Leslie-William T. Robinson

Research Interests: History of medicine and the behavioral sciences; History of capitalism; 19th & 20th century US history; Critical military studies; Peace history

Les Robinson is a lecturer in the History of Science Department. A historian of the modern US, he works at the intersection of the history of medicine and the behavioral sciences, critical military studies, and the history of capitalism. His research centers the military as a social laboratory and his book project, Medicine and Morale: Modern War and the Management of the Masses, illuminates military medicine’s previously understated influence on modern labor management theory and practice in the early twentieth century. A second project examines the contestation between US medical practitioners and war resistors during
World War I.

He received his PhD in History from Brown University, where he served as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society (STS) in 2022-23. He was awarded the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Brown University Graduate School.

Courses
The Psychology of War (HISTSCI 1740)
Race, War, & Medicine (HISTSCI 1684)
Technologies of Empire: An American History (HISTSCI 1894)
Sophomore Tutorial (HISTSCI 97)
Junior Tutorial (HISTSCI 98)