Marcia Nichols, Ph.D. (she/her)

My role is to introduce the humanities to health science students and challenge them to think in ways that differ from traditional STEM approaches. I select readings from any genre, country or era that I believe will benefit students. Some texts have a clear connection to health or medicine, while others may seem more distant but raise important questions about identity—questions that are essential to addressing healthcare disparities in our society.

Because of my academic background, I often choose texts that explore issues related to health and the history of medicine.

What advice do you have for first year students?

Everyone around you feels like an imposter at times. We’re all faking it until we make it.

Share a bit about your education journey. What did you take away from it?

As a first-generation college student, I learned as much from the hidden curriculum as I did from the formal one. That’s why I’m always happy to explain my pedagogical choices to students and to engage in conversations about power structures in the classroom.

I have been trained in broad discursive analysis to examine how literary works both reflect and shape culture. I apply these skills in my medical historical research and pedagogical inquiry, focusing on the discursive context of science education—past and present—as well as questions of metacognition and the identities and beliefs of university instructors.

My research seeks to better understand how identity, including gender and race, influences the formation and dissemination of knowledge—and even what is recognized as knowledge.

Selected Publications

• Nichols, M.D. (2021). Fixing Women: The Birth of Obstetrics in Britain and America. University of California Medical Humanities Press, San Francisco. https://ucmedicalhumanitiespress.com/books/fixing-women/
• Nichols, M.D., Petzold, A.M. and Dunbar, R.L. (2025). Challenges of using the classroom as a quasi-experimental research environment. SAGE Research Methods.
• Petzold, A.M. (corresponding author), Dunbar, R.L. and Nichols, M.D. (2024). Bridging the gap: Understanding why scientists find it difficult to communicate their ideas. In Truth Unveiled: Navigating Science and Society in an Era of Doubt. Elsevier.
• Anderson, L. and Nichols, M.D. (2022). A qualitative exploration of women’s self-knowledge and perception surrounding their reproductive bodies. Journal of International Women’s Studies, 24(5). https://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol24/iss5/17/
• Dingel, M. (corresponding author), Nichols, M.D., Medina, A.M. and Osiecki, K. (2021). Service, self-care and sacrifice: A qualitative exploration of the pandemic university as a greedy institution. Advance Journal. https://www.advancejournal.org/article/24814-service-self-care-and-sacrifice-aqualitative-exploration-of-the-pandemic-university-as-a-greedyinstitution?auth_token=AhldMVdqeNmmlDGSnGPU
• Nichols, M.D. (corresponding author) and Petzold, A. (2021). A crisis of authority in scientific discourse. Cultural Studies in Science Education. doi: 10.1007/s11422-020-09989-1
• Nichols, M.D. and Wacek, J.A. (2019). Frangible whiteness: Teaching race in the context of white fragility. In Bolton, P., Smith, C.L. and Bebout, L. (Eds.), Teaching with Tension (pp. 239–254). Northwestern University Press, Evanston.
• Nichols, M.D. and Petzold, A.M. (2018). Decrowning the classroom king: Anatomy and physiology and the dangers of the contact zone. Double Helix, 6. https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/doublehelix/v6/nichols-petzold.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3J7ieSkgMUayxb2vSlKIURmEKj3CK0Nl-qsKXftGVChFyEW-8CWZTcspI
• Aryal, B., Nichols, M.D. and Huq, A. (2018). A qualitative case study exploring student comfort with ambiguity in physics, math and literature. The Online Journal of New Horizons in Education, 8(1), pp. 1–12. http://www.tojned.net/journals/tojned/articles/v08i01/v08i01-01.pdf
• Nichols, M.D. (2018). Keyword: Marginalia. Early American Studies, 16(4), pp. 702–707. doi: 10.1353/eam.2018.0038
• Petzold, A.M., Dunbar, R.L. and Nichols, M.D. (2016). Leveraging creative writing as a tool for the review of foundational physiological content. HAPS Educator, 20(4). doi: 10.21692/haps.2016.036
• Huq, A., Nichols, M.D. and Aryal, B. (2016). Building blocks: Threshold concepts and interdisciplinary structures of learning. In Land, R., Meyer, J.H.F. and Flanagan, M.T. (Eds.), Threshold Concepts in Practice (pp. 135–154). Sense Publishers, Rotterdam.
• Nichols, M.D., Huq, A., Aryal, B. and Prat-Resina, X. (2015). Conversations on ethnicity, adaptation and belonging: Auto-ethnography at the base of the ivory tower. In Hutchinson, C.B. and Akurang-Parry, K.O. (Eds.), Experiences of Immigrant Professors (pp. 62–75). Routledge, New York.
• Nichols, M.D. (2015). The Aristotle texts, sex and the American woman. In Stephenson, R. and Wagner, D. (Eds.), The Secrets of Generation (pp. 417–437). University of Toronto Press, Toronto.
• Nichols, M.D. (2015). Poe’s “Some Words with a Mummy” and blackface anatomy. Poe Studies, 48, pp. 2–16. muse.jhu.edu/article/604019
• Nichols, M.D. (2013). Venus dissected: The visual blazon of mid-18th century medical atlases. In Zigarovich, J. (Ed.), Sex and Death in Eighteenth-Century Literature (pp. 103–123). Routledge, New York.
• Dunbar, R.L. and Nichols, M.D. (2012). An integrated approach to fostering empathy in undergraduate health science majors: Facilitating student awareness of the balance between objectivity and subjectivity in the anatomy classroom. Anatomical Sciences Education, pp. 301–308. DOI: 10.1002/ase.1284
• Nichols, M.D. (2012). A colonial man of science: Imperial fantasy in Merryland. In Hayden, J.A. (Ed.), Travel Narratives, the New Science and Literary Discourse (pp. 143–160). Ashgate, Burlington.
• Nichols, M.D. (2012). George Spratt’s obstetric tables. In Sappol, M. (Ed.), Hidden Treasure (pp. 50–51). Blast Books, New York.
• Nichols, M. (2008). Cicero’s Pro Cluentio and the ‘mazy’ rhetorical strategies of Wieland. Law and Literature, 20(1), pp. 459–476. doi: 10.1525/lal.2008.20.3.459
• Nichols, M. (2004). Bibliography of Jungian and post-Jungian literary criticism, 1980–2000. In Baumlin, J.S., Baumlin, T.F. and Jenson, G.H. (Eds.), Post-Jungian Literary Criticism (pp. 263–295). SUNY Press, New York.

Selected Presentations

• Terrell, C.R. (author and presenter), Nichols, M.D. (author), and Petzold, A.M. (author). “Should I Put That in My Body?: Curricular Design for an Interdisciplinary Course Weaving Medicinal Plants, Biochemistry, Physiology, Medical Humanities, Pop Culture and Decision Making.” American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Chicago, Ill., April 2025.
• Nichols, M.D. (author and presenter). “Ideal Patient, Ideal Woman: Constructing Gender in Transatlantic Obstetrical Illustrations.” Canadian Society for the History of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada, June 2024.
• Nichols, M.D. (author and presenter). “Anatomical Illustrations, Obstetrical Education and the Construction of the ‘Ideal Woman.’” American Association for the History of Medicine, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, N.Y., April 24, 2022.
• Petzold, A.M. (author and presenter) and Nichols, M.D. (author). “Dissecting the Language of Physiology Students.” American Physiology Summit, American Physiological Society, Philadelphia, Pa., April 2022.
• Nichols, M.D. (author and presenter) and Petzold, A.M. (author and presenter). “Heteroglossia in the Science Classroom: A Bakhtinian Approach.” 24th American Association of Behavioral and Social Sciences Conference, virtual, June 2021.
• Nichols, M.D. (author and presenter). “Gynoids, Fembots and Other Mechanized Women.” 79th World Science Fiction Convention/DisCon III, Washington, D.C., virtual, December 2021. URL: https://discon3.org/session/manifestations-of-gender/
• Nichols, M.D. (author and presenter). “From Folio to Thumbnail: Anglo-Atlantic Circulation of William Smellie’s Sett of Anatomical Tables.” Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science, Ochsner Medical Center, New Orleans, La., March 7, 2020.
• Nichols, M.D. (author and presenter) and Petzold, A.M. (author and presenter). “Centripetal Appeal of Scientific Discursive Style in Student Writing.” 23rd Annual American Association of Behavioral and Social Sciences Conference, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nev., February 25, 2020.
• Nichols, M.D. (author and presenter) and Wacek, J.A. (author). “Queering Erotic Triangles in Sense and Sensibility.” Eighteenth and Nineteenth British Women Writers Conference, University of Texas, Austin, Texas, April 2018.
• Petzold, A.M. (author and presenter) and Nichols, M.D. (author). “Incorporating Humanities-Based Activities into Physiology.” AAC&U Transforming STEM Higher Education Conference, Association of American Colleges and Universities, Atlanta, Ga., November 11, 2018.
• Petzold, A.M. (author and presenter) and Nichols, M.D. (author and presenter). “Anatomy and Physiology in the Contact Zone: Examining the Power Dynamic in the Anatomy and Physiology Classroom Through Creative Writing.” Higher Education Innovation Summit, University of Minnesota Rochester, Rochester, Minn., June 2018.
• Dingel, M.J. (author and presenter), Metzger, K.J. (author), Dunbar, R.L. (author), Kostko, A.T. (author), and Nichols, M.D. (author). “Practical Recommendations for Encouraging Translational Educational Research.” American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Montreal, Canada, 2017.
• Nichols, M.D. (author and presenter). “Seduction and the Resistance of Heteronormativity in The Lecturess.” American Studies Association Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada, October 2015.

• President’s Award for Outstanding Service, University of Minnesota, May 2023
• Outstanding Dissertation in Humanities and Fine Arts, University of South Carolina, Sept. 2011

• Collaborative Health Humanities Network, Institute for Advanced Study, University of Minnesota, Jan. 2024–Dec. 2025 Project investigators: Matthew Reznicek (contact PI, 50%); Devaleena Das (co-principal, 18%); Marcia D. Nichols (co-principal, 18%); Alexandra J. Zachwieja (co-principal, 18%)
• Grant-in-Aid of Scholarship and Artistry, University of Minnesota, Jan. 2012–Jan. 2014
• Interdisciplinary Studies of Writing Research Grant, Interdisciplinary Studies of Writing, University of Minnesota, Aug. 2011–Dec. 2013