Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Rachel Louise Moran @rachellouisemoran.bsky.social · 6d

I organized the "Medicine Crossing Borders: Immigration and Health" panel for Oct. 9. It is open to all who register and features an incredible line-up of scholars: Eram Alam (Harvard), William Lopez (Michigan), Joel Daniel Olea-Calixto (UC Davis), and Andre Rosario (Rutgers). Please join us!

Rachel Louise Moran @rachellouisemoran.bsky.social · 6d

I serve on the AAHM's Outreach and Education committee, and we are about to launch an exciting 2025 History of Medicine Week series! We have events all next week, a couple are only for AAHM members but most are open to anyone interested.

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Rachel Louise Moran @rachellouisemoran.bsky.social · 9d

Historians, please share these two exciting new positions in the Texas A&M History Department:

careers.historians.org/jobs/2167991...

careers.historians.org/jobs/2168299...

Tenure-Track, Assistant Professor of Environmental History in College Station, TX for Texas A&M University, Department of History

Exciting opportunity in College Station, TX for Texas A&M University, Department of History as a ...

careers.historians.org

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Rachel Louise Moran @rachellouisemoran.bsky.social · 16d

Great read

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · 16d

🚨Published in the American Historical Review!🚨

My article argues that historians can treat the body as an archive. Using my own training alongside J.C. Hise’s 1930s squat experiments, I explore how fitness culture reshapes bodies, identities & anxieties.

👉 bit.ly/46xlcVw

Mistakes I Carried: Building Strength in a Time of Crisis

Abstract. My critical mistake as a historian was ignoring the physical body as a site of knowledge production. For years, I analyzed fitness history in arc

bit.ly

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Rachel Louise Moran @rachellouisemoran.bsky.social · 16d

Congratulations! This is really interesting and important, of course for fitness history folks but also for anyone interested in methods. So much to think through here.

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Reposted by Rachel Louise Moran

Jacqueline Antonovich @jackiantonovich.bsky.social · Sep 3

Historians call this "positive eugenics." Policies that encourage "normal" people (however that idea is conceived at a particular time) to have more kids. The sister to that is "negative eugenics." Laws that prohibits "unfit" people from having kids. One often does not exist without the other.

Jacob Bogage @jacobbogage.bsky.social · Sep 3

👀 NEW: The group behind Project 2025 wants a "Manhattan Project" for more babies.

We have the Heritage Foundation's closely-held draft paper taking a hard turn into "pronatalism."

It pitches ripping up economic policy to induce straight, married couples to have more children.

Gift link ⤵️

The group behind Project 2025 wants a ‘Manhattan Project’ for more babies

A draft position paper from the Heritage Foundation proposes massive revisions to U.S. economic policy to encourage heterosexual married parents to have more children.

wapo.st

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Rachel Louise Moran @rachellouisemoran.bsky.social · Sep 3

U Chicago Press has a sale on history books with the code history2025, including 30% off mine (& whoa at the incredible company it is in here!)

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Rachel Louise Moran @rachellouisemoran.bsky.social · Aug 30

When working on my postpartum depression book I met folks so excited about therapy chat bots (& now genAI therapy). New parents in the US struggle to find mental health providers, struggle to afford them, and don’t have childcare to see them. This doesn’t solve those problems. It just accepts them.

‘Sliding into an abyss’: experts warn over rising use of AI for mental health support

Therapists say they are seeing negative impacts of people increasingly turning to AI chatbots for help

www.theguardian.com

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Rachel Louise Moran @rachellouisemoran.bsky.social · Aug 27

First academic journal review of my book Blue: A History of Postpartum Depression in America! Thoughtful (and positive, phew!) review in the Journal of Social History, from the amazing Wendy Kline.

Journal of Social History book review, title page of a journal review

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Rachel Louise Moran @rachellouisemoran.bsky.social · Aug 26

Preordered!! Such a glaring gap in the literature, I’m really excited to read it. Do you know yet if it will also be an audiobook?

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Reposted by Rachel Louise Moran

Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · Aug 7

Wow: tenure letter writers’ publication records (h-index) are better predictors of tenure decisions than candidates’ own publication record.

Jin X. Goh | 吴晋勋 @jinxungoh.bsky.social · Aug 7

Another paper from the same group: "External review letters are more closely related to letter writer characteristics than candidate productivity."

External review letters in academic promotion and tenure decisions are reflective of reviewer characteristics

We examine validity and bias in external review letters (ERLs) in academic settings. ERLs play a critical role in promotion and tenure (P&T) decisions…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Rachel Louise Moran @rachellouisemoran.bsky.social · Aug 8

Going over page proofs for an article coming out this fall! First piece from my new project. I am super proud of my recent book on postpartum depression but I can't lie, this has been a less depressing project so far...

The Politics of Penetration: Sexual Self-Fulfillment and the G-Spot in 1980s America, Rachel Louise Moran

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Rachel Louise Moran @rachellouisemoran.bsky.social · Jul 23

I thought every public pool was required to blast pop or pop country, but my they are blasting The Smiths at kids swim lessons in freaking College Station, Texas and it is all so gloriously wonderfully weird

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Rachel Louise Moran @rachellouisemoran.bsky.social · Jun 25

A fun interview I did with Laura McClaw Helms, with way less editing than I am used to so you can read me just jumping around topics like a hyper squirrel (albeit a squirrel with a lot of enthusiasm for the history of postpartum depression)

Uncovering the History of Postpartum Depression

A Conversation with Historian Rachel Louise Moran

laurakitty.substack.com

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Reposted by Rachel Louise Moran

University Press of Mississippi @upmississippi.bsky.social · Jun 17

Michael Steudeman joins @NPR’s Throughline to explore the 19th-century roots of the Dept. of Education—drawing from his upcoming book ABSENCE OF NATIONAL FEELING. Listen + catch the book mention at the end!
🔗 buff.ly/TccdOzc
#UPMississippi #Throughline #EducationHistory

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Reposted by Rachel Louise Moran

Zodi Mamuwalde @zodi777.blacksky.app · Jun 19

Many people don’t know that there are #oralhistory collections that provide firsthand accounts of the experiences of Black Texans. Take a moment to explore them today. Here’s one collection:

#Juneteenth #TexasHistory #BlackTexans #BlackTexasHistory

bn.web.baylor.edu/news/story/2...

Juneteenth memories from Baylor’s oral history archives

bn.web.baylor.edu

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Rachel Louise Moran @rachellouisemoran.bsky.social · Jun 16

It is so much cultural anxiety jam packed in one page, def saving for students. What is Suzy doing with a grill, though?!?

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Rachel Louise Moran @rachellouisemoran.bsky.social · Jun 16

This is amazing. What year is it from?

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Rachel Louise Moran @rachellouisemoran.bsky.social · Jun 16

So this review calls Blue "a magnificent, comprehensive, and long-overdue history of postpartum depression in the US," which is incredible. More incredible is the author weaves her own postpartum depression/psychosis story into the academic review in thoughtful and moving ways.

T. Lacy @tnlacy.bsky.social · May 25

New @susih.bsky.social: A book review from Audrey Wu Clark. #HistMed #USIH
--------------------------
On Rachel Louise Moran’s *Blue: A History of Postpartum Depression in America*

s-usih.org/2025/05/audr...

Audrey Wu Clark on Rachel Louise Moran’s *Blue: A History of Postpartum Depression in America* | Society for US Intellectual History

When I first experienced postpartum depression and psychosis in 2013, nine months after my first child was born, a well-known psychiatrist told me that postpartum depression did not exist. I knew some...

s-usih.org

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Rachel Louise Moran @rachellouisemoran.bsky.social · Jun 12

My daughter's camp counselor described her as "a whole vibe," and I am too old to know if this is a compliment, an insult, or a little of both.

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Rachel Louise Moran @rachellouisemoran.bsky.social · Jun 10

Haunted by this 30-year-old postpartum depression self help book I bought used, that came with the questionnaires filled in.

Postpartum depression inventory in used book with check mark next to “I am afraid that I might harm myself in order to escape this pain”

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Rachel Louise Moran @rachellouisemoran.bsky.social · Jun 6

targeted ads really going for the jugular

greeting card congratulations on all your citations sorry they only temporarily quell the feelings of inadequecy and despair

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Rachel Louise Moran @rachellouisemoran.bsky.social · May 21

Completely beyond capacity (aren't we all) but was asked to blurb a book of poetry related to postpartum illness and of course had to say yes. I earned a minor in English 20 years ago and FINALLY I can cash that baby in.

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Reposted by Rachel Louise Moran

Wyatt Sinclair @wyattswickedgoods.com · May 17

"The NEH’s entire budget is about $200 million — less than what the Department of Defense spends every six hours. And yet its reach touches towns that rarely see federal investment in education and culture."

‘You should be worried': Small town NH library has funds pulled by federal government

A rollback in humanities funding is threatening years of progress to expand a small library in Mont Vernon, New Hampshire.

www.nbcboston.com

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Rachel Louise Moran @rachellouisemoran.bsky.social · May 17

just accidentally put my annual gyno appointment on the department calendar, so that's how today is going

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