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Melanie A. Kiechle

@melaniekiechle.bsky.social
2.6K followers 933 following 128 posts

Historian of #C19 United States: health, science, cities, environments, and smells. Lots of smells. Author of Smell Detectives. Now musing alternatively about buried creeks, sensitivity, and an ill woman.

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Melanie A. Kiechle @melaniekiechle.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
How can you teach and fight climate change? This is the question that 70+ #envhist scholars wrangle, from a variety of histories and concerns, for the forthcoming A Historians' Handbook to Save the World. mitpress.mit.edu/978026205625...
mitpress.mit.edu
A Historian's Handbook for Saving the World
The work of historians is vital to this moment. As climate debates shift from “believing the science” to fighting for the massive changes needed ...
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Melanie A. Kiechle @melaniekiechle.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Just delivered! The Oxford Handbook of American Medical History, in which I’m especially excited to finally discuss and share this amazing cartoon by Thomas Nast. #histmed
Book cover of The Oxford Handbook of American Medical History. Opening pages of chapter 3, titled “Public Health Challenges.” The opposite page features a cartoon of a grim reaper shaped cloud rising above a man holding a broom.
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Chris Manias @chrismanias.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Three postdoctoral positions available on a fantastic-looking project (based in Lyon), looking at the history of the earth sciences in the Caucasus and central Asia, 1880 to 2000: larhra.fr/programmes-e...
larhra.fr
ENVIROSHIFT - Shifting perspectives on environmental change: A History of the Earth Sciences in Central Asia and the Caucasus, 1880-2000 - LARHRA
ERC Strating Grant Funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme (Grant Agreement No. 101222577) RECRUITEMENT Applications are now open ENVIROSHIFT ...
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Melanie A. Kiechle @melaniekiechle.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
For more #envhist inspiration, don’t miss @dollyjorgensen.bsky.social talking about how she writes history with @katecarp.bsky.social on @draftingthepast.bsky.social This new book sounds wonderful! 📗🗃️ podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...
podcasts.apple.com
Dolly Jørgensen Always Has Another Project Up Her Sleeve
Podcast Episode · Drafting the Past · June 30 · 52m
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Melanie A. Kiechle @melaniekiechle.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Do your summer plans include a trip to the beach? If so, you’ll be interested in Meghan Crnic’s The Beach Cure, which recovers the history of how Americans decided the beach was good for our health. 📗🗃️ Get a taste in the newest H-Env roundtable: networks.h-net.org/crnic-beach-...
networks.h-net.org
Crnic, "The Beach Cure: A History of Healing on Northeastern Shores," H-Environment Roundtable 16 no. 9 (2026) | H-Net
Dear Colleagues,Announcing a new edition of H-Environment Roundtables featuring Meghan Crnic's The Beach Cure: A History of Healing on Northeastern Shores. The exchanges between our commentators and t...
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Merle Eisenberg @merleeisenberg.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
I've listened to the Bill Simmons Podcast for almost 2 decades now and that an essay on his network (The Ringer) has the most straightforward take on higher ed is something. It's focused on Cornell, but the paragraph below is spot on. Read it: www.theringer.com/2026/05/22/n....
Maybe, but even where that’s true, what’s “best” as conceived by the board members is often massively at odds with the preferences of many people at the university. Board members tend to be more politically conservative than students and faculty, and tend to be far more focused on maintaining and growing the endowment. In the same way that SEC schools sometimes resemble professional football teams with boarding schools attached, Ivy League institutions like Cornell are often run as midsized investment firms with vestigial schools tacked on. When they do turn to the business of education, finance- and career-focused board members can be suspicious of the traditional aims of education. Working to understand the human condition is less important than whatever the new buzzy thing is in tech or banking; art, literature, dance, and philosophy are less valuable than STEM, and STEM is only valuable when it produces immediate economically profitable results.
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
I had the honor of writing the In Memoriam piece for @historians.org remembering my colleague Alison Isenberg and I thought I'd share it here.
historians.org
Alison Isenberg (1962–2025) – AHA
Alison Isenberg, historian of urban America and professor of history at Princeton University, died on October 23, 2025, in Princeton, New Jersey.
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Jonathan S. Jones @jonathansjones.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Need a brain break? Join me and The American Civil War Museum tomorrow evening at 6:30 pm eastern for a free virtual talk about my book, Opium Slavery: Civil War Veterans and America’s First Opioid Crisis. 🗃️ acwm.org/event/opium-...
acwm.org
Opium Slavery with Jonathan S. Jones - American Civil War Museum
Join Jonathan S. Jones for a virtual talk on Civil War veterans, opiate addiction, and how its legacy connects to today’s opioid …
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Kristof Smeyers @kristofsmeyers.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Anyone in London on 22 July, why not join us @treadwells-books.bsky.social for a soirée about 'performing magnetism'? www.treadwells-london.com/events-1/mag...
treadwells-london.com
Magnetism in the 19th Century – Talk & Soirée | Treadwells
A panel of scholars explore the cultural power of magnetism across entertainment, medicine and magic. Drinks follow.
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Nahyan Fancy @fancynahyan.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
3 #postdoctoral positions @exeter.ac.uk on @wellcometrust.bsky.social funded project on history of #smallpox and #measles (PI: Rebecca Flemming). Deadline for applications: May 20, 2026. Links to each advert below #histmed #sts #menastorians Please share widely. 1/4
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Victor Seow @eastasiascitech.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
What an honor and delight to be included in this volume with so many folks whose work I admire. Massive thanks to @mmuscolino.bsky.social for conceptualizing this collection and herding us cats into seeing it through. uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295... @uwapress.uw.edu #envhist #envhum #histstm 🧪
uwapress.uw.edu
Revolutionary Natures
Uncovers China's tangled legacies of environmental destruction, resistance, and conservationThis volume offers a groundbreaking reassessment of the environme...
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Dolly Jørgensen @dollyjorgensen.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
In case you missed it, links for our massive book talk series 👇
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Anne Lutz Fernandez @lutzfernandez.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
An outstanding, comprehensive rebuke of AI mania in K-12 by @winterjessica.bsky.social that rounds out by highlighting the growing coalition of parents, educators, and other concerned humans that is working fast and hard to tamp it down.
newyorker.com
What Will It Take to Get A.I. Out of Schools?
“I find myself speaking with my kids about A.I. in the same terms that we might discuss a creepy neighbor who lives down the block,” Jessica Winter writes. Read her report on the push for A.I. in educ...
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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
This administration pretends to honor the 250th, but brazenly dismisses its most profound legacies. 250 years ago this month, Washington’s surgeon general John Morgan wrote that government must “provide for the safety of its members by rendering the practice of inoculation as universal as possible.”
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Eric Rauchway @rauchway.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
"Despite our rhetorical commitment to 'critical thinking,' we typically present one side of an issue — the left-wing side, almost always — and call it a day." let me stop you right there; who's "we"
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Manon Raffard @manonraffard.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Will be presenting some of my work on phenol disinfection, cholera policy and socio-environmental violence this Thursday at 7pm BST! Info: www.chstm.org/group/health... #frenchstudies #histmed #histsci #medhum #envhum #envhist #hstm
Poster for the talk featuring a French imperial soldier attacking cholera with a phenol cannon.
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Manisha Sinha @profmsinha.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
Historian here join us tomorrow at NYU law school for this important conversation sponsored by the Brennan center. brennan.swoogo.com/thecauseofam...
brennan.swoogo.com
The Cause of America: Recovering Our Nation’s Revolutionary Promise
Scholars and experts uncover the compelling truth about the founding of the United States.
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Charlotte Leib @charlotte-leib.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
Which #maps were most pivotal to the development of the US as a political & energetic project? In this piece, I offer a few answers. Some of these maps are well-known, others less so. All deserve a place in discussions of the #AmericanRevolution and #America@250 #envhist
leventhalmap.org
Prelude to a Revolution, Part Three - Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library
How maps, scarcity, and severe weather combined to shape the new American Republic—and a revolution we’re still waiting on
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Charlotte Leib @charlotte-leib.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
The second article in my "Prelude to a Revolution" series is out! In it, I explore how the American and Industrial Revolutions in N.America emerged alongside shortages in a humble product: grass #envhist #history @revolution250.bsky.social @bplmaps.bsky.social www.leventhalmap.org/articles/pre...
leventhalmap.org
Prelude to a Revolution, Part Two - Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library
How maps, scarcity, and severe weather combined to shape the new American Republic, and a revolution we’re still waiting on
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Charlotte Leib @charlotte-leib.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
I've got a new article out today—the first in a three-part series written with the United States' #Semiquincentennial in mind. Come for the maps, stay for the #envhist @nichecanada.bsky.social @bplmaps.bsky.social @yalewhc.bsky.social @asehearlycareer.bsky.social
leventhalmap.org
Prelude to a Revolution, Part One - Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library
How maps, scarcity, and severe weather combined to shape the new American Republic—and a revolution we’re still waiting on
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Institute of Historical Research @ihr.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Interested in environmental history? The IHR is offering a summer 2026 internship with the Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH). Apply by 15 April 2026, 11:59 pm BST. More details at: buff.ly/Vzpz6G3.
history.ac.uk
IHR Internships
IHR Internships support new researchers to develop their skills and broaden their experience within and beyond the historical research community.
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Dr Sally Tuckett @sallytuckett.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Come and work with us at Glasgow! Full time permanent post in History of Art: lecturer in material and visual culture with specialism in dress history or textile history. Details below 👇 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQR311/l...
jobs.ac.uk
Lecturer in Visual and Material Cultures (R&T) at University of Glasgow
Searching for an academic job? Explore this Lecturer in Visual and Material Cultures (R&T) opening on jobs.ac.uk! Click to view more details and browse other academic jobs.
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Melanie A. Kiechle @melaniekiechle.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
Heads up to my sensory history followers--TOMORROW Tuesday Jan 13, Massachusetts Historical Society's #envhist meeting is virtual and all about changing the smellscape. Join us! www.masshist.org/events/Indus...
masshist.org
Massachusetts Historical Society: Industrializing Olfaction: How Soapmakers Changed the Urban American Smellscape in the Late 19th Century & Early 20th Century
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Melanie A. Kiechle @melaniekiechle.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
I voted this morning and it was invigorating!
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Dagomar Degroot @dagomardegroot.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
My new book, "Ripples on the Cosmic Ocean," was published today! And here's a new article in @theconversation.com that explains how #solarstorms have influenced #history, and may threaten our future. Spoiler: it's really not a good idea to cut science at NASA. theconversation.com/solar-storms...
theconversation.com
Solar storms have influenced our history – an environmental historian explains how they could also threaten our future
From communications outages to a brush with nuclear war, solar events like flares and coronal mass ejections have shaped human history.
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Dr. Dawn Wright @deepseadawn.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
"It's past time to recognize that university administrators aren't going to lead the way out of this, [setting] the stage for leadership... from faculty, staff, & students, [where] most if not all progress in higher ed over the past 100 yrs has occurred." www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #AcademicSky
science.org
Higher education fails at collective action
In the latest development in the ongoing combat between universities in the United States and the Trump administration, the Department of Education has presented them with what it calls a “compact.” I...
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Julia Métraux @juliametraux.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
I am interested in starting to hear from care workers on SNAP about your concerns. I'm @motherjones.com's disability reporter. Please be in touch. My email is jmetraux@motherjones.com and my Signal is juliametraux.49. Reposts are appreciated.
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Ben Gross @bhgross144.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
History friends: Did you attend this year's @shothisttech.bsky.social meeting in Esch-sur-Alzette, either in-person or virtually? Or are you wondering what you missed? Next Tuesday (Oct. 28), join CHSTM's #histtech working group for a #SHOT2025 debrief! www.chstm.org/group/histor... #histSTM 🗃️📜⚙️
The "Luxembourg" sign outside of the capital city's airport.
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Jonas Fossli Gjersø @jonasgjerso.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
📅 Save the date! The University of Stavanger, invites you to a symposium entitled: Freedom of Expression in Times of Genocide 🗓 Wed. Nov 12, 5–7:30 pm | Sølvberget, Stavanger & online Speakers include: Sindre Bangstad, Raz Segal, Zoé Samudzi, Maha Abdallah & Martin Shaw More details to follow.
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rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
If you can afford it, a *monetary* donation (it goes a lot farther!) to your local food bank would be a most excellent thing to do right now.
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Environment and History, White Horse Press @eandhwhp.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
Issue 31.4 of Environment and History is out now! This special issue entitled "Dam Scientists: The limits of scientific knowledge and environmentalism" features 6 research articles, 2 snapshots, and 3 book reviews. Read online here: liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/toc/whpeh/31... #envhist🗃️
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Dolly Jørgensen @dollyjorgensen.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
It’s real!! I just got my first copy of Ghosts Behind Glass and it is beautiful. You all really need to order your copies. You will not regret it. press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
Author holding copy of bookPage with birds on left, text on rightDouble page spread with a photo of diorama Chapter 3 Cursed treasures on left, lion on right
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Katie McDonough @kmcdono.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
Are you interested in the history of rivers? Do you wonder how historians and environmental scientists can work together? Join the EDHS seminar to hear from the ARTEMIS team about their amazing project exploring the histories and ecologies of the Scheldt. #envhist #histsci #skystorians #dh
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Dolly Jørgensen @dollyjorgensen.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
Apply for this free PhD course on Energy Humanities in Stavanger, Norway! Please pass the opportunity on to students you know. Students from anywhere are welcome. #envhum #envhist
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Germinate @g-ehr.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
We are here!!
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Melanie A. Kiechle @melaniekiechle.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
A bit of good news! Germinate: Environmental History Review @g-ehr.bsky.social is now live—this is a new digital publication of @aseh.bsky.social Bookmark g-ehr.com for reading and submit your great 🗃️ 📗 #envhist I’m excited to learn from you!
g-ehr.com
Germinate – Environmental History Review
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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 02/10/2025
Amidst the shutdown and the continued attacks on institutions, individuals, and communities, it's important that we document human toll. To that end, here's a chance to share anonymously how you and your loved ones are faring in the wake of rapid social and policy change. tinyurl.com/thehumantoll
The Human Toll

The US is undergoing rapid social, economic, and policy change. 

If you've been impacted, we want to hear your story!

To participate, visit: https://tinyurl.com/thehumantoll

Study sponsored under University of Wisconsin-Madison IRB Protocol #2025-1096. PI: Dr. Jessica Calarco

Participants must be at least 18 years of age and reside in the US

[image of a person with their face in their hands]
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Jacob Tom @jacobleetom.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
Had the pleasure of writing down my thoughts about historical board games for NiCHE's series Playing Inside. Check out the whole series as it rolls out in the next months!
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Society for the Social History of Medicine (SSHM) @sshmedicine.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
Deadline approaching! Are you organising a #histmed conference or workshop in 2026? Applications for SSHM Conference funding awards close 1 October. sshm.org/conference-f...
sshm.org
Conference Funding
The Society for the Social History of Medicine awards financial assistance for conferences and workshops on the history of medicine.  Applicants should note that grants are not retrospectively awar…
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NiCHE Canada @nichecanada.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
We are thrilled to announce our new colloboration with The Metropole - @urbanhistorya.bsky.social - Urban and Environmental Dialogues Send us your proposals for this new urban #envhist series by 24 October! niche-canada.org/2025/09/29/c... #urbanhistory #urbanstudies #urban #envhum
niche-canada.org
Call for Proposals - Urban and Environmental Dialogues
Urban and Environmental Dialogues will explore how the environment-at-large and the urban built environment have shaped one another throughout history.
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Prof. Elaine Chalus @profelainechalus.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
Dept of History, University of Liverpool - Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships Interested candidates should identify a potential mentor in the dept & submit an Expression of Interest by 3 Nov. Come & work with me &/or my colleagues! Details here: www.liverpool.ac.uk/humanities-a... #skystorians 🗃️
liverpool.ac.uk
Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships | Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences | University of Liverpool
Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships application support.
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Lisa Diedrich @lisadiedrich.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
"The 'Make America Healthy Again' (MAHA) agenda isn’t just unserious. It’s unsafe." www.post-gazette.com/opinion/gues...
post-gazette.com
Donna A. Gaffney and Teri Mills: MAHA is bad for America's health
For months we issued a warning: do not hand the nation’s health to a person who treats evidence like an inconvenience, who lets ideology replace...
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OLFAC - Olfactormativity @olfac.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
there's much to explore about the intervening performativity of smells! Check out our Website: olfac.kunstuni-linz.at #sensorystudies #OLFAC #Olfactory
olfac.kunstuni-linz.at
OLFAC – Exploring the Intervening Performativity of Smell
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OLFAC - Olfactormativity @olfac.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
OLFAC explores how olfactory techniques and technologies are mobilised – in both artistic practice and through mechanisms of governance. By developing a theory of olfactory performativity, OLFAC opens new perspectives on sensory experience.
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OLFAC - Olfactormativity @olfac.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
We’re excited to introduce ourselves: OLFAC (Olfactormativity: Exploring The Intervening Performativity Of Smell), is a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant project (2024–2029), hosted at the University of Arts Linz (Austria). #ERC #OLFAC #UniversityofArtsLinz #research
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Ben Jackson @benltjackson.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
We're putting on an exciting range of research events this year at @manchester.ac.uk on 'Queer Bodies' in 18 & 19C Britain. Colleagues in English, Art History (@emmamerkling.bsky.social), & History are exploring queer approaches to bodies and embodiment and their cultures. See poster for more!
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American Society for Environmental History @aseh.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
ASEH Applications for Prizes, Fellowships, and Grants are now open! Deadline to submit is November 20, 2025. Please visit the ASEH website to learn more and apply: https:/aseh.org/Awards-&-Funding
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Nathan Ellstrand @nellstra.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
***Job Opportunity*** Assistant Professor, Early Modern European History, Brown University 43/ networks.h-net.org/jobs/69085/b...
networks.h-net.org
Brown University - Early Modern European History, Brown University | H-Net
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