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Abusablepast

@abusablepast.bsky.social
1.3K followers 98 following 83 posts

The Abusable Past is the digital companion to the Radical History Review, presenting unique and original content related to the praxis of radical history. abusablepast.org and more at linktr.ee/theabusablepast

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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
We invite you to read an interview with Dr. Rahim Kurwa on the contemporary history of racial housing regimes in the Antelope Valley and local struggles against the regions pernicious forms of racial criminalization and housing segregation. Read more here abusablepast.org/struggling-f...
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Join Susana Morris, Elizabeth Todd-Breland, Alison Parker, & Ashley Farmer on the importance of writing Black women's lives & the role of Black women's biographies in creating spaces for liberation, new histories, and projects for imagining new futures. Read here abusablepast.org/black-women-...
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
The Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History stands as a documentary trove of people that have fought for women's reproductive rights. Come read an interview with the center's Collection Development Librarian, Kelly Wooten, on why such spaces are more important than ever. tinyurl.com/3xu8p3cd
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
In this timely conversation on racial terror and state-sanctioned violence, historian Seth Kotch explores how local racial designs in North Carolina scaled into sanitized state institutions and modern capital punishment across the 19th and 20th centuries. Read more abusablepast.org/lethal-state...
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
We invite you to read and listen to Stuart Schrader’s archival primer to Blue Power, his fascinating new history on the formation of police unions and their impact on national and local politics in the second half of the twentieth century. Read more here abusablepast.org/the-badge-me...
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
If you're an AHA member, please consider voting. The Abusable Past stands with these scholars & their commitment to ensuring the AHA is an organization that represents all historians, including those who work on the Middle East & oppose scholasticide in Gaza. Learn more: tinyurl.com/3ftthdhk
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
If you're an AHA member, please consider voting. The Abusable Past stands with these scholars & their commitment to ensuring the AHA is an organization that represents all historians, including those who work on the Middle East & oppose scholasticide in Gaza. Learn more: tinyurl.com/3ftthdhk
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
If you're an AHA member, please consider voting. The Abusable Past stands with these scholars & their commitment to ensuring the AHA is an organization that represents all historians, including those who work on the Middle East & oppose scholasticide in Gaza. Learn more: tinyurl.com/3ftthdhk
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
If you're an AHA member, please consider voting. The Abusable Past stands with these scholars & their commitment to ensuring the AHA is an organization that represents all historians, including those who work on the Middle East & oppose scholasticide in Gaza. Learn more: tinyurl.com/3ftthdhk
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
If you're an AHA member, please consider voting. The Abusable Past stands with these scholars & their commitment to ensuring the AHA is an organization that represents all historians, including those who work on the Middle East & oppose scholasticide in Gaza. Learn more: tinyurl.com/3ftthdhk
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
We count on your vote for our Democracy Slate scholars & their commitment to an AHA as an organization that represents all historians, including those who work on the Middle East & oppose scholasticide in Gaza. Meet the candidates! Learn more tinyurl.com/3ftthdhk
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
We count on your vote for our Democracy Slate scholars & their commitment to an AHA as an organization that represents all historians, including those who work on the Middle East & oppose scholasticide in Gaza. Meet the candidates! Learn more tinyurl.com/3ftthdhk
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Join us to ensure that the AHA functions democratically. We count on your vote for our Democracy Slate scholars & their commitment to an AHA as an organization that represents all historians, including those who work on the Middle East & oppose scholasticide in Gaza. Meet the Scholars!
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Join us to ensure that the AHA functions democratically. We count on your vote for our Democracy Slate scholars & their commitment to an AHA as an organization that represents all historians, including those who work on the Middle East & oppose scholasticide in Gaza. Learn more tinyurl.com/3ftthdhk
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Dr. Ravenscroft’s piece on W. E. B. Du Bois’s provides a fascinating history of a lesser-known part Du Bois’s work, following his visit to Japan. As Dr. Ravenscroft writes “Du Bois decried the imperial aggression of all states except one. Read her analysis here! abusablepast.org/w-e-b-du-boi...
Photograph of Du Bois and Japanese academics in conversation in Tokyo, 1936.
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
From a digital or analog collage, photo, drawing, blackout poem, video, or anything else, select artworks will be incorporated into openly licensed teaching materials. See more info about Executive Dis/Order at abusablepast.org/call-for-sub.... More questions can be directed to thepedlab@gmail.com.
A slide with a white box and dark text reading “example” below an excerpt of the White House’s Executive Order “Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities” accompanied by a poem titled “[record of transfer]”:

instructions:
remain solvent. 
comply with terms,
as outlined in the policy,
as amended without notice,
as interpreted by the holder. 

where self-direction exceeds design, 
debt may be used to re-establish form:
• debt to structure. 
• debt to discipline. 
• debt to contain. 

used to be, 
you could name 
what you owed
and to whom. 

our instructions: 
remain solvent,
stay still. please,
submit your forms again
to ensure proper processing.A slide with a white box and dark text reading “example” above an excerpt of a White House Executive Order title amended to “Expanding Migrant *Carceral Quarantine at Imperial Station Guantanamo Bay to Full Racist Xenophobic Capacity” *a place where people are kept between life and death for an indefinite period (Paik 113). Below is an amended memorandum alongside learning goals for a lesson plan adapted from this artwork.
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
The Pedagogy Lab & Center for Feminist Futures at UC Santa Barbara is seeking submissions for The Executive Dis/Order Project: Refusing Compliance. This project is looking for original art on executive power and its effects on democracy to build a visual archive of resistance to US suppression. /1
A slide with a dark red mauve gradient background and white text reading “Call for Submissions for The Executive Dis/Order Project: Refusing Compliance” from “The Pedagogy Lab & Center for Feminist Studies, UC Santa Barbara in collaboration with The Abusable Past.”
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
From Italian American radicalism, to the Black freedom struggle, radical Iranian theory and praxis, and drug war policing’s ties to Palestine solidarity repression, these works offer the interconnectedness of history to this current moment. We invite you to read more at linktr.ee/theabusablep... /2
linktr.ee
@theabusablepast | Linktree
Linktree. Make your link do more.
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
It would be an understatement to say 2025 so far has been difficult in the midst of political uncertainty and mounting assaults against our most vulnerable. Throughout this time, the Digital Collective has remained steadfast in our commitment to publish critical work and offers these pieces… /1
A slide with a red background and white text that reads “Luigi Mangione, Giuseppe Zangara, and the Forgotten History of Italian American Radicalism by Sonia C. Gomez” with a short description that reads “Tracing the long 20th century history of Italian American radicalism through Giuseppe Zangarw and Luigi Mangione, Gomez illuminates their connections through their twinned disillusionment with capitalism and political resistance borne from chronic pain.” Accompanied by a black-and-white collage from left to right Giuseppe Zangara in prisoner uniform, Luigi Mangione in prisoner uniform surrounded by police escorts, and a Giuseppe Zangara portrait with three other men and a looping white arrow behind to point at the body text.A slide with a red background and a photograph from the Black Freedom Studies speaker series at Schomburg Center with four people seated on stage in the center with audience members in the foreground. The white text reads “State Violence and the Black Freedom Struggle by Lucien Baskin” and description “As part of Conversations in Black Freedom Studies (CBFS) hosted by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Lucien Baskin interviews Mary Frances Phillips, Françoise Hamlin, and Orisabmi Burton for an event on State Violence: Prisons, Police, Politics.”A slide with a red background and a poster in red, gray, white, and black depicting a woman with her arms in chains breaking free surrounded by other revolutionary women and text reading “Hail To the Working and Struggling Women of the World.” The white text on the slide below reads “Radical Iranian Theory and Praxis Microsyllabus by Tagereh Aghdasifar, Arash Davari, Alexander Jabbari, Amira Jarmakani, and Goonar Nikpour” and a description reading “Spanning Iranian revolutions and revolutionary thought, carcerality, sociality, movement building, and the development of critical SWANA studies/Ethnic Studies, this micro syllabus facilitates engagement with radical Iranian thought instead of provincializing such work as area studies or even “counter-terrorism” studies.”A slide with a red background and a color photograph depicting a line of NYPD amassing to crack down on the International Women’s Day Global Strike for Gaza standing along the shoulder of a city street as passerby walk in front of them. Below, white text reads “Policing Solidarity: Lessons from the Drug War by Nadja Eisenberg-Guyot” and a short summary ”By linking drug policing to the repression of the Palestine solidarity movement in Turtle Island, Eisenberg-Guyot enumerates how the specific mechanisms and tactics of the drug war inform and reify U.S. settler-colonial, imperialist, and racial capitalist interests domestically and abroad.”
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 30/10/2024
Please read more here: abusablepast.org/forum-7-0-in... 🍉❤️‍🩹 6/6
abusablepast.org
Forum 7.0 // People’s University for Gaza, Introduction - The Abusable Past
It is difficult to capture how the world was utterly transformed since October 7, 2023. In response to Hamas’ Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, Israel unleashed an unrelenting genocide upon Palestinians in Gaz...
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 30/10/2024
...Many themes, lessons, and challenges emerge. We hope that this forum fulfills multiple purposes: that it will serve as an archive, a teaching resource, and a guide for future programming that will inspire those who continue struggling for collective liberation. /5
abusablepast.org
Forum 7.0 // People’s University for Gaza, Introduction - The Abusable Past
It is difficult to capture how the world was utterly transformed since October 7, 2023. In response to Hamas’ Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, Israel unleashed an unrelenting genocide upon Palestinians in Gaz...
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 30/10/2024
....Some offer a hyperlocal understanding of their encampment experience, others provide global linkages. Together, they paint a brief but vivid picture of what the encampments looked like, felt like, what they generated, what they challenged, and what it meant to those involved. /4
abusablepast.org
Forum 7.0 // People’s University for Gaza, Introduction - The Abusable Past
It is difficult to capture how the world was utterly transformed since October 7, 2023. In response to Hamas’ Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, Israel unleashed an unrelenting genocide upon Palestinians in Gaz...
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 30/10/2024
...Some pieces speak to ways that people who have long advocated for Palestinian liberation worked in this new political landscape. Others speak to how first-time activists joined, interpreted, and made sense of these encampment spaces. /3
abusablepast.org
Forum 7.0 // People’s University for Gaza, Introduction - The Abusable Past
It is difficult to capture how the world was utterly transformed since October 7, 2023. In response to Hamas’ Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, Israel unleashed an unrelenting genocide upon Palestinians in Gaz...
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 30/10/2024
..including experiments with teach-ins, alternative pedagogies, & the expansion of the classroom into the encampments. The following pieces are part of a forum about student activism & how faculty, students, & community members were involved in the encampments during the Spring semester of 2024. /2
abusablepast.org
Forum 7.0 // People’s University for Gaza, Introduction - The Abusable Past
It is difficult to capture how the world was utterly transformed since October 7, 2023. In response to Hamas’ Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, Israel unleashed an unrelenting genocide upon Palestinians in Gaz...
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 30/10/2024
It is difficult to capture how the world was utterly transformed since October 7, 2023…This past summer, the Digital Collective joined those who encouraged a serious reflection on the violent administrative response to a wide range of student activism ... /1
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 09/08/2024
In this piece, Sandhya Shukla reflects on the life and legacy of Vito Marcantonio, highlighting his cross-cultural solidarity and progressive vision, and urges readers to consider how his utopian ideals might inspire contemporary political action. Read more here: abusablepast.org/congressman-...
abusablepast.org
Congressman Vito Marcantonio: A Utopian Vision for His Time and Ours – The Abusable Past
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 09/08/2024
"Seventy years ago today, Vito Marcantonio, the most left-wing congressman in US history, suffered a fatal heart attack. He had by then left office disappointed by McCarthyism and the failure of pro-worker and anti-racist legislative efforts." /1
Rep. Marcantonio at his office, a trailer, with neighborhood children, ranging in age, from very young to teenagers. They are standing, some posing, some talking, with Marcantonio. The door to the trailer is open with some children standing inside the door frame, laughing. Marcantonio looks down at the child to his right, smiling warmly, with their arms around each other. The trailer reads "Congressional Office of your...Congressman," "Vito Ma....nio, "Meet him here," "PEACE," "Serves you..." Ellipsis in text signals what is blocked by the open door. Buildings line the top frame of the photo, behind Marcantonio's office.
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 08/08/2024
The deadline has been extended until August 20!
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 06/08/2024
Deadline tomorrow!
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 02/08/2024
Read more: abusablepast.org/pushing-forw... 📸: Promotional material for the 2022 National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. Source: Congressional Equality Caucus. 3/3
abusablepast.org
Pushing Forward: 25 Years of Black AIDS Awareness – The Abusable Past
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 02/08/2024
Scott examines the intersections of gender, religion, and sexuality and links these historical patterns to ongoing disparities. The microsyllabus, then, highlights broader systemic issues in healthcare, employment, and housing that continue to affect Black Americans today. /2
abusablepast.org
Pushing Forward: 25 Years of Black AIDS Awareness – The Abusable Past
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 02/08/2024
Looking for some reading material this weekend? Check out "Pushing Forward: 25 Years of Black AIDS Awareness," a microsyllabus by Aishah Scott. This piece focuses on how systemic marginalization intensified the AIDS crisis in Black communities. /1
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 01/08/2024
Deadline is today!
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 17/07/2024
"STOP THE GENOCIDE"-- waving various Palestinian flags. The text on top of the photo reads, "The Digital Collective of the Radical History Review Call for Submissions, Reflections from the People's University. Deadline: August 1, 2024."
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 17/07/2024
📸 credit: Montecruz Foto through The Academy Chronicle. Alt text: A transparent photo in the background of students protesting, holding signs--one that says ...
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 17/07/2024
The Abusable Past seeks contributions that speak to faculty and student experiences with teaching and learning during the Palestine solidarity protests of 2024. More information here: abusablepast.org/a-call-for-s...
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 16/07/2024
- Engage in critical discussions on institutional constraints and the complexities of practicing radical history within oppressive systems. More info here: abusablepast.org/call-for-sub...
abusablepast.org
Call for Submissions: “What is Radical History?” – The Abusable Past
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 16/07/2024
We seek submissions that: - Investigate the nature of radical history work and the responsibilities it entails. - Offer insights into radical history as a topic and methodology.
abusablepast.org
Call for Submissions: “What is Radical History?” – The Abusable Past
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 16/07/2024
Abusable Past is accepting submissions for a new forum exploring the essence and boundaries of radical history. We aim to understand the definition of radical history, who practices it, and the challenges they face.
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 12/07/2024
--one that says "STOP THE GENOCIDE"-- waving various Palestinian flags. The text on top of the photo reads, "The Digital Collective of the Radical History Review Call for Submissions, Reflections from the People's University. Deadline: August 1, 2024."
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 12/07/2024
📸 credit: Montecruz Foto through The Academy Chronicle. Alt text: A transparent photo in the background of students protesting, holding signs...
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 12/07/2024
The Abusable Past seeks contributions that speak to faculty and student experiences with teaching and learning during the Palestine solidarity protests of 2024. More information here: mtsacecachronicle.com/7839/world/u...
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 08/07/2024
This discussion delves into the historical and systemic connections between U.S. imperialism and the practice of immigrant detention. Read more here, abusablepast.org/detention-na... 📸 Covers of Elliott Young and Kristina Shull's books: Forever Prisoners and Detention Empire, respectively.
abusablepast.org
Detention Nation: US Empire and Immigrant Prisons – Tina Shull and Elliott Young in Conversation – The Abusable Past
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 08/07/2024
Check out "Detention Nation: US Empire and Immigrant Prisons – Tina Shull and Elliott Young in Conversation." Dr. Elliott Young is a Professor in the History Department at Lewis and Clark College. Dr. Tina Shull (she/her) is an Associate Professor and Director of Public History at UNC Charlotte.
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 29/06/2024
📸 St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington D.C., one of only two mental asylums ever operated by the U.S. federal government (Courtesy of the Library of Congress)
abusablepast.org
Immigration and Mental Health Collide, Again – The Abusable Past
In recent years, politicians in the United States have paid significant attention to two major political issues: firstly, the increased number of asylum-seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border, and secondly, the perceived dangers of homeless individuals with severe mental illness. At first glance, these might appear to be separate political and humanitarian crises; however, major U.S. politicians, such as Donald Trump, have connected them, echoing rhetoric from deep in U.S. history. Re-examining the history of psychiatry and immigration in the U.S. is a crucial exercise, as it reveals the complex and often unseen intersections between these two critical concerns.
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 29/06/2024
Read more --> abusablepast.org/immigration-...
abusablepast.org
Immigration and Mental Health Collide, Again – The Abusable Past
In recent years, politicians in the United States have paid significant attention to two major political issues: firstly, the increased number of asylum-seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border, and secondly, the perceived dangers of homeless individuals with severe mental illness. At first glance, these might appear to be separate political and humanitarian crises; however, major U.S. politicians, such as Donald Trump, have connected them, echoing rhetoric from deep in U.S. history. Re-examining the history of psychiatry and immigration in the U.S. is a crucial exercise, as it reveals the complex and often unseen intersections between these two critical concerns.
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 29/06/2024
📸 St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington D.C., one of only two mental asylums ever operated by the U.S. federal government (Courtesy of the Library of Congress)
abusablepast.org
Immigration and Mental Health Collide, Again – The Abusable Past
In recent years, politicians in the United States have paid significant attention to two major political issues: firstly, the increased number of asylum-seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border, and secondly, the perceived dangers of homeless individuals with severe mental illness. At first glance, these might appear to be separate political and humanitarian crises; however, major U.S. politicians, such as Donald Trump, have connected them, echoing rhetoric from deep in U.S. history. Re-examining the history of psychiatry and immigration in the U.S. is a crucial exercise, as it reveals the complex and often unseen intersections between these two critical concerns.
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 29/06/2024
By examining the historical context from which these frameworks emerged, Preschard underscores the need to reexamine these policies to avoid repeating injustices.
abusablepast.org
Immigration and Mental Health Collide, Again – The Abusable Past
In recent years, politicians in the United States have paid significant attention to two major political issues: firstly, the increased number of asylum-seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border, and secondly, the perceived dangers of homeless individuals with severe mental illness. At first glance, these might appear to be separate political and humanitarian crises; however, major U.S. politicians, such as Donald Trump, have connected them, echoing rhetoric from deep in U.S. history. Re-examining the history of psychiatry and immigration in the U.S. is a crucial exercise, as it reveals the complex and often unseen intersections between these two critical concerns.
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 29/06/2024
In "Immigration and Mental Health Collide, Again," Jeremy Peschard analyzes how U.S. policies tend to conflate asylum-seekers with having mental illnesses, harkening back to eugenics logic of the late 19th c.
A black and white image of a two-story brick structure surrounded by deciduous trees. A road leads up to the building. 

Caption: St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington D.C., one of only two mental asylums ever operated by the U.S. federal government (Courtesy of the Library of Congress)
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Abusablepast @abusablepast.bsky.social · 21/02/2024
An essential piece from Dr. Charlotte Mertens this morning on the ways that colonialism informs and continues to shape contemporary sexual violence in the conflict of Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). abusablepast.org/the-weapon-o...
abusablepast.org
The Weapon of Sexual Violence and its Discontents – The Abusable Past
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