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Department of Biomedical Sciences
1035 University Drive
Duluth, MN 55812-3031
Emma Verstraete is an archaeologist and historian specializing in the role of medicine and health in society in the past and present. She became interested in the consumption patterns and patient preferences of medicine while working as a pharmacy technician for a retail pharmacy. She pursued this avenue of research in graduate school, focusing her dissertation on the material culture of medicine and health in Springfield, Illinois.
This has led to multiple peer-reviewed publications about reproductive access and opiate consumption in the 19th century in the context of Springfield, Illinois and the results have been published in Pharmacy and History and International Journal of Historical Archaeology. She is currently transforming her research into a narrative non-fiction book titled Evocative Elixirs, due out in late 2027.
Additionally, she maintains research interests in the role of digital spaces and communities which is reflected in my publications discussing archaeology and vaccines on Tumblr and informs my work and teaching on modern perceptions of medicine and healthcare in the United States. She is currently an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth Campus where she works on a project modeling the impacts of climate change on infrastructure and my own research on the history of consumer culture and health in the United States.
Forthcoming
Verstraete, Emma L. Evocative Elixirs: How 19th Century Consumer Medicine Shaped Modern American Healthcare. University of Alabama Press. In revision post peer review, Expected Late Winter 2027.
Roberts, Siona, Emma L. Verstraete, Natasha Adams, Sharon Kuo, Michael Knudson, Alexandra Zachwieja. 2026. “A synthetic flow network decision-making tool to identify potential downstream contamination risk in permafrost-bound Alaskan hazard sites.” GIScience & Remote Sensing. https://doi.org/10.1080/15481603.2026.2713329.
Verstraete, Emma L., S. Kuo, N. Adams, and A. J. Zachwieja. 2025. “Embodying the Impact of Climate Change for Decision Makers Using Augmented Reality (AR): A Case Study of Climate-Threatened Cultural Heritage Sites in Western Alaska.” Environmental Science & Policy (171): 104178. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104178.
Verstraete, Emma L. and Alexandra Zachwieja. 2025. “Vernacular Infrastructure: a hidden cost in the economics of climate change and permafrost thaw in Alaska.” Sustainable Futures 9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sftr.2025.100762.
Verstraete, Emma L. 2025. “Contextualising Extractive Landscapes for Climate Forecasting.” Environment and History 31 (1): 3–9. https://doi.org/10.3828/whpeh.63861480327335.
Verstraete, Emma L. 2024. “Ancient Egyptian Curses and Bog Bodies: The Role of Pseudoarchaeology in Tumblr’s Subculture.” Epoiesen: A Journal for Creative Engagement in History and Archaeology, January. https://doi.org/10.22215/epoiesen/2024.2.
Verstraete, Emma. 2024. “Certificate Required: Drugstores and the Regulation of ‘Female Drugs’ in Late Nineteenth‐Century Illinois.” History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals 65 (2): 220–41. https://doi.org/10.3368/hopp.65.2.220.
Holland-Lulewicz, Jacob, and Emma L. Verstraete. 2023. “From Cahokia to Capital: Historical Palimpsests and the Euro-American Afterlives of an Indigenous Place.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology 27 (4): 1185–1209. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-023-00706-6.
Verstraete, Emma. 2022. “Soothing the Self: Medicine Advertisement and the Cult of Domesticity in Nineteenth-Century Springfield, Illinois.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology, January. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-021-00644-1.
Verstraete, Emma L. 2022. “‘For Sale by All Druggists’: Patent Medicine and National Market Access in Springfield, Illinois.” Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 47 (1).
Verstraete, Emma L. 2016. “Little Flat Creek Valley: What Happens When Archaeology Contradicts Local Lore?” Missouri Archaeological Society Quarterly 32 (2): 21–24.
Register of Professional Archaeologists, Member # 18024
Illinois State Archaeology Survey
American Institute for the History of Pharmacy
Society for Historical Archaeology