Biography
Education
- Ph D in History, Rutgers University
- BA in European Studies and Music, The College of William and Mary
Dr. Black is a historian of medicine in modern France researching the history of drugs at the intersection of medicine and culture. Her first book, Drugging France: Mind-Altering Medicine in the Long Nineteenth Century (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2022) traces the interconnected histories of six "psychotropic" drugs: opium, morphine, ether, chloroform, cocaine, and hashish. It explores how the use of mind-altering drugs in medical practice normalized the chemical enhancement of modern life and transformed the way individuals experienced their own minds and bodies.
She is currently working on a new book titled Filthy Paris: Sex, Health, and Demographic Politics, 1870-1920.
Teaching
History of Medicine
French History
Cultural History
European History
Global History
Research
History of Medicine
Modern France
Cultural History
Intellectual History
History of the Body
Selected Accomplishments
- J. Russell Major Prize, American Historical Association. (2023)
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Journal Article, Academic Journal
“Health Crusaders: Childhood and Public Health in the First World War”. Contemporary European History. Pages, 41. -
Monograph
(2022). Drugging France: Mind-Altering Medicine in the Long Nineteenth Century. McGill-Queen's University Press. Pages, 400. -
Book, Chapter in Scholarly Book-New
(2022). "French Drug Control from Poisons to Degeneration". Oxford University Press. Pages, 27. -
Book Review
(2021). Review of Larry Sommer McGrath, Making Spirit Matter: Neurology, Psychology, and Selfhood in Modern France. History: Reviews of New Books. Volume, 49. Issue, 4. Pages, 96-98. -
Book Review
(2020). Review of David Hardman's Marie-Antoinette. CHOICE. -
Book Review
(2020). Review of Ellen La Motte, The Backwash of War: An Extraordinary American Nurse in World War I. H-War, H-Net Reviews. -
Journal Article, Academic Journal
(2019). Morphine on Trial: Legal Medicine and Criminal Responsibility in the Fin de Siècle. French Historical Studies. Pages, 40. -
Journal Article, Academic Journal
(2017). Doctors on Drugs: Medical Professionals and the Proliferation of Morphine Addiction in Nineteenth-Century France. Social History of Medicine. Volume, 30. Issue, 1. Pages, 114-136. -
Book Review
(2016). Black on Bourke, 'The Story of Pain: From Prayer to Painkillers'. H-War Reviews.