I am a historian of public health and medicine specializing in the circulation of infectious diseases in the United States and the Pacific World. I hold a Ph.D. in History from the University of Chicago (2019) and an M.Sc. in History from the University of Edinburgh (2011). Before joining the Program in the History of Medicine at Minnesota in 2021, I held a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Chicago. Broadly speaking, my research examines how public health and medical professionals in urban environments respond to the global spread of infectious diseases. In my current book manuscript, Pasteurizing the Pacific: Public Health, Empire, and the Making of the Urban Pacific World, I explore how health officials, Native Hawaiians, and East Asian immigrants transformed Honolulu from a passive harbor into a disease-screening checkpoint for Hawai‘i, the Pacific, and America’s overseas empire. More recently, I have been investigating how global cities are actively collaborating with local residents when designing and implementing COVID-19-related health policies. I teach courses on the history of public health, medicine, and infectious diseases; race, indigeneity, and migration; and American imperialism in the Pacific World.
Public Engagement
Here’s what Hawaii can learn from travel quarantines in other states,” Interview with Honolulu Civil Beat, November 11, 2020
“Reopening Chicago after the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918,” Interview with WGN Radio 720, April 21, 2020
“How Can Chicago Reopen After Coronavirus? Here’s How We Did It After 1918’s Spanish Flu,” Interview with Block Club Chicago, April 15, 2020
“What Could a Summer Without Festivals Look Like in Chicago?” Interview with Block Club Chicago, April 14, 2020
“Why quarantines are so difficult to implement: Lessons from the 1800s,” Interview with UChicago News, March 24, 2020
Education
Specialties
19th- and 20th-century history of public health, medicine, and infectious diseases in the Pacific World and the United States; History of global mobility, urbanization, race, and visual culture