2023-24 Faculty Fellow
About
Henry M. Cowles is a historian of science and medicine. He writes and teaches about a range of topics, including psychology, addiction, self-help, and expertise. In addition to the History Department, he is affiliated with the Science, Technology, & Society Program, the Doctoral Program in Anthropology and History, and the Weinberg Institute for Cognitive Science. Current projects include a material history of mental health since 1800 and a history of habit from the celebration of daily routine in Thoreau’s Walden to the rise of “persuasive technologies” in Silicon Valley and beyond.
During his fellowship, Professor Cowles will be writing a history of mental health in the United States. The project uses histories of the six evidence-based treatments for anxiety and depression used today to explore how psychiatric care has evolved over the last two centuries.
