Elaine Ayers
@eayers0.bsky.social
Historian of science, collecting, plants + museums // Professor at Yale // PhD in History of Science from Princeton // Contr. Ed. at Public Domain Review // elaineayers.com
Pinned
Elaine Ayers
@eayers0.bsky.social
· Dec 2
Excited to launch Thinking With Moss, an NEH-funded project that I've been working on for the past few years with @tega.bsky.social + @aansari86.bsky.social. Bringing in collabs from around the world in a series of workshops, we asked what it might mean to think with moss /
www.thinkingwithmoss.net
www.thinkingwithmoss.net
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
The superbloom is just getting started. I'm seeing flowers sprouting in places I've never seen or noticed before in Death Valley in my 35 years of travels here. And Lake Manly still persists! #deathvalley
February 15, 2026 at 7:20 AM
The superbloom is just getting started. I'm seeing flowers sprouting in places I've never seen or noticed before in Death Valley in my 35 years of travels here. And Lake Manly still persists! #deathvalley
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
“Each person who visits the President’s House and does not learn of the realities of founding-era slavery receives a false account of this country’s history.” — U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe
🔗 www.inquirer.com/news/philade...
🔗 www.inquirer.com/news/philade...
February 16, 2026 at 10:19 PM
“Each person who visits the President’s House and does not learn of the realities of founding-era slavery receives a false account of this country’s history.” — U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe
🔗 www.inquirer.com/news/philade...
🔗 www.inquirer.com/news/philade...
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
Someone has sure already made this observation but the fact they can convert all those empty warehouses into prison camps means they could have converted them into housing, community centers, job training centers or, hell, libraries or schools all along. It’s always a matter of will not resources.
February 15, 2026 at 5:30 PM
Someone has sure already made this observation but the fact they can convert all those empty warehouses into prison camps means they could have converted them into housing, community centers, job training centers or, hell, libraries or schools all along. It’s always a matter of will not resources.
Amidst the chaos + the snow: lots of writing + lecturing with my MVP (most valuable pet).
February 15, 2026 at 4:28 PM
Amidst the chaos + the snow: lots of writing + lecturing with my MVP (most valuable pet).
One of my fav types of work is the type that makes me think about something I've truly never ever thought about. Case in point: drywall.
worksinprogress.co/issue/the-wo...
worksinprogress.co/issue/the-wo...
The wonder of modern drywall - Works in Progress Magazine
No person should get excited about a blank wall. But your wall at home is a reminder that most advancements are almost entirely invisible.
worksinprogress.co
February 15, 2026 at 4:08 PM
One of my fav types of work is the type that makes me think about something I've truly never ever thought about. Case in point: drywall.
worksinprogress.co/issue/the-wo...
worksinprogress.co/issue/the-wo...
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
Legendary founder of NPR programming Bill Siemering is enjoying Zoom visiting with students so much that he's asked me to put a second call out. No honorarium necessary. Any takers?
Bill Siemering, founding program director of NPR, author of its mission statement, has asked me to inquire if any profs might be interested in a Zoom class visit? No honorarium necessary. Bill founded All Things Considered, Fresh Air, won a MacArthur, etc.
A Founding Father of NPR Worries About Its Fate
www.nytimes.com
February 14, 2026 at 7:13 PM
Legendary founder of NPR programming Bill Siemering is enjoying Zoom visiting with students so much that he's asked me to put a second call out. No honorarium necessary. Any takers?
........
This is truly terrifying, like the Nazis we are simply erasing people from existence, and it is happening without anyone questioning it.
February 15, 2026 at 12:45 PM
........
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
Glad to see a Columbia administrator speaking the plain sense about AI so many college leaders refuse to contend with. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/o...
Opinion | A.I. Companies Are Eating Higher Education
www.nytimes.com
February 12, 2026 at 11:13 PM
Glad to see a Columbia administrator speaking the plain sense about AI so many college leaders refuse to contend with. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/o...
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
The CIA shut down its World Factbook. Graham: "This is different from the [Trump] administration’s assault on truth... It’s a series of steps that by design or in effect block access to data, and in doing so erode the concept of a shared frame for all Americans." www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
America Is Losing the Facts That Hold It Together
The Trump administration is erasing the country’s shared understanding.
www.theatlantic.com
February 11, 2026 at 4:14 PM
The CIA shut down its World Factbook. Graham: "This is different from the [Trump] administration’s assault on truth... It’s a series of steps that by design or in effect block access to data, and in doing so erode the concept of a shared frame for all Americans." www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
As someone who has co-written two National Historic Landmarks, I know just how much work goes into getting these important sites designated (even more so for monuments). I keep thinking about the group of scholars who must have dedicated so much time to this, only to have it made meaningless.
“This is a deliberate act of erasure . . . The Pride Flag is history, resistance, and Pride born at Stonewall itself. Taking it down does not diminish our community. It exposes an administration afraid of visibility and truth."
gaycitynews.com/trump-rainbo...
🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️ 🍎
gaycitynews.com/trump-rainbo...
🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️ 🍎
Trump administration removes Rainbow Flag from Stonewall National Monument
The Trump administration removed a large Rainbow Flag from a flagpole at the Stonewall National Monument, the National Park Service confirmed to Gay City News
gaycitynews.com
February 10, 2026 at 6:38 PM
As someone who has co-written two National Historic Landmarks, I know just how much work goes into getting these important sites designated (even more so for monuments). I keep thinking about the group of scholars who must have dedicated so much time to this, only to have it made meaningless.
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
Bad Bunny has a consulting historian. news.wisc.edu/pop-star-bad...
Pop star Bad Bunny needed a Puerto Rican history scholar. UW–Madison had just the one.
Bad Bunny collaborated with UW–Madison history professor Jorell Meléndez-Badillo on Puerto Rican narratives that accompany the new album “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS.”
news.wisc.edu
February 9, 2026 at 4:46 AM
Bad Bunny has a consulting historian. news.wisc.edu/pop-star-bad...
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
"Appeasement is being coordinated while resistance is not" is exactly right. (This op-ed from Arne Duncan and David Pressman is excellent; I hope university leaders will read it.) www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
Opinion | Universities are sending Trump a dangerous message
Higher education is under attack. Drop the appeasement.
www.washingtonpost.com
February 10, 2026 at 12:28 PM
"Appeasement is being coordinated while resistance is not" is exactly right. (This op-ed from Arne Duncan and David Pressman is excellent; I hope university leaders will read it.) www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
On Thursday for my Botanical Bodies course I'm lecturing on the history of enslavement and botany in the Caribbean and it literally could not be set up more perfectly for me.
If Bad Bunny can cover the history of Puerto Rico, colonialism, transatlantic slavery, hemispheric consciousness, as well as contemporary life and politics in under 14 minutes, you can do your 15- or 20-minute conference presentation with time to spare.
February 10, 2026 at 1:19 PM
On Thursday for my Botanical Bodies course I'm lecturing on the history of enslavement and botany in the Caribbean and it literally could not be set up more perfectly for me.
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
#jobfairy this is an intriguing one - 18 month research fellowship for an object-focused historian, museums studies person or similar at Chatsworth House! £48k + £11k travel, outreach etc #skystorians
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQK358/d...
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQK358/d...
Devonshire Collections Research Fellow at Chatsworth House Trust
Searching for an academic job? Explore this Devonshire Collections Research Fellow opening on jobs.ac.uk! Click to view more details and browse other academic jobs.
www.jobs.ac.uk
February 10, 2026 at 11:08 AM
#jobfairy this is an intriguing one - 18 month research fellowship for an object-focused historian, museums studies person or similar at Chatsworth House! £48k + £11k travel, outreach etc #skystorians
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQK358/d...
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQK358/d...
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
Abstract submissions for our 2026 meeting in Montpellier are now OPEN! ethnobotany.org/home/meeting...
January 25, 2026 at 6:13 PM
Abstract submissions for our 2026 meeting in Montpellier are now OPEN! ethnobotany.org/home/meeting...
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
Exciting new undergraduate research opportunities here at Carnegie Museum in Botany! Applications due March 1. drive.google.com/file/d/1jNNy...
February 6, 2026 at 6:17 PM
Exciting new undergraduate research opportunities here at Carnegie Museum in Botany! Applications due March 1. drive.google.com/file/d/1jNNy...
"this sublime marriage of the two ecological time-tracks is being destabilized by climate change...Deep biological clocks are no longer in sync with modern realities."
emergencemagazine.org/essay/memory...
emergencemagazine.org/essay/memory...
Memory of Winter – Zoë Schlanger
When is the right time to bring new life into the world? Journalist Zoë Schlanger explores how the moment of spring emergence is increasingly the biggest gamble of a plant’s life amid unpredictable fr...
emergencemagazine.org
February 9, 2026 at 4:33 PM
"this sublime marriage of the two ecological time-tracks is being destabilized by climate change...Deep biological clocks are no longer in sync with modern realities."
emergencemagazine.org/essay/memory...
emergencemagazine.org/essay/memory...
“Certainly at a minimum...people should know that the government is using its funding as a way of essentially coercing a different presentation of American history.”
www.propublica.org/article/inst...
www.propublica.org/article/inst...
Grant Guidelines for Libraries and Museums Take “Chilling” Political Turn Under Trump
Former Institute of Museum and Library Services leaders from both political parties expressed concern that the new funding guidelines could encourage a more constrained or distorted view of American h...
www.propublica.org
February 9, 2026 at 3:33 PM
“Certainly at a minimum...people should know that the government is using its funding as a way of essentially coercing a different presentation of American history.”
www.propublica.org/article/inst...
www.propublica.org/article/inst...
I'M NOT SAYING THIS IS WHAT'S HAPPENING but I am begging you not to use AI / apps to identify mushrooms or plants.
www.latimes.com/california/s...
www.latimes.com/california/s...
California mushroom poisonings are on the rise. Here's what's being done to curb exposure
Recent news of more than 30 cases of mushroom-related illness and death has prompted some Southern Californians to seek a mushroom education.
www.latimes.com
February 9, 2026 at 3:10 PM
I'M NOT SAYING THIS IS WHAT'S HAPPENING but I am begging you not to use AI / apps to identify mushrooms or plants.
www.latimes.com/california/s...
www.latimes.com/california/s...
I am truly in awe.
I am so thrilled to have my illustrated essay published by the New York Times today, about my voyage across the pond with my dog, on a ship! www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/t...
My Dog Tintin’s Trans-Atlantic Voyage on the Queen Mary 2
www.nytimes.com
February 6, 2026 at 5:01 PM
I am truly in awe.
For all of the right's outcries over "erasing history," the Smithsonian audits, absurd plaques at the White House (which is a museum), threats to important works of art & architectural history + wildly inaccurate historical storytelling is shameful and dangerous.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/a...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/a...
It’s Been Called the ‘Sistine Chapel of the New Deal.’ Don’t Destroy It.
www.nytimes.com
February 6, 2026 at 4:36 PM
For all of the right's outcries over "erasing history," the Smithsonian audits, absurd plaques at the White House (which is a museum), threats to important works of art & architectural history + wildly inaccurate historical storytelling is shameful and dangerous.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/a...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/a...
Finally watching that movie Eden, pray for me.
February 6, 2026 at 1:04 AM
Finally watching that movie Eden, pray for me.
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
Imagine---imagine!---getting through an education or a career without anyone, ever, describing your fuckability
February 5, 2026 at 4:28 PM
Imagine---imagine!---getting through an education or a career without anyone, ever, describing your fuckability
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
I've created an Arena channel of artists engaging in or inspired by foraging and gleaning — Yuji Agematsu, Mary Mattingly, Sarah Nicholls, Candace Thompson, Agnès Varda, Rachel Wolf — and I'd appreciate other recommendations!
www.are.na/shannon-matt...
www.are.na/shannon-matt...
February 5, 2026 at 6:08 AM
I've created an Arena channel of artists engaging in or inspired by foraging and gleaning — Yuji Agematsu, Mary Mattingly, Sarah Nicholls, Candace Thompson, Agnès Varda, Rachel Wolf — and I'd appreciate other recommendations!
www.are.na/shannon-matt...
www.are.na/shannon-matt...