Graduate Students
Josh Berson
(entered 2003)
Josh's work encompasses the history of philology, comparative linguistics, and folkloristics (the anthropological sciences of language), the sociology of international development and humanitarianism, and the sociolegal constitution of cultural intellectual property and intangible heritage. His dissertation looks at the co-development of comparative linguistics and language revitalization in northern Australia since the 1950s, with an eye toward making sense of a nascent field of conflicts over language ownership and language sovereignty. He spends his spare time standing on his head, drinking pu erh tea, and listening to Azeri folk music, but generally no more than two of the three at once. He would love to hear from prospective members of the department.
Contact.
Agyeman Boateng
(entered 2005)
After receiving his Bachelor's degree in Information Systems at Drexel University (2003) Agyeman stayed at DU, working as an Institutional Research Analyst while also studying in Drexel's Master's Program in Science Technology and Society. Agyeman has a long-standing interest in the social dynamics of participation in scientific and technical careers. This concern speaks to his desire to understand the relationships between science, technology, and medicine and social difference (and inequality associated with difference), in particular, race, ethnicity, and class. At Penn HSS, Agyeman is cultivating his taste for sites of study in which scientific and technical authority, knowledge, products, and their signifiers, mingle with ideas about "the natural" in quotidian urban life. Contact.
Paul Burnett
(entered 2001)
After graduating with a joint B.A. in history and English literature from the University of Manitoba, Paul Burnett relocated to Montreal, where he completed an M.A. in U.S. history. His thesis was on the "Science Wars," or the academic scandal in the mid-1990s which erupted when a physicist successfully published a bogus article in a cultural studies journal. His dissertation, "The Visible Land: Agricultural Economists, Export Agriculture, and Development in the United States, 1909-65," is a history of social-science expertise and the technopolitics of farm subsidies and international development. His other interests include world history, environmental history, and the history of sex science research. Contact.
Elise Carpenter
(entered 2000)
Elise Audrey Carpenter is a MD/PhD student writing her dissertation on the process by which Botswana’s national government provided HIV drugs using international money from Merck Co. and the Gates Foundation. The dissertation looks at the first year the program came to hospitals outside of the capital city and examines how Botswana’s national health care system was reorganized in order to provide HIV drug therapy. Her advisor is Professor Steven Feierman and her expected graduation date from the PhD is 2008 and the MD 2010.
Meggie Crnic
(entered 2006)
Meggie received her AB in History of Science from Harvard University in 2001. In her senior thesis, "A Crop of Better Babies: Better Babies Contests and the Commodification of American Children in the Early Twentieth Century," she examined the relationship between the contests and the infant welfare movement, eugenics, agriculture, and the standardization of babies' bodies. Meggie is currently expanding this project, looking at the emergence of well baby visits, the use of pediatric height and weight charts, and how concepts of health and disease were constructed in relation to norms and averages. More broadly, she is interested in the intersection of health and the environment and the history of medicine in the United States. Meggie enjoys exploring Philly (especially its restaurants!), watching football, taking her dog for walks, and traveling with her husband wherever and whenever possible. Contact.
Deanna Day
(entered 2007)
Deanna Day graduated with an A.B. from the University of Chicago in 2006, where she concentrated in American history. While an unfocused undergraduate, Deanna studied the history of young adult publishing, film tourism in Amish country, science and religion in cases before the United States Supreme Court, and a host of other situations where cultures clashed both loudly and quietly. Her current research interests include adolescent medicine, American health care policy, and public health education and literacy; she is particularly concerned with the ways in which power is created and communicated in the relationships between patients and health care providers. When she is not contemplating Foucauldian implications, Deanna also enjoys long games of Uno, pink flamingos, and lime-flavored everything. Contact.
Erica Dwyer
(entered 2006)
Erica once believed she was going to be a scientist, and graduated with a BA in Biology and Chemistry from Williams College in 2003. She attributes her lack of results on her undergrad biochemistry thesis to the distractions of activist life: organizing die-ins to fight HIV/AIDS seemed more pressing than understanding the developmental proteins of soil bacteria. After college, she spent a year as a Fulbright student in Durban, South Africa, first as a researcher in an HIV lab, then as an intern at one of the first HIV clinics in Durban to provide antiretrovirals. Despite new insights into the political processes that influence science and medicine, she joined the Penn MD/PhD program in 2004, with the intention of getting a PhD in immunology. Soon she found her home "on the other side of Spruce Street", however, and joined HSS in 2006, after completing two years of medical school. Erica is interested in studying international health interventions in South(ern) Africa, and is intrigued by questions relating to power, money, accountability and the complex negotiations between local, global and national forces that have profound effects on sick and healthy bodies. She's also fascinated by the apparent rise of "global health" as a motivating force for medical students. (And yes, she will eventually finish that MD, too.) Contact.
Matthew Hersch
(entered 2003)
Matthew Hersch received an SB in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a JD from New York University School of Law. Matthew's teaching and research interests focus on the history of Western science and technology, human spaceflight, information technology, and elite professions, as well as the relationship between Cold War-era American technology and popular culture. Matthew is admitted to practice law before the Bars of the State of New York and the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. Contact.
Eric Hintz
(entered 2003)
Eric earned his B.S. in aerospace engineering from the University of Notre Dame in 1996, then worked for nearly 6 years in San Francisco as a technology consultant for Accenture. After leaving the corporate world, Eric taught both science and history in a San Francisco high school, and volunteered in an aviation museum. These experiences crystallized his preference for teaching and researching the history of science and technology, versus being a practitioner. Eric earned his M.A in the department in 2005, and is now pursuing a dissertation which considers the changing fortunes of American independent inventors from 1900-1950, an era of burgeoning industrial R&D. Eric is interested in the history of 19th and 20th century science and technology; U.S. business and economic history; 20th century invention, innovation and research and development; and the relationship between religion (particularly Catholicism) and science, technology and medicine in the 19th and 20th centuries. Eric enjoys playing drums, playing basketball, cheering his beloved Fighting Irish, and hanging out with his wife Emma and son Patrick. Contact.
Andi Johnson
(entered 2002)
Andi is interested in ways of understanding human bodies and human performance and the globalization of science. Her dissertation research is a historical and ethnographic investigation into exercise/sport science, focusing on the science of endurance performance. Archival research documents the establishment of various human performance laboratories in the U.S and the development of particular scientific instruments, techniques, and subjects. Ethnographic fieldwork takes her to exercise science labs and elite athlete training camps in South Africa, Kenya, the UK, and the US. Prior to arriving at Penn, Andi earned an MA in Medical Anthropology from Arizona State University (’01) and a BA in Anthropology from the University of Maryland (’97). Andi ran the 10k in college and continues to enjoy running as well as playing ultimate frisbee, backpacking, and cycle touring. She is married to her partner of 8 years or so, Utsav, who is also a Ph.D. student at Penn. Contact.
Christopher Jones
(entered 2003)
Chris Jones received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University in 2000 with a major in philosophy and a minor in science, technology, and society studies. His research focuses on the relationships between technology and social power. He is currently working on a dissertation analyzing the technological infrastructure used in the transportation of energy. Chris is particularly interested in the social, economic, political, and environmental effects of pervasive yet rarely noticed technologies such as pipes and wires. Contact.
Jessica Martucci
(entered 2005)
Jessica graduated with a BA from Oberlin College in 2003 where she studied ecology, chemistry, and history. While at Oberlin she was involved in several ongoing projects involving the college's Living Machine, a sustainable, natural wastewater treatment system modeled after a wetland ecosystem. After college, Jessica worked for a year programming a giant, liquid-handling robot to carry out drug stability assays in a pharmaceutical consulting lab. She then went to work as a technical writer for ECRI, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the experiences of healthcare workers and patients around the globe. Jessica is generally interested in studying issues of medical authority, public health policy, and interactions between popular and expert knowledge. Contact.
Jonathan Milde
(entered 2007)
Jonathan Milde earned a BS in physics and chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis in 1999. He contemplated medical school during a research year spent in a biophysics laboratory that focused on understanding the heart in terms of physics and engineering, but ultimately sought other adventures. Jonathan spent the next two academic years in France, first as a high school teacher of English and then as a Rotary Scholar to the Sorbonne, earning a diploma in French language. On returning to the US, Jonathan worked for four and a half years as a technology consultant at Accenture. It was in this environment that he became interested in the history of recent information technologies and the cultural drivers of innovation. Jonathan enjoys spending time with his wife Bess, learning the local history and architecture of Philadelphia, and playing golf and racquetball. Contact.
Emily Pawley
(entered 2002)
Before starting at Penn, Emily Pawley studied history and the history of science at the University of Toronto and at Cambridge. She is interested in nineteenth- century natural history, more particularly in museums, specimen-collecting, breeding and animal husbandry and, her particular passion, big-game hunting. Contact.
Joanna Radin
(entered 2005)
Joanna entered the department with BS and MS degrees in science communication from Cornell University. Her MS research looked at the framing practices of scientists influential in crafting legislation that considered environmental and societal implications of nanotechnology. Prior to returning to academia she did media relations work for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control's HIV, STD, and TB unit and then worked as a science and risk communication specialist for an environmental engineering consulting firm. While she continues to remain active in the nano studies community, Joanna is primarily interested in how consumers shape biotechnology via their engagement with novel services like genetic ancestry testing and umbilical cord banking. All of her work, including a recent co-edited volume on the past, present, and future of FDA, is animated by concerns about the policy implications of science and technology. Contact.
Divya Roy
(entered 2001)
Divya entered with a B.A in history and molecular biology from the University of California, Berkeley. Her senior honors thesis was on women medical missionaries in India. Her combined interests in history and medicine led her to Penn, where she is interested in the history of medicine (Western and South Asian), history of modern South Asia, and the British Empire. For her dissertation she would like to study the maternal and infant welfare movement in 20th century India. Contact.
Corinna Schlombs
(entered 2002)
Corinna Schlombs graduated in sociology from the University of Bielefeld, Germany. Before coming to Penn, she did research on the history of Artificial Intelligence. She is interested in the history of technology, particularly information technology, and in the history of 19th and 20th century science. Contact.
Jason Schwartz
(entered 2006)
Jason L. Schwartz received an A.B. in classics from Princeton University in 2003 and a master’s degree in bioethics from the University of Pennsylvania in 2006. Prior to entering the department, Jason was affiliated with the School of Medicine and Center for Bioethics at Penn. His general interests include the history of medicine and public health in the 20th century, American health policy, and the use of historical inquiry to better inform contemporary debates in health and medicine. Jason’s current research focuses on vaccines and vaccination programs, building upon his previous work on historical, ethical, and social aspects of global vaccine development and policy. Contact.
Perrin Selcer
(entered 2003)
Before entering the program, Perrin was a high school English teacher and coordinated a biotechnology education and internship program for high school and junior college students in Oakland, CA. His research interests include the history of science in the international community; technical expertise and war; science and propaganda; and the role of metaphor in mediating between natural and social knowledge, expert and lay communities and scales of analysis. His narratives tend toward the tragicomic. The working title of his dissertation is, "Designing a World Community: Science at Unesco, 1946-1973." Contact.
Dominique Tobbell
(entered 2001)
Dominique Tobbell graduated from the University of Manchester in 2001 with a BSc(Hons) in Biochemistry. As part of her degree Dominique worked for a year doing laboratory research at the pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca. Dominique's research interests include the history of the pharmaceutical industry and drug development, the history of biomedical science and medical technology, and using history to address contemporary policy questions. She has published on the history of orphan drug development and her dissertation, "Pharmaceutical Networks: The Political Economy of Drug Development in the United States, 1945-1980," examines the ways in which the drug industry was able to create a political culture supportive of corporate drug development. Dominique is a fellow of the Chemical Heritage Foundation and the University of Virginia's Miller Center for Public Affairs, and holds a Rovensky Fellowship. She has an upcoming article, "Allied against reform: pharmaceutical industry-physician relations in the U.S, 1945-1970" in the Bulletin of the History of Medicine (Winter 2008). In her spare time, Dominique enjoys training in judo. Contact.
Roger Turner
(entered 2003)
As an undergraduate at Brown University, Roger designed a major in the history of science and founded the Science Studies Undergraduate Group. He wrote a senior thesis on the emotional politics of rural weather modification in Kansas and Pennsylvania. After college, Roger took a job with the History of Science Society, where he edited the print edition of the 2002 "Guide to the History of Science," and programmed the databases that power the online version. At Penn he has become fascinated by the sociotechnical systems that underlie Modern life-—the pipes, wires, and practices of our infrastructure. Science is crucial to these systems, and also transformed by them. His dissertation, titled “Weathering Heights,” explores one example: how aviation interests cultivated meteorological knowledge in order to make flying predictable and reliable enough to revolutionize the transportation industry. The version of meteorology developed in service of aviation defines contemporary weather. Today's official weather conditions for Philadelphia are those recorded by instruments located at the airport, not City Hall or someplace where Philadelphians actually live.
Visit my homepage.
Kristoffer Whitney
(entered 2005)
Kristoffer graduated in 1998 from the Rochester Institute of Technology with a BS in Environmental Management and Technology. After dabbling in industrial environmental consulting, he ran away and joined the Peace Corps, spending two years teaching ecology in a post-Soviet Kazakhstani university. After another brief stint in the consulting world, he ran away again and joined the crew of a 115' traditionally-rigged wooden oyster schooner used as a sailing classroom throughout the northeast. Following several years of doing outdoor environmental education on the rivers, bays, marshes, and beaches of New Jersey, interspersed with some globe-trotting as well as graduate history classes at Rutgers University, Kristoffer joined the HSS community at Penn. He has long-standing interests in the perceptions of science in religious communities and the general public, science education, and environmental history. Contact.
Liyong Xing
(entered 2003)
Liyong Xing received her Double B.A. degrees in History and Economics from Peking University (Beijing, China) in 2003. A three-year undergraduate research project on Beijing’s fuel system (15th- 20th centuries), sponsored by China’s Chun-Tsung Endowment, began her general interest in history of Chinese science, technology, and medicine. Liyong is currently pursuing a degree at Penn Law, and hopes to finish with both an L.L.D. and Ph.D. Her potential dissertation will be a comparative study about the transnational movement of hazardous computer waste from the developed nations to the developing, particularly from the U.S. to China. Contact.
Damon Yarnell
(entered 2003)
Damon Yarnell specializes in urban history and the history of technology. His interests include urban infrastructure, the production of space, labor, inequality and immigration. His dissertation, “Motor City: Ford, Mass Production and the Ecology of Detroit, 1900-1929,” focuses on resource flow, control, and the development of urban habitat. He has presented his work in Stockholm, Amsterdam, Vancouver and Las Vegas. Damon holds graduate degrees in Comparative Literature and Design. Contact.
