Rebecca L. Jackson, PhD

Curriculum Vitae

Refereed Publications

see CV for full list of publications

ORCid: 0000-0003-2199-1045

• Jackson, Rebecca L. 2024 [in press]. “Constructing Centimeters: Emanuel Friedman’s Cervimeter and the Dilatation-Time Curve.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine.

• Jackson, Rebecca L. 2023. “How the Cervix Killed the Cervimeter: A Nonstandard Story of Successful Measurement.” Measurement 222 (published online ahead of print Nov. 2023). 113652. doi:10.1016/j.measurement.2023.113652.

• Cristalli, Claudia and Rebecca L. Jackson. 2023. “From Postal Scale to Psychological Apparatus: A History of Experimental Psychology Through the Reconstruction of Peirce and Jastrow’s ‘On Small Differences of Sensation’ (1885).” Nuncius 38 (3): (published online ahead of print Nov. 2023). doi:10.1163/18253911-bja10066.

• Jackson, Rebecca L., and Merlin Wassermann. 2022. “When Standard Measurement Meets Messy Genitalia: Lessons from 20th Century Phallometry and Cervimetry.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 95: 37-49. doi:10.1016/j.shpsa.2022.06.014.

• Jackson, Rebecca L. 2021. “‘The Uncertain Method of Drops’: How a Non-Uniform Unit Survived the Century of Standardization.” Perspectives on Science 29 (6): 802–841. doi: 10.1162/posc_a_00395.

Selected Fellowships and Awards

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• 2023 Maurice Daumas Prize – International Committee for the History of Technology (ICOHTEC) (€500). “‘The Uncertain Method of Drops’: How a Non-Uniform Unit Survived the Century of Standardization” awarded prize for best history of technology article published in the past two years by student or early career scholar.

• 2023 – 2024 Visiting Postdoctoral Fellowship - Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, Germany. 12-month residential fellowship (€31,200).

• 2023 Victor E. Thoren Graduate Student Research Fellowship – IU Dept. of History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine (HPSC) ($3,000).

• 2022–2023 Doan Dissertation Fellowship - Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry at the Science History Institute, Philadelphia, PA. Nine-month residential fellowship ($30,000).

• 2022 Graduate Student Essay Award Honorable Mention - Forum for the History of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences (FHHMLS) and Cambridge University Press

• 2021–2022 John C. Slater Predoctoral Fellowship in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine - American Philosophical Society Library & Museum, Philadelphia, PA. 12 month residential fellowship ($25,000).

• 2021 - Interdisciplinary Organized Session Prize - International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology (€500). For Diverse Format Session, “‘Your Genitals Don’t Lie!’ An Escorted Encounter with the History and Philosophy of Phallic and Cervical Measuring” Participants: Rebecca Jackson, Kärin Nickelsen, Jutta Schickore, Caterina Schürch, and Merlin Wasserman.

• 2020-2021 - President’s Diversity Fellowship - IU, Bloomington, IN. 12 month fellowship ($20,000).

• 2020 - Norwood Russell Hanson Prize for Outstanding Graduate Student Paper – IU Dept. of History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine (HPSC). For paper, “‘The Uncertain Method of Drops’: How a Non-uniform Fluid Unit Survived the Century of Standardization.”

• 2016-2017 - President’s Diversity Fellowship - IU, Bloomington, IN. 12 month fellowship ($20,000).

Selected Presentations

Invited Research Talks

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• 2023 “‘The Uncertain Method of Drops’: How a Non-uniform Fluid Unit Survived the Century of Standardization” Presented for Technical University Berlin (Technische Universität Berlin) Department of History of Science, Nov. 20th, 2023, Berlin, Germany.

• 2023 “‘The Uncertain Method of Drops’: How a Non-uniform Fluid Unit Survived the Century of Standardization” Presented for Maurice Daumas Prize Session at International Committee for the History of Technology (ICOHTEC) General Assembly (Online), Nov. 16th, 2023.

• 2023 “Feeling Centimeters of Dilation: Why You’ve Never Heard of a Cervimeter” Presented at Lunchtime Lecture Series (Online) hosted by the Science History Institute, Mar. 3rd, 2023.

• 2022 “Feeling Centimeters: The History of Cervical Measurement and Why You’ve Never Heard of a Cervimeter.” Presented for Science on Tap Philadelphia (Online), March 14th, 2022.

• 2019 “On the Virtues of Inconsistent Metrics: Why Evaluations of Reliability (Not Just Validity) Need a Gold Standard” Presented at Continuity, Improvement, & Innovation in Experimental Methodology (Workshop), Oct. 30th, 2019, IU Bloomington, IN, USA.

• 2019 “‘The Uncertain Method of Drops’: How a Non-uniform Fluid Unit Survived the Century of Standardization” Presented at Unification and Measurement: Philosophical Perspectives on Evidence and Theory Construction (Workshop), Apr. 17th, 2019, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Competitive Papers Presented at Conferences

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• 2023 “‘Clinimetrics’ or ‘Clinical Psychometrics’?: Reexamining Disciplinary Boundaries and Methodological Commitments.” Presented at International Society for Quality of Life Research (ISOQoL Conference), Oct. 21st, 2023, Calgary, Canada.

• 2022 “Where Does Validity End and ‘Fit for Purpose’ Begin? Towards a Typology for Implementation Validity.” Presented at International Society for Quality of Life Research (ISOQoL Conference), Oct. 22nd, 2022, Prague, Czech Republic.

• 2022 “The Cervix, the Cervimeter, and Centimeters: A Historical Case of (Im)Precision in Clinical Practice.” Presented at Measurement at the Crossroads 2020-2022: Measuring and Modeling (Conference), June 29–July 1st, 2022, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy

• 2021 “Constructing Centimeters: Emanuel Friedman’s Cervimeter and the Dilatation-Time Curve.” Presentation for Committee for Integrated HPS at Philosophy of Science Association (Conference), Nov. 11th, 2021, Baltimore, MD, USA. Symposium: “Case Studies: Putting the H back in HPS.”

• 2021 “‘Your Genitals Don’t Lie!’ An Escorted Encounter with the History and Philosophy of Phallic and Cervical Measuring.” Diverse Format Session at International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology (Online), July 19th, 2021. Participants: Rebecca Jackson, Kärin Nickelsen, Jutta Schickore, Caterina Schürch, and Merlin Wassermann

• 2021 “Emanuel Friedman’s Cervimeter: The Birth of ‘Normal’ Labor and the Dilatation-Time Function.” Presented at Boston University Philosophy Graduate Student Conference (Online), Apr. 23rd, 2021.

• 2019 “Sending Knowns into the Unknown: Towards an Account of Positive Controls in Experimentation.” Presented at CLMPST 2019 – 16th International Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science and Technology (Conference), Aug. 6th, 2019, Prague, Czech Republic.

• 2019 “Sending Knowns into the Unknown: Towards an Account of Positive Controls in Experimentation” Presented at Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science (Conference), June 2nd, 2019, UBC, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

• 2018 “‘The Uncertain Method of Drops’: How a Non-uniform Fluid Unit Survived the Century of Standardization” Presented at Measurement at the Crossroads: History, Philosophy and Sociology of Measurement (Conference), June 27–29th 2018, Paris Diderot University (Paris 7), Paris, France.