On September 30, 2019, medieval historian Ruth Karras launched a poll on Twitter. “What medieval woman should I nominate,” she […]
Anoint an Aries with Sheep’s Blood: Finding the Familiar in the Astral Medicine in Ancient Mesopotamia
From so far in the future, the medicine of ancient Mesopotamia looks strange. After all, it’s easy to dismiss the […]
Butter and the History of U.S. Dietary Guides since 1894
Creamy, sometimes salty, and optimistically yellow, butter is one of my favorite foods. It’s also a scientific and cultural barometer. […]
Cancer DIY: Gendered Politics, Colonialism, and the Circulation of Self-Sampling Screening Technologies in Canada
Innovative. Exciting. Easy. Painless. These are just some of the words used to describe the Delphi Screener — a sterile, […]
Will Technology Change How We Understand Interpersonal Violence? Maybe. Probably Not.
The Atlantic’s August cover story by Barbara Bradley Hagerty, “An Epidemic of Disbelief,” describes how some jurisdictions, in the midst […]
A Bloody Sweater and a Pair of Dentures
Private Togo Piper didn’t have many personal belongings. When he died overseas in May 1943, all that was returned to […]
“Immoderate Menses” or Abortion? Bodily Knowledge and Illicit Intimacy in an 1851 Divorce Trial
In 1851, four years after actress Josephine Clifton’s death, she was named as one of Edwin Forrest’s adulterers during the […]
“Who but Women Should Manage It?”: Convalescent Home Matrons and Medical Recuperation
Today we often hear reports about women’s invisible labor. Female family members do the lion’s share of housework and caregiving […]
Missing Leaf: Placing Cannabis in the American Herbal Renaissance
Given the daily barrage of distressing headlines, you will be forgiven for not noticing that the United States is in […]
What Women “Want”: Wordsmithing Education Reform Rhetoric
Persuaders and Persuadees The decentralized nature of public education in America means that any one individual who wants to implement […]
