I am an Associate Professor of History at the University of North Texas, where I have taught since 2014. I am also on the steering committee for UNT’s Women’s and Gender Studies Program. I research and write on modern U.S. politics, health and medicine, and gender and women’s history. 
My first book, Governing Bodies: American Politics and the Shaping of the Modern Physique, is out with the University of Pennsylvania Press. The book explores how the United States government developed policies over time meant to quite literally ‘shape’ American citizens. From the height-weight tables of the Children’s Bureau to the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, I argue that managing and molding American bodies has long been an interest of federal agencies – an interest that has required unique political maneuvering. You can hear more about the book at Nursing Clio, The New Books Network, or the Scholars & Iron podcast.
I am currently writing a book on the history of postpartum depression amid the late-20th century “Culture Wars.” Postpartum Politics uses archival research and oral histories to bring histories of psychiatry, psychology, and obstetrics into conversation with U.S. political and cultural history. The book is under contract with the University of Chicago Press.
Rachel Louise Moran 