Teaching Fields:
American Social, Cultural and Intellectual, 19th and 20th Centuries, History of Disease, Medicine, and Public Health
My graduate training was in the cultural and intellectual history of the United States. Since coming to Muhlenberg in 1978, I taught a wide variety of topics under that general heading. I taught numerous advanced courses including Nineteenth Century America, the Civil War and Reconstruction, Women's History, African-American History, Environmental History and the History of Medicine and Public Health. The topics of my Introductions to History included coming of age in America, the city in American culture, and epidemics in American history.

Since the early 1990s I have focused my scholarly work on the history of the polio epidemics in the United States. My studies of polio have emphasized the experiences of the individuals who had the disease during the many epidemics prior to the development of the Salk polio vaccine in 1955. To date I have published three books and several articles on the subject. I am also particularly interested in the subject of masculinity and disability and have been active in disability studies.

Courses Taught:
Nineteenth Century America
American Cultural & Intellectual History: Nineteenth Century
American Cultural & Intellectual History Since 1900
Disease & Medicine in American History
History of Public Health in America
Gendering in American History

Research, Scholarship or Creative/Artistic Interests

Since 1990, my research has focused on the history of the polio epidemics in the U.S., the history of medicine and disability history. I have explored the polio epidemics from the point of view of the individuals who had the disease and had to live with the consequences. This research has resulted in three books and several articles. The polio research also led me into a broader interest in the history of medicine and disability history. Disability history is a relatively new field, and I have published several articles and edited an anthology of essays in the new disability history.

My interest is in studying the history of individuals who had polio or were disabled, rather than looking at the medical profession and those who treat the ill and disabled. I am particularly interested in disability activism directed toward providing access and securing the rights of the disabled.