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Presentations during the 2001
Fall Semester
TÂNIA
SALGADO PIMENTA (Doctoral
Candidate in History, UNICAMP – Brazil)
“Popular Healing and Medical Institutions
in Brazil in the First
Half of the Nineteenth Century"
Co-sponsored by the Latin American and Caribbean
Studies Program at Emory University.
This talk is drawn from Ms Pimenta's ongoing research on the
history of Brazilian medicine in the first half of 19th century. The
presentation will focus on the relationship between popular healers,
doctors, and the institutions responsible for creating and enforcing
laws intended to regulate medical practice in Brazil.
BRUCE BLASCH, PH.D. (Atlanta
VA Rehab R&D Center of Excellence on Geriatric Rehabilitation)
Bruce Blasch, Ph.D. is a Research Health Scientist
and coordinates the Center's Vision Research Program. Dr. Blasch holds
a Masters degree from the University of Utah in Clinical Rehabilitation
Psychology and from Western Michigan University in Blind Rehabilitation.
He earned his Ph.D. at Michigan State University in Special Education
and Perceptual Psychology. His major area of research is rehabilitation
of visually impaired individuals with emphasis in orientation and mobility,
including research on wayfinding and spatial orientation. The application
of technology to reduce the environmental demands for independent mobility
also has been a focus of his research. Dr. Blasch is a member of the
Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually
Impaired, and is active in its leadership. He is a member of the IMC
(International Mobility Conference) Organizing Committee.
KYLEA C. ASHER
(Emory College of Emory University)
"Geriatric Care in America: Past, Present,
and Future"
Geriatric care becomes particularly important as Americans live
longer. As our country grows and matures, we strive to modernize, proffessionalize,
and industrialize. In so doing, have we unknowingly eliminated
our oldest demographic as a necessary component to a healthy society?
What does the history of geriatric care tell us about the future of
elder care? Can specialized care be provided in a way that simultaneously
promotes social integration? With the recent emphasis on creating
social reform and a more promising future, will it be our seniors who
reshape the American landscape?
Presentations
during the 2001 Spring Semester
M.A.J. MCKENNA(Staff
Writer, Science and Medicine, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
“A Fire that Scorches Us All: The ‘Rediscovery’
of the 1918 Flu”
For much of the 20th century, the virulent “Spanish
influenza” of 1918 - which killed at least 675,000 Americans and a suspected
40 million people worldwide in less than a year - was both an under-regarded
historical episode and an enduring medical mystery. In 1997, research
teams in two countries announced plans to recover and sequence the never-analyzed
virus, using as their sources tissue preserved from military autopsies
and corpses buried on an Arctic island. The search, begun as a collaboration,
became a competition fraught with accusations of unscientific conduct,
appropriation of intellectual property and grave-robbing. Staff writer
M.A.J. McKenna of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has covered the search
for the 1918 flu since 1997, writing about both the ongoing scientific
feud and the popular rediscovery of the pandemic’s history and impact
- the recognition, in the words of the pathologist W.I.B. Beveridge,
that flu continually poses the threat of “a spark in a remote
corner of the world [that] could become a fire that scorches us all.”
Ms. McKenna's talk was co-sponsored by Emory's
Journalism Program.
JONATHAN ABLARD, Ph.D.(Department
of History, State University of West Georgia)
“Psychiatrists, the Mentally Ill and the National
State in Argentina, 1890-1945”
In 1934, a popular Buenos Aires weekly reported
that of Argentina’s 54,000 mentally ill, only 14,000 were in hospitals.
The other 40,000 were “at large,” wandering about the cities and countryside,
a danger to both themselves and society at large. The problem of the
so called locos en libertad [non-institutionalized insane] touched on
issues of both individual and national health and also Argentina’s status
as an advanced and European country.
This talk explored how Argentine psychiatrists
proposed to solve the problem of the non-institutionalized insane by
encouraging greater state support for their work. According to
psychiatrists, the non-institutionalized insane posed physical, sexual
and psychological dangers to the collective health and well being of
Argentines. This state of affairs threatened both Argentina’s national
vigor but also the republic’s international reputation as a modern and
progressive country. At the root of this social problem lay unregulated
immigration and a public mental health infrastructure that was deficit
in the number, quality and distribution of hospitals.
Psychiatrists argued that the solution to this
problem lay in greater state support of their work and their profession.
In both professional journals and in public forums, psychiatrists proposed
better control of immigration and the development of a modern and nationally
integrated health system. At the same time, doctors tried to educate
judges, lawyers, non-specialists doctors and the general public about
the nature of mental illness. In the final analysis, however,
psychiatrists’ campaign to garner state support failed, resulting in
both fewer professional opportunities for doctors and diminished status,
but also in greater autonomy from outside control or regulation.
Dr. Ablard’s talk was co-sponsored by the Latin
American and Caribbean Studies Program at Emory University.
JOYCE FLUECKIGER, Ph.D. (Department
of Religion, Emory University)
“Healing as a Religious Idiom in South India”
Dr. Flueckiger’s talk was based on her current
research on the construction and permeability of religious and gender
identities and boundaries at the level of Muslim popular practice in
South India, specifically within the context of the healing practice
of a female Muslim healer (piranima) in the city of Hyderabad.
Dr. Flueckiger’s talk was co-sponsored by the
Asian Studies Program at Emory University http://www.emory.edu/COLLEGE/AS/.
WORLD WAR I AND VIOLENCE WORKSHOP
Co-sponsored by:
The Consulat Général de France
Department of French, Emory University
Center for Language, Literature, and Culture,
Emory University
Department of Anthropology, Emory University
Vernacular Modernities Program, Emory University
Violence Studies Program, Emory University
Department of Religion, Emory University
Institute for Women’s Studies, Emory University
History of Medicine Group, Center for the Study
of Health, Culture, and Society at Rollins School of Public Health
Ivan Allen College of the Georgia Institute
of Technology
University Reconciliation Series
Featured Speakers:
Annette Becker (Université
de Paris-X-Nanterre and Princeton)
“Gender and the Creation of Memory”
Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau(Université
de Picardie-Jules Verne)
“Where Historical Tools Fail: The Violence
of the Battlefield”
Annette Becker
“Creating the Discipline of ‘Memory’: Jeanne
and Maurice Halbwachs and the Two World Wars”
Roundtable: Annette Becker,Audoin-Rouzeau,
Dirk Schumann (Emory
University), Johannes Paulmann (Emory/German
Studies Exchange Professor), Lionel Lemarchand(Georgia
Institute of Technology, Moderator)
“Leaving Violence Behind/Sortir de la Violence:
Comparative European Cases”
TINA TRENT (Doctoral
Candidate, Department of Women’s Studies, Emory University)
“When Abortion Was Illegal in the South: Uncovering
a Hidden Past”
This talk was drawn from Ms. Trent’s ongoing research
into the history of pre-Roe abortion access in the South. In this
presentation, she spoke on the progress of work and the methodological
challenges posed by the illegal and taboo subject of pre-Roe abortion
services.
Ms. Trent’s talk was co-sponsored by the Department
of Women’s Studies at Emory http://www.emory.edu/WOMENS_STUDIES/.
JEFFREY S. REZNICK, Ph.D.(Research
Fellow in the History of Medicine, Science, and Technology at Center
for the Study of Health, Culture, and Society in Rollins School of Public
Health)
“Technology for Life: International Perspectives
on Prosthetics Research and Development”
Dr. Reznick’s talk focused chiefly on the history
of prosthetics in Great Britain and the United States, drawing on research
completed in London at Queen Mary’s University Hospital, Roehampton,
and in Washington, DC at the Museum of American History, National Library
of Medicine, and Library of Congress. His talk was part of the Research
Seminar series of the Rehabilitation Research and Development Center
at the Veterans Administration Medical Center of Atlanta.
GERARD J. FITZGERALD(Ph.D.
Candidate (History), Cold War Science and Technology Studies Program,
Carnegie Mellon University)
“Barriers, Babies, and Bacteriological Engineers:
Biological Weapons Research at LOBUND, 1928-1955”
Gerard J. Fitzgerald is a doctoral candidate in
the Department of History at Carnegie Mellon University where he is
also a fellow in the NSF sponsored Cold War Science and Technology Studies
Group. His dissertation is entitled "From Prevention to Infection: Intramural
Aerobiology, Biomedical Technology, and the Origins of Biological Warfare
in the United States, 1910-1955."
Presentations during the Fall
2000 Semester
HOWARD I. KUSHNER, Ph.D.
(Professor of History of Medicine & Adams Professor of Graduate
Interdisciplinary Studies, San Diego State University and Nat C. Robertson
Distinguished Professor of Science & Society, Emory University,
2000-2001)
“Solving a Medical Mystery: The Role of Medical
History in Understanding the Worldwide Emergence of Kawasaki Disease”
Dr. Kushner's talk explored the identification
and classification of a specific organic disease as it arose in an Asian
culture (Japan) in contrast to and in comparison with its emergence
in Western societies. Kawasaki disease (KD) is the most common
cause of acquired pediatric heart disease in the developed world.
Coronary artery aneurysms may develop in up to 25% of untreated children.
Yet before it was described in 1967 by the Japanese pediatrician Tomisaku
Kawasaki, no one had ever seen this disease. After more than three
decades of intense investigations, the cause of KD continues to be elusive.
In fact, it remains to be determined whether what we now call Kawasaki
disease was new in the 1950s or already existed, hidden within other
disease categories. Ironically, although the identification of
the signs of KD and the institution of appropriate therapy has prevented
much early mortality and chronic heart disease, Kawasaki initially rejected
any connection between the condition he described and subsequent coronary
artery aneurysms; he insisted that his disease was never fatal.
Nevertheless, the current consensus case definition is based on Kawasaki's
1967 description, rather than on the long-established alternative of
defining similar disorders in terms of their coronary artery pathology.
Professor Kushner’s talk was co-sponsored by the
Emory College Program in Science & Society.
GARY LADERMAN, Ph.D. (Department
of Religion, Emory University)
“Doctoring Death in Twentieth-Century America:
Mortuary Science in the Shadow of Medical Science”
This talk explored the formation of the funeral
industry in 20th century American culture. Professor Laderman’s talk
highlighted how the professionalization of funeral directors and embalmers
developed in relation to the history of medical practitioners (primarily
looking at the first half of the century).
Professor Laderman’s talk was co-sponsored by
the Department of Religion.
WOLFGANG U. ECKART, M.D., Ph.D. (University
of Heidelberg)
“Sterilization, Euthanasia, Holocaust - Political
Seize of Power and Medical Science in Germany, 1933-1945”
Wolfgang U. Eckart has been Professor for the
History of Medicine at Heidelberg University since 1992. Born in 1952,
he studied medicine, history, and philosophy at the University of Münster
(M.D. 1978; Habiltation Hist.Med., 1986). Before, he was director of
the Department of Medical History at the Medical School in Hannover
(1988-1992). His research and teaching activities include medicine and
colonial imperialism, medicine and war, and medicine in National Socialism.
In this talk, Professor Eckart examined the origins
and development of Nazi policies on euthanasia, which contributed to
the systematic elimination of more than 200,000 patients of psychiatric
institutions, inmates of hospital camps, other institutionalized and
“non-conformist” individuals after 1939. Wolfgang U. Eckart has
been a Professor of the History of Medicine at Heidelberg University
since 1992. His research and teaching activities include medicine and
colonial imperialism, medicine and war, and medicine in National Socialism.
Professor Eckart’s talk was co-sponsored the Graduate
Student Council and the Graduate Student Senate.
SHULA MARKS, Ph.D. (School
of Oriental and African Studies, University of London)
“The International Context of South Africa's
Experiment in Social Medicine in the 1940's and 1950's”
Dr. Marks' talk was cosponsored by the Institute
of African Studies and the Department of History.
DAVID HARLEY (Department
of History, Notre Dame)
"Racializing Jewishness in Elizabethan London:
The Trial and Execution of the Royal Physician Rodrigo Lopez"
Mr. Harley's talk was co-sponsored by the Vann
Seminar.
Presentations during the Spring
2000 Semester
A HISTMED WORKSHOP: "History,
Constructivism, and Mind-Body Medicine: Some Theoretical Perspectives"
Moderator:
Jeffrey S. Reznick, Ph.D. (Institute
for Comparative and International Studies, Emory University)
Panelists:
Sharon Strocchia, Ph.D. (Department
of History, Emory University -Workshop Organizer)
Peter Brown, Ph.D.(Department of Anthropology,
Emory University)
Mark Risjord, Ph.D. (Department
of Philosophy, Emory University)
Christian Warren, Ph.D.(Department
of History, Emory University)
This workshop focused on a discussion of the theoretical
issues raised in a recently-published article by David Harley, "Rhetoric
and the Social Construction of Sickness and Healing" (Social History
of Medicine 12, no. 3 (Dec. 1999): 407-435). Drawing on a wide range
of studies in medical history and anthropology, sociology of knowledge,
and current medical practice, Harley argues that "it is becoming evident
that any healing anywhere is a social construction that requires a plausible
practitioner who can deploy a credible system in a successful negotiation
that brings order to the patient's experience." Using Harley's article
as a focused point of departure, workshop panelists evaluated this claim
(and others) from various scholarly and practical perspectives. Each
of the panelists commented for 10-15 minutes, followed by a discussion
among panelists and members of the HistMed Group.
JULIE LIVINGSTON
(Ph.D. Candidate, Department of History, Emory University)
"Pregnant Children and Half-Dead Adults: Modern
Living and the Quickening Lifecycle in Botswana"
Julie Livingston
discussed the changing life cycle in modern Botswana and illustrated
its meaning through cases drawn from recent field work in that country.
She located both biomedical and local perspectives in the context of
post-independence historical change in Botswana, which has been characterized
by unusually rapid economic development. Julie used the Tswana perspective
of a new rapid life cycle to explore the flip-side of biomedical and
development valuations of health in the developing world. This
approach provides a new and much needed perspective on the health and
social problems accompanying a rapid transition out of poverty, endemic
malnutrition, and infectious disease, and their replacement with chronic
illness and disability.
Presentations during the Fall
1999 Semester
DAVID RANEY, Ph.D.(Department
of English, Emory University)
“Border Patrol: Some Modern American Literary
Responses to Germ Theory”
Focusing on the early twentieth century, Dr. Raney
explored how contemporary authors used notions of contagion and germ
theory to call into question the borders of the self - both in the sense
of the body's boundaries and of fluid identity. This approach allowed
writers to treat categories of race, class, nation, and even gender
as contagious.
SANJOY BHATTACHARYA, Ph.D.
(Wellcome Post-Doctoral Fellow, Department of History, Sheffield Hallam
University, UK)
“Re-Devising Jennerian Vaccines?: Scientific
Advance, Indian Innovation and the Control of Smallpox in South Asia,
1850-1950”
Dr. Bhattacharya visited Atlanta to carry out
research at CDC. He spoke on the expansion of the smallpox vaccination
infrastructure in the sub-continent, the scientific advances in vaccine
production, and the difficulties in implementation due to local bureaucratic
opposition.
GEORGE O. WARING III, M.D., F.A.C.S., F.R.C.P.phth.(Emory
Vision Correction Center)
"The History of Refractive Surgery”
Dr. Waring, founder and managing director of the
Emory Vision Correction Center, explored the development of surgery
as a means to correct refractive errors. He focused on a number of key
topics, including refractive keratotomy, keratomileusis, Excimer laser
corneal surgery, synthetic corneal implants, and intraocular lenses.
Dr. Waring also addressed the many ways in which, since 1980, the refractive
surgery section of the Emory Department of Ophthalmology has been active
in clinical research and FDA-related trials in each of the above areas.
MONICA ALI, Ph.D. and DAVID LEINWEBER, Ph.D.(Oxford
College of Emory University)
"Teaching Medical History: Historical
Perspectives on Medical Discoveries”
Dr. Ali, who is a chemist and pharmacist, and
Dr. Leinweber, who is a historian, recently received a grant from the
Emory teaching fund to develop and teach an interdisciplinary course
entitled "Historical Perspectives on Medical Discoveries." In this talk,
Dr. Ali and Dr. Leinweber gave an overview of their course and offer
their insights into teaching medical history.
MAY SPANGLER, Ph.D.
(Visiting Assistant Professor of French,
Emory University)
"L’Hermaphrodisme Monstrueux de Diderot (Monstrous
Hermaphrodism in Diderot)”
In this talk, Dr. Spangler explored the various
ways in which Diderot's aphorism "Man may only be the woman's monster,
or woman the man's monster" (D'Alembert's Dream) implies a notion of
hermaphrodism that destabilizes fixed conceptions of gender.
DAVID MCCARTHY(School
of Theology, University of the South)
"Fetal Tissue Transplant; A History of
Controversies Amidst Scientific and Medical Progress: Toward an
Ethical and Moral Discourse”
Mr. McCarthy examined the history of legislation
for anonymous donation of fetal tissue for research and treatment of
degenerative disease (Public Law 103-43). This talk was based on his
masters thesis and ongoing research into intersections of law, medicine,
and morality.
ANTHONY GAL, M.D. (Associate
Professor of Pathology and Medicine, Emory University)
"In Search of the Origins of Modern Surgical
Pathology”
In this talk, Dr. Gal explored the major technical
developments of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries that
led to the establishment of the field of surgical pathology. Dr.
Gal also addressed contemporary advancements in microscopy, histochemistry,
and surgery.
CAROLINE GARNIER (Department
of English, Emory University)
"War Trauma in William Faulkner’s Soldier’s
Pay”
This talk was drawn from Caroline's dissertation,
"War, Rape, and Childbearing: Trauma and its Transmission in William
Faulkner's Fiction."
Presentations during the 1998-1999
Academic Year
COLIN TALLEY, Ph.D. (Mellon-Sawyer
Postdoctoral Fellow in The Center for the Study of Health, Culture,
and Society)
“Foundations, Government, and the Funding of
Research on Multiple Sclerosis in the U.S.A., 1920-1960”
Dr. Talley received his Ph.D. from the University
of California San Francisco in the History of the Health Sciences. This
short talk was based on his research at The Commonwealth Fund Archives
located at the Rockefeller Archive Center and the archives of the National
Institutes of Health in College Park, Maryland. It presents a useful
case study for understanding the consequences of the shift from a system
of medical research funding dominated by private foundations before
World War II to a regime of financing marked by the increased involvement
of the federal government after 1945.
CHRISTIAN WARREN, Ph.D. (Department
of History, Emory University)
“Into the Mouths of Babes: Childhood Lead Poisoning
in the United States”
This talk was based on Dr. Warren’s book, Brush
With Death: A Social History of Lead Poisoning in the United States
Since 1900 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999). The talk focused
on how changing definitions of "at risk" populations affected the moralization
of childhood lead poisoning, determining to a large extent the political
and public health responses to what was once called "the silent epidemic."
CHRISTINE STOLBA
(Doctoral Candidate, Department of History, Emory University)
"Eugenics, Medicine, Religion, and Social Hygiene:
The Health Certificate Crusade of Rev. Walter Taylor Sumner, 1912-1914”
This talk was drawn from Christine’s dissertation,
"A Corrupt Tree Bringeth Forth Evil Fruit: Religion and the American
Eugenics Movement, 1880-1941."
ARAN MacKINNON, Ph.D.
(Department of History, State University of West Georgia)
“'Of Oxford Bags and Twirling Canes: Native
Anti-Malaira Assistants and Popular Responses to the Anti-Malaria Campaign
in Zululand, c. 1930-1959”
This talk was based on Dr. MacKinnon’s field work
in Zululand and doctoral research. It is part of a wider study of the
political economy of Zululand in the first half of the twentieth century,
drawing on themes in environmental history, ecological studies, and
thehistory of rural Africa.
THE POLITICS OF CARING CONFERENCE V - Imagining
Women's Minds: Changing Perspectives on Mental Health
A cross-disciplinary, international conference
at Emory, sponsored by The Institute for Women's Studies
Presentations during the 1998
Spring Term
JEFFREY REZNICK (Ph.D.
candidate, History Department, Emory University)
"From Hospital to Industry: Orthopedics, After
Care and the Rehabilitation of the Disabled Soldier in Britain in the
First World War"
This presentation was based on a chapter of his
dissertation, "Rest, Recovery, and Rehabilitation: Healing and Identity
in the First World War."
KATHERYN READ McPHERSON (PhD
candidate, English Department)
"The Sweet Milk of Your Own Breasts: Maternal
Breastfeeding in Early-Modern England"
This paper was based on a chapter of her dissertation,
"Great-Bellied Women: Religion and Maternity in Seventeenth-Century
England."
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