Elise Burton
Assistant Professor, Institute for the History & Philosophy of Science & Technology
Elise Burton is an Assistant Professor in the Institute for the History & Philosophy of Science & Technology.
A historian of science and society in the modern Middle East, Burton’s primary research interests are race, ethnicity and nationalism; the history of genetics and evolutionary biology; and transnational scientific collaboration.
Before joining U of T, Burton held a Junior Research Fellowship at the University of Cambridge (Newnham College). She earned a BA from the University of California, Berkeley, in two subjects, biology and Middle Eastern studies. In 2017, she completed her PhD in History & Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University.
Her first book, Genetic Crossroads: The Middle East and the Science of Human Heredity, will be published in January 2021 by Stanford University Press. She has also published articles in Comparative Studies of Society and History, Social Studies of Science and Isis.