Biography

Dominique Tobbell, PhD, is Centennial Distinguished Professor of Nursing and director of the Eleanor Crowder Bjoring Center for Nursing History of Inquiry at the University of Virginia.  

Dr. Tobbell’s research examines the complex political, economic, and social relationships that developed among academic institutions, governments, and the health care industry in the decades after World War II and assesses the implications of those relationships for the current health care system.   

Dr. Tobbell’s latest book, Dr. Nurse: Science, Politics, and the Transformation of American Nursing (University of Chicago Press, 2022), analyzes the knowledge claims, strategies, and politics involved in the work of American nurses as they negotiated new roles and nursing’s place within universities and academic health centers in the decades after World War II. Dr. Nurse was awarded the 2023 Lavinia L. Dock Award by the American Association of the History of Nursing. Dr. Tobbell is also the author of Pills, Power, and Policy: The Struggle for Drug Reform in Cold War America and its Consequences (University of California Press, 2012), Health Informatics at Minnesota: The First Fifty Years (Minneapolis: Tasora Books, 2015), and co-editor of Troubling Access: Global Health and Pharmacology (Lausanne: Frontiers Media SA, 2021).  

Dr. Tobbell has been the recipient of several fellowships, grants, and awards. She has taught a variety of courses on the history of 20th-century American healthcare, with an emphasis on the ways that race, gender, class, sexuality, and disability determine Americans’ experiences with and access to healthcare. 

Dr. Tobbell earned an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the University of Manchester, and both a Master of Art and a PhD in the history and sociology of science from the University of Pennsylvania. 

Publications

Journal Articles

Tobbell, D. (2022). Book review: Nursing the nation: Building the nurse labor force by Jean C. Whelan. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 96(3), 461-463. https://doi.org/10.1353/bhm.2022.0038

Tobbell, D. (2022). Comment: Toward a history of health care: Repositioning the histories of nursing and medicine. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 96(3), 321-329. https://doi.org/10.1353/bhm.2022.0030

Tobbell, D. (2022). A role for history in inclusive nursing education. Journal of Nursing Education, 61(8), 469-475. https://doi.org/10.3928/01484834-20220602-08

D'Antonio, P., Tobbell, D., Milbrath, G. (2022). Including a historical lens in the National Institute for Nursing Research Strategic Plan. Research in Nursing & Health, 45(1), 6-7. https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.22206

Tobbell, D. A. (2021). Book review of Talking therapy: Knowledge and power in American psychiatric nursing by Kylie M. Smith. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 95(2), 264-265. https://doi.org/10.1353/bhm.2021.0025

Craddock, S. L., & Tobbell, D. (2021). Global health and pharmacology. Frontiers in Sociology, 6(765172), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2021.765172

Flynn, K. C., Reverby, S., Smith, K. M., & Tobbell, D. (2021). "The thing behind the thing": White supremacy and interdisciplinary faculty in schools of nursing. Nursing Outlook, 69(4), 502-504. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2021.03.001

Tobbell, D. A. (2018). Nursing's boundary work: Theory development and the making of nursing science, 1950-1980. Nursing Research, 67(2), 63-73.

Tobbell, D. A. (2016). Clinical pharmacy: An example of interprofessional education in the late 1960s and 1970s. Nursing History Review, 24, 98-102.

Tobbell, D. A. (2016). Teaching with oral histories. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 90, 128-135.

Tobbell, D. A. (2016). Teaching medical history with primary sources: Introduction. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 90, 124-127.

Tobbell, D. A. (2014). 'Coming to grips with the nursing question': The politics of nursing education reform in 1960s' America. Nursing History Review, 22, 37-60.

Tobbell, D. A. (2013). Plow, town, and gown: The politics of family practice in 1960s' America. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 87(4), 648-680.

Tobbell, D. A., Carpenter, D.P. (2011). Bioequivalence: The regulatory career of a pharmaceutical concept. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 85(1), 93-131.

Tobbell, D. A. (2009). Pharmaceutical networks: The political economy of drug development in the United States, 1945-1980. Enterprise and Society, 10(4), 675-686.

Tobbell, D. A. (2009). "Who's winning the human race?" Cold war as pharmaceutical political strategy. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 64(4), 429-473.

Tobbell, D. A. (2008). Allied against reform: Pharmaceutical industry-academic physician relations in the United States, 1945-1970. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 82(4), 878-912.

Tobbell, D. A., Middleton, B. J., Raines, S., Needham, M. R., Taylor, I. W., Beveridge, J. Y., & Abbott, W. M. (2002). Identification of in vitro folding conditions for Procathepsin S and Cathepsin S using fractional factorial screens. Protein Expression and Purification, 24(2), 242-254.

Books

Tobbell, D. (2022). Dr. Nurse: Science, politics, and the transformation of American nursing. University of Chicago Press.

Tobbell, D. A. (2015). Health informatics at Minnesota: The first fifty years. Tasora Books.

Tobbell, D. A. (2012). Pills, power and policy: The struggle for drug reform in cold war America and its consequences. University of California Press/Milbank Series on Health and the Public.

Book Sections

Tobbell, D. A. (2012). Pharmaceutical politics and regulatory reform in post-war America. In J. Zelizer & K. Philips-Fein (Eds.), What's good for business: Business and politics since World War II (pp. 123-139). Oxford University Press

Tobbell, D. A. (2012). 'Eroding the physician's control over therapy': The post-war politics of the prescription. In E. Watkins & J. Greene (Eds.), Prescribed: Writing, filling, using, and abusing the prescription in modern America (pp. 66-90). Johns Hopkins Press

Tobbell, D. A. (2010). Charitable innovations: The political economy of Thalassemia research and drug development in the United States, 1960-2000. In J. Slinn & V. Quirke (Eds.), Perspectives on twentieth century pharmaceuticals (pp. 303-337). Peter Lang AG

Edited Books

Tobbell, D. A., & Craddock, S. (Eds.). (2021). Troubling access: Global health and pharmacology.. Frontiers Journals.

Columns, Editorials and Op-Eds

Tobbell, D., & D’Antonio, P. (2022, May 1). The history of racism in nursing: A review of existing scholarship. National Commission to Address Racism in Nursing. https://www.nursingworld.org/~49b97e/globalassets/practiceandpolicy/workforce/commission-to-address-racism/1thehistoryofracisminnursing.pdf.

Technical and Research Reports

Tobbell, D., D’Antonio, P. (2022). May. (1).