Biography
A DePaul alumnus, Prof. Opitz (he/him) has devoted his career to advancing the education of nontraditional learners who seek to be leaders and agents of change in their professional, public, and personal spheres of life. He has held a range of administrative positions, and he currently serves as Director of
Cannabis Studies. He is also an affiliated faculty member of American Studies and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Studies, and an affiliated scholar in 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 editor-in-chief of Endeavour, a leading journal in the history and philosophy of science, a volume co-editor of the John Tyndall Correspondence Project, and a general co-editor of the series, Gender, Colonialism, and Science (Routledge).
Prof. Opitz currently serves as vice president of the Commission on Women and Gender Studies of the International Union for History and Philosophy of Science and Technology; and as treasurer of the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology.
Among his downtime activities, he especially enjoys running, gardening, and playing the French horn.
Recent Courses Taught
CAN 260 Introduction to Cannabis Studies
LL 280 Liberal Arts in Action: Rats in the City
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. (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. (2022). “Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick, Country House Science, and Personas for British Women in Science at the turn of the Twentieth Century." In: Gehmacher, J., Niskanen, K., and Prager, K., eds, When Does the Genius do the Chores? Knowledge, Auto/Biography, and Gender. Special cluster in European Journal of Life Writing 11: WG13–43.
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. (2016). “Gender and Science.” Pp. 382-386 in: Montgomery, G. M., and Largent, M. A., eds, A Companion to the History of American Science. Chichester: Wiley & Sons.
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. (2014). "'The sceptre of her pow'r': Nymphs, Nobility, and Nomenclature in Early Victorian Education." British Journal for the History of Science 47: 67-94.
Opitz, D. L. (2013) "'A Triumph of Brains over Brute': Women and Science at the Horticultural College, Swanley, 1890-1910." Isis 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.