iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

I'm thrilled to be returning to Wheaton College this week to share from my current research. If any friends in the area are interested, come out on Wednesday night! 🗃️

071

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

Natalia is as smart, compelling, and kind in person as she seems in her public work. I highly recommended reading *Fit Nation* and inviting her to your campus! press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

press.uchicago.edu

Fit Nation

How is it that Americans are more obsessed with exercise than ever, and yet also unhealthier? Fit Nation explains how we got here and imagines how we might create a more inclusive, stronger future. If...

130

Reposted by Jonathan D. Riddle

Natalia Mehlman Petrzela @nataliapetrzela.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

Can't wait to talk FIT NATION at Pepperdine! Join us IRL in Malibu on Tuesday for my public talk!

021

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

I'm so excited to welcome @nataliapetrzela.bsky.social to campus next week to help launch our new minor! The lecture is open to the public, so feel free to join if you're in the area! You can buy her book while here, too.

021

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

What was supposed to take one year has now taken five years (and counting) due to various obstacles. But artist Vinnie Bagwell is still proceeding with plans to install her "Victory" statue where James Marion Sims's statue once stood. #histmed 🗃️ www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

theguardian.com

The ongoing fight to replace racist monuments in the US: ‘requires a lot of perseverance’

Since a reckoning brought awareness to problematic statues across the country, the road to replacing them has been slow and arduous

1289

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

Famous trainer Jillian Michaels announces support for MAHA: “[What] we’re not going to get from the government, you can create in your own life by taking agency.” My book on c19 health reform explores how agency became the watchword in US health. #histmed 🗃️ www.newsbreak.com/the-kansas-c...

newsbreak.com

Jillian Michaels Backs RFK Jr.’s Health Movement - NewsBreak

Fitness trainer Jillian Michaels has supported Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement. She

272

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

“The foundation [of the curriculum] is traditional medicine but enhanced with the humanities and the arts to improve the delivery of care—so we improve on how we [act] with patients and how we partner with patients,” says Makhija. #histmed time.com/7303692/alic...

time.com

The World's Richest Woman Has Opened a Medical School

The Alice L. Walton School of Medicine is trying a new approach to medical education.

030

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

This is more than I expected! Now we need a post about how subfields use the same design language and fonts (especially Civil War studies). I'm assuming that's intentional by presses?

010

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

The EEOC is suing the Mayo Clinic for refusing an employee's request for a religious exemption to their vaccine mandate. It gets less fanfare these days, but folks are still processing and fighting over pandemic issues like mandates, religious liberty, etc. www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/ne...

cbsnews.com

Mayo Clinic refused employee's COVID-19 vaccine exemption request, lawsuit says

A lawsuit filed Thursday alleges the Mayo Clinic violated federal law when it refused a security guard's request to be exempt from getting the COVID-19 vaccine because of his religious beliefs.

010

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

Something akin to the way Emily K. Abel's article on the Gillespies reveals so much about women and caregiving in the home in the nineteenth-century US. It's great and teachable.

010

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

Do any of you brilliant #histmed teachers know of a nice narrative introduction to early nineteenth-century medicine? Something like a case study of a doctor or a patient? I'm looking for something for undergraduates. I have a separate story for medicine and slavery.🗃️

332

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

On the fiction that we're in total control of our health. Building on Nancy Tomes's history of patients becoming savvy consumers. #histmed 🗃️ hedgehogreview.com/issues/after...

"So once you’re equipped with information, your next stop is the app store on your phone. There’s an app for every landmark on your journey. Just accept the terms, download, and follow the prompts. And stay alert to the health news filling your inbox. It is on you to journey safely, and older advice can lead you straight off a cliff."

0103

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

I'm so sorry to hear this. How terribly cruel.

100

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

Just like Christian bodybuilding, Christian diet culture abides. I would just add that its history stretches further back than the 1970s and Oral Roberts. In fact, I'm writing about its manifestation in the 1830s! 🗃️ www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | The Unrepentant Return of Christian Diet Culture

292

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

Big news for #skystorians 🗃️: Zotero now supports CMOS 18.

020

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

A new survey shows that "congregation switching and ideological sorting" have increased among church-goers since the pandemic. Is this just a correlation, or did pandemic-inspired reflection cause people to make a change in their religious lives? baptistnews.com/article/post...

baptistnews.com

Post-COVID, church-shifting has created more ideological agreement – Baptist News Global

The COVID pandemic facilitated a greater sorting of churchgoers into more ideological groups than before

000

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

Based on how useful *The Book Proposal Book* was for me, I'm very much looking forward to this one!

120

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

Even better, it's part of a cluster hire.

000

Reposted by Jonathan D. Riddle

Melanie A. Kiechle @melaniekiechle.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

Is anyone working on the history of homeopathy? Or do you know scholars who have written about homeopathy recently? I could use some help... #histmed 🗃️

1178

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

Understood! Thanks again for the recommendation.

010

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

I just ordered it! I've previously assigned Washington's *Medical Apartheid* for this perspective. How do you think they compare?

100

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

I'm currently spamming my ILL librarian. Thank you!

020

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

Previously, I've used an excerpt from Robert A. Hahn, *Sickness and Healing: An Anthropological Perspective.* It helps show the importance of forces beyond the body itself, including the social and psychosomatic. But it didn't quite do the trick. Too anthropological, I guess!

100

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

Yeah, sorry about: I'm teaching the history of health and medicine in the US, so examples from that context would work best.

000

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

Right! I mean, this is one of the main goals of the course (history of health and medicine in the US). So I hope they get it in the end. But I'm just hoping to start with something quick and evocative, like "consumption was chic but people shamed AIDS patients: why?"

210

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

I'm teaching the history of health and medicine in the US (or the lands that became the US), so something North American suits me best. But I think I'd use something further afield if it did the trick.

010

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

#histmed #skystorians: Do you have a favorite reading for introducing students to the *historical* nature of health and medicine? i.e. It's not just the march of science, but context matters. I find great snippets here and there, but I'm looking for a standalone reading. Case studies welcome. 🗃️

9227

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

Oh, that could be it! I wish the writer had crossed the t so I could be sure. The third letter could also be a u? Hard to know as As are sometimes closed, sometimes open in the document.

110

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

Can anyone make out the missing word? 🗃️ Doctor reflecting on seeing poor dispensary patients during the day and then going to fancy parties with the wealthy at night. "surroundings of wealth and the luxury have made me [something] for a time and moralize upon the different phases of human life."

490

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

A reference librarian scanned and emailed me the document in under an hour! Bless them! Just incredible.

110

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Okay! Thanks for letting me know. I'm on the other coast, so I'm hoping against hope for some remote services...

110

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Do any #histsci #histmed #skystorians have experience researching at the National Library of Medicine? Do you know if they offer scanning services? 🗃️

441

Reposted by Jonathan D. Riddle

Pratik Chakrabarti @pratik-hstm.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

ThreeTT jobs in history of medicine, science, and environment at Texas State University. One in Public history jobs.hr.txstate.edu/postings/sea...

12116

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

I wonder if this model could be generalized to work on nineteenth-century American handwriting more broadly?

310

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

Happy to help! I love a good paleography puzzle. (This community solved one of my own puzzles recently!)

020

Reposted by Jonathan D. Riddle

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

PLEASE SHARE: We just posted an ad for TWO research assistant positions on @pewresearch.org's religion team. We expect a lot of applications so it's best to apply this week for full consideration. Come work with our great team! pewtrusts.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Center...

Project Overview

Pew Research Center is seeking two Research Assistants to join its Religion research project. The Research Assistants will support the project’s demography of religion and U.S. survey research teams. The demography of religion team analyzes data on the religious identity and characteristics of populations. It produces reports describing the religious composition of countries as well as other topics at the intersection of religion and social trends (e.g. religion and educational attainment, gender differences in religious commitment levels). The U.S. survey research team produces reports that explore issues at the intersection of religion and public affairs. Through public opinion surveys and other quantitative tools, it studies religious groups in the U.S. and examines the influence of religion on politics and society.

The people in these positions will work closely with other researchers on staff and will report to an Associate Director of Religion research.

Primary Responsibilities

Compiling and analyzing data from surveys and censuses
Descriptive statistical analysis
Creating tables and charts in Stata, Excel, Word and PowerPoint
Contacting statistical agencies to request information and custom tables
Data cleaning, maintaining and reviewing internal files and databases
Number checking, fact checking, proofing
Performing background research, including literature reviews, contacting subject matter experts and online data gathering
Assisting with questionnaire development
Coordinate the translation and checking of questionnaires

Education/Training/Experience

B.A. degree is required. A concentration in sociology, political science, economics or another social science is desirable
Strong quantitative skills, background in data management and analysis preferred
Experience undertaking research using Stata, R, SPSS or other statistical software
Mastery of descriptive statistics
Knowledge and Skill Requirements

Quantitative skills, including an ability to use Stata, SPSS or other statistical software
Interest in public and/or international affairs, particularly in issues concerning religion and the intersection of religion and public life
Strong verbal and written communications skills
Facility using syntax commands to carefully document analysis using log files is desired
Ability to balance numerous projects simultaneously
Attention to detail, including exacting standards to maintain accuracy and impartiality in all work products
Proven ability to communicate research results clearly and concisely
Ability to work collaboratively and collegially with staff from the religion team, as well as with staff from other Pew Research Center projects and outside organizations
Ability to balance multiple projects and meet tight deadlines while ensuring accuracy in data management, fact checking and research
Ability to communicate in more than one language is advantageous

56581

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

As far as I can tell, collaboration has shaped the interaction of medicine and religion as much as secularization. Both strains weave their way through the history. 🗃️ "Georgetown Launches Faith-Health Commission To Strengthen Trust in Health Systems" www.georgetown.edu/news/georget...

georgetown.edu

New Faith-Health Project Aims To Increase Trust in Health Systems

The Global Health Institute's initiative will explore how collaborations between faith and health leaders can improve global health outcomes.

141

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

At the least, it would be nice if we could give them our photos and transcriptions after we're done with our projects. Again, not perfect, but better than nothing? Once I ordered a ton of scans rather than travel, and the archive used the money to digitize the whole collection. That seems ideal.

100

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

I can imagine many reasons archives would not support this, but I sometimes dream about a crowdsourced website where we all upload our archive photos. It wouldn't be as good as formal digitization projects, of course, but it would save lots of time and money.

110

Jonathan D. Riddle @jonathandriddle.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

What are the chances a #skystorian has already visited the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to scan George Wood's transcribed diary? 🗃️ We really need a way to avoid repeating the same work over and over again. discover.hsp.org/Record/ead-A...

discover.hsp.org

Description: George Bacon Wood diary :: Library Catalog

131