Emily Seger, PhD Candidate

Emily M. Seger received her BA in History from the University of Pittsburgh and is currently a PhD candidate in the History Department at UB. Broadly, Emily is interested in the intersection of the history of medicine and disability history. Her research focuses on the medicalization of intellectual disability, institutional power, and the creation of transnational medical networks in the 19^th century eugenic Atlantic. In her dissertation, Emily plans to explore how the establishment of the Association of Medical Officers of American Institutions for Idiotic and Feeble-Minded Persons at the Pennsylvania Training School in 1876 facilitated an international conversation about feeblemindedness among a diverse group of historical actors including American superintendents, French psychiatrists, Japanese missionaries, and Scandinavian social reformers.

Since joining the doctoral program in 2018, Emily has presented at and her work has been accepted to various conferences including the Joint Atlantic Seminar for the History of Medicine, the American Historical Association Annual Conference, the American Association for the History of Medicine Annual Conference, and the Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife.

Outside of school, Emily enjoys cooking and baking, reading fiction, working out, holiday décor, surprises, and water-related activities.