Professor Gregory Mitchell died on Jan. 21 at 46 due to complications from pneumonia. Mitchell joined the College in 2012, becoming chair of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies in 2018. He was a scholar of sex work, human trafficking, and race whose work focused largely on Brazil. Mitchell taught courses such as “Performing Masculinity in Global Popular Culture” and “Race, Sex & Gender in Brazil,” a fall 2025 class that culminated in a Winter Study travel course in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“Greg took exceptional joy in his students,” President Maud S. Mandel wrote in an email announcing his death to the College community on Jan. 21. “An avid traveler, his research spanned the globe and drew him into legal and human rights work.”

Outside of his teaching and research, Mitchell assisted immigrants fleeing homophobic violence in Brazil, having testified in seven asylum cases since 2018, each one successful. 

“There is a tendency among students to think that going into academia means vanishing into the ivory tower, but there are still ways to have an impact,” he told the Record in an interview last year.

A full obituary for Mitchell will follow in a future issue.

Dilay Kalinoğlu contributed reporting.