A couple patiently waits for a healthy child after a pregnancy that has lasted several years. A desperate widow claims […]
“Kiss Via Kerchief”: Influenza Warnings in 1918
Just over one hundred years ago, New York Health Commissioner Royal S. Copeland responded to the threat of “Spanish” influenza […]
Carrying Community: The Black Midwife’s Bag in the American South
The classic 1953 documentary film All My Babies features the life and work of Mary Coley, a legendary African-American “granny” […]
A Miscarriage of Justice
My book, A Miscarriage of Justice: Women’s Reproductive Lives and the Law in Early Twentieth-Century Brazil (Stanford University Press, 2020), […]
Just Being There: The AIDS Crisis and the Shanti Project’s Hospital Counselor Program
When Ward 5B premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, the nurses of the first AIDS inpatient unit in the United […]
Containing Explosives: The Cold War Link between Bombs and Breasts
I don’t know that it’s possible to watch Mad Men without experiencing a healthy envy of Betty Draper’s flawless white, […]
Assassination as Cure: Disease Metaphors and Foreign Policy
On January 3, 2020, I was at my mother’s house where CNN is her constant companion. A drone strike ordered […]
Death, Danger, and Decadence in 1920s Dublin: The Murder of Honor Bright
After the body of twenty-five-year-old Dublin woman Lizzie O’Neill, also known as “Honor Bright,” was found in June 1925, Irish […]
Making Room for Miscarriage
After I miscarried my first pregnancy, I quickly realized that I needed a historical perspective to make sense of this […]
“Keepers of the Light”: A Musical History of the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus
Music forms a critical part of every documented human culture, providing a functional and emotional form of communication. Studies show […]
