The George Washington University

Graduate Student, American Studies

George Washington Univeristy Fellow

Thesis Title: Morbid Propensities: Suicide and the Making of the American Race, 1843-1907

About

Kathleen (Kate) Brian entered the doctoral program at George Washington University in the fall of 2007. She completed comprehensive field examinations in “Histories of American Medicine and Public Health,” “Cultural History,” and “Cultural Theory” with focuses on disability, race, and performance. She has acted as a GTA for a range of courses, including, “Epidemics in American History,” “Race, American Medicine, and Public Health: African-American Experiences,” and “Freedom in American Thought and Popular Culture.”

Her dissertation, "Morbid Propensities: Suicide and the Making of the American Race, 1843-1901," offers an alternative genealogy of the eugenics movement by analyzing the cultural locations at which the medicalization and decriminalization of suicide were contested during the second half of the nineteenth century.

Katie has received prizes for Best Graduate Student Paper at meetings of the Southern American Studies Association (SASA) and the Chesapeake American Studies Association (CHASA). Her articles have been published or are forthcoming in the _Journal of Literary and Disability Studies_ and the _History of Psychiatry_. 

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