May 2017
C. Richard Johnson, Jr. – Using Computed Weave Maps to Gain Art-Historical Insight from Vermeer’s Canvases
The Thread Count Automation Project (TCAP) launched by Dr. C. Richard Johnson, Jr. of Cornell University in 2007 discovered striped patterns in color-coded images of local thread densities obtained from digital image processing of x-radiographs of Old Master paintings on canvas.
Find out more »The Ligo Project – Science (as) Culture: Redefining Sex & Gender
Please join us for “Looking to the future, a 1000-year view: exploring creative collaborations to redefine sex and reshape societal perspectives on sex & gender” which will focus on how to change cultural and societal perspectives regarding sex & gender and redefining the ‘norms’.
Find out more »Scholars Working Group on Women and Gender in Jewish History – Jordan Katz “‘Doz bukh iz mir lieb zehr’: The Manuscript of an Eighteenth-Century Dutch Jewish Midwife”
Jordan Katz (Columbia University) will present her paper, “‘Doz bukh iz mir lieb zehr’: The Manuscript of an Eighteenth-Century Dutch Jewish Midwife.” Professor Martha Howell (Columbia University) will respond.
Find out more »Art & Science in Archaeological Illustration Exhibit and Reception
An exhibition and reception celebrating art and science in archaeological illustration will be held next Tuesday, May 11, from 5:30 to 7:30pm. Contributors include Augusta Chapman, Lauren Conway, Kristine Dunn, Yisel Garcia, Jiayan Lu, Eileen Townsend, and Alaina Wibberly. Free and open to the public.
Find out more »Margaret Humphreys – African Americans in Civil War Medicine
You are cordially invited to attend a lecture by the distinguished historian and professor Dr. Margaret Humphreys titled “African Americans in Civil War Medicine”. Many histories have been written about medical care during the Civil War, but the participation and contributions of African Americans as nurses, surgeons, and hospital workers has often been overlooked. The event will be held on May 10, 2017 at 5:30 PM at the Knowledge Center of the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences located at 701 West 168 Street (Fort Washington Avenue) on the Columbia University Medical Center campus.
Find out more »The Two Cultures Reading Group – C.P. Snow and Scientific Fraud
The second meeting of the reading group will take place on May 11 at 4 pm in 513 Fayerweather. We will be discussing "The Affair" (1960), a novel that centers around a case of scientific fraud. Newcomers are most welcome!
Find out more »Facades and Fashions in Medical Architecture and the Texture of the Urban Landscape
This evening is an introduction to the architectural remains of medical care in the city. While many sites of New York’s medical history have been lost, especially interiors and equipment that we can no longer view except through images, New Yorkers are fortunate that our streets still present lively remnants of the past. History professor Bert Hansen will place numerous NYC sites into the main chapters of medical development for the last 200 years. The lecture invites everyone to wander the city with new eyes for medical heritage.
Find out more »Sound & Sense in Britain, 1770-1840
Understandings of the senses underwent a radical reimagining toward the last few decades of the eighteenth century in Britain, a shift evident in the domains of philosophy, physiology, politics, and the arts. Sound played a pivotal role in many of these engagements with post-Lockean empiricism, as vibration and sympathy became widespread metaphors for mental activity, shared sentiments, and aesthetic experiences. This interdisciplinary conference brings together musicologists, literary scholars, and historians under the framework of sound studies to consider the changing understandings…
Find out more »Samir Boumediene – A New World of Medicines: Amerindian Pharmacopoeias During the Spanish Colonization
In this talk, Samir Boumediene will present a book based on his PhD dissertation published in France a few months ago. Entitled La Colonisation du Savoir, it tells the story of New World medicinal plants from 1492 until the presages of Haitian revolution in 1791. Examining botanical expedition, drug trade, religious missions and everyday life practices, Boumediene’s book shows how Europeans appropriate both American materials and indigenous knowledge during that period. His research also demonstrates how Europeans rejected some medicinal plants and, even more, how Indians or slaves protected their knowledge through secrecy, frauds, or poisoning. The various stories will be presented through the commentary of four images. The first image will help to set the stage by explaining the problem of science and colonization; the three others will focus on a specific aspect: the understanding of novelty, the control of distance, and medicinal plants as a tool of resistance.
Find out more »Walking Tour of Medical Heritage Sites: Uptown
Starting at the Academy, a small group will visit several sites in upper Manhattan including the Cardinal Cooke building and the former Cancer Hospital. high point will be special access to the newly restored medical history murals painted by Charles Alston and others at Harlem Hospital in the 1930s. An illustrated lecture on the architectural history of medicine in New York City taking place on May 11 is a recommended complement to this tour, but not required.
Find out more »