“Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, / Who is already sick and pale with grief /… / Be […]
Review of Minji Lee, The Medieval Womb: Hildegard of Bingen’s Views on the Female Reproductive Body (Arc Humanities Press, 2025)
I teach a course called “Women and Medicine” that explores the history of women as medical practitioners, patients, and objects […]
Lessons from the Earth: Earthquakes, Gardens, and Public Health
Around 9:40am, on Saturday November 1st, 1755, the earth shook in Lisbon. Likely a 8.5 magnitude on the Richter scale, […]
Marked: Birthmarks and Historical Myths of Maternal Responsibility
“You ate a lot of strawberries when you were pregnant with that baby, didn’t you?” When I was a child, […]
Transatlantic Diagnostics: A Tale of Divergences in the History of Autism
A comparative analysis of how France and the United States have scientifically investigated autism over the course of the later […]
Can a King be Disabled? Leprosy, Power, and Colonialism in an Indonesian Sultan’s Portrait
A middle-aged, mustached man dressed in a luxuriously decorated jacket and with a thick golden chain across his chest looks […]
Miscarriage is a Crime Again
In 1650, a young, single English servant named Anne Greene miscarried into the privy and did not tell anyone. We […]
Lo de la colza: Mass poisoning, state neglect, and corruption after the Spanish Transition
Culinary rapeseed oil – or canola oil – is a staple in many parts of the world. It has a […]
“Unseen: Inequality in Medicine” at Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, Leiden
The medical field has long treated the 70 kg white male body as the norm — an assumption that continues […]
Is it Time to Abandon Motherhood? An Interview with Alex Bollen.
Alex Bollen, a UK-based postnatal practitioner, has recently published her first book, Motherdom: Breaking Free from Bad Science and Good […]
