Emily Harrison
Lecturer in Women's & Gender Studies
Health, Development, and Evidence
I am a Lecturer in the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies at Wellesley College. I hold a PhD in the History of Science, an SM in Global Health and Population with a certificate in Maternal and Child Health, and a BA in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, all from Harvard University.
My research focuses on the role of evidence in health and medicine, drawing on historical and ethnographic resources and methods. My principle research project is a history of global health metrics, with other ongoing research projects exploring clinical epidemiology, ecology, and traumatic brain injury. I am deeply interested in the power and limits of storytelling, and in my scholarly work I emphasize the role of life stories as a method for bridging analysis and narrative. In addition to my research and writing I am deeply interested in pedagogy that bridges not only disciplines but the multiple sectors of local, national, and global societies.
Education
- B.A., Harvard University
- M.S., Harvard University
- Ph.D., Harvard University
Current and upcoming courses
Global Health and the Environmental Crisis
WGST302
Social understandings of the relationship between human health and the environment are visible and malleable in moments of crisis, from industrial disasters, weather-related catastrophes, and political conflict, as everyday events like childbirth and routine sickness. But these understandings vary dramatically across time and community. This course addresses the complex dynamics at work in the representations of and responses to health and the environment that emerge during moments of crisis. By studying the way these constructions are shaped by social, political, technological, and moral contexts, we will analyze the role of nature, knowledge, ethics and power in such contemporary problems as human migration, hunger, debility, and disease. The class will together consider the meaning of crisis and how it is shaped by social systems such as gender, sexuality, ability, class, and race.
(ES 302 and WGST 302 are cross-listed courses.)