Hannah Gallagher-Syed

I research "menstrual conditions", in particular endometriosis, premenstrual dysphoric disorder and premenstrual syndrome. I aim to produce critical historical and sociological accounts of how these conditions emerged in specific times and places. For example, why and how did endometriosis go from invisible to flagship public health condition in France in the last two decades or why and how do we understand the shifting relationships between PMS, PMDD and normative femininity in the US over the past century or so?

My goal is never to question the lived experiences of people diagnosed with these conditions (diagnoses allow us to navigate a complex and challenging world!) but rather to ask what came to bear on the formation of these diagnostic categories and what they do to our ways of understanding ourselves, our bodies and norms of femininity.

Beyond menstrual health, I am interested in the social treatment of sexual violence, political histories of science and medicine, critical public health research and most issues pertaining to intersectional studies of health.