My work explores the quantification of human bodies in the modern world. I am particularly interested in how the sciences of human measurement have racialized and sexualized human bodies in the past and how these historical practices live on in present-day science, medicine, and society. I am a postdoctoral fellow at the Committee on Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science at the University of Chicago and an iSchool Research Fellow at the University of Illinois.

My book project, The Afterlives of Skulls: How Race Science Became A Data Science, is under advanced contract with the University of Chicago Press. The book makes visible how measuring skulls for the purpose of studying race, often assumed to be an outdated medical-scientific practice, in fact remained at the forefront of science and technology in the twentieth century. It reveals how the continued use of skull collections, cranial datasets, and statistical tools ensured the survival of race and racism in present-day science and society.

I teach widely in history of science, medicine & technology; critical data, race, and gender studies; and science studies. I hold a Ph.D. in history from UCLA (2020) and a B.A. (2011) and M.A. (2013) in history from Utrecht University.

I am also co-chair of the History of Science Society’s Early Career Caucus.

Please contact me at clever [at] uchicago.edu