Jessica Leigh Hester studies nineteenth century U.S. history, with a focus on the history of medicine, political and social organizing, and the collection and exhibition of human remains in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic. 

Her dissertation, about grave robbing perpetrated by and for medical schools toward the end of the nineteenth century, investigates how Black laborers, churches, benevolent organizations, social clubs, newspapers, and entrepreneurs negotiated uneasy relationships with the growing medical field, from anatomy professors to public health officials. 

Jessica’s work has been supported by Drexel Legacy Center, and received the 2024 Shryock Medal from the American Association for the History of Medicine. At Hopkins, she is a fellow in the Death + Data Lab, part of the LifexCode project; and also a Hugh Hawkins fellow, working on community-engaged public history and digital humanities projects around the human remains held by and in the university. Her academic articles, essays, and reviews have appeared or are forthcoming in Nineteenth Century Studies, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Nursing Clio, Winterthur Portfolio, and more. 

Jessica received an A.B. in English and Gender Studies from the University of Chicago and an MFA in nonfiction writing from Hunter College. She is also a science journalist whose work has appeared in the New Yorker, New York Times, The Atlantic, Atlas Obscura, and elsewhere. Her first book, Sewer, was released by Bloomsbury Academic in 2023. Her second book, about trace fossils, is forthcoming from Random House.