Faculty and Researchers with STS Interests - Profile

Elizabeth Watkins
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, History and Social Medicine
University of California, San Francisco


Email: watkinse@dahsm.ucsf.edu

Professor Watkins broadest research interests focus on technological and clinical applications of medical knowledge, the popularization of information about health and medicine, and the roles of gender in medicine. She has written two books, The Estrogen Elixir: A History of Hormone Replacement Therapy in America (2007) and On the Pill: A Social History of Oral Contraceptives, 1950-1970 (1998), addressing the issues of medical and cultural concerns about the long-term use of hormones, the relative merit of clinical observations and epidemiological data in risk-benefit analysis, and the definition of informed consent within the doctor-patient relationship. Her co-edited volume, Medicating Modern America: Prescription Drugs In History (2007) is the first to explore the rich and multi-faceted history of pharmaceutical drugs in the United States since World War II, demonstrating the extent to which contemporary debates about pharmaceutical drugs echo concerns voiced by Americans in recent decades. Her current research and most recent article The Medicalization of Male Menopausein Social History of Medicine expands gender studies of health and medicine to include mens experiences along with those of women. She is also working on two additional research projects: a history of the contraceptive implant, Norplant, and a history of hormones in American science, commerce, and culture in the 20th century.

Website: http://www.dahsm.medschool.ucsf.edu/faculty/bios/watkins_elizabeth.aspx

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