Dr. Chowkwanyun is the Donald H. Gemson Associate Professor of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and is affiliated with Columbia’s Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health, Data Science Institute, and Department of History.
Merlin Chowkwanyun’s work centers on the history of community health; environmental health regulation; racial inequality; and social movement/activism around health.
They just finished a book called All Health Politics is Local: Battles for Community Health in the Mid-Century United States, which will be published by UNC Press. They are working on another book now that introduces and re-assesses social determinants approaches to health, to be published by W.W. Norton.
Chowkwanyun is also the PI (co-PI David Rosner) on a recent National Science Foundation Standard Research Grant for ToxicDocs.org, a depository of millions of pages of once-secret documents on industrial poisons. They teach courses on health advocacy and mixed methods, and in the CORE, co-teaches the history module.
They are most proud of the three teaching awards from aMailman for Excellence in Teaching, Innovation in Teaching, and teaching in the CORE. They are a huge fan of the New York Liberty, the UConn Huskies (women’s only), and sometimes, the Lakers.
All Health Politics Is Local: Community Battles over Medical Care and Environmental Health (University of North Carolina Press) – https://uncpress.org/9781469667676/all-health-politics-is-local/
NSF-funded project information: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2147334
