The World History Center is pleased to welcome its spring 2024 Graduate Student in Public History, Kyra Saloman!
Kyra Saloman is a PhD student in the History and Philosophy of Science. Before coming to Pitt, Kyra studied philosophy at Bryn Mawr College. She currently studies the history of sex research in the mid-twentieth century with a focus on the relationship between theory and experiment. Specifically, she is interested in how biologists use instances of sex reversal to support particular theories of sexual differentiation. Her work thus far investigates how sex reversal was understood, interpreted, and leveraged in sex research across national contexts.
Kyra’s project at the World History Center will involve translating some of her research into a lesson plan for teaching the biology of sex at the high school level. The lesson plan will aim to introduce students to important contributions from biologists outside of the U.S. and Europe such as those of the Japanese embryologist Yo Kaname Okada. By providing teachers with resources to teach biology through the history of biology, the project aims to encourage students to think critically about the scientific findings they encounter in textbooks, and to appreciate that the trajectory of scientific progress is often complex.