Bio:

Christopher M. Rudeen is a historian of the mind sciences. He is currently a lecturer of history at Smith College, where he teaches courses on the history of science and medicine.

Christopher earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in the History of Science from Harvard University, with a secondary field in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality. His dissertation, “‘Furs, Feathers, Frippery’: Dress and the Sciences of Subjectivity,” explores the history of the “psychology of clothes,” a diffuse but cohesive research project present within psychology since its earliest days that aimed to connect clothing to deeper truths about the self.

He is also interested in other related projects of surfaces and medicine, including British tanning in the early twentieth century; the iconography of the skirt at the intersection of medicine and fashion; and "Rest in Peace" T-shirts as technologies of group therapy. His writing has been published in the Journal of Medical Humanities, the Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, Fashion Studies, Psychoanalysis and History, and in various edited volumes. His work has been supported by the Hagley Museum and Library; the Commission on Women and Gender Studies in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine within the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology; and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University.

Christopher is also passionate about expanding access to education and considering the effects of tools such as artificial intelligence on the classroom experience. He has served in various EDIB roles, including as a fellow with the Department of Classics at Harvard University working on their Scholars-in-Training Summer Program and as a member of the interdisciplinary team that put together the first iteration of the Harvard College Rising Scholars Program.

Before arriving at Harvard, Christopher studied chemistry and the history of science, medicine, and public health as an undergraduate at Yale University. In addition to studying RNA modifications and early American asylums, he was also the publisher of The Yale Record and a copy editor for the Yale Daily News, as well as a summer intern for both the NASA History Program Office and the Atomic Heritage Foundation.

Outside of his academic work, Christopher enjoys taking naps with his black cat, reading fiction, and talking about the rule of threes. He is originally from Denver, CO.