B.A., Tufts University; M.A. and Ph.D., Yale University

Lisa Gilson is an Assistant Professor of Politics at �ֲ���ý College, specializing in political theory. Her work focuses on political reaction which rejects institutional paths toward change, from abolitionist movements to contemporary far-right groups. She is currently working on a book about how we might respond to the recent resurgence of romantic political reaction in the United States. Lisa’s work has been published in the American Political Science Review, Political Research Quarterly, American Political Thought and Perspectives on Politics. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale University, and prior to her arrival at �ֲ���ý, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard. At �ֲ���ý, Lisa teaches courses on social movements, Black political thought, literature and politics, and democratic theory more broadly.

At �ֲ���ý, Plastas teaches courses and advises theses for American Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and History. Plastas also currently heads the program in American Studies and previously chaired the program in Gender and Sexuality Studies.

Selected Publications

Review: Laura E. Helton, “Scattered and Fugitive Things: How Black Collectors Created Archives and Remade History.” Journal of American History, Volume 112, Issue 2, September 2025, Pages 374–376.

Review: Wiegand and Shirley A Wiegand, “The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South: Civil Rights and Local Activism.” Journal of American History, March, 2019, 105(4): 1085-86.

Review: Sarah L. Silkey, “Black Woman Reformer: Ida B. Wells, Lynching, and Transatlantic Activism.” Journal of American History, September 1, 2016, 103(2): 483-483.

“Contemplating Tobacco,” Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, Vol 12, No. 2 (2016), ISSN: 1557-2935 

Guest editor with Maria Rentetzi, “ Special Issue of Advances in Historical Studies, Vol 5, No 2, April 2016.��

Melinda Plastas and Eve Raimon, Special Issue: James Baldwin, African American Review, Volume 46, Number 4, Winter 2013, 687-699.

Melinda Plastas and Lisa Botshon,,” Feminist Teacher, Volume 20, No 1, 2009, 1-14.

“A Different Burden: Race and the Social Thought of Emily Greene Balch,” Peace and Change, October 2008, Volume 33, Issue 4, 469-506

Plastas has been active in numerous Maine organizations including and the .��

Expertise

Social movements, African American history, Cultural studies, Black Feminisms, critical race theory,�� Gender and Sexuality studies, health justice, commodities studies, Peace studies, transnationalism, tobacco capitalism, art and resistance.