Patient Zero and the Making of the AIDS Epidemic Richard A. McKay University of Chicago Press, 2017, 400 pages “An innocent he was not. He eventually told…
People make the fascist salute on November 20, 2011, at the Valley of the Fallen—the basilica near Madrid, Spain, where the country’s former dictator Gen. Francisco Franco is…
[no-caption] Axel Schmidt/Getty Images This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been republished under Creative Commons. A solid white mass found in a broken jar …
[no-caption] David Williams/SAPIENS Humans may have been in North America much earlier than previously thought. Here’s the evidence: chipped rocks, crushed mastodon bones, and reliable da…
This title is nearly an oxymoron. There are historic truths, but what we known of history is an invention of mostly people who did not personally experience that…
It all started with a stray goat. On an otherwise nondescript day in the spring of 1947, a young Bedouin boy searched for a goat that had strayed…
[no-caption] David Williams/SAPIENS Listen to the companion episode of SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human! Back in 2008, Chad Huddleston was driving home from work when he saw a stra…
We tend to think that we are familiar with waste because we deal with it every day. Yet, this is not the case–most aspects of waste are entirely…
[no-caption] David Williams/SAPIENS Even before Ashanté Reese and I reach the front gate, retired schoolteacher Alice Chandler is standing in the doorway of her brick home in Washington,…
Archaeologists are uncovering footprints on beaches from Canada to South Africa. The oldest human footprints, one of which is shown here, were found in Tanzania and date back…
I’ve spent a good chunk of my life hiking the U.S. Southwest, and I’ve kicked my share of sharp rocks and prickly cactuses as I’ve walked across hot…
Amy B. Trubek, University of Vermont Americans spend more and more money on food prepared outside the home, and every day cooking becomes more episodic and less…
Khipu in the Museo Machu Picchu, Casa Concha, Cusco. Wikimedia Commons This article was originally published at Aeon. The Inca Empire (1400–1532) is one of few ancient civilizations that …
My research in Việt Nam addresses how medicine, health, and disease function as political and cultural signifiers as well as telegraphing – in the form of epidemiological data…
Edward Said published Orientalism in 1978 and is highly influential, both in post-colonial studies and social theory. Said argues that through the construction of the ‘Orient’ (the East) a…
[no-caption] Megan Brickley Twenty years ago, I held in my hands the leg bones of a 2-year-old child who had died in Birmingham in the early 1800s. They…
This model at the Museum of London depicts the first bridge over the River Thames, which was built by the Romans in the first century. Steven G. Johnson/Wikimedia…
This post is a little outside our usual mandate, but we are intrigued by the idea that Professor Robinson proposes: an interactive online project she is working on…
Figure 1. Two views of Clara Jacobi (Netherlands, 1689). U.S. National Library of Medicinehttps://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-101392944-img In the class I teach on illness narratives, c…
Health Advocacy Inc. How Pharmaceutical Funding Changed the Breast Cancer Movement Sharon Batt UBC Press, 2017, 383 pages After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 1988, Sharon…
The sorites paradox (also called the paradox of the heap) refers to a particular logical contradiction that arises from the analysis of vague terms (Sainsbury, 2009). Terms like…
Ungovernable Life: Mandatory Medicine and Statecraft in Iraq Omar Dewachi Stanford University Press, 2017. 239 pp. Every year, tens of thousands of Iraqi patients leave their country…
The authors with [Reef Radio TV Productions] host, Eiden Salazar and Camera Tech, Kainie Manuel, after being interviewed on the Good Morning San Pedro Show. Courtesy of Tracie…
See below for information on semester-long fellowships at the Folger Shakespeare Library on early modern foodways. Follow the links for instructions on how to apply. Before Farm to Table: Early…