Background
On research leave until Fall 2023
Wolf-Meyer's work focuses on how medicine, science and media in the U.S. make sense of major modern-era shifts in the expert practices of science, medicine and popular representations of health. His first book, "The Slumbering Masses," offers insights into the complex lived realities of disorderly sleepers, the long history of sleep science and the global impacts of the exportation of American sleep. He recently completed a new book manuscript on the alternative histories of American neuroscience, seen through the lens of neurological disorders. He is in the beginning stages of a project entitled "The Colony Within on the history and contemporary medicalization of digestion and excretion in the U.S.," which aims to weave together diverse historical threads, such as the 19th century colonial management of indigenous populations, Kellogg's studies of the colon, contemporary management of the personal microbiome and fecal microbial transplants. The Colony Within focuses on the idea of “the population” at various levels of life – from the personal microbiome to the American public – and how the population can be changed, maintained and intervened upon for the health of the person and the nation.
Education
- PhD, University of Minnesota
Research Interests
- Critical Medical Anthropology
- Science and Technology Studies
- Race and Ethnicity in the U.S.
- Disability Studies
- Global Social Theory
- The Biology of Everyday Life
