James Colgrove, PhD, MPH

  • Professor of Sociomedical Sciences
Profile Headshot

Overview

James Colgrove, PhD, MPH, focuses on research that examines the relationship between individual rights and the collective well-being and the social, political, and legal processes through which public health policies have been mediated in American history. He is the author of Epidemic City: The Politics of Public Health in New York (Russell Sage Foundation, 2011); State of Immunity: The Politics of Vaccination in Twentieth-Century America (University of California Press, 2006); co-author, with Amy Fairchild and Ronald Bayer, of Searching Eyes: Privacy, the State, and Disease Surveillance in America (University of California Press, 2007); and co-editor, with David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz, of The Contested Boundaries of American Public Health (Rutgers University Press, 2008). Articles by Dr. Colgrove have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, American Journal of Public Health, Science, Health Affairs, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, and the Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics. His research has been supported by grants from the National Library of Medicine, the Greenwall Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Milbank Memorial Fund.

Academic Appointments

  • Professor of Sociomedical Sciences

Credentials & Experience

Education & Training

  • BA, 1984 University of California at Davis
  • MA, 1992 San Francisco State University
  • MPH, 2001 Columbia University
  • PhD, 2004 Columbia University

Research

Research Interests

  • Healthcare Policy
  • History and Ethics
  • Infectious Diseases

Selected Publications

Colgrove J, Lowin AM. “A Tale of Two States: Mississippi, West Virginia, and Exemptions to Compulsory School Vaccination Laws.” Health Affairs 35 (2016): 348-355.

Schwartz JL, Colgrove J. “The Vaccines for Children Program at 25—Access, Affordability, and Sustainability.” New England Journal of Medicine 382 (2020): 2277-2279.

James Colgrove Epidemic City: The Politics of Public Health in New York Russell Sage Foundation New York 2011

James Colgrove, Sara Abiola, Michelle Mello HPV Vaccination Mandates: Law Making Amid Political and Scientific Controversy New England Journal of Medicine 363 785-791 2010

Amy Fairchild, Ronald Bayer, James Colgrove Searching Eyes: Privacy, the State, and Disease Surveillance in America University of California Press USA 2007

James Colgrove State of Immunity: The Politics of Vaccination in Twentieth-Century America University of California Press USA 2006

James Colgrove The Ethics and Politics of Compulsory HPV Vaccination New England Journal of Medicine 355 2389-2391 2007

Fairchild A, Colgrove J Out of the ashes: the life, death, and rebirth of the 'safer' cigarette in the United States American Journal of Public Health 94 192-204 2004

Bayer R, Colgrove J Science, politics and ideology in the campaign against environmental tobacco smoke American Journal of Public Health 92 949-954 2002

James Colgrove, Ronald Bayer Manifold Restraints: Liberty, Public Health, and the Legacy of Jacobson v. Massachusetts American Journal of Public Health 95 571-576 2005