SARAH B. RODRIGUEZ, Ph.D.
I am a historian who teaches and writes about historical and contemporary issues in women’s reproductive and sexual health. I am also interested in the history of clinical practice and in the history of the ethics of clinical research.
My second book, THE LOVE SURGEON: A STORY OF TRUST, HARM, AND THE LIMITS OF MEDICAL REGULATION is a critical account of the practice of a gynecologist in the United States who performed a surgery he called ‘love surgery’ on hundreds of women, most of the time without their consent, from the 1950s-the 1980s.
My first book was on the history of female circumcision and clitoridectomy in the United States as medical therapy, called, appropriately enough, FEMALE CIRCUMCISION AND CLITORIDECTOMY IN THE UNITED STATES: A HISTORY OF A MEDICAL THERAPY.
I teach at Northwestern University in Global Health Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences and for the Graduate Program in Medical Humanities and Bioethics.