Mark Waddell

Mark Waddell is a professor of history at Michigan State University and faculty advisor to the OutCasting bureau at MSU. Originally from Calgary, Canada, he received his Ph.D. in the history of science and medicine from the Johns Hopkins University in 2006 before accepting a position at MSU, where he has a joint appointment in both the Lyman Briggs College and the Department of History. His first book, Jesuit Science and the End of Nature’s Secrets, was published in 2015, and he is now at work on a second book: The Devil’s Cure: Magical Medicine and the Problem of Plausibility in the Seventeenth Century.

In 2008, Mark was asked to create and supervise content for a traveling exhibition produced by the National Library of Medicine of the NIH: Harry Potter’s World: Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine. The exhibition, which has toured throughout the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. since 2009, explores important ideas in the history of science and medicine through the Harry Potter novels.

At MSU, Mark serves as the college liaison for Lyman Briggs to the LBGT Resource Center. He is also a member of the Core Faculty for the Center for Gender in Global Context (GenCen) and serves on GenCen’s LGBTQ Steering Committee.

Outside of his professional life, Mark plays the violin, viola, and bassoon, and is an avid fan of sci-fi and fantasy literature. He lives in Lansing with his partner Matt and their greyhound, Rufus.