Lauren MacIvor Thompson
@lmacthompson1.bsky.social
Historian of birth control/abortion/suffrage law and policy. Book on early 20th c. birth control law and medical politics coming soon. Asst Prof @kennesawstate; Fellow @GSU_HealthLaw; @UVa alum
Almost done with my entire book draft. "Women's Bodies, Doctors' Rights: The Medical Politics of the American Birth Control Movement" is a project that is more than a decade in the making. A story we think we know well. Turns out we don't.
November 10, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Almost done with my entire book draft. "Women's Bodies, Doctors' Rights: The Medical Politics of the American Birth Control Movement" is a project that is more than a decade in the making. A story we think we know well. Turns out we don't.
The next 12 months will be the most consequential for American politics since the 1850s. I don't say that glibly. We warned what would happen and they've done it and more. It appears we still have free elections, and so now they will now throw everything they have at us, a fascist kitchen sink.
November 5, 2025 at 12:13 PM
The next 12 months will be the most consequential for American politics since the 1850s. I don't say that glibly. We warned what would happen and they've done it and more. It appears we still have free elections, and so now they will now throw everything they have at us, a fascist kitchen sink.
Reposted by Lauren MacIvor Thompson
We look forward to seeing everyone in St. Pete Beach later this week at #2025SHA.
please excuse our typo in the flyer - the Friday Annual Address and reception is at 4:30 pm!
please excuse our typo in the flyer - the Friday Annual Address and reception is at 4:30 pm!
November 3, 2025 at 4:22 PM
We look forward to seeing everyone in St. Pete Beach later this week at #2025SHA.
please excuse our typo in the flyer - the Friday Annual Address and reception is at 4:30 pm!
please excuse our typo in the flyer - the Friday Annual Address and reception is at 4:30 pm!
Reposted by Lauren MacIvor Thompson
We're proud to announce the CFP for our 50th Anniversary & 2026 conference: "Feminist Futurities: 50 More Years of Feminist Scholarship and Activism in the South"
Check out the details on our website!
Submissions due Dec. 1st! wgssouth.org/2026conference
#AcademicSky #edusky #highered #wgs
Check out the details on our website!
Submissions due Dec. 1st! wgssouth.org/2026conference
#AcademicSky #edusky #highered #wgs
October 20, 2025 at 7:28 PM
We're proud to announce the CFP for our 50th Anniversary & 2026 conference: "Feminist Futurities: 50 More Years of Feminist Scholarship and Activism in the South"
Check out the details on our website!
Submissions due Dec. 1st! wgssouth.org/2026conference
#AcademicSky #edusky #highered #wgs
Check out the details on our website!
Submissions due Dec. 1st! wgssouth.org/2026conference
#AcademicSky #edusky #highered #wgs
Our historian colleague Tom Alter has now officially been fired as of yesterday 10/13 for making a speech on his own time at home on a sunday morning. Donate. Stand up for free speech. Stand up for Tom. www.gofundme.com/f/support-fr...
Donate to URGENT: Tom has been fired! Defend him and free speech now!, organized by Kim Gasper-Rabuck
The Unthinkable has happened!
Dr. Tom Alter has been term… Kim Gasper-Rabuck needs your support for URGENT: Tom has been fired! Defend him and free speech now!
www.gofundme.com
October 14, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Our historian colleague Tom Alter has now officially been fired as of yesterday 10/13 for making a speech on his own time at home on a sunday morning. Donate. Stand up for free speech. Stand up for Tom. www.gofundme.com/f/support-fr...
Reposted by Lauren MacIvor Thompson
SHGAPE needs your help! Please check out the following announcement and consider applying. And while you're at it, check out the SHGAPE Blog. Some really great scholarship is published there. share.google/J5ZcMLYwWro5...
SHGAPE Blog Needs Content Editor | H-Net
The Society for the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (SHGAPE) invites applications for a Content Editor for the SHGAPE Blog (https://blog.shgape.org/). The Content Editor will be responsible for generating posts for the site, typically on a weekly basis. These contributions might include short, standardized interviews with authors of new books on GAPE topics, articles in the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, or new digital projects, along with promotion of the Society’s activities. The Content Editor will also have an opportunity to develop their own ideas for blog posts.
share.google
October 13, 2025 at 7:37 PM
SHGAPE needs your help! Please check out the following announcement and consider applying. And while you're at it, check out the SHGAPE Blog. Some really great scholarship is published there. share.google/J5ZcMLYwWro5...
Reposted by Lauren MacIvor Thompson
The Countdown to #2025SHA has officially begun! Mark your calendars for the @sawh1970.bsky.social member/grad student breakfast & the annual address/reception by Crystal Sanders, Associate Professor of Af-Am Studies/History @ Emory University!
Find breakfast tix at (thesawh.org/sawh-confere...)
Find breakfast tix at (thesawh.org/sawh-confere...)
October 13, 2025 at 2:47 PM
The Countdown to #2025SHA has officially begun! Mark your calendars for the @sawh1970.bsky.social member/grad student breakfast & the annual address/reception by Crystal Sanders, Associate Professor of Af-Am Studies/History @ Emory University!
Find breakfast tix at (thesawh.org/sawh-confere...)
Find breakfast tix at (thesawh.org/sawh-confere...)
The Virginia Senate just told UVA it’s not getting state funding if it accepts the compact since UVA exists to serve Virginia, its residents, & their interests—not be a tool of the federal govt. Scoop from our student newspaper, who’ve been doing vital reporting www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...
October 10, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Reposted by Lauren MacIvor Thompson
@mit.edu has done an incredibly important service to the nation by being willing to be the first school to reject the administration's "compact."
President Kornbluth focuses—and she's right—on the principle that "scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone."
President Kornbluth focuses—and she's right—on the principle that "scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone."
October 10, 2025 at 7:48 PM
@mit.edu has done an incredibly important service to the nation by being willing to be the first school to reject the administration's "compact."
President Kornbluth focuses—and she's right—on the principle that "scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone."
President Kornbluth focuses—and she's right—on the principle that "scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone."
Reposted by Lauren MacIvor Thompson
🧵🧵🧵
As for her call for non-academics to get involved: one thing you should do if you see attacks on academic freedom or administrators capitulating to Trump's extortion at your alma mater is to write the uni/college president & express your outrage. They need to hear from alumni ASAP. Template👇
As for her call for non-academics to get involved: one thing you should do if you see attacks on academic freedom or administrators capitulating to Trump's extortion at your alma mater is to write the uni/college president & express your outrage. They need to hear from alumni ASAP. Template👇
I am writing this because it has swiftly become crystal clear to me that many people have no idea what is happening or how this works. Here is a thread for non-academics to put into context what just happened to Dr. Mark Bray, a fellow historian.
October 10, 2025 at 5:33 PM
🧵🧵🧵
As for her call for non-academics to get involved: one thing you should do if you see attacks on academic freedom or administrators capitulating to Trump's extortion at your alma mater is to write the uni/college president & express your outrage. They need to hear from alumni ASAP. Template👇
As for her call for non-academics to get involved: one thing you should do if you see attacks on academic freedom or administrators capitulating to Trump's extortion at your alma mater is to write the uni/college president & express your outrage. They need to hear from alumni ASAP. Template👇
Sharing my USG colleague's important new book. Thank you @matthewboedy.bsky.social for this.
Charlie Kirk is dead, tragically murdered by an assassin’s bullet. Now Turning Point USA wants to cement its founder’s legacy by Christianizing America in his name. Read about that threat to democracy in my new @wjkbooks.com book out now: www.wjkbooks.com/bookproduct/...
October 10, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Sharing my USG colleague's important new book. Thank you @matthewboedy.bsky.social for this.
I am writing this because it has swiftly become crystal clear to me that many people have no idea what is happening or how this works. Here is a thread for non-academics to put into context what just happened to Dr. Mark Bray, a fellow historian.
October 10, 2025 at 4:45 PM
I am writing this because it has swiftly become crystal clear to me that many people have no idea what is happening or how this works. Here is a thread for non-academics to put into context what just happened to Dr. Mark Bray, a fellow historian.
If you in any way suggest that we "earned" this upon ourselves you will be blocked faster than you can blink. Profs are being fired, threatened, doxxed, harassed as a years long pattern now but we have reached a new phase with what has happened with Dr Bray, a fellow historian.
Please acknowledge what is happening to American professors right now.
We do not deserve this.
We do not deserve this.
October 10, 2025 at 11:11 AM
If you in any way suggest that we "earned" this upon ourselves you will be blocked faster than you can blink. Profs are being fired, threatened, doxxed, harassed as a years long pattern now but we have reached a new phase with what has happened with Dr Bray, a fellow historian.
I just want to think up cool new courses about all kinds of things and offer students snacks from my snack drawer and tell them they can do a group quiz on quiz day and write my book and be left alone by fascists. Why is this becoming difficult?
October 9, 2025 at 11:13 PM
I just want to think up cool new courses about all kinds of things and offer students snacks from my snack drawer and tell them they can do a group quiz on quiz day and write my book and be left alone by fascists. Why is this becoming difficult?
Reposted by Lauren MacIvor Thompson
There is a GoFundMe for Mark Bray and his family. I've confirmed with a friend who knows them that this is legit. Please donate if you can.
"Help us leave safely" on FreeFunder
Click here to support "Help us leave safely" by Dara on FreeFunder!
www.freefunder.com
October 9, 2025 at 10:45 PM
There is a GoFundMe for Mark Bray and his family. I've confirmed with a friend who knows them that this is legit. Please donate if you can.
Please acknowledge what is happening to American professors right now.
We do not deserve this.
We do not deserve this.
October 9, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Please acknowledge what is happening to American professors right now.
We do not deserve this.
We do not deserve this.
Reposted by Lauren MacIvor Thompson
Friends and comrades made a crowdfunding page for my family.
It’s really hard to post this. I know that there are a lot of other important issues asking for money but things have gotten to the point where we need to open ourselves up to your support.
Thank you for your consideration.
It’s really hard to post this. I know that there are a lot of other important issues asking for money but things have gotten to the point where we need to open ourselves up to your support.
Thank you for your consideration.
"Help us leave safely" on FreeFunder
Click here to support "Help us leave safely" by Dara on FreeFunder!
www.freefunder.com
October 9, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Friends and comrades made a crowdfunding page for my family.
It’s really hard to post this. I know that there are a lot of other important issues asking for money but things have gotten to the point where we need to open ourselves up to your support.
Thank you for your consideration.
It’s really hard to post this. I know that there are a lot of other important issues asking for money but things have gotten to the point where we need to open ourselves up to your support.
Thank you for your consideration.
Reposted by Lauren MacIvor Thompson
What's happening to my colleague Mark Bray is disgusting. Him and his family are being doxed and getting death threats by right wing supposed "free speech" advocates bc wrote a book about anti fascism. You can't make this shit up! Our universities must fight back.
I’ve received multiple death threats + doxing (including my home address) directly following harassment from Turning Point USA, Jack Posobiec, Andy NGO, + Fox News which called me an antifa ‘financier.’
I have been forced to move my classes online.
If journalists want to talk, DM me or reply here.
I have been forced to move my classes online.
If journalists want to talk, DM me or reply here.
October 7, 2025 at 1:06 PM
What's happening to my colleague Mark Bray is disgusting. Him and his family are being doxed and getting death threats by right wing supposed "free speech" advocates bc wrote a book about anti fascism. You can't make this shit up! Our universities must fight back.
Hope folks can chip in a bit to help with this child's therapy and healing. www.newsnationnow.com/missing/miss...
October 5, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Hope folks can chip in a bit to help with this child's therapy and healing. www.newsnationnow.com/missing/miss...
I am so sorry for what this Atlanta family has gone through. So happy she is home.
www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-br...
www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-br...
October 5, 2025 at 10:06 PM
I am so sorry for what this Atlanta family has gone through. So happy she is home.
www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-br...
www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-br...
Ya'll should definitely sign up for this!
Writing group alert!! Our popular program is back! Check out all the details of the SHGAPE-Sponsored Writing Groups! If interested, please fill out this Google form before Oct. 10! urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...
a cat wearing a blue shirt is sitting on a laptop computer
ALT: a cat wearing a blue shirt is sitting on a laptop computer
media.tenor.com
October 4, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Ya'll should definitely sign up for this!
Reposted by Lauren MacIvor Thompson
One easy way to see that those were labor issues was the fact that many of your colleagues with a different employment status didn't have those rights and protections. Instead of seeing that as a problem to be fixed for the good of all, too many saw it as a sad fate they'd avoid because of ✨merit✨
I think one of the biggest mistakes we’ve made in academia over the last few years was treating tenure and academic freedom as a guaranteed right and not a labor relation. Had more understood it as the latter perhaps we would have been better prepared to protect it
“I’m emotionally shellshocked right now,” said one professor in the Texas Tech system. “What does it say about academic freedom? It says we don’t have it.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/u...
September 27, 2025 at 2:37 PM
One easy way to see that those were labor issues was the fact that many of your colleagues with a different employment status didn't have those rights and protections. Instead of seeing that as a problem to be fixed for the good of all, too many saw it as a sad fate they'd avoid because of ✨merit✨
Yup. And as my forthcoming book Women's Bodies, Doctors' Rights: The Politics of Birth Control in America argues: contraception was always much bigger than Sanger and to constantly use her as the only lens denies that complexity
Before everyone gets all freaked out about this: yes, Margaret Sanger was a eugenicist who believed in contraception to eliminate less desirable babies. Yes, super icky and unfortunate. But yes, she was also a pioneer for women's bodily autonomy. Complexity is one of the lessons of history.
September 26, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Yup. And as my forthcoming book Women's Bodies, Doctors' Rights: The Politics of Birth Control in America argues: contraception was always much bigger than Sanger and to constantly use her as the only lens denies that complexity
Reposted by Lauren MacIvor Thompson
The October 1st deadline is approaching! Remember to submit your proposals for SHGAPE's first stand-alone conference! www.shgape.org/shgape-confe... #Skystorians #History #CFP #HistorySky #GildedAge #ProgressiveEra
SHGAPE is hosting its first stand-alone conference June 4-6, 2026, at Loyola University in Chicago! We plan to offer seminars, workshops, roundtables, & traditional paper panels. Submit your proposal by October 1st! Full guidelines here: www.shgape.org/shgape-confe... #skystorians #history #CFP
Conference - SHGAPE
Call for Papers The Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era is delighted to host its first stand-alone conference, June 4-6, 2026, at Loyola University in Chicago, Illinois. We we...
www.shgape.org
September 25, 2025 at 4:18 PM
The October 1st deadline is approaching! Remember to submit your proposals for SHGAPE's first stand-alone conference! www.shgape.org/shgape-confe... #Skystorians #History #CFP #HistorySky #GildedAge #ProgressiveEra