Amir Teicher
Senior Lecturer
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Historian of Modern medicine, biological thought, eugenics and Nazism
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About
My research deals with the history of heredity, eugenics and biology in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with racism and with the history of modern Western medicine.
Current Research
My current research project deals with the history of the concept of “disease carier” as a medical, social, and cultural concept. The idea that humans may transfer disease-agents to others without being sick was first articulated at ; the end of the 19th century, and ever since has troubled not only doctors but society at large. The notion of disease carrier raises complex legal and moral questions; for example, what is the right balance between individual freedoms and the community’s wish to protect itself? My reserarch looks into the ways in which the medical establishment dealt with the issue of carriers and the ways in which it was perceived by society as well as by those designated as carriers, from the 19th century to the present day.
Courses
Disease Carriers: Historical and Cultural Inquiries
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Introduction to the History of Modern Medicine
Graduate Students
I supervise master and doctoral students on my research topics: history of Western medicine, genetics and eugenics, German history, racism, Nazism
Publications
Book
Social Mendelism. Genetics and the Politics of Race in Germany, 1900-1948 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2020).
Articles
“Medical Bacteriology and Medical Genetics, 1880-1940: A Call for Synthesis.” Medical History 64.3 (2020): 325-354
“Father of the Bride: or, The Biologization of Social Animosity in Nazi Germany, 1937-1941.” German History 38.2 (2020): 263-289.
“Why did the Nazis Sterilize the Blind? Genetics and the Shaping of the Sterilization Law of 1933.” Central European History 58.2 (2019): 289-309.
“Caution, Overload: The Troubled Past of Genetic Load.” Genetics 210.3 (2018): 747-755.