Donald Opitz

Dr. Donald Opitz is Associate Professor and Director of Cannabis Studies in the School of Continuing and Professional Studies. He is also an affiliated faculty member of American Studies and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Studies, and an affiliated scholar of History. 

His ongoing research in the history of science focuses on women, gender, and sexuality in science, and science in British imperial culture during the “long” nineteenth century. He is an editor of two books and author of more than 40 papers, including refereed journal articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries. His book-in-progress is provisionally titled, Daughters of Ceres: The Scientific Advancement of Women in Horticulture. He is a volume co-editor of the John Tyndall Correspondence Project, and a general co-editor of the series, Gender, Colonialism, and Science (Routledge). 

Dr. Opitz is a council member of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science/Division of History of Science and Technology, the History of Science Society, and the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology, for which he also serves as Treasurer.

Recent Courses Taught 

CAN 260 Introduction to Cannabis Studies
CCS 281 Liberal Arts in Action: Rats in the City
HST 210 Psychotropic Drugs in Modern American History
SNC 191 Issues in Science and Religion
SNC 193 Sexual Orientation & Science

Recent Awards and Grants

Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine, Keith S. Thomson Research Fellow, 2023-2024

DePaul Humanities Center Faculty Fellow, 2018-2020

Books

Opitz, D. L., Bergwik, S., and Van Tiggelen, B., eds. (2016). Domesticity in the Making of Modern Science. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 

Lykknes, A., Opitz, D. L., and Van Tiggelen, V., eds. (2012). For Better or For Worse? Collaborative Couples in the Sciences. Basel: Birkhäuser.

Selected Articles and Book Chapters

Opitz, D. L. (2026). “Narrating Gendered Tree Cultures in Histories of the Horticultural Transformation of America.” Germinate: Environmental History Review 1(2).

Opitz, D. L. and Van Tiggelen, B. (2025). “To ‘Make a Fuss’: Gender and Governance in the Historiography of Science and Technology.” Pp. 24-34 in: Lémonon-Waxin, I. and Dufaud, G., eds, Women, Gender, and Technosciences, 1900–2020: A Beard to Govern. London: Routledge.

Opitz, D. L. (2024). “Gender History of Science.” Pp. 69–98 in: Verburgt, L. M., ed., Debating Contemporary Approaches to the History of Science. London: Bloomsbury.

Opitz, D. L. (2023). "Sealing Wax and String." Pp. 23-37 in: Rentetzi, M., ed., The Gender of Things: How Epistemic and Technological Objects Become Gendered. London: Routledge.

Opitz, D. L. (2022). "Domesticities and the Sciences." In: Remmert, V., Achermann, D., and Stehrenberger, C. S., eds, (New) Histories of Science, in and beyond Modern Europe. Special issue of Histories 2(3), 259-269.

Opitz, D. L. (2019). “Cupcakes and Chemical Composition: Ida Freund's Legacy." Pp. 457-467 in: Lykknes, A., and Van Tiggelen, B., eds, Women in their Element: Selected Women's Contributions to the Periodic System. London: World Scientific.

Opitz, D. L. (2014). "'The sceptre of her pow'r': Nymphs, Nobility, and Nomenclature in Early Victorian Science." British Journal for the History of Science 47: 67-94.

Opitz, D. L. (2014). "'Back to the land': Lady Warwick and the Movement for Women's Collegiate Agricultural Education." Agricultural History Review 62: 119-145.

Opitz, D. L. (2013). "'A Triumph of Brains over Brute': Women and Science at the Horticultural College, Swanley, 1890-1910." Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society 104: 30-62.

Opitz, D. L. (2011). "Cultivating Genetics in the Country: Whittingehame Lodge, Cambridge." Pp. 73-98 in: Withers, C. W. J., and Livingstone, D. N., eds, Geographies of Nineteenth-Century Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Opitz, D. L. (2004). “‘Behind Folding Shutters in Whittingehame House’: Alice Blanche Balfour (1850-1936) and Amateur Natural History.” Archives of Natural History 31: 330-348.