Rachel Mesch
@rmesch.bsky.social
I teach French lit sometimes in English @ Boston U. Also history, visual, popular & material culture, gender & sex at the fin de siècle, photography & mass press. Books: Before Trans; Having it All in the Belle Époque; The Hysteric’s Revenge.
Moral dilemma alert: I want to cancel my subscription but getting the paper version of the Sunday times on Saturday is how I know I’m a real New Yorker. Pls advise!
#NYTimes
#NYTimes
November 7, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Moral dilemma alert: I want to cancel my subscription but getting the paper version of the Sunday times on Saturday is how I know I’m a real New Yorker. Pls advise!
#NYTimes
#NYTimes
Please join us on Friday to hear @hannahfrydman.bsky.social speak with Raisa Rexer about her brilliant new book, Between the Sheets: Sexuality, Classified Advertising, and the Moral Threat to Press Freedom in France!!! 🔥🔥🔥
September 30, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Please join us on Friday to hear @hannahfrydman.bsky.social speak with Raisa Rexer about her brilliant new book, Between the Sheets: Sexuality, Classified Advertising, and the Moral Threat to Press Freedom in France!!! 🔥🔥🔥
Just a reminder, for any of you kids who need to see it, good writing does not emerge seamlessly in the first draft. Feedback is the best and moving everything around is often part of the process.
File under things you can’t learn from chat GPT
File under things you can’t learn from chat GPT
July 1, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Just a reminder, for any of you kids who need to see it, good writing does not emerge seamlessly in the first draft. Feedback is the best and moving everything around is often part of the process.
File under things you can’t learn from chat GPT
File under things you can’t learn from chat GPT
Happy to be at Harvard (our new hero??) on a beautiful spring day
Intellectual community is so precious- trying to just appreciate it and take advantage of it whenever I can #FrHistory 🗃️
Intellectual community is so precious- trying to just appreciate it and take advantage of it whenever I can #FrHistory 🗃️
April 25, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Happy to be at Harvard (our new hero??) on a beautiful spring day
Intellectual community is so precious- trying to just appreciate it and take advantage of it whenever I can #FrHistory 🗃️
Intellectual community is so precious- trying to just appreciate it and take advantage of it whenever I can #FrHistory 🗃️
Just realized that in this excerpt from Colette’s Le pur et l’impur, she is claiming- in coded language- that trans art critic Marc de Montifaud was copying Colette’s ex lover Missy (referred to here as the Chevalière), whose name was Mathilde de Morny. M de M. 🌈🎓
February 28, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Just realized that in this excerpt from Colette’s Le pur et l’impur, she is claiming- in coded language- that trans art critic Marc de Montifaud was copying Colette’s ex lover Missy (referred to here as the Chevalière), whose name was Mathilde de Morny. M de M. 🌈🎓
The National Park service has absurdly scrubbed trans from its Stonewall website. They are trying to rewrite/ erase history. Marsha P Johnson anyone? Trans & queer history are inseparable. “LGB” ? Pls tell them what you think 🌈🎓🗃️
February 16, 2025 at 4:12 PM
The National Park service has absurdly scrubbed trans from its Stonewall website. They are trying to rewrite/ erase history. Marsha P Johnson anyone? Trans & queer history are inseparable. “LGB” ? Pls tell them what you think 🌈🎓🗃️
These are happening all over the country on Monday - find yours!
February 14, 2025 at 7:16 PM
These are happening all over the country on Monday - find yours!
Hi, this is antisemitism. This woman did something that we need lots more people to do. Pretty sure this person did not retrace her family back to the 18th century before tweeting. It’s a very common last name. And even if those were ancestors, still antisemitism.
February 14, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Hi, this is antisemitism. This woman did something that we need lots more people to do. Pretty sure this person did not retrace her family back to the 18th century before tweeting. It’s a very common last name. And even if those were ancestors, still antisemitism.
February 3, 2025 at 11:27 PM
One of my fave images of Colette & Missy, just being normal, which I can’t wait to share w/ u in a forthcoming article on Colette’s queer off-frame
Also just a reminder that queer & trans folx have always been here & are v much part of #FrHistory 🗃️🌈🎓#AcademicSky
Also just a reminder that queer & trans folx have always been here & are v much part of #FrHistory 🗃️🌈🎓#AcademicSky
January 31, 2025 at 3:54 PM
One of my fave images of Colette & Missy, just being normal, which I can’t wait to share w/ u in a forthcoming article on Colette’s queer off-frame
Also just a reminder that queer & trans folx have always been here & are v much part of #FrHistory 🗃️🌈🎓#AcademicSky
Also just a reminder that queer & trans folx have always been here & are v much part of #FrHistory 🗃️🌈🎓#AcademicSky
How about some pet pics? Delilah is enjoying her winter finery
January 30, 2025 at 11:43 PM
How about some pet pics? Delilah is enjoying her winter finery
Glad to see my essay is still trending over @chronicle.com
Always so touched to hear from strangers who took the time to find my email & reach out
DM for PDF if you don’t have access
Always so touched to hear from strangers who took the time to find my email & reach out
DM for PDF if you don’t have access
January 28, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Glad to see my essay is still trending over @chronicle.com
Always so touched to hear from strangers who took the time to find my email & reach out
DM for PDF if you don’t have access
Always so touched to hear from strangers who took the time to find my email & reach out
DM for PDF if you don’t have access
Incredible line-up for our Spring season of NCFS Unbound, our virtual book series of new pubs in 19th-c French Studies
#FrenchHistory #AcademicSky
#FrenchHistory #AcademicSky
January 17, 2025 at 1:43 AM
Incredible line-up for our Spring season of NCFS Unbound, our virtual book series of new pubs in 19th-c French Studies
#FrenchHistory #AcademicSky
#FrenchHistory #AcademicSky
Below is twitter in a nutshell. I’ve gotten nothing but sincere engagement over here about my #monstrousmentors essay. Meanwhile, this is the only comment from the Chronicle’s tweet this morning.
December 17, 2024 at 4:04 PM
Below is twitter in a nutshell. I’ve gotten nothing but sincere engagement over here about my #monstrousmentors essay. Meanwhile, this is the only comment from the Chronicle’s tweet this morning.
Last day grad theory class, how many faces can you name? #AcademicSky
December 10, 2024 at 2:17 PM
Last day grad theory class, how many faces can you name? #AcademicSky
No idea why my book is #1 in #TransStudies right now but just a word of warning to any new readers: I finished writing it in 2018, it came out 2020- ages ago in terms of pronouns, esp in academia. Ever since I’ve used they/ them for these complex historical subjects 🌈🎓
#BookSky #AcademicSky
#BookSky #AcademicSky
December 8, 2024 at 10:54 PM
No idea why my book is #1 in #TransStudies right now but just a word of warning to any new readers: I finished writing it in 2018, it came out 2020- ages ago in terms of pronouns, esp in academia. Ever since I’ve used they/ them for these complex historical subjects 🌈🎓
#BookSky #AcademicSky
#BookSky #AcademicSky
Late for trans day of visibility but wanted to share this drawing of Rachilde by one of my wonderful BU grad students #FrHistory #transhistory #LGBTQ 🌈🎓
#FrenchStudies
#FrenchStudies
November 21, 2024 at 9:59 PM
Late for trans day of visibility but wanted to share this drawing of Rachilde by one of my wonderful BU grad students #FrHistory #transhistory #LGBTQ 🌈🎓
#FrenchStudies
#FrenchStudies
November 19, 2024 at 8:03 PM
And I had never seen this particular photo of Jane before. The internet continues to serve up surprises! #photohistory
November 10, 2024 at 7:48 PM
And I had never seen this particular photo of Jane before. The internet continues to serve up surprises! #photohistory
Georges was actually a famous doctor & even has a lesion named after him! Jane & husband Marcel were famed explorers. The archivist is so flummoxed by this next pic that they describe as Georges “and another person” when it is really happy couple Jane & Marcel
November 10, 2024 at 7:48 PM
Georges was actually a famous doctor & even has a lesion named after him! Jane & husband Marcel were famed explorers. The archivist is so flummoxed by this next pic that they describe as Georges “and another person” when it is really happy couple Jane & Marcel
If anyone is here for the #transhistory #gender #queer history content : just found this archive through the French Ministère de la Culture that mistakes Jane Dieulafoy for brother-in-law Georges
November 10, 2024 at 7:48 PM
If anyone is here for the #transhistory #gender #queer history content : just found this archive through the French Ministère de la Culture that mistakes Jane Dieulafoy for brother-in-law Georges
Also this is Delilah
November 10, 2024 at 3:56 PM
Also this is Delilah