Gregory Mitchell

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - Professor Gregory Mitchell, 46, of Williamstown, MA and Providence, RI, formerly of Ottawa, IL, passed away unexpectedly Jan. 21, 2026, at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, MA., due to complications from pneumonia. Dr. Mitchell was born Feb. 2, 1979, in Ottawa, IL to Darlene (Schomas) Halm and Kenneth Mitchell. He graduated from Ottawa Township High School, Class of 1997. Professor Mitchell earned his PhD in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, from which he also received a PhD Certificate and served as a Mellon Fellow in Gender Studies. While there, he was awarded the Presidential Fellowship and membership in the Society of Fellows, that university's highest honor for doctoral researchers. Gregory received awards from the NSF, ACLS, Ford Foundation, and three times from American Anthropological Association. Mitchell also holds a master's degree (focusing on Cultural Anthropology) from the University of Chicago as well as bachelor's and master's degrees from Illinois State University. In 2012 he accepted a professorship at Williams College in Williamstown, MA, where he rose to become the Dennis Meenan '54 Third Century Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, WGSS Program Chair and Faculty Affiliate in Anthropology/Sociology. Mitchell previously worked in public policy development for four years at the Chicago Board of Education, and also in domestic and family violence intervention services. The American Council of Learned Societies named Professor Mitchell a 2019 Frederick Burkhardt Residential Fellow at Princeton University for the academic year 2019-2020. Mitchell was the second professor from Williams College to win the highly competitive fellowship, which provides "potential leaders in their fields with the resources to pursue long-term, unusually ambitious projects." Mitchell, the author of "Tourist Attractions: Performing Race & Masculinity in Brazil's Sexual Economy" used his time at Princeton to work on his next book manuscript, titled "Panic Without Borders: How Global Sporting Events Drive Myths About Sex Trafficking." The book examined patterns of police violence against female sex workers during periods preceding mega-events like the World Cup and the Olympics. It explored the overlapping interests of and deployments of spectacle by evangelical Christian groups, radical feminist organizations, neoliberal business developers, and corrupt state security apparatuses, using interviews with sex workers, politicians, activists, policy makers, and intelligence officials. In 2022 Dr. Mitchell was selected to attend the esteemed Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency Program Based in Lake Como, Italy. The four-week residency program offers academics, artists, policymakers, and practitioners a serene setting for focused, goal-oriented work, and the unparalleled opportunity to establish new connections with residents from a wide array of backgrounds, disciplines, and geographies. The Foundation is committed to gender equity and to recruiting candidates who are diverse in terms of racial identity, ethnicity and economic background. The Bellagio Center is well known for hosting some of the most ambitious, innovative, and committed leaders of our time, including more than 85 Nobel Laureates. Previous guests included economist Milton Friedman, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, former United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, renowned author Maya Angelou, and more. A brilliant writer, Professor Mitchell authored academic textbooks, numerous journal articles and was a much sought-after lecturer. His work appeared in GLQ, American Ethnologist, Brasiliana: A Journal of Brazilian Studies, PLURAL (Universidade de São Paulo-Sociology), The Journal of Popular Music Studies, The Wagadu Journal of Transnational Feminist Studies, and several edited volumes in Brazil and the United States. An avid traveler, Mitchell's research spanned the globe and drew him into legal and human rights work. He traveled to more than 50 countries, including Russia, Qatar, Brazil, England, Japan, Greece, and South Africa. Outside of his teaching and research, Professor Mitchell assisted immigrants fleeing homophobic violence in their native countries, testifying in multiple asylum cases since 2018, each one successful. In 2022 Mitchell was instrumental in ensuring the release of a refugee family from Afghanistan. After seeing a Facebook post about people needing help when Kabul fell, he chose this family because the mother was a college professor and fit the focus of his department at Williams. He secured money to get them safely to Pakistan and, ultimately, they were able to fly to the United States. The family moved to Williamstown, where the college provided a staff position to the mother. At Williams, Professor Mitchell taught courses on queer ethnographic writing, sexual economies, transnational sexuality studies, masculinity and popular culture, queer of color critique, and feminist/queer horror in film. Professor Mitchell also taught race, sex and gender in Brazil multiple times. The course focused on understanding the history, political economy and contemporary culture of Brazil and examined questions of gender, including the history of feminism in Brazil, women's equality such as domestic violence, sexual tourism, and abortion laws, as well as examining LGBT history in Brazil. The course culminated in a winter study program in Rio de Janeiro where students visited important historical sites, museums, relevant cultural attractions and met with prominent journalists, academics, and activists. Doctor Mitchell was perhaps best known known as the father of Dexter, a labradoodle whose presence drastically increased student attendance at office hours and boosted class enrollments. Professor Mitchell is survived by his mother, Darlene (the late Jim) Halm, of Ottawa, IL; his father, Ken Mitchell, of Texas; siblings, Julie Mitchell, of Chicago; Amber (Kory) Robinson, of Austin, MN; Daniel Halm, of Ottawa, IL; and Bryan (Gina) Mitchell, of Sugar Grove, IL; five nephews; and his partner, Nico Amador, of Bristol, Vermont. A memorial for Professor Mitchell will take place in Williamstown in the spring.