
Dr Stephen Mawdsley
PhD (Cantab.), MA (Alta.), BA Hons (Alta.)
Expertise
I am a social historian of twentieth-century American medicine and public health with a specialisation in poliomyelitis, jake paralysis, and immunization/vaccination. I am also interested in the history of American race relations.
Current positions
Senior Lecturer
Department of History (Historical Studies)
Contact
Press and media
Many of our academics speak to the media as experts in their field of research. If you are a journalist, please contact the University’s Media and PR Team:
Biography
After earning degrees at the University of Alberta and the University of Cambridge, I became an Isaac Newton–Ann Johnston Research Fellow at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge. I am Principal Investigator on a Wellcome Trust funded research project, entitled The Jake Walk Blues, which focuses on the history of intoxicants, disability, and stigma during America's Great Depression.
Research interests
I am a social historian of modern American medicine, public health and disability. I am interested in the following research areas:
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 speaks to regulation, medical research, public health, and occupational health. Since the 1950s, most commercial aircraft draw breathable air for circulation in the cabin and flight deck from within the engines, known as ‘bleed air,’ which can become contaminated by ultrafine particles and cause a fume event.
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
- "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)
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 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.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
The Jake Walk Blues: Intoxicants, Disability and Stigma in America
Principal Investigator
Description
Grant reference number: 200350/A/15/Z
Funding organization: Wellcome Trust
During America’s Great Depression the patent medicine Jamaica Ginger (JG) was adulterated with a toxic substance that could cause limb paralysis. Contaminated JG…Managing organisational unit
Department of History (Historical Studies)Dates
01/05/2016 to 28/02/2022
Thesis supervisions
America’s First Modern Aquarium
Supervisors
The Mark of a Military Man
Supervisors
Publications
Selected publications
01/08/2016Selling Science: Polio and the Promise of Gamma Globulin
Selling Science: Polio and the Promise of Gamma Globulin
Burden of Proof
Journal of Contemporary History
Borders and Blood Fractions
Canadian Bulletin of Medical History
Recent publications
17/04/2025Rehabilitation and Disability
Oxford Bibliographies in the History of Medicine
The Politics of Polio Vaccination in Postwar America, 1950–60
The Edinburgh Companion to the Politics of American Health
Elizabeth A. Williams, Appetite and its Discontents
The Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
More than truth or lies
Lancet
Sydney A. Halpern, Dangerous Medicine: The Story behind Human Experiments with Hepatitis
Journal of Social History
Teaching
I coordinate/lead the following units:
Race in America (MA)
Race and Health in America (BA)
Progress or Peril? The History of Science, Technology, and Medicine (BA)
I contribute to the following units:
Race (BA)
Rethinking History (BA)
The American Century (BA)
History of the Present (BA)
Approaches to History (MA)
I am a Fellow of The Higher Education Academy (HEA)