Jonah Walters

Jonah Walters is a historical geographer whose research examines the co-development of medical science, legally permissible violence, and weapons technology in the Anglo- and Hispanophone worlds. His research has been recognized by the Fund for Investigative Journalism and the History of Human Sciences Early Career Prize. He is finishing up a book manuscript about the history of “less-than-lethal” police weapons, especially pepper spray and electric shock devices. At the Science History Institute, he will begin a new research project examining the transition from saltpeter-based gunpowders to mass produced nitrocellulose explosives in the nineteenth century. Until recently, he was a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he was supported by the Institute for Society and Genetics, the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, and the Lab for BioCritical Studies. He received his PhD from the Rutgers University Department of Geography in 2021.