentive funded by the University that provides support for newly hired fellows for five years. Since the creation of the incentive, more than $162 million has been invested by the University to support PPFP faculty hires. This commitment has enabled our campuses to successfully recruit and retain outstanding faculty across a range of disciplines.
Given the myriad challenges currently facing UC - including disruptions to billions of dollars in annual federal support, as well as uncertainty around the state budget- reasonable questions were raised in recent months about whether the University could maintain the commitment to current levels of incentive funding. After considering a recommendation to sunset the incentive program due to these significant fiscal constraints, I consulted with all of you as well as faculty and campus academic administrators and systemwide Academic Senate leadership.
[continued on next image]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:rzn6yramffebefeitqifiqqz/bafkreigiwq5ongzwpj4wqmgjam3yfvhyjnv5e3dbq6cnrrbwblqvs624gq@jpeg)
November 18, 2025 at 10:34 PM
WE JUST KEEP WINNING. (UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program RESTORED!!!!)
Reposted by Elise A. Mitchell
"[admin]...who regard the...students of their own universities with such contempt as to be undeserving of the education that in many cases those administrators themselves, or their parents, or their children received...are an enemy of the educational enterprise"
🎁 link
www.wsj.com/opinion/mont...
🎁 link
www.wsj.com/opinion/mont...
Opinion | Montclair State’s Inhumanity to the Humanities
Goodbye, English department. Hello, Institute for Complex Systems and Algorithmic Infused Societies.
www.wsj.com
November 17, 2025 at 9:05 PM
"[admin]...who regard the...students of their own universities with such contempt as to be undeserving of the education that in many cases those administrators themselves, or their parents, or their children received...are an enemy of the educational enterprise"
🎁 link
www.wsj.com/opinion/mont...
🎁 link
www.wsj.com/opinion/mont...
🤦🏾♀️ *sigh* there is so much to talk about in the Obama administration… one day…
"Warren and Summers have long had a contentious relationship, dating back to their clashes over financial regulation during the Obama administration, when Warren opposed proposals to nominate Summers to lead the Federal Reserve."
We will talk about finance in the Obama administration one day
We will talk about finance in the Obama administration one day
Sen. Elizabeth A. Warren urged Harvard to cut ties with former President Lawrence H. Summers after emails revealed years of correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein, CNN reported Monday.
Megan L. Blonigen, Dhruv T. Patel, and Frances Y. Yong report.
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
Megan L. Blonigen, Dhruv T. Patel, and Frances Y. Yong report.
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
November 17, 2025 at 9:14 PM
🤦🏾♀️ *sigh* there is so much to talk about in the Obama administration… one day…
Reposted by Elise A. Mitchell
"Remembering Alice Wong: Writer, Advocate, Friend"
Steven W. Thrasher on Meeting and Collaborating with the Outspoken Founder of the Disability Visibility Project
published by @literaryhub.bsky.social | art by @mollycrabapple.bsky.social lithub.com/remembering-...
Steven W. Thrasher on Meeting and Collaborating with the Outspoken Founder of the Disability Visibility Project
published by @literaryhub.bsky.social | art by @mollycrabapple.bsky.social lithub.com/remembering-...
Remembering Alice Wong: Writer, Advocate, Friend
Though we were in frequent conversation for a decade, I only got to meet my friend Alice Wong in person just once. And when I did, I was a bundle of nerves—and that was before she cussed me out wi…
lithub.com
November 17, 2025 at 8:22 PM
"Remembering Alice Wong: Writer, Advocate, Friend"
Steven W. Thrasher on Meeting and Collaborating with the Outspoken Founder of the Disability Visibility Project
published by @literaryhub.bsky.social | art by @mollycrabapple.bsky.social lithub.com/remembering-...
Steven W. Thrasher on Meeting and Collaborating with the Outspoken Founder of the Disability Visibility Project
published by @literaryhub.bsky.social | art by @mollycrabapple.bsky.social lithub.com/remembering-...
