Dr Stephen E Mawdsley

I am a social historian of modern American medicine, public health and disability. My research on the history of polio examined race relations, reactions to the vaccine, and medical experimentation on children. My subsequent research on the history of Jamaica Ginger paralysis in 1930s America, considers the health consequences of patent medicines, food and drug regulation, and how consumers sought recourse and recognition for their condition. My next research project on the history of fume events on commercial jet aircraft speak to themes of occupational health, clinical research, and disability activism.

Monographs

• Selling Science: Polio and the Promise of Gamma Globulin (Rutgers University Press, 2016).

Selected Book Chapters

• "The Politics of Polio Vaccination in Postwar America, 1950–60: Detractors and Defenders," in Martin Halliwell and Sophie A. Jones eds., The Edinburgh Companion to the Politics of American Health (2022).
• "A Canadian Proving Ground for American Medical Research on Mustard Gas and Polio in the 1940s and 1950s," with Susan L. Smith in Erika Dyck and Christopher Fletcher eds., Locating Health: Historical and Anthropological Investigations of Place and Health (2011).

Selected Articles

• "Burden of Proof: The Debate Surrounding Aerotoxic Syndrome," Journal of Contemporary History (2022). 
• "Borders and Blood Fractions: Gamma Globulin and Canada's Fight Against Polio, 1950-1955," Canadian Bulletin of Medical History (2019).
• "'Salk Hops': Teen Health Activism and the Fight Against Polio, 1955–1960," Cultural and Social History (2016).
• "Balancing Risks: Childhood Inoculations and America's Response to the Provocation of Paralytic Polio," Social History of Medicine (2013).
• "'Dancing on Eggs': Charles H. Bynum, Racial Politics, and the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, 1938-1954," Bulletin of the History of Medicine (2010).
  

Teaching

I teach on the following units:

• Race and Health in America (BA)
• Disease, Deviance and Disability in Modern Medicine (BA)
• The American Century (BA)
• Race in America (PGT)

I have contributed to the following units:

• Approaching the Past (BA)
• Approaches to History (PGT)
• Rethinking History (BA)
• Race (BA)
• History of the Present (BA)

I am a Fellow of The Higher Education Academy (HEA)

Research Supervision

I am available to supervise students who wish to work on any subject within my research field and I particularly welcome proposals in the following areas:

• history of the United States since 1865
• history of race and ethnicity in America
• history of public health, medicine, and disease
• history of intoxicants and toxicology
• history of disability

Research Culture

• I convene the American History Graduate Workshop where we discuss draft chapters and the latest historical scholarship.
• I co-chair Faculty of Arts American Studies Research Group.

Administration

I have served in the following roles:

• Graduate Dean & Graduate Education Director (GED), Faculty of Arts (Interim 2022)
• Postgraduate Taught Officer (PGTO), School of Humanities (2019-2023)
• UG History External Examiner, Cardiff University (2019-2023)

Student Consultation

• I am available for consultation. Please book onto my consultation hours.
• My office is located at G.4, 26/27 St. Michael's Park.