Dr Stephen E Mawdsley

I am a Fellow of The Royal Historical Society
I am a Fellow of The Higher Education Academy
I am a UKCGE Recognised Research Supervisor.

I am a social historian of modern American medicine, public health and disability. I work on the following research projects:

Poliomyelitis

My research on the history of polio examines race relations, reactions to the first vaccine, and medical experimentation on children. I am also interested in the application of gamma globulin as a means to control polio before the vaccine.

Jamaica Ginger Paralysis

My research on the history of Jamaica Ginger Paralysis in 1930s America, considers the health consequences of an adulterated patent medicine. It examines food and drug regulation, alcohol prohibition, and disability activism.

Fume Events

My research on the history of fume events examines how cabin air in commercial aircraft can become contaminated by ultrafine particles. It speaks to public and occupational health, as well as medical research and regulation. 

Monographs

• Selling Science: Polio and the Promise of Gamma Globulin (Rutgers University Press, 2016).
• The Jake Walk Blues: Adulteration, Disability, and Stigma in Prohibition America (Cambridge University Press, Forthcoming).

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

• "Rehabilitation and Disability," Oxford Bibliographies in the History of Medicine (2025).
• "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:

• Health on the Colour Line: Race and Medicine in America (UG/Y3)
• Disease, Deviance and Disability in Modern Medicine (UG/Y2)
• The American Century (UG/Y1)
• Race (UG/Y3)
• Race in America (PGT)
• Critical Issues in the Humanities (PGT)

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 public health, medicine, and disease
• history of disability

Research Environment

• I convene the American History Graduate Workshop where we discuss draft chapters and the latest historical scholarship.

Administration Roles

• School of Humanities, International Director, 2025 - present
• School of Humanities, Postgraduate Taught Officer, 2019 - 2023
• Faculty of Arts, Graduate Dean & Graduate Education Director, interim 2022

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.