James A. Schafer, Jr.

James A. Schafer, Jr. is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Houston, part of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. He holds a B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Michigan (1996) and a Ph.D. in the History of Medicine from Johns Hopkins University (2007). His research focuses on the social, political, and economic dimensions of American medicine and healthcare, particularly urban healthcare access, medical specialization, and the impact of World War I on medical practice. He is the author of The Business of Private Medical Practice (2014) and has published on topics including wartime medical mobilization and teaching epidemics during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Schafer has received the University of Houston Teaching Excellence Award (2017) and collaborates on initiatives like the American Historical Association’s ‘History Gateways’ program, funded by the Mellon Foundation. He advises graduate students and serves on thesis/dissertation committees.

Current projects include a book on the American medical profession during WWI and co-editing the Oxford Handbook of American Medical History. His work has been supported by grants from the American Philosophical Society, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and others.

Teaching specialties include U.S. history surveys, American medical history, epidemics in world history, and race in medicine. He also leads a digital course project, ‘Plagues and Civilizations,’ aimed at the general public.