Event Information

Bullitt Club Shorts

Bullitt Club Lecture Series Presents...Our first "Bullitt Club Shorts"!

This month, the Bullitt Club has invited multiple speakers to give shorter presentations on different topics.

Act I: Remedies Against the Infection : Freedom of Movement, Printed Invectives, and the Defense of Reputation in 17th century plague outbreaks (Speaker: Ashley Werlinich)

So much of English plague literature is concerned with which bodies can move freely in space—which bodies are encouraged to flee, which bodies must stay to serve the dying, which bodies (and objects) should be quarantined to prevent the spread of miasmic particles through the already prone city. And yet, as much of the print literature from plague years indicates, once one makes the decision to stay or leave, one is not free from the judgment of London’s residents or from the invectives of its printers. Many plague texts decry certain individuals (particularly doctors) who abandon their people—either by fleeing outright (Londini Lachrymae, 1665) or by staying in the city in order to further abuse those suffering within its borders (Consilium anti-pestilentiale, 1665). And as indicated by the print landscape of 17th century plague years, defending the body against public attack (as well as from miasmatic contagion) becomes of paramount importance to all bodies inside and outside of London’s borders. Through her investigation of how London printers represented those who “run out of the Gates” (Londini Lachrymae) in times of crisis, Werlinich will establish London printers as mediators of space and reputation during epidemics.


Ashley Werlinich is a third year English Literature PhD student and Teaching Fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also currently works as a rare books and special collections instructor at Wilson Library Special Collections. Her work focuses on the intersection between 17th century natural philosophy, medicine, and drama.

Act II: Using the New York Academy of Medicine Collection of International Medical Theses for research (Speakers: Melissa Isaacs and Taylor Johnson)


The New York Academy of Medicine Collection of International Medical Theses (housed at UNC) consists of tens of thousands of post-1801 theses in multiple languages from leading medical schools throughout the world. Europe is well represented, with many theses originating from universities in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. Countries with lesser quantities in the collection include Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Algeria, Indonesia, and others. Useful for anyone interested in tracing the development of clinical and scientific inquiry in medical schools in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the collection is also notable for providing a record of the entry of women and into the profession of medicine. Women denied entrance into American medical schools, for instance, sometimes turned to Europe for a chance to pursue their studies. One such pioneer is Dr. Susan J. Dimock, who was born in 1847 in Washington, North Carolina. Rejected at Harvard, she was subsequently admitted to the University of Zürich and completed her medical degree in 1871 with a defense of her dissertation on the various forms of puerperal (or "childbed") fever that she observed in Zürich maternity clinics. Scholars studying the humanities will also find the collection useful for analyzing the evolution of languages, customs, and social mores in a given country or region.

Melissa Isaacs is a Historical Collections Project Assistant at the Health Sciences Library at UNC-Chapel Hill, where she processes the New York Academy of Medicine Collection of International Medical Theses. She holds a B.A. in Classics from Ursinus College and an M.A. in English from Princeton University, where she is also currently writing a Ph.D. dissertation on self-harm and suicidal affect in Middle English literature.

Taylor Johnson is a Historical Collections Project Assistant at the Health Sciences Library at UNC-Chapel Hill, where she processes the New York Academy of Medicine Collection of International Medical Theses. She has also held positions at Rare Book School, the University of Virginia Special Collections Library, and Wilson Library at UNC-Chapel Hill. She studied Classics and Linguistics at UVA and is completing a MSLS at the UNC-Chapel Hill.

Date:
Tuesday, April 17, 2018
Time:
12:00pm - 1:00pm
Location:
Health Science Library Room 527
Venue:
Health Sciences Library
Presenter:
Ashley Werlinich, Melissa Isaacs and Taylor Johnson
Categories:
Lectures, Readings and Talks  

Contact

Profile photo of Dawne Lucas, MA, MLS
Dawne Lucas, MA, MLS

dawne_lucas@unc.edu

919-966-1776