Heather Roesch is a biochemistry major at Grinnell College. After graduation (2018), she will be pursuing a Masters in Forensic Science. The discovery of radium in 1998 by Marie and Pierre Curie changed the American public’s view about both scientific limitations as well as public health. When radium was first extracted from pitchblende, a uranium… Read more The Power of Radium
Katie Ackerman is a fourth year biochemistry major at Grinnell College. In the fall she will be attending Pacific Northwest University School of Health Sciences to pursue an osteopathic medical degree. Apart immersing herself in science, Katie does lots of photography, pottery, and running. From the first woman to practice medicine in the United States… Read more DO-ing Medicine: Women in Osteopathic Medicine
Amelia Cogan (’19) is a student at Grinnell College majoring in Biological Chemistry. In the fall of 2018, she will begin pursuing her Masters of Public Health at the University of Iowa. She then plans to attend medical school and work with vulnerable populations as a physician, hoping to achieve health equity in her community.… Read more A-Freud of the Slip: Bringing Unconscious Thought to the Conscious Mind
Lucy Chechik is a fourth year Chemistry major from Minneapolis, MN. After Grinnell, she wants to become a physician focused on maternal health. “The difficult thing for us to realize is the position of trust and respect in which the midwife is held in Denmark” –Dr. Dorothy Mendenhall, 1928 [1]. In the early 1920s, Dr.… Read more Midwifery Status in the United States and Denmark: A Matter of Inclusion in the Medicalized Model of Childbirth
Charles Saunders is a Political Science and Psychology double major. Outside of academics, he enjoys playing pickup basketball, Skyrim, Yugioh, and study breaks at the most inconvenient of times. Even in today’s society, where psychology, medicine, and the media have worked towards open communication about mental illness, there remains a definitive stigma. This stigma is… Read more Masculinity and Mental Health
Hannah Boggess is a [2018] Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies and History double major. Outside of schoolwork, she enjoys playing with every dog she sees, watching The West Wing, and being a feminist killjoy. Compulsory heterosexuality, a term popularized by Adrienne Rich in the 1980s, is the overwhelming, hegemonic, enforced belief that all people are assumed—and required—to… Read more “Intolerable Lesbian Lovers:” Medicine’s Control of Deviant Sexuality and Gender Norms
Toby Baratta (2017) is a student at Grinnell College majoring in Computer Science and Political Science with a concentration in Statistics. She loves data analysis, accessible technology, queer life, intersectional feminism, and cats. Sex work has been a popular conversation lately in the news and pop media. There have been talks about decriminalization, legalization, and… Read more Sex Work and Stigma: A Historical Medical Approach
Sam Curry is a fourth year Anthropology major from South Kingstown, Rhode Island. His main academic interests involve humans’ relationships with the nature and environmental health, and he hopes to work in environmental policy after graduation. His other main interest is racquetball. In 1912, pediatrician Henry L. Coit, mourning his son’s death from typhoid fever,… Read more “One of Our Greatest Investments”: Breastfeeding in the Early 20th Century United States
Kirtimay Pendse is a first year student at Grinnell College, where he’s studying Economics and Global Development Studies. He’s interested in studying the relationship between medicine and economics. Various historians agree that nursing as a profession has provided new perspectives on the larger issues present in women’s history and in American medical history. However, not… Read more Women and Healthcare: Nursing in 19th Century Post Civil War America
Hi! My name is Jherron Sutton and I am a rising third year at Grinnell College. I am a Sociology major and plan to teach after graduation before beginning a career in educational law and policy. I enjoy spending time with my family and trying new foods. This upcoming fall I will be studying abroad… Read more Black Women and Contraception
