Mitch began the joint History and Middle Eastern Studies PhD program in 2017. His research focuses broadly on the social and economic history of the late modern Eastern Mediterranean. He is particularly interested in informal political economy, the history of state and institutional formation, and the history of public health and medicine in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Before joining HMES, Mitch earned a BA in Islamic and Asian history from the University of California, Santa Cruz and an MA in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas, Austin.