Research

The Urdang Lab is dedicated to the study of medicine, pharmacy, and society using multiple lenses and methodologies.

While dedicated to transdisciplinarity, history and historical frameworks act as key anchors in the Lab’s research.

Richert, as the Urdang Chair in Pharmacy History, has pursued varied topics in the history of intoxicants, medicine, pharmacy, and the medical humanities.

See Lucas Richert’s CV

Focus Areas

Richert has studied cannabis policy and history for over a decade in three countries. He has authored chapters, organized conferences, given public lectures, as well as contributed to opinion-editorials and commentary for the media during that time. He has also developed grants and online exhibits over his career.

Lucus Richert giving a presentation

Contested Cannabis

Cannabis: Global Histories

Pharmacists and the Future of Cannabis Medicine

Cannabis Lecture Series 2020

Richert first began researching psychedelics in science and society during his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Saskatchewan from 2010-2013. Since then, he has authored or co-authored multiple publications in this area, in addition to developing new historical collections, organizing lectures, and folding this work into the UW-Madison Psychoactive Pharmaceutical Investigation program.

images of mushrooms on a pastel background

Richert also created and co-led the Borghesi-Mellon “Psychedelic Pasts, Presents, and Futures” workshop for two years.

Psychedelics and Yoga

Psychedelic Crossings

Psychedelic Speaker Series, 2022

Both the history of mental health and psychiatry have featured prominently in Richert’s academic career. His scholarship in this area has dealt with experimental and alternative forms of treatment. In particular, Richert has written about radical psychiatry and psychology. He has also edited an Open Access collection on mental health and socioeconomics.

In 2006, Richert began a PhD project that culminated in a monograph on the US pharmaceutical and FDA regulation. He has maintained an interest in these topics ever since. He now collaborates with scholars beyond the field of history and has sought to collaborate with social scientists and pharmacists in the pages of Journal of the American Pharmacists Association and elsewhere.

A few recent articles in this focus area include “The Introduction of Peyote into Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Frameworks,” “The Misappropriation of Native and Indigenous Imagery in Pharmaceutical Advertising,” and “Developing, Revising, and Assessing the Use of an Infographic on Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for Wisconsin Community Pharmacists.” All of these articles can be found on Richert’s CV.

a cereal bowl of pills and glass of pills

Richert researches in the history of pharmacy field. The Urdang Lab supports PhD students and other types of scholars in this focus area. Richert, in partnership with the UW-Madison SoP and AIHP, works to develop historical collections for future researchers.

Please click through the gallery to explore different aspects of pharmacy history.

1971 pharmacist Ben Armstrong serving a customer in Grand Rapids MI

1934 photos of women filling bottles at Parke-Davis in Detroit

1959 "atomic age of medicine" poster set.

1944 black male pharmacist buying war bonds from a black boy scout.

1920 Leo Butts image in football uniform. Butts was the first black graduate of the SOP

1970 antidrug jack and king playing cards

1938 herbalist using a mortar and pestle in medicine shop in Chinatown LA, CA

1958 Image of young black kids at Katz Drug Store's lunch counter in protest of segregation.

image from 1915 of Native American students filling prescriptions.

1934 Drug clearks on strike in New York.

1945 picture of a male and female pharmacy technician filling bottles in a hospital.

COLLECTIONS AND RESEARCH RESOURCES

Display of cough & cold remedies from the 1950-60s The American Institute of the History of Pharmacy and the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy are excited to announce a partnership with the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center to digitize portions of the historical collections housed in Rennebohm Hall. The project will provide online access to important AIHP and UW–Madison School of Pharmacy historical sources that document changes in pharmacy practice, the pharmaceutical industry, public health, drug advertising, mass consumption, and many other late nineteenth-century and twentieth-century topics.

To get access to over 100 fun and informative history lectures that focus on health, medicine, and pharmacy, AIHP logo visit the official YouTube channel of the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy (AIHP). These lectures can be used for teaching in the classroom or to develop your own personal knowledge. Located at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy, AIHP’s mission is advancing knowledge and understanding of the history of pharmacy and medicines.

Focus Areas

Cannabis

Psychedelics

Psychiatry and Mental Health

Pharmaceuticals and Policy

Pharmacy

COLLECTIONS AND RESEARCH RESOURCES