Elise A. Mitchell

I know professors are burnt out and terrified right now, but we have to be asking this question if we value education and knowledge production and want to see any of it happen in the rest of the 21st century.

At this point, from my little sphere as professor, I’m like, pedagogically, how do I respond to mass trauma? Not saying kids weren’t traumatized before now, but like we are going to see a generation of young adults who are sick from all this. As educators how do we even begin to respond?

Maybe it’s the educator and former babysitter and camp counselor in me that just can’t with this… but like our (right and centrist, Democrat and Republican) politicians and societies in the US and wider West have normalized atrocious predation on children in the name of war and politicking.

Just as the global right has exploited political, social, and economic inequities to harm other marginalized groups, they have done so with surgical precision to harm children. Any adult who stands idly by and allows this to occur is permitting and protecting gruesome predation. It’s astounding.

I don’t intend to be ageist, at the same time from the privilege of adulthood, I recognize that children are a particularly vulnerable group for obvious reasons (size, access to knowledge, socialization etc) and because they are not politically enfranchised.

All of this plus our contempt for the climate and the rise of AI leads me to believe the West in the 21st century hates children and has declared war on them.

The treatment of children in the 21st century… I am at a loss for words from Gaza and Greta to Chicago to Khartoum, to everywhere under attack, where aid has been relinquished and denied, where children can not access healthcare, gender affirming or otherwise. I am at a loss.

The event went well.

swarthmorephoenix.com/2025/10/02/a...

Office Hours: Faculty on the Role of Professors in the Liberal Arts - The Phoenix In the inaugural article of our new Opinions series “Office Hours,” various Swarthmore faculty members share their thoughts on the role of professors in services of the liberal arts.

Student editors ask some of my colleagues and I to reflect on the role of professors at our college today. Our responses:

swarthmorephoenix.com/2025/10/02/o...

At a time when Black history and histories of migration are under attack, when Black people and migrants are under attack, making and playing this game is giving me some reprieve and joy 😉

The fact that the game has been called “fun” in small and large classes makes me really excited to do this!

I hope to design and print a few decks (since others requested them) with my sister, who is a graphic designer, next year.

The cards, like the survey course, are hemispheric in scope, with attention to Black histories that unfolded simultaneously across parts of Western Africa and Western Europe. The emphasis however is on the Americas.

Even with a smaller class Black History Taboo was still a blast! After I teach the second half of the survey next semester, I will be working with a designer for a full deck!

Colonial “Illegals”: Marronage Communities and the Ongoing War on Migrants — INSURRECT! “Experience is our best teacher, and we must check time: remember what we have lost, who we have been, and commit to supporting, in whatever ways we can, the communities and networks of undocumented w...

www.insurrecthistory.com/archives/xd6...

As I prepare to do my first public event here, a conversation with an award-winning Palestinian-American author and dear friend focused on her family history and memoir, I am thinking a lot about histories the that will sit in the room with us and the material and political imperatives of redress.

He reminded us that the history of slavery is not abstract but its legacies are, as others have said, “sitting in the room” with us.

We ended class in “Black Atlantic History” today by discussing social death and historical redress. A brilliant student argued that historical redress is insufficient if we don’t attend to Black people’s material circumstances and political exigencies in the present.

So we are getting an Assata Shakur Day right?
A day for community love right?
A day for prison and policing abolition right?
Or is even asking that question a fireable offense now too?

I mean… we might just have to go analog after all the social media nonsense going on these days… idk call me or something until further notice…

Advisory to Academic Workers In a moment when it is becoming increasingly difficult to predict the consequences of our online speech and choices, the AAUP and Faculty First Responders are issuing guidance to AAUP members and othe...

The @aaup.org just shared guidance for academic workers on how to protect themselves online www.aaup.org/news/advisor...

The new TOC from academia dot edu. By creating an Account with Academia.edu, you grant us a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license, permission, and consent for Academia.edu to use your Member Content and your personal information (including, but not limited to, your name, voice, signature, photograph, likeness, city, institutional affiliations, citations, mentions, publications, and areas of interest) in any manner, including for the purpose of advertising, selling, or soliciting the use or purchase of Academia.edu's Services.

If you’re on academia dot edu, let me suggest that you strongly consider deleting your account.

I love being invited to speak and share work. I especially love it when the forum is within commuting distance of Philadelphia. Just calling in more local opportunities this year…

The Responsibility of Intellectuals in the Age of Fascism and Genocide - Boston Review Speaking the truth and exposing lies is not enough.

“Antifascism not only drew students and faculty out of the universities and into the streets. It also brought antifascism and varieties of Marxism—Trotskyism, Stalinism, Fabian Socialism—into the university.”

Robin D. G. Kelley:

Map of COVID vaccine availability by state

🚨 UPDATE on the current COVID vaccine access situation in the US.

Please note that this is based on state laws but different things may be happening on the ground, and some pharmacies are defaulting to federal guidelines instead of state laws.

The ACH Executive Committee is pleased to announce that its 57th Annual Conference will be held at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, from May 24-28, 2026. (There will be an optional field trip on Friday, May 29.)

Call for papers! associationofcaribbeanhistorians.org/annual-meeti...

El Comité Ejecutivo de la ACH anuncia la 57ª Conferencia Anual se celebrará en la University of the West Indies Jamaica, del 24 a 28 de mayo de 2026. (El viernes 29 de mayo está prevista una excursión opcional.)

Convocatoria: associationofcaribbeanhistorians.org/es/reunion-a...

Le comité exécutif de l’ACH sont heureux de vous annoncer que la 57e conférence annuelle se tiendra du 24 au 28 mai 2026 à l’Université des West Indies en Jamaïque. (Une excursion facultative est prévue le vendredi 29 mai.)

Appel a contributions: associationofcaribbeanhistorians.org/fr/reunion-a...

Day one… and the students continue to inspire…

Ranting because I’m pissed (and getting to my office later than planned thanks to the cuts). Get it together Harrisburg and fund SEPTA!