Research Expertise and Interest

gender, sexuality, medicine, science, US History 20th century, popular culture

Research Description

Sandra Eder researches, writes, and lectures on the history of medicine, science, and gender. She is interested in the emergence of modern ideas about the self and formulations of identity through scientific knowledge production and in medical practice. Her book  How the Clinic Made Gender: The Medical History of a Transformative Idea (University of Chicago Press, 2022) examines the emergence of our modern sex/gender binary in mid-twentieth century clinical practices in the U.S. Eder is also co-editor of Pink and Blue: Gender, Culture, and the Health of Children (Rutgers University Press, 2021) which explores how gender has served as one of the frameworks for pediatric care in the U.S. since the specialty’s inception.  

In fall 2023, Eder became the director of The Center for Science, Technology, Medicine, & Society (CSTMS) at UC Berkeley. CSTMS promotes rigorous interdisciplinary research based on the conviction that the pressing problems of our time are simultaneously scientific and social, technological and political, ethical and economic.