BOGRECEPTION: IMPERIAL BODIES IN LONDON AF KRISTIN HUSSEY

Kristin Hussey er post.doc på Medicinsk Museion, og i hendes nye bog fortæller hun om udviklingen af lægevidenskab i kolonitidens London. Gennem casestudier undersøger Hussey, hvordan udvekslingen mellem Storbritannien og dens kolonier – bogstavelig talt gennem udveksling af sømænd, missionærer og militærfolks kroppe – fik stor betydning for medicinsk videnskab og praksis i London.

Som en del af receptionen giver Kristin Hussey en talk (ca. 20 minutter).

Det er gratis at deltage og kræver ingen tilmelding.

Arrangementet er på engelsk.

Mere om bogen
Imperial Bodies in London is a postcolonial history of British medicine, focused on the imperial city of London at the height of the British Empire. While it has been well established that British medicine spread around the globe during the colonial period, this book makes the opposite move and follows how the empire made medical knowledge and practice at home in London. Inspired by the anatomical organization of Victorian medical museums, I explore how the encounter between empire and Britain was located in specific organs – the liver, the brain, the eyes, and the blood. Through a series of case studies, I demonstrate how the exchange between London and the empire was facilitated by mobile bodies of sailors, administrators, missionaries, and military men – but stymied by hierarchies of authority, prestige, race, gender and imperial power. Inspired by my years as a museum curator, the book is grounded in the personal stories of doctors and patients, and uses material culture to enliven the everyday experience of being a body in the networks of empire. I hope it is a book that will be of interest to historians, geographers, museologists and general readers with an interest in medicine, empire, disease, environment, and race.