Elizabeth Koester

Elizabeth Koester, formerly a practising lawyer, received her PhD in 2018 from the University of Toronto’s Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology. Her graduate studies focused on the history of medicine and, in particular, the history of eugenics. In the Public Good: Eugenics and Law in Ontario, a book based on her dissertation, was released in September 2021 by McGill-Queen’s University Press. Dr. Koester was recently awarded a SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship for her next project, a biography of Dr. Helen MacMurchy (1862-1953), an early Canadian female physician, public health official and supporter of eugenics.