Linker Named Samuel H. Preston Endowed Term Associate Professor in the Social Sciences

Beth Linker, Associate Professor of History and Sociology of Science, has been appointed the Samuel H. Preston Endowed Term Associate Professor in the Social Sciences. Linker’s research is focused on the history of science and medicine, the body, gender, health policy, and disability. She is the author of War’s Waste: Rehabilitation in World War I America and Civil Disabilities: Citizenship, Membership, and Belonging (co-edited with Nancy Hirschmann, Stanley I. Sheerr Term Professor in the Social Sciences).

Linker’s work has received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Institutes of Health. At Penn, she has served as Graduate Chair of the Department of the History and Sociology of Science and as a member of the Penn Arts & Sciences Committee on Undergraduate Education. Linker is also a core faulty member of Penn’s program in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies. She received the University's highest teaching honor, the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, in 2017. She is currently finishing her next book, titled Slouch: The Rise and Fall of American Posture.

The Samuel H. Preston Endowed Term Chair in the Social Sciences was established in 2004 by the Penn Arts & Sciences Board of Overseers to honor Preston’s service as Dean.