Massachusetts Institute of Technology, PhD '11

BIOGRAPHY

Michael Rossi is a historian of science and medicine in the United States from 1800 to the present. His research focuses mostly on sensation, aesthetics, and the modern (human) body; and also, sometimes, on whales. He is the author of The Republic of Color: Science, Perception, and the Making of Modern America (U Chicago Press, 2019); and Capturing Kahanamoku: How a Surfing Legend and a Scientific Obsession Redefined Race and Culture (HarperOne, 2025). In addition to the History Department, he is a faculty member in the Committee on Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science; the Committee on Environment, Geography, and Urbanization; and the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics.

Prior to Chicago, Michael was a postdoctoral fellow in the Groupe Histoire des sciences de l’homme at the Ecole Normale Superieur de Cachan in France. He received a PhD in the history and anthropology of science, technology, and society from MIT and an AB from Columbia University.