Abortion in the American Imagination takes us back to the early twentieth century, when American writers first dared to broach […]
Reading Disability History Back into American Girl
I recently spent a series of afternoons digging through closets at my parents’ house, searching for my sisters’ and my […]
Deconstructing HIV and AIDS on Designing Women
Before protease inhibitors radically improved the lives of many people living with HIV in the mid-1990s, numerous sitcoms from Mr. […]
The History of Medicine on TV: A Conversation with Diagnosing History editors Katherine Byrne, Julie Anne Taddeo, and James Leggott
With the second season of Bridgerton as one of the most-watched shows on Netflix so far this year, it’s clear […]
Maternal Grief in Black and White: Enslaved Mothers and Antislavery Literature on the Eve of War
Mrs. Tamor and her six children. Helen and her son, a child of “tender years.” Margaret Garner, an “affectionate mother” […]
Menstrual Advocacy Is Flowing and Flowering
When I was researching my first book, The Modern Period: Menstruation in Twentieth-Century America (2009), one of the most frequent […]
Can every baby be a Gerber Baby? A century of American baby contests and eugenics
In 2018, Gerber made headlines for selecting baby Lucas as the winner of its Spokesbaby Contest, making Lucas the first […]
Mare of Easttown: Not Just Another Dead Girl Show
The HBO crime drama Mare of Easttown captivated viewers, who flocked to social media with theories about who killed Erin […]
Weaponizing Weakness, Diagnosing by Gif
We’ve all seen the clips from President Trump’s commencement speech at the United States Military Academy on June 13. One […]
Justice and Agency: Why Women Love True Crime
When I was young, I was obsessed with Unsolved Mysteries. While not typically a “go-to” show for an eight-year-old, my […]
