Professional Statement
Bridget Keown joined the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies (GSWS) Program at the University of Pittsburgh in 2019, after completing her PhD in history at Northeastern University. She is the leader of the GSWS Gender and Science Initiative, which provides students with interdisciplinary training to interrogate and address historical biases and systemic injustices within various fields of science and medicine, and to conduct research with an understanding of the ethical, social, and historic impact of their work. As the Programming Director for the Research, Ethics and Society Initiative, she has organized events with leading scientists, clinicians, artists, and authors on research ethics and community impact, and curated the online exhibit “Experience, Integration, Expression: The Work of Norman Klenicki.” She is also a co-founder of “The Ethics and Economics of Expertise,” to query the current role and future potential of universities in the digital revolution.
Dr. Keown’s primary research utilizes case notes and hospital records to examine the treatment of war-related trauma among British and Irish women during the First World War and to re-evaluate how the gendered framework of the “shell shock” diagnosis lingers in contemporary discourse. She received funding through the Pitt Momentum Fund to support research into the impact of the US Veterans Bureau on the lives of First World War wives, widows, and disabled veterans. She has published several chapters and articles on the medical and social activism of Irish and Irish-American gay and lesbian groups during the global outbreak of HIV.
Dr. Keown is a member of Pitt’s Horror Studies Center and the Horror Writers Association, for whom she co-organizes the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference. She is the founder of the Queer Horror Conference and the Rethinking War Conference. She serves on the Executive Council of the American Conference for Irish Studies
Appointments
- Teaching Associate Professor Gender, Sexuality, & Women’s Studies Program Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences
- Programming Director Research Ethics and Society Initiative
- Curator of the online exhibition Experience, Integration, Expression: The Work of Norman Klenicki
- Co-Chair of the Equity, Inclusion, Anti-Discrimination, and Advocacy Committee University Faculty Senate
- Core Faculty Institute for Bioethics
- Founder and Organizer Rethinking War Conference
Education and Training
- PhD, Northeastern University, 2019
- MA, King’s College London, 2010
- BA, Smith College, 2007
Professional Interests in Bioethics
Representative Publications
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Keown BE (2021). ‘A perfect hell of a night which we can never forget’: First World War Nurses’ Trauma Narratives.” In Leese P, Köhne JB, Crouthamel J (eds), Languages of Trauma, (pp. 29-45. Toronto). University of Toronto Press.
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Keown BE (2021). “There is no limit to what could be done”: Considering the Past and Potential of Irish Queer Health Activism. Éire-Ireland, 56(3-4): 206-231
Recent Funding
- University of Pittsburgh Arts and Sciences Microgrant, Individual Award, 2024-5
- Harry S. Truman Library Institute Research Grant, Individual Award, 2024
- University of Pittsburgh Momentum Grant Award, “War Risks: Understanding War Trauma through a Comprehensive Study of War Risk Insurance Claims by American Veterans of the First World War, ” Individual Award, 2022-3
Awards and Honors
- Tina and David Bellet Teaching Excellence Award, University of Pittsburgh, 2024
- Kirkpatrick History of Medicine Award, Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, 2022
- Humanities Center Faculty Fellowship, University of Pittsburgh, 2023