Sheryl Wombell

Supervisors: Professor Emma Spary, Professor Lauren Kassell

Thesis topic: Navigating health and healing in a seventeenth-century network of migrating elites

Previous Education

2018 MA in Historical Research, University of Sheffield. Distinction

2013 BA Hons History, University of Cambridge. First class

Fellowships

2024-5 Freer Prize Fellow, Royal Institution of Great Britain

2024 Audrey and William H. Helfand Fellow in the History of Medicine and Public Health, New York Academy of Medicine Library

2022 Visiting Researcher, European University Institute, Florence - Presenting participant in ‘Histories of Science and Medicine for the 21st Century’, a six-part international workshop

Public Engagement

‘Tracing the Transmission of Early Modern Recipe Knowledge in the New York Academy of Medicine Library’, blog post, New York Academy of Medicine Library blog, November 2024.

Selected Conference and Seminar Talks

Oct 2024 'Mobility, Materiality, and Temporality in the Medical Recipe Collections at the New York Academy of Medicine Library', Helfand Fellow Public Presentation, New York Academy of Medicine Library, online, 1 October 2024

May 2024 '‘The global and the local in William Cavendish’s “booke” of “rare minerall receipts”, c.1647-54’, Global Recipes in the Early Modern World: Ingredients, Actors,
Exotica, University of Cambridge, 29-30 May 2024

Nov 2023 ‘Perspectives on remote medical consultation from the seventeenth-century practice of Theodore Turquet de Mayerne’, History of Science Society Annual Meeting 2023: Shifting Standards, Creating Change, Portland, OR, United States, 9-12 November 2023

Jul 2022 ‘Navigating health in exile and exile with health: William Cavendish’s book of receipts, c. 1647-54’, Bangor International Conference on the Restoration, Bangor University, Wales, 26-28 July 2022

Sep 2021 ‘“So many counsells of able phisitians”: competition and friendship in William Cavendish’s book of receipts’, European Society for the History of Science, Early Career Scholars’ Conference, online, 20-22 September 2021

Dec 2020 ‘The Visible Technician: George Hartman and the publication of Kenelm Digby’s receipts’, Sheffield Centre for Early Modern Studies, Early Modern Discussion Group (invited speaker), online, 17 December 2020

Awards and Grants

2019-24 Open-Oxford-Cambridge (Arts and Humanities Research Council) Doctoral Training Partnership: PhD studentship
2018 George Richard Potter MA Prize in History, University of Sheffield: for best performance in Master’s cohort
2015 White Rose College of the Arts and Humanities (Arts and Humanities Research Council): Master’s Fees Scholarship
2013 Jennings Prize, Wolfson College, University of Cambridge: for undergraduate performance

Teaching

Supervisor:

• HPS Part II Paper 1: Early History of Science, Technology and Medicine (2019-22, Lead Supervisor in 2021-22)
• BBS 113: Early Medicine (2020-22)
• Historical Tripos Part II Paper 11: Early Medicine (2020-22)
• Historical Tripos Part II Paper 14: Material Culture in the Early Modern World (2022-24)

Professional Experience

I have experience in academic library services, and in the heritage sector in curatorial services, historical research, and catalogue development.

Committee and Service Roles

Programming Officer and Finance Officer, Across Distance: 2021 Cambridge Arts and Humanities Research Council International Conference, supported by the Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC DTP, 15-18 September, online
Partnered with the Australian National University, a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School of Cologne University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stockholm University, the European University at St Petersburg

Cambridge Representative to Student Liaison Group, Open-Oxford-Cambridge (AHRC) DTP, and Cambridge AHRC DTP Steering Committee, 2019-23

Chair of Student Liaison Group, OOC (AHRC) DTP, 2019-22

Treasurer, Wolfson College Students’ Association, 2020-21