Her research focuses on Soviet history and on the history of medicine. She is the author of two prize-winning books: Lamaze: an International History (2014) and Curative Powers: Medicine and Empire in Stalin’s Central Asia (2003). Michaels is also co-editor of Paths to Parenthood: Emotions on the Journey through Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Early Parenthood (forthcoming 2018) and is currently working on a project about the gendered history of psychological trauma.