I am a historian of science, technology, and medicine, focusing on the human sciences in the United States since World War I
My work combines methods of close and distant (algorithmic) reading of archival documents, oral history interviews, and published sources with approaches drawn from history, science and technology studies, the digital humanities, and the quantitative social sciences. I have also published extensively in historical demography and environmental history.
Education
Degrees
Ph.D., History, 2015
University of Michigan
Dissertation:
Prediction and Control — Global Population, Population Science, and Population Politics in the Twentieth Century
Additional qualifications:
Graduate Certificate in Science, Technology, and Society; Graduate Traineeship in Population Studies
M.A., History, 2005
University of Michigan
B.A., History, 2001
Pomona College
Summa cum laude
Additional Training
Podcasting the Humanities, National Humanities Center, 2022
Oral History Training Institute, Center for Oral History, Science History Institute, 2022
Genomics for Social Scientists, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, 2019
Undergraduate Data Science Pedagogy and Practice Workshop, University of California, Berkeley, 2018
Active Learning Institute, Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning, 2015
Topic Modeling, Digital Humanities Summer Institute, University of Victoria, 2014
Anthropocene Campus, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, 2014
Graduate Seminar in Pedagogy, Department of History, University of Michigan, 2013
Summer Program in Quantitative Methods of Social Research (Quantitative Historical Analysis, Statistics I and II, Regression II, Categorical Analysis, Longitudinal Analysis of Historical Demographic Data, Network Analysis), Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, University of Michigan, 2002-2014
Awards and Fellowships
2023
Dean’s Faculty Fellowship, UC Davis
2022
Merle Curti Intellectual History Award (for Building the Population Bomb), Organization of American Historians
Otis Dudley Duncan Award (for Building the Population Bomb), Population Section, American Sociological Association
2021
Membership, School of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study
Research Fellowship, Consortium for History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Faculty Research Award, Davis Humanities Institute (declined)
2020
Hellman Fellowship, UC Davis
Faculty Development Award, UC Davis
2019
Aggie Hero, UC Davis
2017
James Madison Article Prize for “La Raza: Mexicans In the United States Census,” Society for History in the Federal Government
2016
Franklin Research Grant, American Philosophical Society and British Academy
2015
Online dissertation supplement selected Editor’s Choice on Digital Humanities Now
Dissertation Finishing Fellowship, Doris G. Quinn Foundation
2014
Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship, University of Michigan
Dissertation Fellowship, Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science (declined)
Research Associateship in Feminist Science and Technology Studies, Five College Women’s Studies Research Center (declined)
2013
Marshall Weinberg Research Fellowship, University of Michigan
2012
Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, National Science Foundation
Library Research Fellowship, American Philosophical Society
Research Fellowship, Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science
Grant-in-Aid for Research, Rockefeller Archive Center
Dissertation Research Grant, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations
Population Studies Center Initiatives Grant, University of Michigan
2011
Passed preliminary exams with distinction
2006
International Dissertation Research Fellowship, Social Science Research Council (declined)
2003
Jacob Javits Fellowship, U.S. Department of Education