Hratch Kestenian is a Ph.D. Candidate in History at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. His dissertation, “The Making of Social Disease: Tuberculosis and the Medicalization of Ottoman Society, 1827-1922,” critically examines tuberculosis in the Ottoman Empire, highlighting its impact on societal constructs across gender, class, and economic status. His research, drawing on a vast array of medical periodicals and hygienic manuals in Ottoman-Turkish, Armenian, French, and Arabic, articulates how the fin de siècle's medical transformations intersected with governmental centralization and the rise of a medical professional class.

The interdisciplinary value of Kestenian’s work is evidenced by his prestigious grants, including the Mellon Sawyer Fellowship and support from the Leibniz Institute for European History. His forthcoming monograph, “TB or Not to Be: Empire and Medicalization,” to be proposed to the University of California Press in January 2025, aims to expand on his dissertation themes.

Kestenian’s scholarship also includes an article on Armenian medical personnel post-Armenian Genocide and the use of psychiatry by Protestant missionaries in Mount Lebanon, showcasing the complex interactions between medicine, society, and politics. His work resonates with current public health and social policy discourses, bridging historical narratives with contemporary issues.