AAHM 2025: Full Schedule

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7:00am EDT

Bulletin of the History of Medicine Editorial Board Meeting

Friday May 2, 2025 7:00am - 8:00am EDT

Back Bay B

Pick up your breakfast from the Republic Ballroom Foyer and go to your meeting in the Hampton A on Level 3.

Friday May 2, 2025 7:00am - 8:00am EDT
Back Bay B Sheraton, Level 2

Meeting

7:00am EDT

Nursing History Reivew Meeting

Friday May 2, 2025 7:00am - 8:00am EDT

Clarendon

Pick up your breakfast from the Republic Ballroom Foyer and go to your meeting in Clarendon on Level 3.

Friday May 2, 2025 7:00am - 8:00am EDT
Clarendon Sheraton, Level 3

Meeting

7:00am EDT

President's New Member and First-Time Attendees Breakfast

Friday May 2, 2025 7:00am - 8:00am EDT

Berkeley

Pick up your breakfast from the Republic Ballroom Foyer and come meet AAHM President Mary Fissell. New members and first-time meeting attendees are encouraged to attend to learn about the association and the annual meeting. Join the meeting with your breakfast in Berkeley on Level 3.

Friday May 2, 2025 7:00am - 8:00am EDT
Berkeley Sheraton, Level 3

Meeting

7:00am EDT

Themed Breakfasts

Friday May 2, 2025 7:00am - 8:00am EDT

Republic Ballroom

Themed Breakfasts

Pick up your breakfast from the Republic Ballroom Foyer and joined the discussion at one of the themed breakfast tables in the Republic Ballroom.

T1--Teaching Relevant Histories of Medicine and Public Health, led by Alex Parry, University of Rochester
T2--Academic Suppression and Challenges Related to Researching the History of Psychiatric Hospitals, led by Jerry Kantor, Vital Force Healthcare LLC
T3--The Clio Project - Teaching History in clinical settings and beyond the classroom led by Mindy Schwartz, University of Chicago
T4--Post/Colonial and Global Medicine, led by Ahmed Ragab, Johns Hopkins University
T5--Medicine in Asia/AAHM Asia Network, led by Wayne Soon, University of Minnesota
T6-Beyond Biological and Cultural Determinism: How the History of Medicine Contextualizes the Interplay between Race, the Environment, and Health Inequity, led by Eric T. Jones, Brown University

Speakers

Eric T. Jones

Brown University

Alexander Parry

Assistant Professor of Health Humanities and Bioethics, University of Rochester

Mindy Schwartz

University of Chicago

Ahmed Ragab

Associate Professor, Johns Hopkins University

I am a historian of medicine in the Middle East and Islamic world

Wayne Soon

University of Minnesota

Jerry Kantor

Vital Force Health Care LLC

Friday May 2, 2025 7:00am - 8:00am EDT
Republic Ballroom Sheraton, Level 2

Networking, Refreshments

7:00am EDT

AAHM Registration

Friday May 2, 2025 7:00am - 6:00pm EDT

Grand Ballroom Foyer

Come to the AAHM Registration Desk with your questions or needs for assistance. Please see the AAHM Visitors Guide tab in Sched for useful information.

Wi-Fi
Network: Marriott Bonvoy Conference Access Code: AAHM2025

A lactation room is available on the 3rd level of the hotel. Ask for the key at registration. Please see the AAHM registration desk for the key.

Gender-neutral restrooms are available on the 3rd level of the hotel near the Commonwealth Ballroom.

Friday May 2, 2025 7:00am - 6:00pm EDT
Grand Ballroom Foyer Sheraton, Level 2

Registration

8:00am EDT

AAHM Conference Art Guide: Medically-Themed Works of Art in Local Museum Collections

Friday May 2, 2025 8:00am - 8:00pm EDT

Self-directed

Enjoy medically-themed works of art in the collections of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Harvard Art Museums, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston using this detailed guide.

Information gathered by Christine Bentley (PhD). Assisted by: Jen Thum (PhD), Brooke DiGiovanni Evans (EdM), Corinne Zimmermann (MA, MEd), and Dabney Hailey (MA). Design by Elmira Bagherzadeh (MFA).

AAHM2025 ArtGuide pdf

Friday May 2, 2025 8:00am - 8:00pm EDT
Self-directed

On Your Own

8:30am EDT

Welcome and Plenary Session

Friday May 2, 2025 8:30am - 10:00am EDT

Grand Ballroom

Welcome and Plenary Session
Mary Fissell, AAHM President, presiding
Rebecca Kluchin and Johanna Schoen, Co-Chairs, 2025 Program Committee
David Jones, Co-Chair, 2025 Local Arrangement Committee

Ahistoric Administration: The Crisis of Historical Expertise in U.S. Health Policymaking, Politics, and Emergency Response
Chair: Allan Brandt, Harvard University

Jason Chernesky, former Food and Drug Administration Historian

Evelynn Hammonds, Harvard University

Osaremen Okolo, Harvard University

Susan Reverby, Wellesley College Emerita

Keith Wailoo, Princeton University

This roundtable is prompted by an emergency: the unique political moment we presently find ourselves in and its urgent implications for history, medicine, and public health. Each participant in this roundtable has had a unique and direct relationship with the federal government: working as a historian within a critical federal agency; serving in the White House Office of the COVID-19 Response during the height of the pandemic; conducting groundbreaking archival research that prompted a Presidential apology; and serving on expert governmental panels and committees on the most pressing issues in health equity, biomedicine, and beyond. In this welcome plenary, panelists will place our current political moment within a broader arc of the history of medicine and public health; untangle the relationship that historians of medicine and public health have maintained with public health practitioners and health policymakers over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; and vocalize the implications of tacit silence from historians of medicine and public health on current issues in health policy, public health, and health equity. Most critically, this roundtable aims to begin to identify tangible methods for historians to engage with local, state, and federal government—offering an important frame for the entirety of the 100^th anniversary meeting of the American Association for the History of Medicine.

Speakers

Osaremen Okolo

PhD Candidate, Harvard University

Jason Chernesky

CLIR Postdocoral Fellow, Food and Drug Administration History Office

Keith Wailoo

Princeton University

Evelynn Hammonds

Harvard University

Susan Reverby

Wellesley College

Friday May 2, 2025 8:30am - 10:00am EDT
Grand Ballroom

Special Session

10:00am EDT

Book Exhibit

Friday May 2, 2025 10:00am - 5:00pm EDT

Independence Ballroom

Visit the AAHM Book Exhibit. Learn more about the exhibitors here.

Friday May 2, 2025 10:00am - 5:00pm EDT
Independence Ballroom Sheraton, Level 2

Book Exhibit

10:00am EDT

Refreshment Break

Friday May 2, 2025 10:00am - 10:30pm EDT

Grand Ballroom Foyer

Friday May 2, 2025 10:00am - 10:30pm EDT
Grand Ballroom Foyer Sheraton, Level 2

Networking

10:30am EDT

A1. Human Remains in and for Historical Research. What Can We Do? 

Friday May 2, 2025 10:30am - 12:00pm EDT

Fairfax

A1. Human Remains in and for Historical Research. What Can We Do?

Chair: JoAnn Zeise, University of South Carolina

Hugo Rueda Ramirez, McGill University: Ethics of Care in the Medical Museum: From Caring About to Caring For WITHDRAWN
Joanna Radin, Yale University School of Medicine, and Megann Licskai, Yale University: Brain Trust: Human Remains and Historical Praxis at an American Medical School
Deborah Dubald, University of Strasbourg, and Tricia Close-Koenig, University of Strasbourg: Caring for the Neglected: Writing the History of the Strasbourg Histopathology Collections

This panel will bring together scholars from Europe and North America to address questions related to how historians (can) use collections of human remains – and how they can contribute to questions related to the sensitivities of legacy/historical human tissue collections. Ethical issues related to human remains and human tissues are often discussed within museum studies and anthropology, but there are not many medical historians engaged in the discussions, despite the fact that the questions are historically rooted. Medical historical studies address the history of medical collections and the many facets of death, bodies and medical practices, and this can be a way to confront ethics or questions of contestability.

Medical collections and medical museums are places of heritage and preserve human remains, that is they are places rich in materiality and historicity. Although the origins are always traced to a biomedical collecting way of knowing, their current state and status is varied: from wholly neglected to properly preserved and curated, from scientifically obsolete and isolated from medical spheres to integral place in an anatomy department. In all cases, the notion of heritage, as a common good to be passed on from one generation to the next, can be contemptuous when speaking of human remains, medical or otherwise. Heritage can be criticized for conveying a universalist viewpoint, where in fact human remains are deeply situated. Situated histories are an important part in evaluating and undertaking historical perspectives of medical collections, be it a history of a collection or of the individual preparations in a collection. This panel will bring together ongoing work by historians, the practicalities and difficulties of working with historical human materials, as a means of drawing out just where sensitivities lie and what to do with them.

Moderators

JoAnn Zeise

Curator, University of South Carolina

Speakers

Hugo Rueda-Ramirez

McGill University

Joanna Radin

Yale University

Deborah Dubald

Associate Professor of History of Science and Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Strasbourg

I am a lecturer in the History fo Science and Health at the University of Strasbourg, with a specialty in the history of material cultures of nature, science and health. One of my current projects seeks to historice human remains in medical collections - a project run jointly with... Read More →

Tricia Close-Koenig

Researcher, University of Strasbourg

A1 Abstracts pdf

Friday May 2, 2025 10:30am - 12:00pm EDT
Fairfax Sheraton, Level 3

Concurrent Session, Traditional Papers

10:30am EDT

A2. Contraception, Pregnancy Loss, and Maternity Care in Twentieth Century America

Friday May 2, 2025 10:30am - 12:00pm EDT

Back Bay D

A2. Contraception, Pregnancy Loss, and Maternity Care in Twentieth Century America

Chair: Patricia Kruk, University of South Florida

Lauren MacIvor Thompson, Kennesaw State University: The Comstock Act’s Medical Exemption: What Did It Mean?

Kristen C. Leng, University of Massachusetts Amherst: “We could help each other if we only knew more”: Feminist Publications and Pregnancy Loss in the Later Twentieth Century
Janet Greenlees, Glasgow Caledonian University: Maternity Care and the Indigent During the Depression: ‘without distinction of color, creed or nationality’

Moderators

Patricia Kruk

Professor, University of South Florida-Main Campus

Speakers

Lauren MacIvor Thompson

Assistant Professor of History, Kennesaw State University

Kristen Leng

Department of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Janet Greenlees

Associate Professor of Health History, Glasgow Caledonian University

I am a historian of poverty, health and welfare in the US and UK. I am particularly interested in maternal health and healthcare and environments and occupational hazards.

A2 Abstracts pdf

Friday May 2, 2025 10:30am - 12:00pm EDT
Back Bay D Sheraton, Level 2

Concurrent Session, Traditional Papers

10:30am EDT

A3. Roundtable Do Less Harm: Ethical Questions for Health Historians

Friday May 2, 2025 10:30am - 12:00pm EDT

Back Bay B

A3. Roundtable Do Less Harm: Ethical Questions for Health Historians
Chair: Kylie Smith, Emory University

Richard McKay, University of Cambridge

Barron Lerner, New York University, Langone Health

Melissa Grafe, Yale School of Medicine

Jonathan Sadowsky, Case Western Reserve

Shannon Withycombe, University of New Mexico

This roundtable is moderated by one of the two editors, Kylie Smith, who will set out the background and rationale for the book, and then authors of various chapters will describe briefly their contribution. Richard McKay will reflect on his journey toward becoming an ethical historian; Barron Lerner will discuss issues around the ethics of positionality in the history of medicine; Melissa Grafe will speak to the ethics of human remains collections; Jonathan Sadowsky will talk about developing an ethics of care towards patients and survivors; and Shannon Withycombe will reflect on the challenges of the lack of ethical preparation given to graduate students. We hope to spark a discussion about and engage with efforts being made in AAHM to develop guidelines for a more ethical history of health care.

Moderators

Kylie Smith

Associate Professor. Director Center for Healthcare History and Policy, Emory University

Speakers

Richard McKay

Affiliated Research Fellow, University of Cambridge

Jonathan Sadowsky

Case Western Reserve University

Shannon Withycombe

University of New Mexico

Melissa Grafe

Yale University

Barron Lerner

New York University Langone Medical Center

Friday May 2, 2025 10:30am - 12:00pm EDT
Back Bay B Sheraton, Level 2

Concurrent Session, Roundtable

10:30am EDT

A4. Roundtable Absent and Present: Children’s Perspectives in the History of Medicine

Friday May 2, 2025 10:30am - 12:00pm EDT

Gardner

A4. Roundtable Absent and Present: Children’s Perspectives in the History of Medicine

Chair: Heather Dron, University of California, Los Angeles

Sandra Eder, University of California, Berkeley
Jessica Martucci, University of Pennsylvania
Jason Chernesky, Food and Drug Administration History Office

This roundtable brings together historians who work at the intersections of the history of medicine, science, childhood, race, gender, and disability. While the history of pediatrics and health have been productive historical fields, calls to include children’s perspectives have not animated the history of science and medicine in quite the same way, despite Roy Porter’s famous call for more medical history from the “patient’s perspective.”

How have those studying the history of medicine and science worked to connect these fields and address the limitations of archival resources? In what ways do categories like race, gender, class, and disability shape children’s experiences with medicine and their representation in historical records? How have scholars expanded official archives to better reflect children from diverse backgrounds as historical figures? How can we uncover the perspectives of children from the past, moving beyond the adults who often shaped their lives? What does a child-centered approach look like in the history of medicine, and how can we recognize children as active historical actors?

To address these questions and themes, this roundtable offers the reflections from five historians of medicine. Sandra Eder examines pediatric hospital records of children with intersex traits to reveal children’s experiences in the clinic. She raises questions about patients’ ‘voices’ and the narratives surrounding medical care. Jessica Martucci employs oral histories, disability memoirs, and writings by pediatric nurses to highlight the voices and agency of children in the context of hospitalization after World War II. Jason M. Chernesky examines private patient records of predominantly Latinx or Black children who died from HIV/AIDS, raising critical questions about erasure, ethics, and the historian's racial positionality. Heather Dron reflects on how we can account for the missing narratives of children, including those with disabilities and adolescents who experienced eugenic sterilizations in California. What are the ethics and obligations of historians who seek to give voice to past trauma?

Speakers

Jason Chernesky

CLIR Postdocoral Fellow, Food and Drug Administration History Office

Sandra Eder

University of California Berkeley

Jessica Martucci

University of Pennsylvania

Friday May 2, 2025 10:30am - 12:00pm EDT
Gardner Sheraton, Level 3

Concurrent Session, Roundtable

10:30am EDT

A5. Roundtable Above and Beyond the Archives: Documenting the Black AIDS Epidemic

Friday May 2, 2025 10:30am - 12:00pm EDT

Back Bay C

A5. Roundtable Above and Beyond the Archives: Documenting the Black AIDS Epidemic
Chair: Antoine S. Johnson, University of California, Davis

Evelynn M. Hammonds, Harvard University

Angelique Harris, Boston University

Jennifer Brier, University of Illinois-Chicago

Marlon M. Bailey, Washington University, St. Louis

Polina Illieva, University of California, San Francisco

The medical historian Ayah Nuriddin has a phrase “silences and violences” about the ways in which health inequities affecting African Americans largely go ignored. Many poor and working-class people’s experiences are not documented in archive records. To tell such communities’ stories accurately has required going beyond institutional archive collections. In this session, we explore the trials and tribulations of covering groups who lack archival records and how to tell their stories ethically. By making this a roundtable discussion, we anticipate audience members whose research interests include HIV/AIDS and health activism to share their past and current methods. We also intend to converse on how we as researchers can continue to change our field by collaborating with archivists, organizers, and those closely impacted by our research topic.

Dr. Evelynn M. Hammonds was the first African American historian covering the Black AIDS epidemic. As a participant, she will discuss the challenges of covering a new disease in real time from a historian’s perspective. Similarly, Dr. Angelique Harris’s fieldwork with Black religious leaders on AIDS, gender, and sexuality in Black communities helps scholars contextualize leadership and marginalization among African Americans. As academic scholars, we must consider our target audiences and their access to our material. Dr. Jennifer Brier’s oral history project “I’m Still Surviving” offers ways in which one can see the women’s histories, hear their voices, read about their lives, and teach the project.

Dr. Marlon M. Bailey’s work with Black gay men and men who have sex with men (MSMs) who do not identify as gay or bisexual in underground economies offers a new lens through which to understand sexual health and Black men’s kinship networks. A partnership with the University of California, San Francisco’s Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS) provided Bailey the opportunity to conduct such important research. Polina Ilieva, UCSF’s head archivist, has worked exhaustively with local organizers and scholars to expand the university’s AIDS archives. Together, the contributors will discuss their past and current experiences of such work, with room for conversation on future directions in histories of HIV/AIDS and AIDS activism.

Speakers

Evelynn Hammonds

Harvard University

Marlon Bailey

Washington University

Jennifer Brier

University of Illinois at Chicago

Angelique Harris

Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Polina Ilieva

Head of Archives & Special Collections, University of California, San Francisco

As Head of the UCSF Archives & Special Collections, Polina is responsible for all aspects of planning, collections management, donor relations, and a variety of other programs including digitization and web archiving. She serves as a PI for two grant funded projects that will expand... Read More →

Friday May 2, 2025 10:30am - 12:00pm EDT
Back Bay C Sheraton, Level 2

Concurrent Session, Roundtable

10:30am EDT

A6. Medical Provider’s Impact on Patient Care

Friday May 2, 2025 10:30am - 12:00pm EDT

Back Bay A

A6. Medical Provider’s Impact on Patient Care
Chair: Christopher Willoughby, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Chang Xu, Rice University: Who’s the Doctor? The Physician-Emperor-Patient Triad in Late Imperial China
Yinghua Luo, Nankai University: “Why Can't I Live the Same Kind of Life as Other Girls”: The Multifaceted Image of Nurses in Modern China
Robin L Rohrer, Seton Hill University: Advancing the Discipline of Pediatric Oncology: Historical Roles of Pediatric Oncology Nursing in the United States,1930s to the Present
Leslie William Robinson, Harvard University: Soldiers’ Minds, Workers’ Lives: Neuropsychiatric Legacies from World War I to the Workplace

Moderators

Christopher Willoughby

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Speakers

Chang Xu

Assistant professor, Rice University

Yinghua Luo 罗英华

Nankai University/ Harvard University

Robin Rohrer

Professor of History and Chair, Seton Hill University

Leslie-William Robinson

Brown University

A6 Abstracts pdf

Friday May 2, 2025 10:30am - 12:00pm EDT
Back Bay A Sheraton, Level 2

Concurrent Session, Traditional Papers

12:00pm EDT

Lunch Break--Try the "Grab and Go"

Friday May 2, 2025 12:00pm - 1:00pm EDT

Grand Ballroom Foyer

For a quick lunch, try out the "Grab and Go" available from the Sheraton in the Liberty/Grand Ballroom Foyer area.

Hot honey chicken, brussels sprout slaw, sweet pickle chip, sub roll @ $12.00

Grilled portobello tzatziki, grilled red onion, shredded carrot, pita pocket @ $11.00

Roasted turkey cured tomatoes, baby spinach, Brie, pesto mayonnaise on focaccia @ $12.00

Grilled Chicken & Chopped Romaine Salad, avocado, tomato, blue cheese, onion, bacon, cucumber, balsa @ $12.00

Individual Bags of Frito, Lays Potato Chips and Pretzels @ $3.00 Each

Soft Drinks – Assorted Pepsi Products | Still & Sparkling | Bubly @ $3.00 Each

Friday May 2, 2025 12:00pm - 1:00pm EDT
Grand Ballroom Foyer Sheraton, Level 2

Break

1:00pm EDT

B1. Medicine, Technology, and Representations in Global East Asia 

Friday May 2, 2025 1:00pm - 2:30pm EDT

Gardner

B1. Medicine, Technology, and Representations in Global East Asia 
Chair: Sonja Kim, Binghamton University, State University of New York

Wayne Soon, University of Minnesota: Beyond Efficacy and Convenience: A History of the National Health Insurance Electronic IC Card in Taiwan
Ryan Moran, University of Utah: Measuring the Minds and Bodies of Laborers in Interwar Japan
Shu Wan, University at Buffalo: From Introduction to Indigenization: A Technology History of Hearing Aids in Republican and Early Socialist China

East Asia has become a powerhouse in technological advances and widely praised for its robust responses towards infectious diseases and healthcare inequities. Existing scholarship, however, has yet to seriously consider inextricable connections between technology, medicine, and photographic representations in East Asia, while downplaying myriad challenges that brought forth such progressive changes in a region marked by colonial and authoritarian pasts, religious valances, and industrial transformations. This panel aims to identify how Chinese, Taiwanese, and Japanese society and governments dealt with the challenges of using technology to shape medical practices and change representations of medicine. In contrast with typical perspectives of state and high-tech entities, this panel reveals unexpected agencies of technologists such as missionaries, criminal enterprises, insurance agents, actuarial science experts, and labor institute scientists in shaping medicine and society in the region.

Wayne Soon reveals how banks, criminal enterprises, photography studios, and precinct-level wardens did as much as the health insurance bureau, technology companies, semiconductor industry, hospitals, and government to normalize uses of smart health insurance integrated circuit cards in Taiwan. Ryan Moran traces collaborations between interwar Japanese industry, doctors, and scientists to understand the impact of labor on the body, with analysis based on intelligence testing and blood type. Across all of these papers, our panel seeks to illuminate technologies and technocratic encounters in non-state and state engagements with medicine, borne out in East Asia’s institutional, cultural, and social developments over time.

Speakers

Wayne Soon

University of Minnesota

Ryan Moran

University of Utah

Shu Wan

University at Buffalo

Sonja Kim

Binghamton University

B1 Abstracts pdf

Friday May 2, 2025 1:00pm - 2:30pm EDT
Gardner Sheraton, Level 3

Concurrent Session, Traditional Papers

1:00pm EDT

B2. Ethics and Patient Data Initiative: Discussing Draft Guidelines

Friday May 2, 2025 1:00pm - 2:30pm EDT

Back Bay D

All who research and write about the history of medicine will at some point in their work encounter ethical questions about how to do their work. Whether this relates to how to maintain the privacy of patients and caregivers whom we encounter in archival materials; whether, when, and how to obtain permission from the communities about whom we are writing; how to present sensitive materials and images to a larger audience without being exploitative of the individuals and communities that we are studying, etc. This panel will propose some guidelines and a framework for thinking about these issues that can help medical historians address the ethical issues they encounter. We are inviting AAHM members to come and discuss potential paths for addressing ethical issues.

Guidelines Committee:

Adam Biggs
Polina Ilieva
Carla Keirns
Richard McKay
Susan Lawrence
Barron Lerner
Alexandra Lord
Richard Mizelle
Wangui Muigai
Scott Podolsky
Susan Reverby
Kylie Smith
Courtney Thompson
Jai Virdi

Friday May 2, 2025 1:00pm - 2:30pm EDT
Back Bay D Sheraton, Level 2

Concurrent Session, Discussion

1:00pm EDT

B3. Pregnancy and Abortion in Twentieth Century America

Friday May 2, 2025 1:00pm - 2:30pm EDT

Back Bay B

B3. Pregnancy and Abortion in Twentieth Century America
Chair: Simone Caron, Wake Forest University

Cara Delay, University of South Carolina, and Madeleine Ware, Yale University: Black Providers in the ‘Back Alley’: Abortion in the Pre-Roe American Southeast
Diane B. Paul, University of Massachusetts Boston: In the Name of Anti-Eugenics: History as a Political Resource in Struggles over Abortion
Rima Apple, University of Wisconsin: Delayed Motherhood: An Intersection of Medicine, Gender, and Cultural Imperatives

Moderators

Simone M. Caron

Wake Forest University

Speakers

Cara Delay

University of South Carolina

Diane B Paul

Professor Emerita, UMass Boston

Rima Apple

University of Wisconsin-Madison

B3 Abstracts pdf

Friday May 2, 2025 1:00pm - 2:30pm EDT
Back Bay B Sheraton, Level 2

Concurrent Session, Traditional Papers

1:00pm EDT

B4. HIV/AIDS Technology and Politics

Friday May 2, 2025 1:00pm - 2:30pm EDT

Fairfax

B4. HIV/AIDS Technology and Politics
Chair: Judy Houck, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Qurat Khan, Princeton University: The Mathematical Definition of Promiscuity: How the AIDS Epidemic Changed Mathematical Models of Diseases
Lukas Engelmann, University of Edinburgh: Model Epidemiology. How HIV/AIDS enabled the ascent of a new crisis technology
Aishah Doris Scott, Providence College: Trickledown Respectability Politics and HIV/AIDS in Black America

Moderators

Judy Houck

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Speakers

Qurat Khan

Princeton University

Lukas Engelmann

University of Edinburgh

Aishah Scott

Providence College

B4 Abstracts pdf

Friday May 2, 2025 1:00pm - 2:30pm EDT
Fairfax Sheraton, Level 3

Concurrent Session, Traditional Papers

1:00pm EDT

B5. Vaccination Campaigns in Global Perspective

Friday May 2, 2025 1:00pm - 2:30pm EDT

Back Bay C

B5. Vaccination Campaigns in Global Perspective
Chair: Theodore Brown, University of Rochester Medical Center

Andrea Rusnock, University of Rhode Island: Who is the Vaccinator? Women’s Work in the Early History of Vaccination
Kalman Rotstein, Binghamton University: ‘Biggest Bacteriological Enterprise the World has yet Seen,’ The Punjab Vaccination Campaign and the Mulkowal Tragedy, 1902-1906
Dora Vargha, Humboldt-Universität: At the Intersection of the Social and the Biomedical: Vaccination and Competing Definitions of Socialist Medicine

Moderators

Theodore Brown

Professor Emeritus of History and Public Health Sciences, University of Rochester

I am a very active “retiree.”

Speakers

Andrea Rusnock

University of Rhode Island

Kalman Rotstein

Binghamton University

Dora Vargha

Humboldt-Universitat

B5 Abstracts pdf

Friday May 2, 2025 1:00pm - 2:30pm EDT
Back Bay C Sheraton, Level 2

Concurrent Session, Traditional Papers

1:00pm EDT

B6. Disease, Race, and Ethnicity in the Americas

Friday May 2, 2025 1:00pm - 2:30pm EDT

Back Bay A

B6. Disease, Race, and Ethnicity in the Americas
Chair: Dana Landress, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Angel Ricardo Rodriguez, Harvard Kennedy School of Government: The Hinton Test: Race, Institutional Authority, and Syphilis Diagnostics in Historical Perspective
John A. Gutierrez, John Jay College of Criminal Justice/CUNY: "The Outstanding Health Problem of the Puerto Rican:" Tuberculosis and the Politics of Disease in Post-War New York City
Emily Martin, University of California, Berkley: The Risks of Rice-Eating: Diet, Plague, and Racial Susceptibility in San Francisco’s Chinatown, 1870-1904
David R. Carey Loyola University Maryland, and Esyllt Jones, University of Manitoba: Pandemics, Inequality, and Local Resilience in Canada and Guatemala, 1918-2022

Moderators

Dana Landress

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Speakers

David Carey

Loyola University

John Gutierrez

John Jay College of Criminal Justice/CUNY

Emily Martin

University of California, Berkeley

Angel Rodriguez

Harvard Kennedy School

B6 Abstracts pdf

Friday May 2, 2025 1:00pm - 2:30pm EDT
Back Bay A Sheraton, Level 2

Concurrent Session, Traditional Papers

2:30pm EDT

Coffee Break

Friday May 2, 2025 2:30pm - 2:45pm EDT

Grand Ballroom Foyer

Friday May 2, 2025 2:30pm - 2:45pm EDT
Grand Ballroom Foyer Sheraton, Level 2

Break

2:45pm EDT

C1. The History of Art for the History of Medicine 

Friday May 2, 2025 2:45pm - 4:15pm EDT

Fairfax

C1. The History of Art for the History of Medicine 
Chair: Lan A. Li, Johns Hopkins University

Mary J. Hunter, McGill University: The Dark Side of Motherhood: Artistic and Medical Entanglements in Impressionist Images of Pregnancy
Christine Slobogin, University of Rochester Medical Center: "Noses Reshaped": Plastic Surgery, the Cosmetic Gaze, and Racialized Connoisseurship in Andy Warhol's Before and After (1961-1962)
Fiona Johnstone, Durham University: Becoming an Image: Contemporary Art History, Artists’ Books, and the Clinical Gaze

As is the case with studying medicine and the body, studying art and visual culture is about close looking; the art historian’s way of seeing can be as “clinical” as the Foucauldian medical gaze. The research presented in this panel demonstrates that histories of art and visual culture offer unique inroads into understanding histories of medicine and the body. By analyzing works of art, these three historians make a case for using the history of art in writing histories of medicine, and vice versa.

The papers in this panel show that, like medicine, art history and its ways of looking are intertwined with social histories and constructions of gender, sex, race, and class. Mary Hunter reframes Impressionism, particularly the paintings of Edgar Degas, in the context of contemporaneous medical conceptions of pregnancy, birth, miscarriages, and infant mortality. Christine Slobogin speaks to the histories of plastic surgery that can be read into Andy Warhol’s paintings of rhinoplasties, arguing that the surgical gaze and the cosmetic gaze that these artworks encourage construct their racial meanings. And continuing this focus on close looking common to both art and medicine, Fiona Johnstone uses twenty-first-century collaborations between physicians and contemporary artists – particularly through the vehicle of the artist’s book – to rethink the construction and purposes of the clinical gaze. Johnstone examines how consent, coercion, and collaboration are implicated in both the clinical and the artistic gazes.
When looking at artworks about or related to the body or medicine, art historical concepts such as style and composition can reveal – as these panelists show – historical attitudes towards reproduction, plastic surgery, and clinical care. This panel places the histories of childbirth, the body, surgery, beauty, and medicine squarely within the history of art, utilizing the visual methodologies of art history to open up new ways of seeing within medical history.

Moderators

Lan A. Li

Johns Hopkins University

Speakers

Mary Hunter

McGill University

Christine Slobogin

University of Rochester

Fiona Johnstone

Durham University

C1 Abstracts pdf

Friday May 2, 2025 2:45pm - 4:15pm EDT
Fairfax Sheraton, Level 3

Concurrent Session, Traditional Papers

2:45pm EDT

C2. Roundtable: Make America Healthy Again: Audience Discussion of the Role of Historians in Public Health Today

Friday May 2, 2025 2:45pm - 4:15pm EDT

Back Bay D

C2. Roundtable Make America Healthy Again: Audience Discussion of the Role of Historians in Public Health Today
Chairs: Lara Freidenfelds (co-chair) and Elena Conis (co-chair), University of California, Berkeley

Lauren MacIvor Thompson, Kennesaw State University

Richard Mizelle, University of Houston

Jacqueline Wolf, Ohio University

Merlin Chowkwanyun, Columbia University

Historians of medicine have a variety of potential roles in this moment: providers of testimony about the past; supporters of public health professionals and policy-makers; scholar-activists; nuanced critics. Join us to discuss the variety of ways in which we, as historians, plan to respond to MAHA, to recognize challenges and pitfalls, and to share inspiration and insight.

Moderators

Elena Conis

Berkeley/UCSF

Lara Freidenfelds

Speakers

Jacqueline Wolf

Ohio University

Merlin Chowkwanyun

Columbia University

Lauren MacIvor Thompson

Assistant Professor of History, Kennesaw State University

Richard Mizelle

University of Houston

Friday May 2, 2025 2:45pm - 4:15pm EDT
Back Bay D Sheraton, Level 2

Concurrent Session, Roundtable

2:45pm EDT

C3. Acupuncture Beyond Medicine: Global Perspectives from the Late Nineteenth to Twenty-First Century

Friday May 2, 2025 2:45pm - 4:15pm EDT

Back Bay B

C3 Acupuncture Beyond Medicine: Global Perspectives from the Late Nineteenth to Twenty-First Century
Chair: Emily Baum, University of California, Irvine

Jean Tzu-yin Chou, University of Glasgow: Commodification of Acupuncture in the UK: Examining the Perceptions of TCM Patients/Customers from 1970s to the Post-Covid Period

Ling-yi Tsai, Vanderbilt University: Occupation for the Blind: Acupuncture in Japanese Colonial Taiwan (1895–1945)
Po-Hsun Chen, Taipei Municipal Gan-Dau Hospital: Stimulated by Acupuncture Anesthesia: Scientization and Institutionalization of Acupuncture Research in Cold War Taiwan

Apart from representing a significant part of Chinese medicine and an emblem of Chinese civilization, acupuncture and its uses appeared in diverse forms with different functions worldwide. In fact, the role of acupuncture extends beyond being a mere medicinal technique; it also functions as a welfare policy, a diplomatic instrument, and a spiritual commodity. This panel comprises three diverse papers that collectively elucidate the complex global landscape of acupuncture from the late nineteenth to the twenty-first century.

Ling-yi Tsai explores how acupuncture was introduced to Taiwan during its colonial period and functioned as a welfare policy for the blind. Acupuncture has a long history in Japan, and due to the heightened sensitivity of blind individuals, it was regarded as a suitable occupation for the blind. However, this (dis)ability of the blind still required governmental support to maintain its occupational exclusivity. In post-war Taiwan, acupuncture shifted from a welfare policy in the Japanese colonial regime to a tool in diplomatic competition under the Kuomintang government. Notably, after US President Nixon’s historic visit to China in the 1970s, acupuncture not only gained popularity in the West but also became a point of focus in the delicate US-China relationship. Po-hsun Chen demonstrates how improved PRC-US diplomatic relations in the 1970s prompted the Kuomintang government in Taiwan to conduct scientific research, particularly on acupuncture anesthesia, in an effort to bridge acupuncture with neuroscience and showcase its scientific value. At the same time, acupuncture gained momentum through the burgeoning New Age movement, which fueled significant market demand for acupuncture in the West. Despite its adoption, acupuncture remains primarily categorized as an alternative and complementary medical practice outside of biomedicine in most global contexts. Tzu-yin Chou traces how acupuncture became commodified in the UK, a process that blurred the boundaries between “patients” and “customers” as individuals seek options outside the NHS provision.

Moderators

Emily Baum

University of California Irvine

Speakers

Po-Hsun Chen

Taipei Municipal Gan-Dau Hospital

Ling-yi Tsai

Vanderbilt University

Ling-yi Tsai

Vanderbilt University

C3 Abstracts pdf

Friday May 2, 2025 2:45pm - 4:15pm EDT
Back Bay B Sheraton, Level 2

Concurrent Session, Traditional Papers

2:45pm EDT

C4. Roundtable Everything Everywhere All at Once: Historical Legacies of Eugenics

Friday May 2, 2025 2:45pm - 4:15pm EDT

Back Bay A

C4. Roundtable Everything Everywhere All at Once: Historical Legacies of Eugenics

Kathryn Irving, University of Melbourne

Catherine Mas, Florida International University

Michael Rembis, University at Buffalo

Sarah Rose, University of Texas at Arlington

Since Francis Galton coined the term “eugenics” in 1883, its meaning has been far from stable. As historian Alexandra Minna Stern recognised two decades ago, if eugenics is about “better breeding,” interpretations hinge around contested definitions of “better.” Although many scholars come at eugenics through its association with race and ethnicity, it is also central to histories of disability and labor, medicine and public health, genetics and the social sciences, gender, sexuality, and reproductive rights … Eugenic logic is not confined to the past, but continues to shape debates about ideal personhood – from molecular genetics to public policy.

This roundtable brings together historians from diverse backgrounds to add complexity and richness to historical analysis of eugenics. Rather than suggesting that eugenics can be “anything to anyone,” we use intersectional approaches to argue that analysis of eugenics requires historical specificity. We reflect on our historical research, public engagement, and teaching work; we will also draw on the experiences and expertise of our audience.

Michael Rembis explores the relationships between racism, ablism, and gender and sexuality in histories of eugenics. Sarah Rose examines how ideas of productivity shape access to civil rights. Catherine Mas considers the intersections between anthropology and racial science in Latin America. Kate Irving reflects on the continuities between nineteenth century institutionalization and contemporary genomic testing for disabled children.

The roundtable will demonstrate how using multiple lenses allows us to more accurately define and describe the various eugenics movements of the long twentieth century, and highlight the sometimes unexpected connections between eugenic advocates. Finally, we will consider the historian’s role in contemporary debates about racial justice, reproductive choice, disability rights, and genetic technologies – these are the legacies of eugenics.

Moderators

Kathryn Irving

University of Melbourne

Speakers

Sarah Rose

Associate Professor of History and Director of the Disability Studies Minor, University of Texas at Arlington

UTA Disability Studies Minor: https://www.uta.edu/academics/schools-colleges/liberal-arts/departments/disability-studies... Read More →

Catherine Mas

Florida International University

Michael Rembis

University at Buffalo

Friday May 2, 2025 2:45pm - 4:15pm EDT
Back Bay A Sheraton, Level 2

Concurrent Session, Roundtable

2:45pm EDT

C5. Roundtable New Directions in the History of Public Health in the Nineteenth Century: Reflections on the Work of Christopher Hamlin

Friday May 2, 2025 2:45pm - 4:15pm EDT

Back Bay C

C5. Roundtable New Directions in the History of Public Health in the Nineteenth Century: Reflections on the Work of Christopher Hamlin
Chair: Jacob Steere-Williams, College of Charleston

David Barnes, University of Pennsylvania

Ian Burney, University of Manchester

Graham Mooney, Johns Hopkins University

Sarah Naramore, Northwest Missouri State University

Nicholas Bonneau, University of Maryland

This Roundtable brings together a range of scholars to consider new methods, questions, and sources for exploring the history of public health in the long nineteenth century. A sharp historiographical turn in the late 1990s saw historians move away from administrative and technical histories of public health towards a bottom-up revisionism that coalesced around the question: public health…but for whom? Long wedded to the idea that public health arose in the Global North in response to infectious disease crisis and ecological breakdowns caused by industrial capitalism, scholars began to ask new questions about surveillance, technocracy, and contested knowledge. More recently, historians of public health have worked to understand the global entanglements of western public health and the ways in which human and environmental disasters are bound with shifting ideas of the built and natural environments—urban and rural, local and global.

Our launching point is a reconsideration of the breadth and impact of the work of Christopher Hamlin, who has done more than anyone in the last thirty years to push historiographical boundaries in this field. We bring together scholars at various career stages who have been influenced by Hamlin’s work to engage in a conversation about where the history of nineteenth-century public health stands today and where it is heading in the future. While scholarly attention has increasingly shifted to the twentieth century in the past two decades, there is a growing consensus—particularly as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic—that we still have much to learn about the global development of public health in the age of industrialization, imperialism, and the birth of laboratory medicine. Topics in this forum cover the gamut of Hamlin’s influence, including new work in the history of disease (Jacob Steere-Williams), epistemology and politics (David Barnes), forensic medicine (Ian Burney), health and nationalism (Sarah Naramore), surveillance technology (Graham Mooney) and public health and demography (Nicholas Bonneau).
1: To engage with new theoretical and methodological approaches in the history of 19th century public health
2: To push historiographical boundaries in studying 19th century public health by bringing together a wide-range of scholars from different institutions and at various career stages.
3: To provide new insight on sources, teaching methods, and topics for understanding the contemporary relevance of 19th century public health.

Moderators

Jacob Steere-Williams

Associate Professor, Department of History, College of Charleston

Speakers

David Barnes

University of Pennsylvania

Nicholas Bonneau

Visiting Scholar, University of Maryland

Historian of science, medicine, & public health; science and technology studies

Ian Burney

University of Manchester

Graham Mooney

Johns Hopkins University

Sarah Naramore

Northwest Missouri State University

Friday May 2, 2025 2:45pm - 4:15pm EDT
Back Bay C Sheraton, Level 2

Concurrent Session, Roundtable

2:45pm EDT

C6. Imperialism, Western Medical Standards, and the Interests of Medical Go-Betweens in Asia from the Cold War to the Present

Friday May 2, 2025 2:45pm - 4:15pm EDT

Gardner

C6. Imperialism, Western Medical Standards, and the Interests of Medical Go-Betweens in Asia from the Cold War to the Present
Chair: Eram Alam, Harvard University

Adrien Gau, University of Pennsylvania: Expertise in Transgender Chest Reconstructive Surgery Between Plastic Surgeons and Lay Activists in Taiwan, 1950s–Present
Shinyi Hsieh, National Taiwan University: Strategic Use of Imperial Power: Delayed Translation of U.S. Health Research and Feminist Critiques in Racialized-Gendered Population Discourses (1970s–Present)

Andre Rosario, Rutgers University: Foreign Body: Immigrant Professional Organizations and International Nurse Migration Policy, 2002-2008

The establishment of western medicine in non-western societies has long been considered a hallmark of modernity not only by western medical and political elites, but also by medical professionals in non-western societies who aspired to westernized medical education and care. Rather than view these actors as tools of imperialism or label them as imperialists, however, this panel reconceptualizes imperialism less as a political ideology or identity and more as a category of analysis, one that, as Paul Kramer has described, recognizes connections between the west and other societies; and, following Wen-yuan Lin and John Law, underscores the power dynamics inherent in the circulation of knowledge. This panel emphasizes the paradoxical role of medical elites in non-western societies who promoted westernized medical standards. In what ways do they relate western education, policy, and healthcare to “catching up”? What are the local pressures that ironically encourage them to renew or maintain Western models, rather than developing standards specific to their local needs?

This panel examines imperialism in three case studies of medical go-betweens across Asia and the West. First, Adrien Gau compares Taiwanese plastic surgeons training abroad to develop transgender healthcare starting from the Cold War, with present-day activists adapting American and international standards of trans medicine and health policy. Then, Shinyi Hsieh analyzes Taiwan’s ‘population quality’ debate on marriage migration with Southeast Asia, wherein a racialized-gendered hierarchy was shaped by Taiwanese physicians’ use of 1970s U.S. refugee studies; local activists embraced second-wave feminism, leading to policies transforming immigrant women into healthcare brokers. Finally, Andre Rosario follows with Filipino immigrant nurses in the U.S. in the 2000s. Leaders in the Philippine Nurses Association of America brokered connections between U.S. nursing professional organizations and Philippine central government officials to aid the Philippine educational system in meeting U.S. nursing requirements. Their participation in policymaking would aid the Philippine government, which had an explicit policy of exporting laborers such as nurses to the U.S. to send back remittances into the Philippine economy. Through these case studies, this panel studies non-western medical go-betweens to rethink imperialism, medical modernity, and westernization.

Moderators

Eram Alam

ealam@fas.harvard.edu, Harvard University

Speakers

Adrien Gau

University of Pennsylvania

Shinyi Hsieh

National Taiwan University

Andre Rosario

Rutgers University

C6 Abstracts pdf

Friday May 2, 2025 2:45pm - 4:15pm EDT
Gardner Sheraton, Level 3

Concurrent Session, Traditional Papers

4:15pm EDT

Refreshment Break

Friday May 2, 2025 4:15pm - 4:45pm EDT

Grand Ballroom Foyer

Friday May 2, 2025 4:15pm - 4:45pm EDT
Grand Ballroom Foyer Sheraton, Level 2

Networking, Refreshments

4:45pm EDT

D1. Reparative Historical Inquiry (RHI)—Refining A Theoretical Approach and Methodology

Friday May 2, 2025 4:45pm - 5:45pm EDT

Fairfax

D1 Reparative Historical Inquiry (RHI)—Refining A Theoretical Approach and Methodology
Chair: Aimee Medeiros, University of California, San Francisco

Jason E. Glenn, University of Kansas Medical Center

Carmaletta Williams, Black Archives of Mid-America

Norlissa M. Cooper, University of California, San Francisco

Academic medicine is a field in the earliest stages of decolonization. As scholars engaged in decolonizing work at Academic Health Centers (AHCs) begin to interrogate and challenge the legacies of colonialism, empire, and racism that shape the knowledge systems in which we educate learners, we must do so with an eye toward understanding the local histories of colonized medicine. This workshop introduces the concept of Reparative Historical Inquiry (RHI) as a methodology grounded in a commitment to the idea that decolonization must include the voices and expert knowledge of the people harmed by colonization. In essence, RHI represents a type of guerrilla history from the perspective of the people Frantz Fanon called “the wretched of the earth.” In doing so, RHI makes a case for developing a reparative ethos to orient historians and scholars working in colonial sites, from the laboratory to the public health clinic. History is about the production and operationalization of truths. RHI aims to expose truth-making and the motivations driving the development of historical narratives as colonial projects. In doing so, we no longer engage in distracting debate around truths but rather motivations and consequences to dismantle racism in the health sciences. And we do so with a sense of urgency and in the spirit of health justice. As James Baldwin reminds us, “History is not the past. History is the present.”

1. Understand Reparative Historical Inquiry (RHI) as a theoretical approach and a methodology for engaging in anti-racist community-based collaborative research.
2. Critically explore the essential tenets of RHI as a methodology.
3. Learn to use the RHI method to promote reparative history telling and reconciliatory action.

Moderators

Aimee Medeiros

Assistant Professor, History of Health Sciences, University of California, San Francisco

Aimee Medeiros is an assistant professor of the history of health sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. Her work focuses on the reciprocity between diagnoses, preventive care measures, and societal expectations of the body in medicine.

Speakers

Jason Glenn

University of Kansas

Norlissa Cooper

University of California, San Francisco

Carmaletta Williams

Black Archives of Mid-America

During my time in academe, I taught English and African American Studies. I love to hear stories in all forms about Black life and culture. My mother was a nurse for 48years, medical care and treatment of BIPOC also interests me. We must hear, capture, preserve and share the... Read More →

Friday May 2, 2025 4:45pm - 5:45pm EDT
Fairfax Sheraton, Level 3

Concurrent Session, Discussion

4:45pm EDT

D2. Humanitarian Archives: Absences and Opportunities

Friday May 2, 2025 4:45pm - 5:45pm EDT

Back Bay D

D2. Humanitarian Archives: Absences and Opportunities
Chair: Flora Chatt, John Rylands Research Institute and Library

Chimwemwe Phiri, University of Manchester

Bertrand Taithe, University of Manchester

Humanitarian archives are full of absences: the voices of recipients and patients, evidence of wrongdoing and certain decision trails often never make it into the official archives, whether they are either never created, destroyed, neglected or indefinitely closed off. This workshop will explore how these absences are (and often aren’t) supplemented by other sources, including oral history interviews, research data, social media, instant messaging and community history projects.

Drawing together researchers and archivists who work with humanitarian archives and evidence (particularly those relating to humanitarian medicine) we will discuss how these alternative sources prove challenging to the strict traditional concept of archives, which defines them as objective traces of institutional or personal transactions which are ‘not drawn up in the interest or for the information of Posterity’ (Jenkinson, 1922). It will also touch on the ethics of producing, collecting and using these sources, and how patient and recipient perspectives can be captured in spheres of work that generally prioritize the views of practitioners.

It will also explore the challenges and opportunities presented to archivists and researchers by such sources, particularly those produced that are produced 'for Posterity', such as oral histories. We will also reflect on whether they can fit into an archive, or if they even should: are they better suited to being preserved and accessed in a different setting, and should we question the dominance of the archive in historical research? Keywords: archives, research, oral history

* Understand and be able to critically evaluate key archiving principles, how they affect the use and presentation of material defined as archives, and how these practices have developed over time.
* Develop an understanding of how and why archives can be a tool of exclusion and oppression for certain categories of patients and recipients.
* Gain an awareness of the ethics of capturing, collecting, storing and using archives relating to medical treatment, and the legal frameworks that govern this.

Moderators

Flora Chatt

University of Manchester

Speakers

Chimwemwe Phiri

University of Manchester

Chimwemwe (Chim) is a visual anthropologist with a focus on the intersection of visual culture, archival practices, and the history of medicine. She completed her PhD in medical anthropology and visual history at Durham University, where her thesis explored both historical and contemporary... Read More →

Bertrand Taithe

Professor, Director of Research Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute, University of Manchester

I am a historian of humanitarian medicine. I currently lead a project entitled Developing Humanitarian Medicine (DHM) conducted by a group of interdisciplinary researchers based at the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute at The University of Manchester. The project considers the history of humanitarian medicine as a set of emergency interventions. It seeks to generate significant shifts in understanding humanitarian medicine’s scientific and organisational specificity and role in developing clinical... Read More →

Friday May 2, 2025 4:45pm - 5:45pm EDT
Back Bay D Sheraton, Level 2

Concurrent Session, Discussion

4:45pm EDT

D3. Mentorship Pods: Insights on Publishing, Funding, and Careers, From Faculty for Students

Friday May 2, 2025 4:45pm - 5:45pm EDT

Back Bay C

D3. Mentorship Pods: Insights on Publishing, Funding, and Careers, From Faculty for Students
Sponsored and facilitated by the AAHM Student Affairs Committee

Mentors: Kristen Ehrenberger (University of Pittsburgh), Antoine Johnson (UC Davis), Rebecca Kluchin (California State University, Sacramento), Jodi Koste (Virginia Commonwealth University), Alex Parry (Johns Hopkins University), Naomi Rogers (Yale University), Pyar Seth (University of Notre Dame), Christopher Willoughby (University of Nevada, Las Vegas)

After a great response last year, we’re doing it again! Sponsored by the Committee on Student Affairs, this workshop is an opportunity for graduate students to learn from scholars and professionals outside academia about navigating the PhD and the many potential paths that might come next. Participants will have the opportunity to meet with faculty, editors, and professionals in small groups for candid conversations about a number of prompts, with time for additional Q&A.

Most “Mentorship Pods” will focus on a specific topic, from publishing to the academic job market, transitioning to non-academic jobs, teaching and research, and the state of the field. If participants do not want to go deep on any one particular topic, they can join a pod that will touch briefly on each bucket of prompts (one such group will meet in person, and another via a room on Zoom).

To let us know which pod you’d like to join—and suggest particular mentors you’d like to hear from—fill out this Google Form: https://forms.gle/R38SFZQAjsn7TBhd9

If you aren’t able to fill out the form ahead of time, no problem. We can assign you to a pod at the door!, To build community among graduate students and between graduate students and faculty and professionals at various stages of their careers

*To demystify the processes of publishing, job searching, and other elements of professional development
*To introduce students to opportunities for enriching their graduate school experiences and preparing for next steps

Friday May 2, 2025 4:45pm - 5:45pm EDT
Back Bay C Sheraton, Level 2

Concurrent Session, Discussion

4:45pm EDT

D4. Humanities Labs and the History of Medicine/Healthcare

Friday May 2, 2025 4:45pm - 5:45pm EDT

Back Bay B

D4. Humanities Labs and the History of Medicine/Healthcare
Chair: Ayah Nuriddin, Yale University

Marco Ramos, Yale University

Megann Licskai, Yale University

Anthony Hatch, Wesleyan University

Kylie Smith, Emory University

Natalie Lira, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

This roundtable explores the work of humanities labs in expanding what it means to do the history of medicine and healthcare. Humanities labs can be broadly defined as transdisciplinary spaces and communities for collaborative and/or public facing scholarship. For historians of medicine and healthcare, humanities labs build on a longer history of engaged scholarship. They create opportunities for collaboration with students, healthcare professionals, and community members on issues of systemic harm and structural inequality. With increasing attacks on the humanities in higher education and ongoing health disparities in the United States, humanities labs are important for making the history of medicine and healthcare legible for a wider audience and translating historical insights into tangible interventions for addressing structural and medical challenges. They also create important spaces for academic institutions to work with local communities to alleviate harm, address histories of violence, and repair trust.

The roundtable will discuss the work of building humanities labs in universities including issues of lab management, space, and funding. Participants will discuss both the opportunities and challenges of the “laboratory” as a site for collaboration and community engagement. The roundtable will feature the work of the emerging Critical Histories Lab at Yale, the Historically Informed Policy (HIP) Lab at Emory, the Sterilization and Social Justice Lab at UCLA, and the Black Box Lab at Wesleyan. Keywords: Humanities lab, transdisciplinary, pedagogy.

* Respond to changes in medical practice guided by a historically informed concept of professional responsibility and patient advocacy.
* Recognize the dynamic interrelationship between medicine and society through history
* Understand the role of humanities labs for transdisciplinary and collaborative learning and teaching

Moderators

Ayah Nuriddin

Yale University

Speakers

Kylie Smith

Associate Professor. Director Center for Healthcare History and Policy, Emory University

Megann Licskai

Yale University

Anthony Hatch

Wesleyan University

Natalie Lira

Associate Professor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Marco Ramos

Yale University

Friday May 2, 2025 4:45pm - 5:45pm EDT
Back Bay B Sheraton, Level 2

Concurrent Session, Roundtable

4:45pm EDT

D5. Women and Gender-Diverse Historians of Health and Medicine Coffee

Friday May 2, 2025 4:45pm - 5:45pm EDT

Back Bay A

D5. Women and Gender-Diverse Historians of Health and Medicine Coffee
Facilitator: Lara Freidenfelds

Networking opportunity to meet and talk with women and gender-diverse historians of medicine and healthcare.

Speakers

Lara Freidenfelds

Friday May 2, 2025 4:45pm - 5:45pm EDT
Back Bay A Sheraton, Level 2

Concurrent Session, Networking

4:45pm EDT

D6. What Is To Be Done?—Building a Movement and Crafting Alternatives

Friday May 2, 2025 4:45pm - 5:45pm EDT

Gardner

D6. What Is To Be Done?—Building a Movement and Crafting Alternatives
Convener: Ahmed Ragab

Description: In this get-together, we will discuss different ways that scholars, activists and artists can work together to craft solutions and alternatives for the problems that face our communities. The event is organized by the Center for Progressive Research—a newly established 501c3 research center dedicated to mobilizing, supporting, and connecting scholars, academics, activists, and other actors interested in envisioning new progressive solutions for contemporary problems facing our societies.

Speakers