Established in 1967, the first Royal Commission on the Status of Women, also known as “the Bird Commission,” emerged following pressure […]
Topper’s GI Benefits, Good Homes, and Vivisection Fears: The Treatment of World War II War Dog Veterans
In 1946, a German Shepherd named Topper made headlines in newspapers throughout the United States. Discharged from the K-9 Corps […]
“The Club of the Four Hs”: HIV/AIDS, Race, and Neoliberalism in Argentina
During my childhood in Buenos Aires, adults usually told us to be careful while using telephones and cinema seats because […]
Mary Seacole and the Politics of Writing Black History in 1980s Britain
Mary Seacole, the nineteenth-century Jamaican-Scottish nurse known to many as the “Black Florence Nightingale,” has a complicated history in British […]
Making Medical History: The Sociologist Who Helped Legalize Birth Control
When sociology and economics professor Norman E. Himes published The Medical History of Contraception in 1936, he had made a […]
“Blindness and Boldness”: Haptic Imaginaries from the Operating Theater to the Pandemic Everyday
“It’s like driving a car in the fog”: The Operating Theater A torso, swollen with gas and yellow with antiseptic […]
Sister Mariana’s Spyglass: The Unreliable Ghost of Female Desire in a Convent Archive
In 1731, Sister Mariana de Jesus, a young nun at the Augustinian Convent of Santa Monica in Portuguese Goa, was […]
Misinformation, Vaccination, and “Medical Liberty” in the Age of COVID-19
Vaccination is of critical importance right now. At this moment, the United States is fighting an uphill battle against COVID-19, […]
Liberty and Insanity Sitting in a Tree
In 2011, I participated in a National Endowment for the Humanities summer seminar entitled “The Problem of Governance in the […]
“I Assumed It Was Urgent”: Helen Hurd’s Story
As an archivist, I gain deep knowledge of people through their personal papers. I come to appreciate their senses of […]
