I'm a faculty member in the Harvard Writing Program and a Senior Writing Fellow for the Harvard College Program in General Education. I teach Expository Writing Studio 10 and Expository Writing Studio 20 and mentor new teachers in the Harvard Writing Program. Additionally, I have served as a senior thesis adviser and grader in the History of Science Department at Harvard and a personal editor for a Harvard Medical School course on effective writing for healthcare professionals. I have also taught courses on Darwinism at the Harvard Summer School and worked as a content editor for the Darwin Correspondence Project, the Tyndall Correspondence Project, and Janet Browne's The Quotable Darwin (2018). During my doctoral studies, I served as the librarian for the History of Science Library in Harvard's Widener Library. Finally, I have been on the teaching team for various Harvard College courses including: Explaining Epidemics, Gender & Science, and Madness and Medicine.
My writing focuses on the intersections of science, medicine, and sex/gender. As a result of COVID-19, I am currently exploring the ways in which the history of past pandemics can help us navigate our current moment. See, for example, this recent article in STAT that I co-authored with Dr. Susana Bejar. In non-pandemic times, I find particular joy in uncovering and sharing quirky, seemingly non-sensical moments in medical and scientific history. To this end, my work offers explanations for scientific and medical ideas that may seem strange to the modern eye, from Valentine's Meat Juice (a diluted meat extract that claimed to provide “the germ of life… in a state ready for immediate absorption”) to the Skinner crib (a temperature-controlled glass box for your baby!).
I hold Ph.D., M.A. and A.B. degrees in the History of Science from Harvard University, with a secondary doctoral field in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, and a secondary undergraduate field in Economics. My undergraduate thesis received the Rothschild Prize.