Kenton Kroker
Associate Professor
Health & Society (HESO)
Office: 773 Ross Building South
Phone: 416-736-2100 Ext: 30200
Email: kkroker@yorku.ca
Media Requests Welcome
Accepting New Graduate Students
Historian of biomedicine
I study and teach the different ways that health, biomedical expertise, self-knowledge, and governance have interacted since the early 19th century. For me, history is less about heros and victims than it is about the forgotten. So I gravitate towards odd, discarded bits from the past to force open questions about biomedicine's origins and its orientation. In this vein, I've published on seemingly marginal historical topics such as anaphylaxis (which I link to eugenics), relaxation therapy (an accidental product of experimental psychology), and encephalitis lethargica (the template for virtual epidemics). My first book - The Sleep of Others - explained how experimental routines and technologies turned sleep from a very personal non-experience to an important public and well-publicized concern. The question of how public health evolves still fascinates me: my most recent research examines how a little-known disease map from the 1880s helped shaped both public health and settler identity in Ontario.
Degrees
PhD, History & Philosophy of Science & Technology, University of TorontoMA, University of Toronto
BA (Hons.), History, University of Victoria
Appointments
Faculty of Graduate StudiesProfessional Leadership
Former Graduate Program Director, Science and Technology Studies, York University.
Research Interests
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
This project will develop a descriptive account of the evolution of sleep medicine in Canada through data gathered from individual informants, archival sources, and published biomedical research. It also aims to examine the effects that Canada’s universal system of health care provision may have had on innovations in sleep
medicine.
Sleep complaints are ancient, but it was only during the 1970s and ‘80s that sleep began to emerge as a sub-specialty of medical practice. Canadian clinicians were on the cutting edge of this development, but this story remains unwritten. Sleep medicine evolved in tandem with the divergence of Canadian and American systems of state medical provision, so this project asks what effects Canada’s evolving system of universal health care had on sleep medicine since 1970. Personal interviews with Canadian sleep medicine researchers and practitioners will be combined with an historical analysis of published biomedical literature to help reveal the ways in which Canada’s universal health care system impacted technological innovation, patient care, and professional status and structure in an emerging field of medical expertise.
Start Date:
- Month: Sep Year: 2023
End Date:
- Month: Aug Year: 2024
Collaborator: Hana Holubec
Collaborator Institution: Graduate Program in Science & Technology Studies
Collaborator Role: Research Assistant
Funders:
AMS History of Medicine Project Grant
-
Summary:
Co-editor of CBMH/BCHM (with Erika Dyck)
Start Date:
- Month: May Year: 2015
End Date:
- Month: May Year: 2019
-
Summary:
Primary supervisor (Science & Technology Studies) of Dorian Deshauer: "Inventing Psychiatric Drug Maintenance" (defended 2018)
Description:PhD project tracing the history of the concept of "drug maintenance" in psychiatry over the course of the 20th century.
-
Summary:
Supervisor - Rachel Guitman - "Knowledge, Science, and Clinical Communication in Canadian Psychiatry"
Description:MRP in Science & Technology Studies - completed 2023
-
Summary:
Kevin Burris - "Mental Warfare: Voluntary Mental Health and Learning Disability Organizations in Britain, c. 1946-1959"
Description:PhD Dissertation - History - defended 2020
-
Summary:
Francesc Rodriguez, "Knowing Water Worlds: A Postphenomenological Approach to Socioenvironmental Imaginaries in Costa Rica"
Description:PhD Dissertation - Science & Technology Studies - defended 2020
"Configuring Epidemic Encephalitis as a National and International Neurological Concern" in D. Gavrus & S. Caspar (eds.), The History of the Brain and Mind Sciences: Technique, Technology, Therapy
"Editors' Introduction," in K. Kroker, J. Keelan and Pauline M.H. Mazumdar (eds.), Crafting Immunity: working histories of clinical immunology
“Creatures of Reason? Viruses at the Pasteur Institute during the 1920s,” in K. Kroker, J. Keelan, and P.M.H. Mazumdar (eds.), Crafting Immunity: working histories of clinical immunology
“Washouts. Electroencephalography, Epilepsy & Emotions in the Selection of American Aviators during the Second World War,” in Steve A. Walton (ed.), Instrumental in War: Scientific research and instrumentation between knowledge and the world
“Epidemic Encephalitis, an inversion of influenza,” in Michael Bresalier (ed.), After 1918: History and Politics of Influenza in the 20th and 21st Centuries (Routledge, forthcoming)
review of Jacob Steere-Williams, The Filth Disease: Typhoid Fever and the Practices of Epidemiology in Victorian England for Canadian Journal of Health History / Revue candienne d'histoire de la santé 39
review of Mark Honigsbaum, A History of the Great Influenza Pandemics: Death, Panic and Hysteria, 1830–1920 for Medical History 60: 422-24
review of Warwick Anderson & Ian R. Mackay, Intolerant Bodies: A Short History of Autoimmunity for Social History of Medicine 29: 203-4
review of Angela N.H. Creager, Life Atomic: A History of Radioisotopes in Science and Medicine for Isis 106: 221-2
review of Magda Fahrni & Esyllt W. Jones (eds.), Epidemic Encounters: Influenza, Society, and Culture for Scientia Canadensis 37: 219-21
review of Javier Moscoso, Pain: A Cultural History for History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 35: 459-60
review of Edward Shorter & David Healy, Shock Therapy: A History of Electroconvulsive Treatment in Mental Illness for Scientia Canadensis 32: 85-7
“Archives of the Imaginary,” review of Alfred Maury, erudite et rêveur: Les sciences de l’homme au milieu du xixe siècle sous la direction de Jacqueline Carroy et Nathalie Richard for History of the Human Sciences 22: 101-103
review of Simon J. Williams, Sleep and Society: Sociological Ventures into the (Un)known for Isis 99: 391-2
review of Charles Hayter, An Element of Hope: Radium and the Response to Cancer in Canada, 1900–1940 for Canadian Historical Review 88: 511-12
Kenton Kroker, "Insomnia, Medicalization, and Expert Knowledge," Canadian Journal of Health History / Revue canadienne d'histoire de la santé 39: 37-71
"Encephalitis lethargica: la COVID-19 de longue durée du siècle dernier?" CMAJ 193 (49), E1903-E1905
"Encephalitis lethargica: Last century's long haulers?" Canadian Medical Association Journal 193 (20 September 2021): E1468-70
Approach to Teaching
I have taught undergraduate and graduate courses in the history & philosophy of science and medicine at the University of Victoria, the University of Toronto, and (since 2003) York University. My primary goal in teaching is always the same: to demonstrate the various ways in which the extraordinary complexity of our pasts can be best understood. I have just as much fun trying to do this in first-year General Education classes as I do in advanced doctoral seminars.
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2024 | GS/STS6103 3.0 | A | Epidemics | SEMR |
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/SOSC3090 6.0 | A | Medicine & N.A.Soc. In Hist. Perspect | SEMR |
Upcoming Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter 2025 | AP/SOSC3993 3.0 | M | Strategies of Social Science Research | SEMR |
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/SOSC3090 6.0 | A | Medicine & N.A.Soc. In Hist. Perspect | SEMR |
Historian of biomedicine
I study and teach the different ways that health, biomedical expertise, self-knowledge, and governance have interacted since the early 19th century. For me, history is less about heros and victims than it is about the forgotten. So I gravitate towards odd, discarded bits from the past to force open questions about biomedicine's origins and its orientation. In this vein, I've published on seemingly marginal historical topics such as anaphylaxis (which I link to eugenics), relaxation therapy (an accidental product of experimental psychology), and encephalitis lethargica (the template for virtual epidemics). My first book - The Sleep of Others - explained how experimental routines and technologies turned sleep from a very personal non-experience to an important public and well-publicized concern. The question of how public health evolves still fascinates me: my most recent research examines how a little-known disease map from the 1880s helped shaped both public health and settler identity in Ontario.
Degrees
PhD, History & Philosophy of Science & Technology, University of TorontoMA, University of Toronto
BA (Hons.), History, University of Victoria
Appointments
Faculty of Graduate StudiesProfessional Leadership
Former Graduate Program Director, Science and Technology Studies, York University.
Research Interests
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
This project will develop a descriptive account of the evolution of sleep medicine in Canada through data gathered from individual informants, archival sources, and published biomedical research. It also aims to examine the effects that Canada’s universal system of health care provision may have had on innovations in sleep
medicine.
Sleep complaints are ancient, but it was only during the 1970s and ‘80s that sleep began to emerge as a sub-specialty of medical practice. Canadian clinicians were on the cutting edge of this development, but this story remains unwritten. Sleep medicine evolved in tandem with the divergence of Canadian and American systems of state medical provision, so this project asks what effects Canada’s evolving system of universal health care had on sleep medicine since 1970. Personal interviews with Canadian sleep medicine researchers and practitioners will be combined with an historical analysis of published biomedical literature to help reveal the ways in which Canada’s universal health care system impacted technological innovation, patient care, and professional status and structure in an emerging field of medical expertise.
Project Type: FundedRole: Principal Investigator
Start Date:
- Month: Sep Year: 2023
End Date:
- Month: Aug Year: 2024
Collaborator: Hana Holubec
Collaborator Institution: Graduate Program in Science & Technology Studies
Collaborator Role: Research Assistant
Funders:
AMS History of Medicine Project Grant
-
Summary:
Co-editor of CBMH/BCHM (with Erika Dyck)
Project Type: Self-FundedRole: Co-editor
Start Date:
- Month: May Year: 2015
End Date:
- Month: May Year: 2019
-
Summary:
Primary supervisor (Science & Technology Studies) of Dorian Deshauer: "Inventing Psychiatric Drug Maintenance" (defended 2018)
Description:PhD project tracing the history of the concept of "drug maintenance" in psychiatry over the course of the 20th century.
Project Type: Self-FundedRole: Primary supervisor
-
Summary:
Supervisor - Rachel Guitman - "Knowledge, Science, and Clinical Communication in Canadian Psychiatry"
Description:MRP in Science & Technology Studies - completed 2023
-
Summary:
Kevin Burris - "Mental Warfare: Voluntary Mental Health and Learning Disability Organizations in Britain, c. 1946-1959"
Description:PhD Dissertation - History - defended 2020
-
Summary:
Francesc Rodriguez, "Knowing Water Worlds: A Postphenomenological Approach to Socioenvironmental Imaginaries in Costa Rica"
Description:PhD Dissertation - Science & Technology Studies - defended 2020
All Publications
"Configuring Epidemic Encephalitis as a National and International Neurological Concern" in D. Gavrus & S. Caspar (eds.), The History of the Brain and Mind Sciences: Technique, Technology, Therapy
"Editors' Introduction," in K. Kroker, J. Keelan and Pauline M.H. Mazumdar (eds.), Crafting Immunity: working histories of clinical immunology
“Creatures of Reason? Viruses at the Pasteur Institute during the 1920s,” in K. Kroker, J. Keelan, and P.M.H. Mazumdar (eds.), Crafting Immunity: working histories of clinical immunology
“Washouts. Electroencephalography, Epilepsy & Emotions in the Selection of American Aviators during the Second World War,” in Steve A. Walton (ed.), Instrumental in War: Scientific research and instrumentation between knowledge and the world
“Epidemic Encephalitis, an inversion of influenza,” in Michael Bresalier (ed.), After 1918: History and Politics of Influenza in the 20th and 21st Centuries (Routledge, forthcoming)
review of Jacob Steere-Williams, The Filth Disease: Typhoid Fever and the Practices of Epidemiology in Victorian England for Canadian Journal of Health History / Revue candienne d'histoire de la santé 39
review of Mark Honigsbaum, A History of the Great Influenza Pandemics: Death, Panic and Hysteria, 1830–1920 for Medical History 60: 422-24
review of Warwick Anderson & Ian R. Mackay, Intolerant Bodies: A Short History of Autoimmunity for Social History of Medicine 29: 203-4
review of Angela N.H. Creager, Life Atomic: A History of Radioisotopes in Science and Medicine for Isis 106: 221-2
review of Magda Fahrni & Esyllt W. Jones (eds.), Epidemic Encounters: Influenza, Society, and Culture for Scientia Canadensis 37: 219-21
review of Javier Moscoso, Pain: A Cultural History for History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 35: 459-60
review of Edward Shorter & David Healy, Shock Therapy: A History of Electroconvulsive Treatment in Mental Illness for Scientia Canadensis 32: 85-7
“Archives of the Imaginary,” review of Alfred Maury, erudite et rêveur: Les sciences de l’homme au milieu du xixe siècle sous la direction de Jacqueline Carroy et Nathalie Richard for History of the Human Sciences 22: 101-103
review of Simon J. Williams, Sleep and Society: Sociological Ventures into the (Un)known for Isis 99: 391-2
review of Charles Hayter, An Element of Hope: Radium and the Response to Cancer in Canada, 1900–1940 for Canadian Historical Review 88: 511-12
Kenton Kroker, "Insomnia, Medicalization, and Expert Knowledge," Canadian Journal of Health History / Revue canadienne d'histoire de la santé 39: 37-71
"Encephalitis lethargica: la COVID-19 de longue durée du siècle dernier?" CMAJ 193 (49), E1903-E1905
"Encephalitis lethargica: Last century's long haulers?" Canadian Medical Association Journal 193 (20 September 2021): E1468-70
Approach to Teaching
I have taught undergraduate and graduate courses in the history & philosophy of science and medicine at the University of Victoria, the University of Toronto, and (since 2003) York University. My primary goal in teaching is always the same: to demonstrate the various ways in which the extraordinary complexity of our pasts can be best understood. I have just as much fun trying to do this in first-year General Education classes as I do in advanced doctoral seminars.
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2024 | GS/STS6103 3.0 | A | Epidemics | SEMR |
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/SOSC3090 6.0 | A | Medicine & N.A.Soc. In Hist. Perspect | SEMR |
Upcoming Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter 2025 | AP/SOSC3993 3.0 | M | Strategies of Social Science Research | SEMR |
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/SOSC3090 6.0 | A | Medicine & N.A.Soc. In Hist. Perspect | SEMR |
Keele, Glendon and Markham Campus
Contact
(416) 736-2100
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