Elaine Ayers
@eayers0.bsky.social
Historian of science, collecting, plants + museums // Professor at Yale // PhD in History of Science from Princeton // Contr. Ed. at Public Domain Review // elaineayers.com
Pinned
Elaine Ayers
@eayers0.bsky.social
· Dec 2
Excited to launch Thinking With Moss, an NEH-funded project that I've been working on for the past few years with @tega.bsky.social + @aansari86.bsky.social. Bringing in collabs from around the world in a series of workshops, we asked what it might mean to think with moss /
www.thinkingwithmoss.net
www.thinkingwithmoss.net
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
As someone who has co-written two National Historic Landmarks, I know just how much work goes into getting these important sites designated (even more so for monuments). I keep thinking about the group of scholars who must have dedicated so much time to this, only to have it made meaningless.
“This is a deliberate act of erasure . . . The Pride Flag is history, resistance, and Pride born at Stonewall itself. Taking it down does not diminish our community. It exposes an administration afraid of visibility and truth."
gaycitynews.com/trump-rainbo...
🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️ 🍎
gaycitynews.com/trump-rainbo...
🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️ 🍎
Trump administration removes Rainbow Flag from Stonewall National Monument
The Trump administration removed a large Rainbow Flag from a flagpole at the Stonewall National Monument, the National Park Service confirmed to Gay City News
gaycitynews.com
February 10, 2026 at 6:38 PM
As someone who has co-written two National Historic Landmarks, I know just how much work goes into getting these important sites designated (even more so for monuments). I keep thinking about the group of scholars who must have dedicated so much time to this, only to have it made meaningless.
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
Bad Bunny has a consulting historian. news.wisc.edu/pop-star-bad...
Pop star Bad Bunny needed a Puerto Rican history scholar. UW–Madison had just the one.
Bad Bunny collaborated with UW–Madison history professor Jorell Meléndez-Badillo on Puerto Rican narratives that accompany the new album “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS.”
news.wisc.edu
February 9, 2026 at 4:46 AM
Bad Bunny has a consulting historian. news.wisc.edu/pop-star-bad...
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
"Appeasement is being coordinated while resistance is not" is exactly right. (This op-ed from Arne Duncan and David Pressman is excellent; I hope university leaders will read it.) www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
Opinion | Universities are sending Trump a dangerous message
Higher education is under attack. Drop the appeasement.
www.washingtonpost.com
February 10, 2026 at 12:28 PM
"Appeasement is being coordinated while resistance is not" is exactly right. (This op-ed from Arne Duncan and David Pressman is excellent; I hope university leaders will read it.) www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
On Thursday for my Botanical Bodies course I'm lecturing on the history of enslavement and botany in the Caribbean and it literally could not be set up more perfectly for me.
If Bad Bunny can cover the history of Puerto Rico, colonialism, transatlantic slavery, hemispheric consciousness, as well as contemporary life and politics in under 14 minutes, you can do your 15- or 20-minute conference presentation with time to spare.
February 10, 2026 at 1:19 PM
On Thursday for my Botanical Bodies course I'm lecturing on the history of enslavement and botany in the Caribbean and it literally could not be set up more perfectly for me.
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
#jobfairy this is an intriguing one - 18 month research fellowship for an object-focused historian, museums studies person or similar at Chatsworth House! £48k + £11k travel, outreach etc #skystorians
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQK358/d...
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQK358/d...
Devonshire Collections Research Fellow at Chatsworth House Trust
Searching for an academic job? Explore this Devonshire Collections Research Fellow opening on jobs.ac.uk! Click to view more details and browse other academic jobs.
www.jobs.ac.uk
February 10, 2026 at 11:08 AM
#jobfairy this is an intriguing one - 18 month research fellowship for an object-focused historian, museums studies person or similar at Chatsworth House! £48k + £11k travel, outreach etc #skystorians
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQK358/d...
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQK358/d...
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
Abstract submissions for our 2026 meeting in Montpellier are now OPEN! ethnobotany.org/home/meeting...
January 25, 2026 at 6:13 PM
Abstract submissions for our 2026 meeting in Montpellier are now OPEN! ethnobotany.org/home/meeting...
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
Exciting new undergraduate research opportunities here at Carnegie Museum in Botany! Applications due March 1. drive.google.com/file/d/1jNNy...
February 6, 2026 at 6:17 PM
Exciting new undergraduate research opportunities here at Carnegie Museum in Botany! Applications due March 1. drive.google.com/file/d/1jNNy...
"this sublime marriage of the two ecological time-tracks is being destabilized by climate change...Deep biological clocks are no longer in sync with modern realities."
emergencemagazine.org/essay/memory...
emergencemagazine.org/essay/memory...
Memory of Winter – Zoë Schlanger
When is the right time to bring new life into the world? Journalist Zoë Schlanger explores how the moment of spring emergence is increasingly the biggest gamble of a plant’s life amid unpredictable fr...
emergencemagazine.org
February 9, 2026 at 4:33 PM
"this sublime marriage of the two ecological time-tracks is being destabilized by climate change...Deep biological clocks are no longer in sync with modern realities."
emergencemagazine.org/essay/memory...
emergencemagazine.org/essay/memory...
“Certainly at a minimum...people should know that the government is using its funding as a way of essentially coercing a different presentation of American history.”
www.propublica.org/article/inst...
www.propublica.org/article/inst...
Grant Guidelines for Libraries and Museums Take “Chilling” Political Turn Under Trump
Former Institute of Museum and Library Services leaders from both political parties expressed concern that the new funding guidelines could encourage a more constrained or distorted view of American h...
www.propublica.org
February 9, 2026 at 3:33 PM
“Certainly at a minimum...people should know that the government is using its funding as a way of essentially coercing a different presentation of American history.”
www.propublica.org/article/inst...
www.propublica.org/article/inst...
I'M NOT SAYING THIS IS WHAT'S HAPPENING but I am begging you not to use AI / apps to identify mushrooms or plants.
www.latimes.com/california/s...
www.latimes.com/california/s...
California mushroom poisonings are on the rise. Here's what's being done to curb exposure
Recent news of more than 30 cases of mushroom-related illness and death has prompted some Southern Californians to seek a mushroom education.
www.latimes.com
February 9, 2026 at 3:10 PM
I'M NOT SAYING THIS IS WHAT'S HAPPENING but I am begging you not to use AI / apps to identify mushrooms or plants.
www.latimes.com/california/s...
www.latimes.com/california/s...
I am truly in awe.
I am so thrilled to have my illustrated essay published by the New York Times today, about my voyage across the pond with my dog, on a ship! www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/t...
My Dog Tintin’s Trans-Atlantic Voyage on the Queen Mary 2
www.nytimes.com
February 6, 2026 at 5:01 PM
I am truly in awe.
For all of the right's outcries over "erasing history," the Smithsonian audits, absurd plaques at the White House (which is a museum), threats to important works of art & architectural history + wildly inaccurate historical storytelling is shameful and dangerous.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/a...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/a...
It’s Been Called the ‘Sistine Chapel of the New Deal.’ Don’t Destroy It.
www.nytimes.com
February 6, 2026 at 4:36 PM
For all of the right's outcries over "erasing history," the Smithsonian audits, absurd plaques at the White House (which is a museum), threats to important works of art & architectural history + wildly inaccurate historical storytelling is shameful and dangerous.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/a...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/a...
Finally watching that movie Eden, pray for me.
February 6, 2026 at 1:04 AM
Finally watching that movie Eden, pray for me.
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
Imagine---imagine!---getting through an education or a career without anyone, ever, describing your fuckability
February 5, 2026 at 4:28 PM
Imagine---imagine!---getting through an education or a career without anyone, ever, describing your fuckability
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
I've created an Arena channel of artists engaging in or inspired by foraging and gleaning — Yuji Agematsu, Mary Mattingly, Sarah Nicholls, Candace Thompson, Agnès Varda, Rachel Wolf — and I'd appreciate other recommendations!
www.are.na/shannon-matt...
www.are.na/shannon-matt...
February 5, 2026 at 6:08 AM
I've created an Arena channel of artists engaging in or inspired by foraging and gleaning — Yuji Agematsu, Mary Mattingly, Sarah Nicholls, Candace Thompson, Agnès Varda, Rachel Wolf — and I'd appreciate other recommendations!
www.are.na/shannon-matt...
www.are.na/shannon-matt...
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
quick, someone help, we've got a vegetable situation
February 4, 2026 at 9:32 PM
quick, someone help, we've got a vegetable situation
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
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/
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
"The solution to technology is not more technology. The solution to loneliness is each other, a wealth that should be available to most of us most of the time." @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social in @theguardian.com with a must read www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...
What technology takes from us – and how to take it back | Rebecca Solnit
The long read: Decisions outsourced, chatbots for friends, the natural world an afterthought: Silicon Valley is giving us life void of connection. There is a way out – but it’s going to take collectiv...
www.theguardian.com
February 1, 2026 at 1:13 PM
"The solution to technology is not more technology. The solution to loneliness is each other, a wealth that should be available to most of us most of the time." @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social in @theguardian.com with a must read www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...
VAP in Art History at NYU - "Late Antique and Medieval periods," $70,000, apps reviewed starting March 1.
apply.interfolio.com/180364
apply.interfolio.com/180364
Apply - Interfolio
{{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
February 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM
VAP in Art History at NYU - "Late Antique and Medieval periods," $70,000, apps reviewed starting March 1.
apply.interfolio.com/180364
apply.interfolio.com/180364
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
Paid research fellowships: The Image Center in Toronto. theimagecentre.ca/fellowship/
Fellowship | The Image Centre
theimagecentre.ca
February 1, 2026 at 12:56 AM
Paid research fellowships: The Image Center in Toronto. theimagecentre.ca/fellowship/
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
Department “Artifacts, Action, Knowledge” seeks to appoint a #PublicationsManager with work experience in:
✍️ Editorial leadership
📚 Publication management
🌐 Multilingual experience
🗓️ Deadline: Feb 28, 2026
🔗 bit.ly/4k5DWSs
#HistSci #STS #SocSci #Humanities
✍️ Editorial leadership
📚 Publication management
🌐 Multilingual experience
🗓️ Deadline: Feb 28, 2026
🔗 bit.ly/4k5DWSs
#HistSci #STS #SocSci #Humanities
January 29, 2026 at 10:55 PM
Department “Artifacts, Action, Knowledge” seeks to appoint a #PublicationsManager with work experience in:
✍️ Editorial leadership
📚 Publication management
🌐 Multilingual experience
🗓️ Deadline: Feb 28, 2026
🔗 bit.ly/4k5DWSs
#HistSci #STS #SocSci #Humanities
✍️ Editorial leadership
📚 Publication management
🌐 Multilingual experience
🗓️ Deadline: Feb 28, 2026
🔗 bit.ly/4k5DWSs
#HistSci #STS #SocSci #Humanities
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
Meantime, there was a terrible tumult.
January 31, 2026 at 1:47 PM
Meantime, there was a terrible tumult.
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
The college at which I'm employed, which has signed a contract with the AI firm that stole books from 131 colleagues & me, paid a student to write an op-ed for the student paper promoting AI, guided the writing of it, and did not disclose this to the paper. www.thedartmouth.com/article/2026...
College approached and paid student to write op-ed in The Dartmouth
The Dartmouth ran the article on Nov. 17 without knowledge that the College had been involved.
www.thedartmouth.com
January 29, 2026 at 10:40 PM
The college at which I'm employed, which has signed a contract with the AI firm that stole books from 131 colleagues & me, paid a student to write an op-ed for the student paper promoting AI, guided the writing of it, and did not disclose this to the paper. www.thedartmouth.com/article/2026...
You can’t actually be serious.
imgaine getting sent packing with your ass in your own two hands by some of the nicest people in the world and then showing up in a city that is famous for booing santa claus
January 28, 2026 at 12:17 AM
You can’t actually be serious.