By Jacqueline Antonovich
-Vintage divorce postcards.
-Photos from 1938 Mardi Gras.
-A history of sex and chocolate.
-Hemingway ephemera digitized.
-A 19th century map of matrimony.
-25 historic images of breastfeeding.
I ♥ You: Valentine’s Lessons from Way Back
By Sean Cosgrove
I like Valentine’s Day. Its initials give me pause for thought sometimes — perhaps they are so appropriate as to be off-putting (‘V.D.’ anyone?) — but overall it strikes me as a formalized excuse to show the people you care about that you love them. Last year, I even wrote up a little piece urging us to broaden our definitions of relationships to include the bromance in the Valentine’s festivities! So, when I say that I want your Valentine’s Day plans to be a success, I really do mean it.
Intersex and the Environment: The Politics of Nature v. Culture
By Elizabeth Reis
It’s complicated for a person who cares about intersex, as I do, to grapple with the growing body of scientific evidence that environmental pollutants are producing an increase in genital and reproductive anomalies in animals and possibly even in humans. I have always understood intersex differences to be “normal” variations. We know that intersex has always existed (it’s discussed in the Talmud, for instance); and we need to recognize that not all bodies match conventional expectations or fit neatly into the sex binary. At the same time, I deplore the way that toxic chemicals, which have multiplied astonishingly in our world since the mid-twentieth century, are polluting our environments and causing harmful changes to our bodies. Intersex isn’t inherently a problem, but what if it was caused by one? How can I argue that intersex is a normal divergence in sex development and at the same time abhor the toxic degradation of our earth, which seems to be afflicting us, transforming our bodies in “unnatural” ways?
Sunday Morning Medicine
By Jacqueline Antonovich
-A new Jane Austen mystery.
-Virginity myths that won’t die.
-100 years of the “perfect body.”
-Charles Dickens and his women.
-Not all monument men were men.
-Wikipedia to start archiving voices.
Adventures in the Archives: Julia Heller’s “Boy Friends Book”
By Carolyn Herbst Lewis
One of the writing assignments that I use in my American women’s history class is a series of primary document analyses. Each one uses a different digital database or archive to locate a document and analyze it using course materials. I like to imagine this is building twenty-first century research skills and teaching responsible use of the Internet, as well as our more traditional goal of critical thinking skills. As I was constructing the assignment, I explored several digital repositories, including the North American Women’s Letters and Diaries collection from Alexander Street Press. In the process, I stumbled upon an item that very quickly sucked me in. I had no choice but to drop everything else and read it very, very carefully.
Faculty Mothers: Continuing the Conversation
By Rachel Epp Buller
Listening ear. Moral support. Advisor. Counselor. Professor. Mother?
I’m in the midst of reading Academic Motherhood: How Faculty Manage Work and Family, by Kelly Ward and Lisa Wolf-Wendel–both of whom are well-published professors of educational leadership.[1] Ward and Wolf-Wendel aren’t the first authors to address this topic; other notable contributions to the conversation include Mama, Ph.D. (and the subsequent Papa, Ph.D.), Parenting and Professing, The Family Track: Keeping Your Faculties While You Mentor, Nurture, Teach, and Serve, and Academic Motherhood in a Post-Second Wave Context.
Sunday Morning Medicine
by Jacqueline Antonovich
-A cultural history of rabies.
-Tracking the flu, then and now.
-Did bad weather make us love milk?
-Healthy people seeking amputations.
-Did a 1930s scientist murder 8 people?
Disability, Responsibility, and the Veteran Pension Paradox
By Guest Author
Recently, NPR reporter Quil Lawrence presented a radio series in which he profiled veterans who received other-than-honorable discharges from the military after violating rules of conduct, breaking the law, or getting in trouble with military authorities. Despite their service – including, for many, tours in active warzones – soldiers with so-called ‘bad paper’ are no longer considered veterans. As former Marine Michael Hartnett put it: “You might as well never even enlisted.”[1] Hartnett was given bad paper in 1993 when he began abusing drugs and alcohol – an attempt to self-medicate his undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder. Veterans like Hartnett are no longer eligible to receive any of the veterans’ benefits they were promised when they enlisted.
Eating to Live: A Short History of Health Rap
Political hip hop songs tend to focus on the typical manifestations of state violence, structural racism, and corporate capitalism—police brutality, […]
Sunday Morning Medicine
By Jacqueline Antonovich
-How Londoners died in 1665.
-The life of a 1970s housewife.
-“Oh God for one more breath.”
-Eight songs about your period.
-Why is hemp illegal? A short history.
-The Minnesota starvation experiment.
