Timothy Newfield

Dr. Timothy Newfield is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of History and Biology at Georgetown University, where he serves as the Director of Undergraduate Research and Scholarship. He is a historical epidemiologist and environmental historian whose work sits at the intersection of history, archaeology, and paleogenetics.

Dr. Newfield's research focuses on how humans have manipulated the environment in ways conducive to disease emergencies. His interdisciplinary approach involves collaboration with archaeologists, paleogenomicists, evolutionary biologists, and other specialists in the sciences of the past. This work has expanded knowledge production across multiple fields and transformed how historical disease events are understood, using proxies independent of written sources to provide less biased accounts of historical disease patterns.

His scholarly output demonstrates a consistent focus on pandemic history, particularly the Black Death and Justinianic Plague, with an emphasis on spatial heterogeneity in disease impact and the relationship between climate variability and disease outbreaks. His work often challenges established narratives about historical pandemics, using innovative approaches like 'big data palaeoecology' to evaluate the scale and impact of historical disease events.

Dr. Newfield has been actively involved in numerous academic events, including hosting the 'Epidemic Millennium' conference in 2023 and participating in various podcasts and media interviews discussing the relevance of historical pandemics to contemporary health challenges. He teaches courses such as 'Global History of the Plague' and 'Global Health History' as part of Georgetown's Medical Humanities program.