Elena Conis
{{short description|American historian of medicine, public health, and the environment}}
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| name = Elena Conis
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| occupation = Professor, Journalist
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| title = Associate Professor of Journalism
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| education = Columbia University (BA)
University of California, Berkeley (MA)
University of California, San Francisco (PhD)
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| discipline = History
| sub_discipline = History of the Environment, Public Health, and Medicine, in the 19th and 20th centuries, United States
| workplaces = University of California, Berkeley (2016–present)
University of California, San Francisco (2016–present)
Emory University (2009–2016)
The Los Angeles Times (2003–2011)
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Elena Conis is an American writer and historian of medicine.{{cite web |title=Elena Conis | website=UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism |url=https://journalism.berkeley.edu/person/elena_conis/ |publisher=Berkeley Journalism |access-date=22 January 2021}} Her work focuses on the history of medicine, public health, and the environment, with particular focuses on the history of vaccination, infectious diseases, and pesticides. She is currently a Professor in the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, currently serving in the acting dean role until a permanent dean is hired.{{cite web|url=https://journalism.berkeley.edu/update-berkeley-journalism-dean/|title=Update on UC Berkeley Journalism Dean|date=September 10, 2024|access-date=May 12, 2025|publisher=UC Berkeley Journalism}}
Education and career
Elena Conis received her bachelor's degree in biology from Columbia University in 1996,{{Cite web|date=Summer 2015|title=Bookshelf|url=https://www.college.columbia.edu/cct/archive/summer15/bookshelf|url-status=live|access-date=August 8, 2021|website=Columbia College Today|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916065044/https://www.college.columbia.edu/cct/archive/summer15/bookshelf |archive-date=2016-09-16 }} followed by master's degrees in global health and environment and journalism from the University of California, Berkeley. While studying at Berkeley, she began to work as a columnist and features writer for the Los Angeles Times. An award-winning health journalist, she wrote for the paper's "Esoterica Medica", "Nutrition Lab", and "Supplements" columns until 2011.{{cite journal |last1=Kuhn |first1=Mary Ellen |title=At The Forefront of Food Science |journal=Food Technology Magazine |date=August 1, 2011 |volume=65 |issue=8 |url=https://www.ift.org/news-and-publications/food-technology-magazine/issues/2011/august/features/showreview |access-date=22 January 2021}}
After completing her PhD in the history of health sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, Conis joined the faculty of Emory University as an assistant professor in the Department of History and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Faculty Fellow in Health and the Humanities.{{cite news |last1=Williams |first1=Kimber |title=Elena Conis: Bridging health history and the humanities |url=https://news.emory.edu/stories/2014/04/er_mellon_fellows_profile_elena_conis/campus.html |access-date=22 January 2021 |work=Emory Report |publisher=Emory News Center |date=April 1, 2014}} She taught undergraduate and graduate courses on the history of health, medicine, and the environment. In 2016, Conis was a Cain Postdoctoral Fellow at the Science History Institute.{{cite web |title=Elena Conis |url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/profile/elena-conis |publisher=Science History Institute |access-date=22 January 2021}}
Conis is most prominently known for her 2015 book, Vaccine Nation: America’s Changing Relationship with Immunization,{{cite news |last1=Morrison |first1=Patt |title=Column: Historian Elena Conis takes a look at decades of vaccination skepticism |url=https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0128-morrison-conis-20150128-column.html |access-date=22 January 2021 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=28 January 2015}}{{cite web |title=The Points Interview: Elena Conis |url=https://pointshistory.com/2015/11/19/the-points-interview-elena-conis/ |website=Points: Joint Blog of the Alcohol & Drugs History Society and the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy |publisher=Points |access-date=22 January 2021}} which was awarded the Arthur J. Viseltear Prize from the American Public Health Association.
Conis is currently Associate Professor of Journalism in the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, where she directs the joint master’s program in journalism and public health (MJ / MPH).{{cite web |title=MJ/MPH with the Graduate School of Journalism |url=https://publichealth.berkeley.edu/academics/concurrent/journalism-mj-mph/ |publisher=Berkeley Public Health |access-date=22 January 2021}} She is a faculty affiliate of the Center for Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society; the Berkeley Center for Social Medicine; and the Department of Media Studies, at the University of California, Berkeley.{{cite web |title=Faculty & Fellows |date=21 December 2016 |url=https://cstms.berkeley.edu/all-people/faculty-fellows/ |publisher=University of California, Berkeley, Center for Science, Technology, Medicine & Society |access-date=22 January 2021}}{{cite web |title=People |url=https://bcsm.berkeley.edu/people |publisher=Berkeley Center for Social Medicine |access-date=22 January 2021}}{{cite web |title=Affiliated Faculty |url=https://mediastudies.ugis.berkeley.edu/affiliated-faculty-2/ |publisher=University of California, Berkeley, Media Studies |access-date=22 January 2021}} She is also affiliated faculty of the Department of Humanities and Social Science at the University of California, San Francisco.{{cite web |title=Faculty |url=https://humsci.ucsf.edu/faculty/ |publisher=University of California, San Francisco, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences |access-date=22 January 2021}}
Selected bibliography
=Books=
- {{cite book |last1=Conis |first1=Elena C. |last2=Eder |first2=Sandra |last3=Medeiros |first3=Aimee |title=Pink and Blue: Gender, Culture, and the Health of Children |date=2021 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |location=New Brunswick, New Jersey |isbn=978-1-9788-0984-0 |url=}}
- {{cite book |last1=Conis |first1=Elena |title=Vaccine Nation: America's Changing Relationship with Immunization |date=2015 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago, Illinois |isbn=978-0-226-37839-8 |edition=Paperback |url=}}{{cite journal |last1=Gobo |first1=Giampietro |title=A cumulative book review of: Conis, E.Vaccine Nation: America's Changing Relationship with Immunization, Chicago: University of Chicago Press2015. 361 pp $18 (pbk) $18 (ebk) {{text|ISBN}} 978-0-22637839-8 Reich, J.A.Calling the Shots: Why Parents Reject Vaccines, New York: New York University Press2016. 336 pp $75 (cloth) $20.00 (pbk) {{text|ISBN}} 978-1-47981279-0 Holmberg, C., Blume, S. and Greenough, P.R. (eds) The Politics of Vaccination: A Global History, Manchester: Manchester University Press2017. 360 pp £96 (cloth) £96 (ebk) {{text|ISBN}} 978-1-5261-1088-6 |journal=Sociology of Health & Illness |date=June 2020 |volume=42 |issue=5 |pages=1220–1223 |doi=10.1111/1467-9566.13046 |doi-access=free |hdl=2434/738621 |hdl-access=free }}{{cite journal |last1=Davidovitch |first1=Nadav |title=Vaccine Nation: America's Changing Relationship with Immunization by Elena Conis |journal=Bulletin of the History of Medicine |date=2016 |volume=90 |issue=4 |pages=748–750 |doi=10.1353/bhm.2016.0133 |s2cid=79203341 |url=https://doi.org/10.1353/bhm.2016.0133 |access-date=26 January 2021}}{{cite web |title=Review of Elena Conis, "Vaccine Nation: America's Changing Relationship with Vaccination" {{!}} Inside Higher Ed |url=https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2015/01/21/review-elena-conis-vaccine-nation-america%E2%80%99s-changing-relationship-vaccination |website=www.insidehighered.com}}{{cite web |title=Vaccine Nation: America's Changing Relationship with Immunization, by Elena Conis |url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/vaccine-nation-americas-changing-relationship-with-immunization-by-elena-conis/2017100.article |website=Times Higher Education (THE) |date=27 November 2014 |access-date=26 January 2021}}
- Conis, Elena (2022). How to Sell a Poison: The Rise, Fall, and Toxic Return of DDT. Bold Type Books, 2022. {{ISBN|978-1-64503-674-6}}
=Journal articles=
- {{cite journal |last1=Conis |first1=Elena |title=The History of the Personal Belief Exemption |journal=Pediatrics |date=April 2020 |volume=145 |issue=4 |pages=e20192551 |doi=10.1542/peds.2019-2551 |pmid=32184337 |s2cid=212751761 |doi-access=free }}
- {{cite journal |last1=Conis |first1=Elena |title=Measles and the Modern History of Vaccination |journal=Public Health Reports |date=March 2019 |volume=134 |issue=2 |pages=118–125 |doi=10.1177/0033354919826558 |pmid=30763141 |pmc=6410476 |doi-access=free }}
- {{cite journal |last1=Conis |first1=Elena |title=Polio, DDT, and Disease Risk in the United States after World War II |journal=Environmental History |date=1 October 2017 |volume=22 |issue=4 |pages=696–721 |doi=10.1093/envhis/emx086 |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/envhis/emx086}}
- {{cite journal |last1=Conis |first1=Elena |title=A Mother's Responsibility: Women, Medicine, and the Rise of Contemporary Vaccine Skepticism in the United States |journal=Bulletin of the History of Medicine |date=1 October 2013 |volume=87 |issue=3 |pages=407–435 |doi=10.1353/bhm.2013.0047 |pmid=24096560 |s2cid=34133674 |url=https://doi.org/10.1353/bhm.2013.0047}}
- {{cite journal |last1=Conis |first1=Elena |title=Debating the Health Effects of DDT: Thomas Jukes, Charles Wurster, and the Fate of an Environmental Pollutant |journal=Public Health Reports |date=March 2010 |volume=125 |issue=2 |pages=337–342 |doi=10.1177/003335491012500224|pmid=20297762 |pmc=2821864 }}
References
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External links
- {{cite web |title=Bay Nature Talks: Infectious Disease & the Environment |url=https://baynature.org/bay-nature-talks/ |publisher=Bay Nature Institute |access-date=26 January 2021}}
- {{cite web |title=Q&A: Elena Conis on Vaccine Development |url=https://www.c-span.org/video/?472697-1/qa-elena-conis |publisher=C-SPAN |access-date=26 January 2021}}
- {{cite news |last1=Conis |first1=Elena |last2=McCoyd |first2=Michael |last3=Moravek |first3=Jessie A. |title=What to Expect When a Coronavirus Vaccine Finally Arrives |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/20/opinion/coronavirus-vaccine-polio.html |access-date=26 January 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=May 20, 2020}}
- {{cite web |title=Trust in Science: Vaccines |date=29 January 2019 |url=https://www.amphilsoc.org/events/trust-science-vaccines |publisher=American Philosophical Society |access-date=26 January 2021}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Conis, Elena}}
Category:American women historians
Category:Writers from Berkeley, California
Category:American women journalists
Category:University of California, San Francisco alumni
Category:University of California, San Francisco faculty
Category:American medical historians
Category:University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism faculty
Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni
Category:Columbia College (New York) alumni
Category:21st-century American historians
Category:21st-century American women writers