Becca Howes-Mischel
@beccaella.bsky.social
Medical anthropologist, fascinated/ horrified by the politics of reproduction, studying gender, science, and microbes (and capitalism), abortion community organizing, companioned by a husky named Colibri.
JMU’s Soc/Anth department is searching for a new Academic Unit Head. Anthropologists and Sociologists, please share (and consider joining us).
We’re a collegial and productive undergraduate focused department and in a lovely area.
Applications due by 11/17
jobs.jmu.edu/jobs/academi...
We’re a collegial and productive undergraduate focused department and in a lovely area.
Applications due by 11/17
jobs.jmu.edu/jobs/academi...
Academic Unit Head, Sociology & Anthropology - Harrisonburg, Virginia, United States
Working Title: Academic Unit Head, Sociology & Anthropology
State Role Title: N/A
Position Type: Instructional / Teaching Faculty
Position Status: Full-Time
FLSA Status: Exempt: Not Eligible for O...
jobs.jmu.edu
October 13, 2025 at 4:54 PM
JMU’s Soc/Anth department is searching for a new Academic Unit Head. Anthropologists and Sociologists, please share (and consider joining us).
We’re a collegial and productive undergraduate focused department and in a lovely area.
Applications due by 11/17
jobs.jmu.edu/jobs/academi...
We’re a collegial and productive undergraduate focused department and in a lovely area.
Applications due by 11/17
jobs.jmu.edu/jobs/academi...
Reposted by Becca Howes-Mischel
Reposted by Becca Howes-Mischel
Thinking of this article from 2006: escholarship.org/uc/item/94v3...
August 5, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Thinking of this article from 2006: escholarship.org/uc/item/94v3...
Reposted by Becca Howes-Mischel
More than ten times more people traveled from Florida to Virginia to access abortion care in 2024 as compared to 2023, for example - despite it being hundreds of miles away.
June 24, 2025 at 3:23 PM
More than ten times more people traveled from Florida to Virginia to access abortion care in 2024 as compared to 2023, for example - despite it being hundreds of miles away.
Reposted by Becca Howes-Mischel
Ideally, a country should be led by a person that understands that other people are real.
June 22, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Ideally, a country should be led by a person that understands that other people are real.
Reposted by Becca Howes-Mischel
My heart breaks for trans kids, who do not deserve this obsessive animus that adults are directing at them.
June 18, 2025 at 2:58 PM
My heart breaks for trans kids, who do not deserve this obsessive animus that adults are directing at them.
Reposted by Becca Howes-Mischel
There were millions today.
In part bc there were a dozen of you at that intersection that time, or every Tues, or after soccer.
Or you stood alone with a sign at an overpass.
Or your tiny town rallied around a detained woman, or 17 yo, or family.
Your courage was contagious. Look what you did.
In part bc there were a dozen of you at that intersection that time, or every Tues, or after soccer.
Or you stood alone with a sign at an overpass.
Or your tiny town rallied around a detained woman, or 17 yo, or family.
Your courage was contagious. Look what you did.
Today, I stand with the millions of Americans making clear this country doesn't belong to a king.
It’s a democracy, and it belongs to the people.
It’s a democracy, and it belongs to the people.
Protesters crowd into streets, parks, and plazas at anti-Trump ‘No Kings’ demonstrations across US. Follow live updates. - The Boston Globe
The protests are timed to counterprogram a massive military parade commemorating the 250th birthday of the US Army in Washington, D.C.
www.bostonglobe.com
June 15, 2025 at 12:42 AM
There were millions today.
In part bc there were a dozen of you at that intersection that time, or every Tues, or after soccer.
Or you stood alone with a sign at an overpass.
Or your tiny town rallied around a detained woman, or 17 yo, or family.
Your courage was contagious. Look what you did.
In part bc there were a dozen of you at that intersection that time, or every Tues, or after soccer.
Or you stood alone with a sign at an overpass.
Or your tiny town rallied around a detained woman, or 17 yo, or family.
Your courage was contagious. Look what you did.
Reposted by Becca Howes-Mischel
The turnout at Saturday’s No Kings Day protest in Staunton was double what we saw locally in April, and I’m guesstimating may have been closer to 1,500, with people packed elbow to elbow on the courthouse lawn and lining the sidewalks on two surrounding streets.
augustafreepress.com/news/massive...
augustafreepress.com/news/massive...
Massive crowd turns out for Staunton No Kings Day protest
An estimated 1,500 people gathered for an anti-Trump protest at the Augusta County Courthouse in Staunton on No Kings Day.
augustafreepress.com
June 14, 2025 at 10:10 PM
The turnout at Saturday’s No Kings Day protest in Staunton was double what we saw locally in April, and I’m guesstimating may have been closer to 1,500, with people packed elbow to elbow on the courthouse lawn and lining the sidewalks on two surrounding streets.
augustafreepress.com/news/massive...
augustafreepress.com/news/massive...
Reposted by Becca Howes-Mischel
it’s time to read this again
May 24, 2025 at 6:27 PM
it’s time to read this again
Reposted by Becca Howes-Mischel
If two presidents colluding on TV to resurrect and profit from kidnapping and slavery in the middle of Passover isn't antisemitic I don't know what is.
After a Pesach arson.
We are in hell.
After a Pesach arson.
We are in hell.
April 14, 2025 at 4:52 PM
If two presidents colluding on TV to resurrect and profit from kidnapping and slavery in the middle of Passover isn't antisemitic I don't know what is.
After a Pesach arson.
We are in hell.
After a Pesach arson.
We are in hell.
Reposted by Becca Howes-Mischel
Yes! An entire article which challenges the “population collapse” narrative! 👏👏
“reproductive freedom is often treated as an obstacle to government ambitions”
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...
“reproductive freedom is often treated as an obstacle to government ambitions”
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...
Governments want more babies. Are reproductive freedoms at risk?
Low fertility rates have sparked panic and pronatalist initiatives around the world. But some experts are more concerned about the ethics of pushing for more births.
www.washingtonpost.com
April 13, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Yes! An entire article which challenges the “population collapse” narrative! 👏👏
“reproductive freedom is often treated as an obstacle to government ambitions”
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...
“reproductive freedom is often treated as an obstacle to government ambitions”
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...
Reposted by Becca Howes-Mischel
Black feminists do have a framework for this: reproductive justice.
It's premised on autonomy, medical ethics, anti-racism, environmental justice, and redistributive politics. Instead of the extremely facile and co-optable "more babies."
Dorothy Roberts and Dana-Ain Davis are great starting points
It's premised on autonomy, medical ethics, anti-racism, environmental justice, and redistributive politics. Instead of the extremely facile and co-optable "more babies."
Dorothy Roberts and Dana-Ain Davis are great starting points
another way to approach this is just to ask, where are the black pro-natalists?
April 12, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Black feminists do have a framework for this: reproductive justice.
It's premised on autonomy, medical ethics, anti-racism, environmental justice, and redistributive politics. Instead of the extremely facile and co-optable "more babies."
Dorothy Roberts and Dana-Ain Davis are great starting points
It's premised on autonomy, medical ethics, anti-racism, environmental justice, and redistributive politics. Instead of the extremely facile and co-optable "more babies."
Dorothy Roberts and Dana-Ain Davis are great starting points
Reposted by Becca Howes-Mischel
Why we wrote this book (2/2): “Anthropologists of reproduction undertake the project of documenting and describing what people do and explaining how and why.” From Chapter 1 - Why reproduction matters and what the anthropology of reproduction offers (Han and Tomori 2025, 1).
March 5, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Why we wrote this book (2/2): “Anthropologists of reproduction undertake the project of documenting and describing what people do and explaining how and why.” From Chapter 1 - Why reproduction matters and what the anthropology of reproduction offers (Han and Tomori 2025, 1).
Reposted by Becca Howes-Mischel
Hello #Iditarod fans, the mushers are off on the Fairbanks route and we’ve been busily prepping for #Igivearod to support the communities along the way! We’re posting here on Bluesky this year!
March 3, 2025 at 10:42 PM
Hello #Iditarod fans, the mushers are off on the Fairbanks route and we’ve been busily prepping for #Igivearod to support the communities along the way! We’re posting here on Bluesky this year!
Reposted by Becca Howes-Mischel
Research universities are often the largest employers in their region. They are often the primary health care providers to communities. This funding shift will not only reduce US research leadership, it will put working people out of work and reduce healthcare access.
Excellent 🧵 on this evening's NIH announcement of a dramatic reduction in indirect rates for research institutions, which amounts to a generational restructuring of the US research and development ecosystem. These cuts are effective immediately, not just for new grants but for existing ones.
6. The policy does not just affect funding going forward. All existing NIH grants will have their indirect rates cut to 15% as of today, the date of issuance.
For a large university, this creates a sudden and catastrophic shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars against already budgeted funds.
For a large university, this creates a sudden and catastrophic shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars against already budgeted funds.
February 8, 2025 at 1:40 AM
Research universities are often the largest employers in their region. They are often the primary health care providers to communities. This funding shift will not only reduce US research leadership, it will put working people out of work and reduce healthcare access.
Reposted by Becca Howes-Mischel
The order only acknowledges children born to man and woman “biological progenitors.” How it would affect LGBTQ+ families is one of many questions causing worry and confusion.
Trump executive order on birthright citizenship casts a narrow view of family
The order only acknowledges children born to man and woman “biological progenitors.” How it would affect LGBTQ+ families is one of many questions causing worry and confusion.
19thnews.org
February 6, 2025 at 5:38 PM
The order only acknowledges children born to man and woman “biological progenitors.” How it would affect LGBTQ+ families is one of many questions causing worry and confusion.
Reposted by Becca Howes-Mischel
I was interviewed by @msjpauly.bsky.social for @motherjones.com regarding that awful gamete size "sex" executive order. A bit of an explainer here of why the science is so bad, and why that's dangerous:
Trump’s definitions of "male" and "female" are nonsense science with staggering ramifications
"How can you so fully misunderstand basic human biology, and then legislate about it?"
www.motherjones.com
January 23, 2025 at 4:03 PM
I was interviewed by @msjpauly.bsky.social for @motherjones.com regarding that awful gamete size "sex" executive order. A bit of an explainer here of why the science is so bad, and why that's dangerous:
His world should always be thus, as far as he’s concerned.
January 19, 2025 at 9:05 PM
His world should always be thus, as far as he’s concerned.
Home soundscape
A moment for Los Angeles : Alt.Latino
Los Angeles is home for me and always in my heart. Watching the fires from afar in my current city, New York, has me thinking a lot about what makes my hometown great: breathtaking mountains, stunnin...
www.npr.org
January 15, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Home soundscape
When you’re navigating the already labyrinthine manuscript portal for a resubmission and the journal now requires new documents for which they provide no guidance
a woman is doing a yoga pose on a pink mat with the words awesome behind her
Alt: a woman is doing a contorting yoga pose on a pink mat with the words awesome behind her
media.tenor.com
January 14, 2025 at 9:42 PM
When you’re navigating the already labyrinthine manuscript portal for a resubmission and the journal now requires new documents for which they provide no guidance
Reposted by Becca Howes-Mischel
Thanks to everyone who pointed to the crucial sentences: Catastrophic fire erases what was there before. So does forgetting. Memory is a resource for facing the future; it’s equipment for imagining, planning, preparing.
January 9, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Thanks to everyone who pointed to the crucial sentences: Catastrophic fire erases what was there before. So does forgetting. Memory is a resource for facing the future; it’s equipment for imagining, planning, preparing.
As someone who built my adult life on the East Coast but still calls LA "home," this captures a push/pull yearning while my heart breaks at the fires' devastation www.nytimes.com/2025/01/09/o...
Opinion | It Is Tearing Me Up Not to Be in L.A. Right Now
Los Angeles may have a reputation for being superficial, but it is in fact a territory that might, at any moment, upend (or even end) your life.
www.nytimes.com
January 9, 2025 at 6:51 PM
As someone who built my adult life on the East Coast but still calls LA "home," this captures a push/pull yearning while my heart breaks at the fires' devastation www.nytimes.com/2025/01/09/o...