Articles


  • Is cleanliness a virtue?

    In this essay, for the above proposed special issue on COVID-19, I argue that our legacy of unthinkingly aligning microbial and moral purity dates back to the development of germ theory in the 1880s.

  • The ethical dilemma of asymptomatic carriers

    In this academic article, I explore the way healthy carriers have posed unique public health ethics dilemmas since the early 20th century. I cover the case of Mary Mallon (labelled “Typhoid Mary”) to explore possibilities of ethical public health protocol and community mobilization during COVID-19.

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  • Outbreak: Contagion and culture in the victorian era

    A work-in-progress. A proposed special issue of Journal of Victorian Culture, co-edited with Lakshmi Krishna that will explore the various ways Victorian experience with disease outbreak can help us locate best practices for our own 2020 moment.

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  • Antibiotics will stop working. What can we do?

    In this co-authored article (currently in progress), my colleagues and I propose our design for a targeted advertising campaign via streaming media that tries to get different stakeholders to adopt one or more specific practices for preventing antibiotic resistance. Our work is part of a grant-funded effort to improve public understanding about antibiotic resistance.

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  • Bleeding sores and globalization

    My article on how Daniel Defoe uses oozing sores to comment about the importance of global community connections.

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  • Disability and care

    “Bartleby, the Scrivener” is one of the most haunting 19th-century short stories. In this essay, I use a disability theory lens to uncover the true tragedy of the story.

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  • Zombies and U.S. healthcare

    How can zombie bodies teach us about the inequities of the U.S. health care system?

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