Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Elizabeth O'Brien @eobrien.bsky.social · 15d

Calling all history of medicine books published between 2020 and 2025!

histmed.org/william-h-we...

William H. Welch Medal The William H. Welch Medal is awarded to one or more authors of a book (excluding edited volumes) of outstanding scholarly merit in the field of medical history published during...

histmed.org

1 5

Reposted by Elizabeth O'Brien

Australian Women's History Network @auswhn.bsky.social · 15d

Mothers have long been unfairly blamed for their children's autism, as Kate McAnelly recently wrote in #VIDAblog.

Knowing this history is all the more important following yesterday's scientifically unfounded allegations about paracetamol/tylenol.

Read more here ⬇️
www.auswhn.com.au/blog/unreal-...

Unreal and untrue: Refrigerator mother theory and the historic vilification of the mothers of disabled children | Australian Women's History Network

Dr Kate McAnelly explores how refrigerator mother theory was incorrectly used to blame mothers as being the cause of their children's autism.

www.auswhn.com.au

14 24

Elizabeth O'Brien @eobrien.bsky.social · 28d

Exciting job at Smith College! apply.interfolio.com/172309

Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

apply.interfolio.com

1 2

Reposted by Elizabeth O'Brien

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · Aug 19

People are STILL minimizing b/c the worst hasn't happened.

Sure, DC now has military checkpoints, but isn't crime bad there?

Sure, people are being dragged away by goon squads, but aren't they mostly illegal?

Sure, universities and the media are being strong-armed, but aren't they too liberal?

Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · Aug 19

US media is in the fetal position, living in a delirious haze, desperately trying to pretend everything is normal and this is all boring everyday politics, even as federal troops flood into DC and the entire western world mounts emergency missions to slow Trump down

James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · Aug 19

Actual question: It has been only 72 hours since the disastrous puppeteer/puppet show in Anchorage.

Has there yet been a background story on how, and by whom, this emergency intervention of *eight* big-time world leaders was pulled together, over a weekend?

39 370 1.4K

Reposted by Elizabeth O'Brien

Walker Bragman @walkerbragman.bsky.social · Aug 17

There needs to be a congressional investigation into ICE and its practices. The agency needs to be completely dissolved and its agents and officers need to be prosecuted for any and all crimes committed.

Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · Aug 17

What's so clear here -- and so terrifying -- is that these cops view themselves as Trump's goons and know that Trump will let them get away with anything. www.thehandbasket.co/p/federal-ag...

Federal agent during violent DC arrest: “Liberals already ruined” this country

Trump's thugs are proving their skull-bashing loyalty in broad daylight.

www.thehandbasket.co

56 590 2.3K

Reposted by Elizabeth O'Brien

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · Aug 16

This should get WIDE circulation:
MIT stating that it “has no confidence in the provenance, reliability or validity of the data and has no confidence in the veracity of the research contained in the paper.”

gizmodo.com/mit-backs-aw...

MIT Backs Away From Paper Claiming Scientists Make More Discoveries with AI

The retracted paper had impressed a Nobel Prize winner in economics.

gizmodo.com

46 1.7K 3.6K

Reposted by Elizabeth O'Brien

Mike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · May 24

Oh, so literally NO ONE is supposed to do war crimes?!?

Washington Post
It's not just
Netanyahu. The ICC wants to prosecute U.S. lawmakers too.
When senators protested the pursuit of Netanyahu, the prosecutor indicated it might move against them.
May 24, 2024

79 930 3.7K

Elizabeth O'Brien @eobrien.bsky.social · Aug 11

A University actually standing up to this nonsense? Let's go!!! universityofcalifornia.quorum.us/campaign/sta...

Pledge to Stand Up for UC

The future of America’s leading public university system is at stake.

universityofcalifornia.quorum.us

2 12

Elizabeth O'Brien @eobrien.bsky.social · Aug 5

Terrible.

3

Elizabeth O'Brien @eobrien.bsky.social · Aug 5

UCLA faculty, staff, students, and alumni— please sign: "University of California: Stand Up For Our Values" sites.google.com/view/ucstand...

Home

Please forward this letter widely at https://tinyurl.com/ucstandup

sites.google.com

1 2

Elizabeth O'Brien @eobrien.bsky.social · Aug 5

Delighted and excited to join História, Ciências, Saúde – Manguinhos as an associate editor!! Thank you so much for the invitation, @revistahcsm.bsky.social!

Revista HCSM @revistahcsm.bsky.social · Jul 24

Elizabeth O’Brien, Associate Professor at UCLA and a specialist in the history of medicine in Latin America, has joined História, Ciências, Saúde – Manguinhos as an associate editor.
revistahcsm.coc.fiocruz.br/english/eliz...
#HistoryOfMedicine #HCSManguinhos #ReproductiveHealth #LatinAmerica

2 12

Elizabeth O'Brien @eobrien.bsky.social · Jun 24

Congratulations, Stella!! How wonderful!!

1 1

Reposted by Elizabeth O'Brien

Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · Jun 2

As you read headlines like this, remember that repeated studies have determined immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than U.S.-born Americans. Do not fall into this Republican frame.

Mohamed Sabry Soliman: What we know about illegal immigrant accused in Colorado terror attack

Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an illegal immigrant, from Egypt, is accused of committing the terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, at an event advocating for the release of Israeli hostages.

www.foxnews.com

7 30 140

Elizabeth O'Brien @eobrien.bsky.social · May 30

More than happy to rent you my place (deeply discounted!) when I travel this summer! LMK. So glad you had a good trip :)

1 1

Reposted by Elizabeth O'Brien

Mina Kimes @minakimes.bsky.social · May 30

Musk should be asked about this in every interview he does now and forever. To ignore it is a dereliction of duty.

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/o...

There is one place, however, where Musk, with the help of his minions, achieved his goals. He did indeed shred U.S.A.I.D. Though a rump operation is now operating inside the State Department, the administration says that it has terminated more than 80 percent of U.S.A.I.D. grants. Brooke Nichols, an associate professor of global health at Boston University, has estimated that these cuts have already resulted in about 300,000 deaths, most of them of children, and will most likely lead to significantly more by the end of the year. That is what Musk’s foray into politics accomplished.

1.3K 14K 40K

Reposted by Elizabeth O'Brien

Patrick Chovanec @prchovanec.bsky.social · May 24

Harvard correctly understands that it’s in a fight for its life and there is no appeasement that will save it. I wish a lot more institutions understood this.

Mike Bloomfield @leegesmer.bsky.social · May 24

Harvard was able to file a 72 page complaint less than 24 hours after Trump attacked foreign students. Guess they were expecting it
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Read Harvard’s Lawsuit Against Trump

Harvard University sued the Trump administration after it moved to block international students from enrolling.

www.nytimes.com

48 810 3.8K

Elizabeth O'Brien @eobrien.bsky.social · May 23

I'm impressed that our PhD students organized this conference for other grad students and early career scholars. All are welcome to attend!

Southern California
History of Science Graduate Student Colloquium
9:00-9:50 AM
COFFEE AND BREAKFAST

9:50-10:00 AM OPENING REMARKS

10:00-11:15 PANEL 1
   

+

Katherine White, UC San Diego
Printing Medicine in Sixteenth-Century Colonial Mexico

+

Izabel Barros, UC Riverside

Beyond the Ledger: The Untold Stories of Enslaved Women and Children on a 19th- Century Swiss Plantation in Bahia, Brazil
+

Julian Kaptanian, UC Los Angeles
Moderator
11:15-11:30 AM BREAK

 
11:30 AM-1:00 PM PANEL 2

+

Niall Chithelen, UC San Diego

Unstable Concrete Structures: Time and Environment in the History of Technology
+

Alexandra Noi, UC Santa Barbara

(Re)Making a Homo Pavlovius: Labor Therapy, Pavlovian Conditioning, and the Stalinist Gulag
+

Joseph Moreno, UC San Diego

Frontier Statecraft: From Massive Agribusiness in South Texas to the Development of Starbase (SpaceX)

+

 

   

Chiara Di Leone, UC Los Angeles
Moderator
1:00-2:00 PM LUNCH
If arriving after 10:00 AM, please contact Meg or Ben, so that we can let you in.

May 24, 2025  9:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Room 6275, Sixth Floor, Bunche Hall, UCLA
11282 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095

*The closest parking lot to Bunche Hall is Parking Structure 3
2:00-3:15 PM
PANEL 3

Sookyong Ko, UC San Diego

Portrait Art or Science Image?: Oscar G. Mason and the Early Medical Daguerreotypes

Robyn Fishman, UC Santa Barbara
Sitting Pretty: The National Trends in Anthropology Revealed by Frances E. Watkins' Career
at the Southwest Museum
Ben Schnieder, UC Los Angeles
Moderator
3:15-3:30 PM
Break
3:30-4:15 PM
Roundtable 

+
Erin Budrow, UC Los Angeles

+
Alden Requena-Robison, UC San Diego

+ 

Ben Schnieder, UC Los Angeles

Community Disenfranchisement and Environmental Displacement in the Institutionalization of Science and Medicine  

+

Meg Spaulding, UC Los Angeles
Moderator

2 13

Elizabeth O'Brien @eobrien.bsky.social · May 22

Big congratulations, Jacqueline Wolf!! Well deserved!!

Elizabeth O'Brien @eobrien.bsky.social · May 22

@whitneyepi.bsky.social, this means so much to me. Thank you! It seems like worlds have come and gone since the Dobbs decision. Terrible times; hope you and yours are ok. It's a pleasure to meet you here and I hope our paths cross in person sooner rather than later.

1

Reposted by Elizabeth O'Brien

Adam Cohen (My Personal Views Only) @axidentaliberal.bsky.social · May 21

Judge Brian Murphy enjoined the Trump administration from improperly deporting immigrants to 3rd countries

It seems they violated that order

Now the judge says EVERYONE involved could face criminal contempt sanctions

Good

They deprived these immigrants of due process

There must be consequences

25 84 330

Elizabeth O'Brien @eobrien.bsky.social · May 19

Today at 4 pm PST (in 90 minutes) Dana Simmons will give a talk about her new book, "On Hunger: Violence and Craving in America, from Starvation to Ozempic." All are welcome to join! Link on this page history.ucla.edu/event/dana-s...

Dana Simmons: “On Hunger: Violence and Craving in America, from Starvation to Ozempic”

Join via Zoom here.

history.ucla.edu

1

Elizabeth O'Brien @eobrien.bsky.social · May 19

Thank you so much, dear and brilliant Christina!! I love that we have sister books and I'm always talking about how amazing yours is. Sending you big hugs! <3

2

Elizabeth O'Brien @eobrien.bsky.social · May 19

"Straight-up banger" is a phrase that will buoy me even in my lowest moments!!

1

Reposted by Elizabeth O'Brien

Carlos Noreña @carlosfnorena.bsky.social · May 18

According to a 2021 report, the University of California system:

• generated $82B in economic activity in California

• supported 529K jobs in the state

• generated $21 in economic output for every $1 received

Public divestment from higher ed makes no sense, even in the narrowest economic terms.

Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · May 18

There is a false dichotomy drawn between "the ivory tower" and "the real world," and I'm here to report that in a post-industrial society, your real-world economy absolutely hinges on the university.

University towns are factory towns. Universities drive economic activity, not the other way around.

Prof Christina Pagel @chrischirp.bsky.social · May 18

A must read

9 330 860

Elizabeth O'Brien @eobrien.bsky.social · May 18

Nursing Clio is the best!!!

American Association for the History of Medicine @aahmhistmed.bsky.social · May 17

The George Rosen Prize honors a significant contribution to the history of public health or the history of social medicine. This year's honoree was @nursingclio.bsky.social for their "critical service to the profession and to humanity in the present political climate." 🗃️

1 3