jhester6@jhmi.edu

Jessica is a second-year in the PhD program in history of medicine. She received a B.A. in English and gender studies from the University of Chicago and an MFA in nonfiction writing from Hunter College. A professional journalist mainly focused on science, her work has appeared in The Atlantic, New Yorker, New York Times, New York Times Magazine, Atlas Obscura, and, more. Bloomsbury published her first book, Sewer, in 2022. At Hopkins, Jessica’s research interests include the classed, gendered, and racialized dimensions of grave-robbing, medical education, and the exhibition of human remains in 19th-century Philadelphia. She is interested in the long afterlives of medical collections, including displaying, interpreting, and deaccessioning or returning medical specimens from the mid-1800s to the present day.