Tal Arbel

I am a cultural historian of science and medicine, with extensive background in psychology and psychiatry, in gender and queer studies, and in social theory. I am especially interested in how ordinary people interact with methods of measurement, assessment tools, and diagnostic procedures, and how these interactions in turn shape their institutional environments and self-understanding. I have written, lectured, and taught about the history of surveys and social statistics, the politics of mental health and disability, and the sociology of expertise.My current book project, The Normal Child: A History, explores the roots of our present conception of childhood as a law-governed, universally paced period of the life course, but one that could be easily (and detrimentally) disturbed. Focusing on the work of political reformers, medical practitioners, and academic scientists in the middle decades of the twentieth century, the book examines the formation of developmental norms and standards and how they came to determine the way we raise and educate children. I hold a PhD in History of Science from Harvard University and was most recently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute on the Formation of Knowledge, University of Chicago.