Katherine Dugan, PhD.

In this lecture, Katherine Dugan will examine the history of the science of Natural Family Planning–starting with the “rhythm” method of the 1920s through the app-based methods of the 2020s. This lecture interweaves medical history with Catholic history in order to tell the story of how what is now known as NFP came to be practiced. In addition to tracing the history of these methods, the lecture also details some of the biographical history of the medical doctors and scientists committed to this work.

Katherine Dugan is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Springfield College in Western Massachusetts. She published Millennial Missionaries: How a Group of Young Catholics is Trying to Make Catholicism Cool, (2019) and is at work on an ethnographic study of Catholics who practice Natural Family Planning.