Seminars, supported by Wellcome, are on Tuesdays from 5.00 to 6.30pm unless otherwise stated. All welcome!
Seventeenth Cambridge Wellcome Lecture in the History of Medicine
Thursday 20 January 2022, 4.00–5.30pm, Zoom
Gabriela Soto Laveaga (Harvard University)
Seeds, a dying river, and an experiment station: re-examining 1960s global solutions to hunger from Sonora, Mexico
High-yielding wheat seeds developed in research stations in Mexico helped launch the so-called Green Revolution in the 1960s. These seeds, often credited with averting a South Asian famine, transformed farming with the help of inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation. The environmental degradation and social impact of this type of farming became clear only years later. While research has focused on the environmental impact of these seeds in South Asia and other parts of the world, little attention has been given to the impact in the region where these seeds initially emerged, the research station were these seeds were first tested. This talk examines the history of the region, the Yaqui Valley, and how a scientific discovery billed as the key to ending world hunger, transformed the lives of thousands of erstwhile farmers.
Early Science and Medicine
Organised by Dániel Margócsy, Carolin Schmitz, Sebestian Kroupa and Christoffer Basse Eriksen.
| 1 February | Philippa Hellawell (National Archives, UK) Contagion and the politics of maritime quarantine during the Marseille plague (1720) Arts School Lecture Theatre A |
| 22 February | Nader El-Bizri (American University of Beirut) Alhazen's Perspectiva legacy in science and art Arts School Lecture Theatre A |
| 15 March | Yijun Wang (New York University) TBA |
History of Modern Medicine and Biology
Organised by Salim Al-Gailani, Mary Brazelton and Helen Curry.
| 8 February | Jessica Wang (University of British Columbia) Insects and the infrastructure of Empire: tropical agriculture and biological control in early 20th-century Hawai'i Zoom Register for this seminar |
| 15 February | Tracey Loughran (University of Essex) Finding women's 'everyday health': testimonies and experiences Zoom Register for this seminar |
| 7 March | Wayne Soon (Vassar College) Global actuarial science in the making of the universal healthcare system in the Republic of China, 1935–2010 (Please note this seminar takes place on Monday, 5.00–6.30pm) Zoom Register for this seminar |
Generation to Reproduction
Organised by Staffan Müller-Wille and Dániel Margócsy.
| 25 January | Ayah Nuriddin (Princeton University) Black eugenics and the politics of reproduction Zoom Register for this seminar |