History of Science, Medicine, and Technology Colloquium Series
“The Atomic Balm: Diet, Radiation, Cancer, and the Cold War”
Travis Weisse (New Mexico State University)
Travis Weisse is a Visiting College Assistant Professor in Sociology and in Public Health at New Mexico State University. His research examines the social and cultural history of dieting, longevity, wellness, and alternative medicine and the social construction of scientific expertise. His first book, Health Freaks: Fad Diets, Cultural Movements, and the Quest to Relieve Chronic Illness in America provides a critical cultural history of American fad diets, their colorful creators, and devoted followers. It also turns the conventional narrative of American dieting on its head by examining diets, not through the familiar discourse of weight loss, but through the lens of alternative medicine and the history of social and political movements. By examining the social mechanics powering the erosion of trust in conventional scientific and medical expertise and the growing faith in high-powered fringe theories, Health Freaks sheds new light on some of the most pressing and intractable public health issues of our time.
Cosponsored by Department of History and Department of Medical History and Bioethics