Christina Ramos

Christina Ramos is an Associate Professor of History at Washington University in St. Louis, specializing in the history of medicine with a focus on early modern Latin America. She holds a PhD from Harvard University, an MA from Duke University, and a BA from the University of California, Davis.

Her research explores the intersection of medical, religious, and indigenous cultures, colonial hospitals, and the Inquisition’s role in medical history. Her first book, Bedlam in the New World: A Mexican Madhouse in the Age of Enlightenment, examines the Hospital de San Hipólito in Mexico City as a colonial laboratory of the Hispanic Enlightenment. Her second book project, Nursing an Empire, addresses public health and nursing orders in the Spanish Empire.

Ramos has received numerous awards, including the Cheiron Book Prize and the Bandelier/Lavrin Prize. Her work has been recognized as a finalist for the William H. Welch Medal (2025). She teaches courses on medical history, colonial Latin America, and the history of madness.

Her fellowships include the Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship and the David Rockefeller Center Dissertation Completion Fellowship. She actively contributes to academic discourse through courses like Health & Disease in World History and Medicine, Disease, and Empire.