Lisa Cody, A.B., M.A., Ph.D.
Department
Areas of Expertise
CV
Office Hours
Biography
Professor Lisa Cody is a cultural historian of Britain and Northern Europe. She works on the history of the human body, including abortion, reproduction, sexuality, gender, and violence across the Atlantic and Northern European worlds. Her work explores the history of the family, the law, medicine, literary and visual representations, and social conflict. She is the recipient of numerous prizes for her academic articles and first monograph, Birthing the Nation: Sex, Science, and the Conception of Eighteenth-Century Britons. Her current book projects are Between the Sheets: Sex, Intimacy, and Conflict in Eighteenth-Century Marriage and How Abortion Became an American Obsession. Her most recent refereed article appears in the October 2022 Journal of British Studies on the history of marital rape.
Professor Cody is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She currently serves as an elected board member of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies and is treasurer of the Pacific Coast Conference on British Studies. She has held other elected posts with the American Historical Association and the Pacific-AHA and served on scholarly prize and fellowship committees and editorial boards. She also was appointed by the Governor of California to serve on the California State Bar's Judicial Nominees Evaluation Commission (2018-2021).
Education
A.B. magna cum laude, Harvard University; M.A., Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
Awards and Affiliations
Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Best Book Prize, 2006, for the best first historical work published by a woman in any historical field in 2005, for "Birthing the Nation: Sex, Science, and the Conception of Eighteenth-Century Britons" (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005)
"Birthing the Nation," shortlisted for the Whitfield Prize, the Royal Historical Society, 2006, for the best first book in British History published in 2005
The Sierra Prize for the best book in any field of history by a member of the society in 2005, Western Association of Women Historians, 2006, for "Birthing the Nation"
Prize for the Best First Book in any Historical Field, Phi Alpha Theta, the History Honor Society, 2005, for "Birthing the Nation"
Walter D. Love Article Prize for the best article in any field of British History, North American Conference on British Studies, 2005, for "Living and Dying in Georgian London's Lying in Hospitals," Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 2004
Judith Lee Ridge Article Prize, Western Association of Women Historians, 2005, for the best article of the year by a member of the society in any historical field, for "Living and Dying in Georgian London's Lying-in Hospitals"
Judith Lee Ridge Article Prize, Western Association of Women Historians, 2002, for the best article of the year by a member of the society in any historical field, for "The Politics of Illegitimacy in an Age of Reform," The Journal of Women's History, 2000
Research and Publications
“’No Cure, No Money,’ or the Invisible Hand of Quackery: The Language of Commerce, Credit, and Cash in Eighteenth-Century British Medical Advertisements,” Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture 28 (1999): pp. 103-130
“The Doctor's in Labour; or a New Whim-Wham from Guildford,” Gender and History 4.2 (Summer 1992): pp. 175-96