Gerald Oppenheimer
Professor
Health and Nutrition Sciences
Location: 5126 Ingersoll Hall
Phone: 718.951.5000 x2740
Fax: 718.951.4670
Email:
Gerald Oppenheimer is Broeklundian Distinguished Professor; professor in the Department of History, CUNY Graduate Center; and professor in the Doctorate in Public Health Program, CUNY Graduate Center. Oppenheimer is a historian, health policy analyst and epidemiologist. His research has included analysis of health services in New York City, the costs of funding health services for those with HIV/AIDS and ethical issues raised by the HIV/AIDS epidemic for the private health insurance system in the United States. He has written on the history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States and South Africa, and the history of coronary heart disease epidemiology in the United States.
Education:
M.P.H., Columbia University - 1979 (Epidemiology)
Ph.D., University of Chicago - 1976 (History)
Areas of Expertise:
History of public health and medicine, with particular focus on the history of epidemiology, the history of public health in the United States in the 20th century, and the history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States and South Africa.
Books and Publications
March, D. and G. Oppenheimer. "Social Disorder and Diagnostic Order: The U.S. Mental Health Movement, the Midtown Manhattan Study, and the Development of Psychiatric Epidemiology on the 20th Century." International Journal of Epidemiology. Under review. (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2012
Oppenheimer, G., H. Blackburn and P. Puska. "From Framingham to North Karelia to U.S. Community Prevention Programs: Negotiating Research Agendas for Coronary Heart Disease in the Second Half of the 20th Century." Public Health Reviews 2011 33. E-pub ahead of print. (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2012
Bayer, R. and G. Oppenheimer. "Routine HIV Screening: What Counts in Evidence Based Policy?" The New England Journal of Medicine 365: 1265-68. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2011
Oppenhiemer, G. and R. Bayer. "An Epidemic of Unknown Proportions: The First Decade of HIV/AIDS." HIV AIDS in the Post-HAART Era. Eds. J. Hall, B. Hall and C. Cockerell. Shelton, Conn.: People's Medical Publishing House. 2-19. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2011
"Framingham: The First 20 Years." Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases 53: 55-61. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2010
Oppenheimer, G. and R. Bayer. "AIDS Exceptionalism." AMA Virtual Monitor December. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2009
Bayer, R. and G. Oppenheimer. "Roll-out and Rationing: Providing Anti-retroviral Therapy in South Africa." HIV/AIDS: Stories of an Epidemic. Eds. Cynthia Pope, Renee White and Robert Marlow. Routledge. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2008
Bayer, R. and G. Oppenheimer. "Scale Ups, Scarcity and Selection: The Historical Experience of Doctors in South Africa." AIDS 21, Supplement 5: 543-47. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2007
Oppenheimer, G. and E. Susser. "The Context and Challenge of von Pettenkofer's Contributions to Epidemiology" invited commentary. American Journal of Epidemiology 166: 1239-41. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2007
Oppenheimer, G. and R. Bayer. Shattered Dreams: An Oral History of the South African AIDS Epidemic. New York: Oxford University Press. (Books and Publications: Book) 2007
"Profiling Risk: The Emergence of Coronary Heart Disease in the United States (1947-70)." International Journal of Epidemiology 35: 720-30. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2006
Bayer, R. and G. Oppenheimer. "Pioneers in AIDS Care--Reflections on the Epidemic's Early Years." New England Journal of Medicine 355: 2273-75. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2006
Oppenheimer, G. and R. Bayer. "Choosing Between Life and Death: Rationing of Health Care During the AIDS Epidemic in South Africa." L' Épidémie du SIDA en Afrique subsaharienne. Regards historiens. Eds. Philippe Denis and Charles Becker. Paris: Karthala. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2006
"Becoming the Framingham Study, 1947-50." American Journal of Public Health 95: 602-10. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2005
Oppenheimer, G. and D. Rosner. "Two Lives, Three Legs, One Journey: A Retrospective Appreciation of Zena Stein and Mervyn Susser." International Journal of Epidemiology 31: 49-53. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2002
Oppenheimer, G., R. Bayer and J. Colgrove. "Health and Human Rights: Old Wine in New Bottles?" Law, Medicine & Ethics 30: 522-32. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2002
"Paradigm Lost: Race, Ethnicity and the Search for a New Population Taxonomy." American Journal of Public Health 91: 1049-55. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2001
Bayer, R. and G. Oppenheimer. AIDS Doctors: Voices From the Epidemic. Oxford University Press. Paperback edition, 2002. (Books and Publications: Book) 2000
Fairchild, A. and G. Oppenheimer. "Public Health Nihilism Versus Pragmatism: History, Politics and the Control of Tuberculosis." American Journal of Public Health 88: 1105-17. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1998
Bayer, R and G. Oppenheimer. Confronting Drug Policy: Illicit Drugs in a Free Society. New York: Cambridge University Press. (Books and Publications: Edited Book) 1993
Awards, Honors and Fellowships
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. (Grants and Fellowships) 2007
Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums
"'Food Fight': The McGovern Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs and the Meat Industry's Battle Over the Diet-Heart Question (1976-1977)." American Association for the History of Medicine. Philadelphia, April 30. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2011
"'Food Fight': The McGovern SenateSelect Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs and the Meat Industry's Battle Over the Diet-Heart Question (1976-1977)." History Colloquium, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Oct. 10. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2011
"Ecological Thinking: Researching Chronic Disease at the Individual and Population Levels." Between the Medical and the Social Conference. Institutions of Chronic Disease and Disability in the 20th Century. Paris, Dec. 8-10. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2011
"Problems of Causal Thinking in Epidemiology: A Case History." International Conference on the Philosophy of Epidemiology. University of Johannesburg, South Africa, Dec. 12-14. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2011
"Seeking Risk: Cohort Research and the Emergence of Heart Disease Epidemiology." Epidemiology Colloquium, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Oct. 10. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2011
"The Social Production of Disease: Pellagra and the Epidemiology of Chronic Disorders before World War II." School of Public Health, Paris, November. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2011
"Framing the Framingham Heart Disease Study." Annual lecture. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Nov. 11. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2010
"When Did Disease Become Complex? The Epidemiology of Chronic Disorders Before and After World War II: Pellagra and Coronary Heart Disease." School of Public Health. Paris, Nov. 3. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2010
"Testing the Heart: The Development of Large Clinical Trials of the Cholesterol-Heart Hypothesis, 1960-1972." University of Manchester. United Kingdom. Nov. 27. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2009
"Shattered Dreams? An Oral History." Concilium on Southern Africa. Duke University. Durham, N.C., Oct. 30. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2008
"The AIDS Pandemic in Global/Historical Perspective." American Historical Association. Washington, D.C., Jan. 3. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2008
Oppenheimer, G. and R. Bayer. "Shattered Dreams? An Oral History of the South African AIDS Epidemic." Annual John Conley Lecture. SUNY Downstate Medical Center. Brooklyn, N.Y., May 8. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2008
Oppenheimer, G. and R. Bayer. "Shattered Dreams? An Oral History of the South African AIDS Epidemic." Provost's Invited Talk. State University of California at Northridge. March 14. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2008
"Shattered Dreams?" New York Academy of Medicine. May 22. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2007
Oppenheimer, G. and R. Bayer. "Shattered Dreams? An Oral History of the South African AIDS Epidemic." International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. Dec. 4. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2007
Oppenheimer, G. and R. Bayer. "Shattered Dreams? An Oral History of the South African AIDS Epidemic." Oral History Association. Oakland, Calif., Oct. 26. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2007
Oppenheimer, G. and R. Bayer. "Shattered Dreams?" Seventh Annual Horace Davenport Lecture In the Medical Humanities. University of Michigan. Oct. 23. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2007
