Postdoctoral Fellows
Nicholas Whitfield
PhD 2011 Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge
Dissertation: 'A Genealogy of the Gift: Blood Donation in London, 1921-1946'
- Research Interests
History of western medicine; history of blood transfusion and donation in the twentieth century; medical innovations of the Spanish Civil War; history and sociology of altruism.
Christopher Canning
PhD (2010) Queen’s University, Department of Sociology
Dissertation Title: “Synaptic Connections”
- Areas of Specialization
Contemporary sociological theory; science studies; sociology and philosophy of science; sociology of health and illness; embodiment and mental health; neuroscience; medical genetics; epigenetics; transdisciplinary public health research.
- Publications
Canning, C.,Hird, M. and Smith, G. (2010) The Pitfalls of the “Add-and-Stir” Approach to Transdisciplinary Public Health Research. Critical Public Health 20(2):145-155.
Canning, C. (2008) Epigenetics: An Emerging Challenge to Genetic Determinism in Studies of Mental Health and Illness. Social Alternatives 27(4): 14-21.
Canning, C. (2006) Psychiatric Survivor Testimonials and Embodiment: Emotional Challenges to Medical Knowledge. Radical Psychology 5(1):1-10.
Nina Kohli-Laven
Ph.D. 2009 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Anthropology
M.I.A 2002 Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA)
B.A. 1999 Wesleyan University, Government
- Research Interests
Technology development strategies, human-technology interface, technology law and governance.
- Current Inquiries
How regulatory, clinical, and scientific theory and practice shape product development, validation, and distribution within genomic medicine and biotechnology.
- Recent publications
2011 Nina Kohli-Laven, Pascale Bourret, Peter Keatingand, Alberto Cambrosio, "Cancer Clinical Trials in the Era of Genomic Signatures: Biomedical Innovation, Clinical Utility, and Regulatory-Scientific Hybrids." Social Studies of Science (in press)
2009 Nina Kohli-Laven, Mapping Fate: Genealogy, Genetic Medicine, and Matters of Race and Intimacy on the North American Frontier. In Keith Wailoo, Mia Bay, and Alondra Nelson, eds. DNA and the Unsettled Past: The Collision between Genomics, Race, and History, Rutgers University Press (in press)
2008 Nina Kohli-Laven, Hidden History: Bioethics at the Peripheries of Genetics. Genewatch 21(4): 8-11.
2003 Nina Kohli Laven, “Regulating Conception in the Jewish State: Women’s Citizenship and State Responses to the Reproductive Technologies in Israel,” In S. Zuhur, ed., Women and Gender in the Middle East and the Islamic World Today, Berkeley, California: University of California Press and Center for International and Area Studies.
Susan Lamb
PhD., 2010 Johns Hopkins University, Institute of the History of Medicine
Dissertation: Pathologist of the Mind: Adolf Meyer, Psychobiology, and the Phipps Psychiatric Clinic at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, 1908-1917
- Research Interests
History of Western medicine; history of psychiatry and mad medicine; society and madness; material culture of medicine; history of mind-body medicine, psychophysiology, and experimental psychology.
- Publications
“Model Behaviour: A Material Culture Approach to the History of Anatomical Models,” in Building New Bridges: Sources, Methods and Interdisciplinarity, Jeff Keshen and Sylvie Perrier, eds., (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2005): 29-48.
Review of On All Frontiers: Four Centuries of Canadian Nursing edited by Christina Bates et al., University of Toronto Quarterly 76/1 (2007): 357-359.
Nicole Nelson
PhD 2011, Cornell University, Department of Science and Technology Studies
Dissertation: "Capturing Complexity: Experimental Systems and Epistemic Scaffolds in Animal Behavior Genetics"
For more details see Nicole Nelson
- Research Interests
Social studies of contemporary biomedicine, especially animal behavior genetics and cancer genomics; animal models and model organisms; genetics of anxiety and addiction; ethnography and laboratory studies; science and law.
- Publications
Nelson, N. (Forthcoming) "Shooting Genes, Distributing Credit: Narrating the Development of the Biolistic Gene Gun" Science as Culture.
Nelson, N., Geltzer, A., and Hilgartner, S. (2008). The Anticipatory State: Making Policy-Relevant Knowledge about the Future. Science and Public Policy 35(9),546-550.
Delia Gavrus
PhD 2011, Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, University of Toronto
Dissertation: "Men of Strong Opinions:" Identity, Self-Representation, and the Performance of Neurosurgery, 1919-1950
- Research Interests:
I am interested in the history of 19th and 20th century medicine and science, in Canadian history, and in US history. As a cultural historian, I ask questions about the nature of professionalization and specialist identity, the relationship between the self and medical practice, the patients’ experience, representations of medicine and science in popular culture, and the role of epistemic authority in scientific debates.
- Publications:
“Men of Dreams and Men of Action: Neurologists, Neurosurgeons and the Performance of Professional Identity, 1925–1950.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 85(1) (2011): 57–92.
“Envisioning Cyclopropane: Scientific Product or Medical Technology?” Scientia Canadensis, Journal of the Canadian Science and Technology Historical Association 33(1) (2010): 3–28.
“Standardization and Specialty Formation in the Early Twentieth Century: The Case of Neurosurgery.” In European Academy for Standardization Proceedings 2007, Jorg Grondahl, Kai Jakobs and Angelos I. Zachariadis, eds. Aachen, Germany: Wissenschafts Verlag Mainz in Aachen (2007): 95–104.
“Mind over Matter: Sherrington, Penfield, Eccles, Walshe and the Dualist Movement in Neuroscience.” In MCIS Briefings, Comparative Program on Health and Society Lupina Foundation Working Papers Series 2005–2006, Jillian Clare Cohen and Lisa Forman, eds. University of Toronto (2006): 51–75.
J. M. Sargeant, B. Ramsingh, A. Wilkins, R. G. Travis, D. Gavrus and J. W. Snelgrove. “Constraints to Microbial Food Safety Policy: Opinions from Stakeholder Groups along the Farm to Fork Continuum,” Zoonoses and Public Health 54 (2007): 177–184. For more information, see http://individual.utoronto.ca/deliagavrus