About

Education:

MA, History, Case Western Reserve University
BA, History, Hiram College

Field of Study:

History of Medicine, World Environmental History, Early American, US Modern

Dissertation:

“Salutary Violence: Quarantine & Controversy in Antebellum New York”
Advisors: Jonathan Sadowsky, John Broich

Grants, Fellowships & Prizes:

New York Public Library Research Fellowship, 2018

Medical Humanities & Social Medicine Research Fellowship, CWRU Bioethics, 2018

College of Arts & Sciences Dissertation Fellowship, CWRU, 2018

American Society for Environmental History, Best Poster Award, 2018

The Frank R. Borchert Jr. Prize in History, 2013

Lois Scharf Fellowship, 2011-2012

 Selected Conference Papers and Presentations:

“‘What Disease Though?’: Learning from the Wrong Questions.”
Public Health Humanities Summer Seminar, June 2018, Hiram College Center for Literature & Medicine

“The Quarantine Riot of 1858 and the Productive Destruction of Space.”
Cultural Studies Association Annual Conference, May 2018, Carnegie Mellon

“Environmental & Health Humanities: History Education and Public Health Policy.”
Environmental Humanities in the Public Realm Workshop, May 2018, Memorial University, Newfoundland, Canada 

“Backfire: Untangling Intent in the Staten Island Quarantine Riot of 1858.” (Poster)
American Society for Environmental History Annual Conference, March 2018, Riverside CA

“Victorian & Edwardian Funeral Customs: A Walking Tour.”
Lakeview Cemetery, August 2015, October 2016

“A Handful of Bones, A Glass Full of Dirt: Ashokan Reservoir Cemetery Relocations and the Liminality of the Body after Burial.”
Joint Atlantic Seminar for the History of Medicine, October 2014, Johns Hopkins University

About:

Katie Schroeder is a PhD candidate with research interests in history of medicine, environmental history, historic geography, and bioethics. Her dissertation, “Salutary Violence: Quarantine & Controversy in Antebellum New York,” unpacks an all-but-forgotten public health crisis that shaped early American perceptions of nuisance law, property rights, and the unequal distribution of harms. Moving the scholarly discussion of quarantine beyond the limited realm of medical etiology, she underscores the influence of local politics, urban development, and changing spatial dynamics in the New York Harbor. As an instructor, Katie is enthusiastic about employing interdisciplinary methodologies including critical self-reflection, journaling, visual storytelling, and digital humanities.