John Harley Warner, PhD

Avalon Professor in the History of Medicine and Professor of American Studies and of History; Chair, History of Medicine

Departments & Organizations

History of Medicine

Biography

John Harley Warner, an historian who focuses chiefly on American medicine and science, received his Ph.D. in 1984 from Harvard University (History of Science), and from 1984-1986 was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine in London. In 1986 he joined the Yale faculty with a primary appointment in the School of Medicine, where he is now Chair of the Section of the History of Medicine. His research interests include the cultural and social history of medicine in 19th and 20th century America, comparative history (particularly British, French, and North American medicine), and medical cultures since the late 18th century. He is especially interested in clinical practice, orthodox and alternative healing, the multiple meanings of scientific medicine, and the interactions among identity, narrative, and aesthetics in the grounding of modern medicine. He is a professor and core faculty member in the Yale University Program in the History of Medicine and Science.

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Education

M.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1977
Ph.D., Harvard University, 1984

Selected Publication

“The Humanizing Power of Medical History: Responses to Biomedicine in the 20th-Century United States,” Medical Humanities, forthcoming; and an earlier version: Journal of Peking University (Philosophy and Social Sciences) [in Chinese], forthcoming.