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Sarah Rodriguez (On Leave for Spring Quarter 2025)

Co-Director of Undergraduate Studies; Associate Professor of Instruction, Global Health Studies; Lecturer, Medical Education, Feinberg School of Medicine; Senior Faculty, Medical Humanities and Bioethics Graduate Program

PhD University of Nebraska Medical Center 2005
Geographic Regions: Global, US and other former British colonies

Topics of Expertise: American History since 1900, Global History, History of Medicine, Gender and Sexuality History

Biography

Sarah B. Rodriguez is a medical historian who focuses on the history of women’s reproductive health since the early 20th century, the history of clinical care, and the history of clinical research ethics. Her most recent book is The Love Surgeon: A Story of Trust, Harm, and the Limits of Medical Regulation. Rodriguez is currently working on the history of maternal mortality as a global health concern. 

Prior to joining Northwestern’s faculty, Rodriguez was a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University, first in the Woodruff Laboratory with the Oncofertility Consortium and then in the Medical Humanities and Bioethics Program.

 

Global Health Courses Taught

  • Global Bioethics
  • History of Reproductive Health
  • History of Maternal Health in the 20th Century

Recent Publications

  • “Expanding Underrepresented in Medicine to Include Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Individuals,” co-authored with Tim Kelly, Academic Medicine 97 (November 2022), 1605-1609
  • “Pregnant Women, HIV, and Clinical Research to Prevent Perinatal Transmission in the 1990s,” Journal of Contemporary History 57 (2022), 878-894.
  • "Restoring 'Virginal Conditions' and Reinstating the 'Normal': Episiotomy in 1920," in Heterosexual Histories, Rebecca Davis and Michele Mitchell, eds. (New York University Press, 2021), 303-330.
  • "A History of Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery in the United States: Marginal to Mainstream," in Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery: Solution to What Problem? Sarah Creighton and Lih-Mei Liao, eds. (Cambridge University Press, 2019): 33-41.
  • Listen to a New Books Network interview with Sarah Rodriguez on her book The Love Surgeon
  • Rodriguez, S. (2015). Watching the Watch-Glass: Miriam Menkin and One Woman’s Work in Reproductive Science, 1938–1952. Women's Studies, 44(4), 451-467. DOI: 10.1080/00497878.2015.1013215
  • Listen to a Vocalo.org interview with Sarah Rodriguez 
  • Read an interview at the Global Health Blog with Sarah Rodriguez 
  • Rodriguez, S. B. (2013). Female sexuality and consent in public discourse: James Burt's "love surgery". Archives of Sexual Behavior, 42(3), 343-351. DOI: 10.1007/s10508-012-0030-8
  • Rodriguez, S., Campo-Engelstein, L., & Emanuel, L. (2013). Fertile future? potential social implications of oncofertility. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 31(6), 665-667. DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2012.44.0990
  • Rodriguez, S. B., Campo-Engelstein, L., Clayman, M. L., Knapp, C., Quinn, G., Zoloth, L., & Emanuel, L. (2013). Pathways toward the future: Points to consider for oncofertility oversight. Journal of Cancer Survivorship, 7(1), 140-145. DOI: 10.1007/s11764-012-0255-5
  • Campo-Engelstein, L., Tingen, C., Rodriguez, S., & Woodruff, T. K. (2012). Conceiving ethical gamete and embryo research in a post-dickey-wicker USA. Science and Public Policy, 39(1), 129-132. DOI: 10.3152/030234212X13214603531888
  • Rodriguez, S. B., & Schonfeld, T. L. (2012). The Organ-That-Must-Not-Be-Named: Female Genitals and Generalized References. Hastings Center Report, 42(3), 19-21. DOI: 10.1002/hast.35