Richert - Urdang Lab
ABOUT HISTORY OF PHARMACY & THE URDANG LAB: The UW-Madison School of Pharmacy has a century-long tradition of promoting the history of pharmacy in its curriculum. The PhD pathway in pharmacy history is housed in the Social and Administrative Sciences Division, and it has fostered a close working relationship with the wider HSMT community on the UW-Madison campus, which includes Medical History & Bioethics, the History Department, and the Holtz Center for Science and Technology Studies. Students in the Urdang Lab and in the history of pharmacy pathway will be exposed to interdisciplinary training and will operate within a unit encompassing scholars of all academic backgrounds. The Urdang Lab promotes a broad understanding of pharmacy history that incorporates aspects of medicine, health, society, pharmaceuticals, and technology. Students based in the Urdang Lab pursuing the history of pharmacy pathway will be provided opportunities to develop practical history skills in various ways, including in the publishing sector, archival and heritage settings, outreach activities and administration, and teaching in the UW-Madison PharmD and Psychoactive Pharmaceutical Investigation (PPI) masters programs.
PHARMACY HSTORY’S HISTORY: The history of pharmacy was first taught in the UW-Madison School of Pharmacy in the late 19th century. However, the history of pharmacy graduate studies pathway in the UW-Madison School of Pharmacy stretches back to the late 1930s, when Prof. George Urdang was recruited to Madison from Germany. It is one of the only “history of pharmacy” graduate studies pathways in North America, and it differentiates UW-Madison from other pharmacy schools across the country. Graduates include major figures in the history of science, medicine, and pharmaceuticals, such as Glenn Sonnedecker, John Swann, Gregory J. Higby, and others.
OPENINGS IN THE URDANG LAB: The Urdang Lab is open to accepting new students. The Lab is currently looking to support students around an ongoing multi-year historical project called “Drug Store Dreams,” which excavates in depth the role of American consumerism, corporatism, and cultures of health in the modern US. Whether a big box pharmacy or the small-town drugstore, such pharmacy businesses have served as civic and community landmarks as well as sites of medical knowledge exchange. This project will examine the rise and consolidation of big pharmacy via a focus on a) design and architecture, b) the types of psychoactive products sold, c) the changing technologies that influenced expansion, and d) the underexplored nature of ethnicity and pharmacy. This project will have a strong oral history component and students will be asked to carry out interviews with pharmacists in the United States as well as carry out original primary research. Participants will also be asked to publish, deliver podium presentations, and contribute to teaching during their time in the SAS/HSRP PhD program.
Richard Del Rio is a historian with research interests in the American drug industry, its transformation over time and the societal consequences those changes hold. He currently teaches in the PharmD and Pyschoactive Pharmaceutical Investigation programs. Dr. Del Rio earned his doctorate in history from the University of Chicago’s Social Science Division in 2018.
Thi Le is a Researcher in the Urdang Lab and an MS student in the Psychoactive Pharmaceutical Investigation (PPI) program at UW-Madison. Additionally, Thi is a Horticultural Business Development Consultant at TLeaf Consulting & Co, as well as a holder of a BS degree from UW-Madison.
Kathy Phillips is a Reseacher in the Urdang Lab, as well as an MS student in the Psychoactive Pharmaceutical Investigation (PPI) program. Kathy was a registered psychiatric nurse for over twenty-five years.
Maeleigh Tidd is a PhD student in Health Services Research in Pharmacy program at UW-Madison. Mae is currently completing her dissertation called “Exploring the integration of pharmacists in Wisconsin’s HIV Prevention programs.” She is the author of several recent publications aimed at pharmacists and other academic audiences.
Hannah Swan is the archivist for the School of Pharmacy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, currently working on an NEH grant-funded project to process ephemera held by the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy. She holds a postgraduate degree in Archives and Records Management from University College London and a master’s in Book History and Material Culture from the University of Edinburgh.
Birkhauser, a graduate of UW-Madison’s Anthropology Department, is now a student in the Psychoactive Pharmaceutical Investigation (PPI) program. She co-organizes the “Psychedelic Pasts, Presents, and Futures” workshop in academic year 2023-2024.
Carter, a PhD student in the English Department at UW-Madison, was a Project Assistant in the Urdang Lab during the 2022-2023 academic year. His PA was supported by OVCRGE Fall Research Competition at UW-Madison for the project “Drug Store, Inc.: The Rise of Big Pharmacy and American Health Capitalism.”
Kristen worked in the Urdang Lab and with the AIHP as a Digital Archive Assistant in 2022-2023.
Genevieve worked in the Urdang Lab and with the AIHP as a Digital Archive Assistant in 2020-2021.
Magnuson, a graduate of the UW’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies,Carter, was a Project Assistant in the Urdang Lab during the 2022-2023 academic year. Her PA was supported by the Urdang Lab and the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy. During her time in the Lab, Magnuson served as an Editorial Assistant at History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals and focused on social media / communication activities.
Amanda received her PhD in English with a concentration in Composition and Rhetoric in 2023. Her dissertation project, co-supervised by Lucas Richert and Carolyn Gottschalk Druschke, examined the rhetorical and ethical landscape of psychedelic substances across culture, biomedicine, and industry. Amanda also co-organized the Lab’s “Psychedelic Pasts, Presents, and Futures” workshop in academic year 2022-2023. Amanda is now an Assistant Professor of Rhetoric of Science in the Department of English at Kennesaw State University, and a consultant at the nonprofit online psychedelic prior art library Porta Sophia.