Participant Info

First Name
Kelly
Last Name
O'Donnell
Affiliation
Yale University
Website URL
http://www.kellysodonnell.com
Keywords
history of medicine, women's history, U.S. history, health activism, women's health, gender and medicine, birth control
Additional Contact Information

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

I specialize in the history of medicine and the history of women and gender in the modern United States. I have written on topics such as contraception, abortion, and women’s health activism.

I am currently a Lecturer in History of Science and Medicine at Yale University. After receiving my PhD, I spent a year working on the ground in a women’s health advocacy organization. I also taught in the College of Humanities and Sciences at Thomas Jefferson University. In 2020-21, I was the NEH Postdoctoral Fellow at the Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine.

At the moment I am working on two book projects. The first, The Pill Hearings: Science, Politics, and Birth Control, is a microhistory of the 1970 Senate subcommittee hearings on the safety of oral contraceptives, and the heated debates and feminist protests occurring during them. The second, Hippocratic Vows: How the Doctor’s Wife Transformed American Medicine, will rewrite the history of health care in the U.S. from the perspective of physicians’ spouses, who not only supported the profession, but helped shape it.

Recent Publications
Media Coverage
Country Focus
United States
Expertise by Geography
United States
Expertise by Chronology
Modern, 20th century, 21st century
Expertise by Topic
Gender, Medicine, Politics, Science, Sexuality, Technology, Women