Jennifer Gunn

Jennifer Gunn is an associate professor of History at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, serving as Associate Professor in the Program in History of Medicine within the Program in History of Science, Technology, and Medicine. A historian of 19th- and 20th-century medicine, her academic interests center on the intersections of health, medicine, biology, social sciences, institutions, and public policy. Gunn earned her B.A. from Hampshire College and her M.A. and Ph.D. in History and Sociology of Science from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997. She joined the University of Minnesota faculty and advanced to associate professor. From 2014 to 2022, she directed the Institute for Advanced Study, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration across the university.

Gunn's research focuses on rural health and medical practice in the Upper Midwest from 1900 to 1955, graduate medical education, public health, health policy, population studies and demography in the interwar period, and philanthropy. Her ongoing book project examines the significance of place and practice in American medicine through this regional lens. Key publications include “ ‘Democracy Trains its Microscope’ on public health: intergovernmental relations, competing publics, and negotiations at the grassroots” in Publics and Their Health: Historical Perspectives (2023); “Meeting Rural Health Needs: Interprofessional Practice or Public Health?” and “Silos and Synergies: Considering the History of Interprofessional Education and Practice in the United States,” both in Nursing History Review (2016); “Back to the Future: Minnesota's Rural Health Workforce Shortages” in Minnesota Medicine (2013); “Compromising Positions: A Story of Early 20th-Century Occupational Medicine on Minnesota’s Iron Range” in Minnesota Medicine (2007); and “A Few Good Men: the Rockefellers and Population Studies” (1999). She co-edited Influenza and Public Health: Learning from Past Pandemics (2010). In 2021, Gunn received the President's Award for Outstanding Service. She engages in initiatives promoting medical humanities, narrative medicine, environmental and community health, equity in academia, interprofessional education, and serves on graduate committees in History, Anthropology, Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies, and other fields.

Professional Email: gunnx005@umn.edu