Naomi Rogers, PhD
Cards
Appointments
Contact Info
History of Medicine
PO Box 208015
New Haven, CT 06520-8015
United States
About
Titles
Professor in the History of Medicine and of History
Biography
Naomi Rogers, Ph.D. (She/Her) is Professor of the History of Medicine in the Section of the History of Medicine and the Program in the History of Science and Medicine at Yale University where she regularly teaches undergraduate, graduate, and medical students. At the School of Medicine, she regularly lectures on the history of AIDS, reproduction, health economics, eugenics, nutrition, disability and health activism. Her undergraduate courses include American Medicine and the Cold War, and Public Health in America. At the graduate level, she teaches seminars on disability and on health and body politics. She is the Director of Graduate Studies for the 2022-23 academic year.
Her historical interests are in 20th and 21st century history of medicine, health inequities and social justice. Her research focuses include gender and health; disease and public health; disability; feminism; alternative medicine; health policy; and health activism.
Professor Rogers has published in numerous medical, public health and history journals including American Journal of Public Health, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Journal of Medical Humanities, Radical History Review, Social History of Medicine and Women and Health. She is the author of three books: Polio Wars: Sister Kenny and the Golden Age of American Medicine (Oxford, 2014) (which received the AAHN’s Lavinia L. Dock Award for Exemplary Historical Research); An Alternative Path: The Making and Remaking of Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital of Philadelphia (Rutgers, 1998); and Dirt and Disease: Polio Before FDR (Rutgers, 1992). In 2017, she presented the AAHM’s Garrison Lecture: “Radical Visions of American Medicine: Politics and Activism in the History of Medicine.” Since then her recent works have included: (with Zoe Adams) “Services not Mausoleums: Race, Politics, and the Concept of Community in American Medicine,” Journal of Medical Humanities, 41 (2020): 515-529; “Resistance to Polio Vaccines in Mid-Twentieth-Century America: The Role of the March of Dimes, Community Skepticism, Racial Inequalities, and Medical Politics,” Nursing History Review 31 (2022, forthcoming); and “Radical Visions of American Medicine: Politics and Activism in the History of Medicine,” Bulletin of History of Medicine (Winter 2023, forthcoming). Her current book project, Health Radicalism and the Humanization of American Medicine (under contract with Oxford), examines critics of medical orthodoxy since 1945 including civil rights, consumer and feminist activists. Other ongoing projects include a study of antisemitism in American medicine in the decades before and after the Second World War. She has been a consultant for a number of documentaries, including “The Polio Crusade” (PBS), “On the Basis of Sex” (Focus Features) and “War on Science” (in process). Her perspectives on COVID-related topics have appeared in various news media including BBC Radio, CNN, Huffington Post, National Public Radio, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post.
Professor Rogers has taught at Yale since the mid-1990s. Since joining Yale’s Program in the History of Science and Medicine in 2001 she has served as Chair of the Women’s Faculty Forum; Liaison to the Committee on Status of Women in Medicine; and Director of Medical Students for the Section in the History of Medicine. She has served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences since 2018 and is a manuscript reviewer for numerous journals. In addition to her service as Director of Graduate Studies, Rogers is currently a member of the Medical School’s OBGYN “Dobbs” Sessions Planning Committee, which has organized a series of webinars for the Yale community, and was a co-organizer of a special history-themed session “Rooted in History: Abortion, Law and American Health Care.” Professor Rogers holds courtesy appointments in the History Department and the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program.
Appointments
History of Medicine
ProfessorPrimaryHistory
ProfessorSecondary
Other Departments & Organizations
- Dean's Advisory Council for LGBTQI Affairs
- Directories
- Global Health Studies
- History
- History of Medicine
- Research Interest
- Yale Medicine Outlist
- Yale Ventures
Education & Training
- MA
- University of Pennsylvania (1986)
- PhD
- University of Pennsylvania, History (1986)
- BA
- Melbourne University, Music (1980)
- BA
- Melbourne University, Honors (1979)
Research
Overview
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
Publications
2020
"Services Not Mausoleums": Race, Politics, and the Concept of Community in American Medicine (1963-1970).
Adams ZM, Rogers N. "Services Not Mausoleums": Race, Politics, and the Concept of Community in American Medicine (1963-1970). The Journal Of Medical Humanities 2020, 41: 515-529. PMID: 32378066, DOI: 10.1007/s10912-020-09618-6.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchRemembering Gina Feldberg.
Rogers N. Remembering Gina Feldberg. Canadian Bulletin Of Medical History = Bulletin Canadien D'histoire De La Medecine 2020, 37: 10-13. PMID: 32354287, DOI: 10.3138/cbmh.37.1.02.Peer-Reviewed Original Research
2013
Polio Wars: Sister Kenny and the Golden Age of American Medicine
Polio Wars: Sister Kenny and the Golden Age of American Medicine, Oxford University Press, 2013Peer-Reviewed Original Research
2009
Polio chronicles: warm springs and disability politics in the 1930s.
Rogers N. Polio chronicles: warm springs and disability politics in the 1930s. Asclepio; Archivo Iberoamericano De Historia De La Medicina Y Antropología Médica 2009, 61: 143-74. PMID: 19753689, DOI: 10.3989/asclepio.2009.v61.i1.275.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchSave Her for the Dean: Feminists Fight the Culture of Exclusion in American Medical Education, 1970-1990, in Women Physicians and the Cultures of Medicine
Save Her for the Dean: Feminists Fight the Culture of Exclusion in American Medical Education, 1970-1990, in Women Physicians and the Cultures of Medicine eds Elizabeth Fee, Ellen More and Manon Perry (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 205-241.Peer-Reviewed Original Research
2008
Explaining everything? The power and perils of reading Rosenberg.
Rogers N. Explaining everything? The power and perils of reading Rosenberg. Journal Of The History Of Medicine And Allied Sciences 2008, 63: 423-34. PMID: 18403427, DOI: 10.1093/jhmas/jrn021.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchSilence Has Its Own Stories: Elizabeth Kenny, Polio and the Culture of Medicine, Social History of Medicine.
Silence Has Its Own Stories: Elizabeth Kenny, Polio and the Culture of Medicine, Social History of Medicine. (2008) 21: 145-161.Peer-Reviewed Original Research
2007
Race and the politics of polio: Warm Springs, Tuskegee, and the March of Dimes.
Rogers N. Race and the politics of polio: Warm Springs, Tuskegee, and the March of Dimes. American Journal Of Public Health 2007, 97: 784-95. PMID: 17395849, PMCID: PMC1854857, DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2006.095406.Peer-Reviewed Original Research
1998
An Alternative Path: The Making and Remaking of Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital of Philadelphia
An Alternative Path: The Making and Remaking of Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital of Philadelphia Rutgers University Press, 1998Peer-Reviewed Original Research
1992
Dirt and Disease: Polio before FDR Rutgers
Dirt and Disease: Polio before FDR Rutgers University Press, 1992Peer-Reviewed Original Research
News
News
- May 14, 2024
Students and Faculty Mentors Celebrated at Student Research Day
- November 08, 2023Source: Yale Daily News
‘A different spirit’ of research: Yale clinic seeks to unravel the mystery of long Covid
- November 01, 2023
Body weight: A love/hate relationship
- April 17, 2023Source: Yale Daily News
Inside Governor Ned Lamont’s bill to expand maternal healthcare: If passed, the bill could radically change the landscape of Connecticut maternal care — and the lives of underserved people
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History of Medicine
PO Box 208015
New Haven, CT 06520-8015
United States
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