https://aparnanairhistr.com/home daily 1.0 2022-12-17 https://aparnanairhistr.com/publichistory daily 0.75 2021-01-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fd514df3c1f6275809e1dd2/1607804183247-YACNSOD9I89A9YARVDXK/fe3000e5-11f8-4ded-a0f4-efca22ea89d8_epileptic%2Bfit.jpg Gallery - Epilepsy and Me, published at Wellcome Stories “Aparna Nair is one of 50 million people living with epilepsy. Here she tries to make sense of her personal experience of epilepsy by looking back at the history of a condition that is full of contradictions. It’s an illness of the brain and nervous system, yet its defining symptom, seizures, can be unforgivingly physical and happen in the most public of places. It was once associated with the supernatural but it’s diagnosis today is dependent on modern technology. People with epilepsy have been stigmatised by both science and religion in the past, but for Aparna, comfort and support has come from an unexpected ally.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fd514df3c1f6275809e1dd2/1607821269158-4PF6YO5MD7ZHWQPPMFXT/588699f1-b0af-4e75-82f3-0085e8f2aec5_Image_2.jpg Gallery - Public Health Campaigns and the ‘Threat’ of Disability, published at Wellcome Stories “Public health has, historically, had an uneasy relationship to disability. Many disabled people have experienced public health campaigns and services as disenfranchising and discriminatory. Public health has tended to work from within the medical model of disability, which pathologises disability as a medical and individual problem needing cure, prevention or rehabilitation. Recent work in disability studies has critiqued the medical model of disability, pointing out the importance of the social, cultural and institutional factors that shape experiences of disability. But public health campaigns, past and present, draw on and reinforce wider social prejudices about disability to deliver their message, and are often ableist, biased towards able-bodied people.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fd514df3c1f6275809e1dd2/1607823931001-TC6YIKF4O3RYIZ3OMZ4C/A+black+man+in+a+sergeant%27s+uniform+sits+on+a+chair.+He+is+wearing+dark%2C+round+frame+glasses.+Next+to+him+is+an+older+black+woman+with+a+worn+expression+on+her+face.+She+is+wearing+a+long+dress+with+a+floral+pattern+and+stands+looking+towards+her+son%2C+her+right+arm+around+his+neck+and+resting+on+the+chair+he+sits+on. Gallery - “WASH YOUR HANDS, OFFICER X”, published at All Of Us “There is perhaps no more apposite moment to remember the story of Isaac Woodard, Jr. (1919-1992) than the one we find ourselves in now. In the midst of a devastating pandemic that has disproportionately impacted the Black and disabled population in the United States, waves of protests against systemic racism, police violence, and the carceral state have erupted across the country and the world. The corporeal consequences of these forces for Black people have historically been both significant and tangible. As Woodard’s life demonstrates so vividly. Born after the end of the First World War on a farm in Fairfield County, South Carolina, Isaac Woodard, Jr. came from a family of landless sharecroppers. Woodard worked hard manual jobs from a very young age to support his family, as did his siblings. In 1942, he joined the army and served in the Pacific theatre of the war. He won promotions and earned the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal as well as a battle star for unloading ships under enemy fire….” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fd514df3c1f6275809e1dd2/1607821650144-PVGHOHPDA9A6OLO3HFF6/The+black+and+white+photo+shows+what+appears+to+be+a+mid-20th+century+photo+of+a+man+in+glasses+and+hat+and+suit+descending+from+a+plane%2C+his++hand+on+the+rail+and+the+other+hand+on+the+leash+of+a+guide+dog. Gallery - “HIS DOG IS HIS ‘EYE’”: THE GUIDE DOG IN PUBLIC SPACES AND TRANSIT, 1930-1970, published at All Of Us “One year before the turmoil of World War II, the blind advocate for guide dogs Hazel Hurst arrived in the United Kingdom aboard the liner American Merchant. She did not stay long, however, departing the country after spending “just ten minutes on English soil,” when the British government banned her guide dog Babe from disembarking with her handler without “first undergoing the usual six months quarantine,” despite the fact it had been vaccinated against rabies.2 “It would be like leaving my eyes behind me,” she told newspapers; ‘”It is the first time in my life I have felt blind. I don’t feel safe being guided by a human being.”3 Hazel’s experience of traveling with Babe will be familiar to many disabled people with service animals today. As I write this, my faithful Charlie (pictured below) lies next to me, tired from a long day at the university. Over the past two years, Charlie has alerted me to auras, and seizures, preventing injury, concussion or worse. I cannot imagine surviving the past few years without his presence. Yet, I have also confronted deep seated misconceptions about what service animals do for disabled handlers, confusions over service and support animals and questions about the roles of service animals in public spaces, especially while travelling….” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fd514df3c1f6275809e1dd2/1607811353808-X2BMR7WUDUR41UM7MGO4/aparna1-1.png Gallery - Of 3D Livers and Laser-Printed Lungs: Teaching with Pop-Up Exhibits, published at Recommended Dose “The challenge here was three-fold: first, to decolonize students’ fundamental understanding of medicine, illness and the body in general. Second, I wanted them to connect to the worlds, theories and practices of non-Western and indigenous medicine beyond the limits of the lecture and readings. Third, I wanted to give them opportunities to develop and practice the research and critical thinking skills we want to inculcate in any student who takes a history of medicine class.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fd514df3c1f6275809e1dd2/1607804555726-D54CV1I68BEGA0T3MVWF/nypl.digitalcollections.510d47e4-2604-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.001.w.jpg Gallery - “The Joy of My Life”: Seeing-Eye Dogs, Disabled Veterans/Civilians and WWI,’ published at NursingClio “The independence that blind handlers received through their dogs was undoubtedly the biggest reward of these programs. Dogs functioned as intelligent and trained conduits between the Blind and the rest of the world, and their blind handlers were no longer dependent on their families or on human guides to navigate the world. Morris Frank, of the New Jersey Seeing-Eye Institute, had traveled across the US his guide dog and said of her: “Buddy has signed my Declaration of Independence.”” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fd514df3c1f6275809e1dd2/1607810910161-4CZ8LK79OQ714ZPYYCDY/Screen+Shot+2020-12-12+at+3.15.38+PM.png Gallery - “Hateful, Un-American Ideas!” Gender, Race, and Politics in Cold War Romance Comic Books” published at NursingClio In the October 1949 issue of the romance comic Hollywood Confessions, the protagonist of the story “Too Ugly to Love” describes himself as so ugly that he resembles a “menace from a horror picture.”1 Jon Koslo has “accepted … [his] ugliness philosophically!” when a film producer spots him and “exploits [his] ugliness” by giving him a role as a villain in a movie. Disturbed by his new circumstances and spurned by the women around him who call him a “freak,” Joe finds comfort and companionship in Gina. When Joe is burnt beyond recognition in a fire, Gina stays by his side. Plastic surgery and the skill of a doctor transform Joe’s appearance, and the story ends with the two protagonists looking to a happy future. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fd514df3c1f6275809e1dd2/1607811103929-J38RPLXY7NUZL8UC63EJ/anti-immigration-1909-political-cartoon_loc.jpg Gallery - From Mooktie to Juan: The Eugenic Origins of the “Defective Immigrant” published at NursingClio On a Monday in November 1905, a “little deaf and dumb … 10-year old Eurasian girl” called Mooktie Wood arrived in the US on the steamship Canopic. An orphan with no known relatives, Mooktie had been “picked up” by an American Pentecostal missionary, Lillian Sprague, in the wake of one of the many devastating famines that swept through British India.1 Sprague had made public appeals to educate Mooktie in a US school for the deaf; arrangements had eventually been made for her to attend Edgewood Park in Pittsburgh. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fd514df3c1f6275809e1dd2/1610288325237-UCOASXY6PPCZM9K541YA/The+color+photo+shows+an+indoor+scene%2C+with+a+bed+at+the+far+end+of+the+room%2C+and+two+smiling+older+women+with+greying+hair+seated+in+plastic+chairs%2C+looking+at+the+camera. Gallery - Documenting the Vayattati: A Digitised Oral History Project In 2011, I spent eight months working in the archives and in the field, collecting oral histories, archive materials, photographs and other research materials from traditional birth attendants and post-birth attendants across the southern Indian state of Kerala. The project had the following goals: To develop and conduct an oral history project which will preserve and protect the body of indigenous knowledge brought to bear during childbirth in Kerala. To provide a diverse, integrated and easy-to-use body of sources for the use of interested scholars, students and the interested public. This digital and publicly available oral history project examines the work, role and consequences of the labour of traditional birth attendants in a state where birth is extensively medicalised. I also examine the powerful roles of caste and income in driving the forms of this labour, and the ways in which it has re-emerged in a post-medicalisation Kerala. The project seeks to center the voices of the women who shared so much of their working life with me, and to assign them a respectful place in both the history of medicine and the history of post-natal nursing in the state. You can access the entire project here: http://www.rcwssndt.org/awa/collection/awa%20Collection%20aparna.html https://aparnanairhistr.com/contact daily 0.75 2023-06-09 https://aparnanairhistr.com/teaching daily 0.75 2020-12-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fd514df3c1f6275809e1dd2/1607816305980-QDIK0QNOF2OZI0Q37X8E/Non-Western+Medicine+Fall+2018+Syllabus.png Teaching - Non-Western and Indigenous Medicine in Perspective This course takes an interdisciplinary look at the histories of practices and systems of medicine and healing that are variously deemed ‘indigenous’, ‘traditional’, ‘non-western’, ‘alternative’ and ‘complementary’. Despite the ascendancy of biomedicine across the world by the twenty-first century, recent demographic research also suggests the increasing use of ‘unconventional’ medical practices both in North America and in other parts of the developed world, driving research that increasingly acknowledges postmodern medical diversity. This course will provide a sense of the historical, social, cultural and ideological trends that drove the evolution of these systems of medicine into the forms in which they are practised today. We will examine research from a broad variety of disciplines including history, ethno-pharmacology, anthropology and sociology. I hope to inculcate a sense of how both ‘western’ medicine and indigenous practices and systems of medicine are perceived by healthcare seekers and explaining the practice of choosing a masala of medicine. Case studies we will explore include Chinese medicine, magic and medicine in ancient Egypt, Ayurveda, cinchona and empire, variolation as the predecessor to vaccination, indigenous healing among the Aboriginal, Maori and First Nations as well as yoga and acupuncture. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fd514df3c1f6275809e1dd2/1607816615854-D4H2AO32IMIF7DMTNDDW/Science+and+Empire+Course+Guide.png Teaching - Science and Empire In a recent YouGov poll, more than half of British citizens reported that they believed that the empire had been a force for good and an aspect of history of which all British citizens could be proud. Such perceptions are not unusual; and one of the most common justifications for imperialism—both historical and contemporaneous—draw on the idea that the colonization and control of one space/peoples by another is ultimately for the benefit of the colonized. The colonizers often justify their actions by arguing that they brought science, technology and medicine to a barbarian, uncivilized society in addition to implementing law and order. Such ideas are inherently problematic; yet continue to be long-lived. ‘Western’ science and medicine were germane to the project and success of Empire; while Empire itself provided materials, impetus, ideas and spaces for the unfolding of science and the work of scientists. Indeed, the ascendancy of European empires coincided with, resulted from and impelled a series of significant developments in both the natural and human sciences. Briefly consider, for instance, the discovery of quinine through contact with the Cinchona Indians; Captain Cook’s charting the seas and lands of the Pacific; Ronald Ross’ and Robert Koch’s work on infectious disease transmission; Charles Darwin’s voyages on the Beagle across the world providing the data for his work on evolutionary theory. Modern ‘western’ science, medicine and technology is therefore deeply embedded within the histories of exploration, slavery and imperial expansion across the world. In this course, students are introduced to this complex history and are urged to consider the roles played by science and scientists in the history of imperial expansion: and are particularly encouraged to consider how the embedding of science within colonialism has had profound consequences for the trajectories of science, medicine and technology in postcolonial spaces. We will explore as extensively as possible the relationships between science, place, and community in European colonialism. While the course examines certain specific disciplines, we will focus most closely on the meaning of science and medicine for both Europeans and indigenous populations in the colonies. How did empire ensure that science was refracted into the artificial categories and hierarchies of ‘Western’ and ‘non-Western’ science? How did empire aid, facilitate and demand scientific inquiry and innovation? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fd514df3c1f6275809e1dd2/1607815971663-LFY2LXA6IQXRNC4VSC0M/Copy+of+HSCI+3283+INTRO+TO+DISABILITY+STUDIES+SPRING+2020.png Teaching - Introduction to Disability Studies Like disease and death, disability is a corporeal experience that is inevitable, universal and ubiquitous. Yet, the academic focus on disability often remains restricted to the lens of the biomedical. Born in the wake of the disability rights movement, disability studies has matured and become established, although it remains largely unknown compared to work on race, gender and class. This course explores disability from an interdisciplinary perspective: literature, first-person accounts, public policy, advocacy and law. We begin the course with consideration of related topics: what is Disability? Why do definitions matter? This course anchors disability firmly in the frame of analysis, allowing us to engage with some of the most profound questions in the social sciences and the humanities. What does it mean to be human? How do and how have we, as human beings, experienced and responded to corporeal difference and debility in our midst? How is disability socially constructed? How does disability intersect with race, class, gender, sexuality and national origin? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fd514df3c1f6275809e1dd2/1607820844853-A8GZZ4K1THQFNUQRG6C9/Copy+of+History+of+Public+Health+Syllabus+and+Course+Outline.jpg Teaching - History of Public Health Taking a historical perspective to public health, this course aims to explore and analyse the social, economic, political and scientific events and processes that have shaped modern public health. This course will provide a general introduction to some key concepts in public health and will touch on sanitation and hygiene in antiquity and in the middle ages, leading to discussions of pre-nineteenth century efforts at disease control including isolation and quarantine, particularly against the onslaught of the Black Death. We explore the global histories of smallpox inoculation and vaccination, and explore the relationships between inoculation and vaccination. We examine the histories of race and public health, focusing on the plantation as a site of experimentation and exploitation. This course goes on to describe how the increasing mobility of Europeans in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as travellers, colonisers and migrants and the consequences of this mobility. We track the flow of diseases like cholera; which found fertile breeding grounds in the rapidly urbanising and industrialising populations of Western Europe—providing new and unforeseen public health challenges across the world. Major pandemics of the nineteenth century are explored as case studies of public health. The course also describes the major public health failures and successes of the twentieth and 21st centuries—ranging from smallpox vaccination to SARs. https://aparnanairhistr.com/exhibits daily 0.75 2021-02-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fd514df3c1f6275809e1dd2/1607805877724-1ZOHR364HQGXTYJPNOA7/THE+_STUFF_+OF+PUBLIC+HEALTH.png Exhibits https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fd514df3c1f6275809e1dd2/1607806698916-Y84G4TMM4QYBXVGJIBFH/THE+_STUFF_+OF+PUBLIC+HEALTH+%281%29.png Exhibits https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fd514df3c1f6275809e1dd2/1607810373738-V27CFQHNILIG1V4C03RV/EJck-ZrWwAY87Qn+%283%29.jpeg Exhibits https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fd514df3c1f6275809e1dd2/1607810467288-QEOEESWZTYJEXIATPHWS/THE+_STUFF_+OF+PUBLIC+HEALTH+%281%29.png Exhibits https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fd514df3c1f6275809e1dd2/1607809191453-W44OYDM7ESDZY5GRP62W/THE+_STUFF_+OF+PUBLIC+HEALTH+%283%29.png Exhibits https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fd514df3c1f6275809e1dd2/1607807580632-S0X6IBT075QKHX604D1L/THE+_STUFF_+OF+PUBLIC+HEALTH+%282%29.png Exhibits https://aparnanairhistr.com/research daily 0.75 2024-02-20 https://aparnanairhistr.com/the-unessay daily 0.75 2021-02-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fd514df3c1f6275809e1dd2/1608238291186-ACE972QUW5IMT76RX49D/The+image+shows+a+color+photo+of+a+flesh+coloured+prosthetic+mask+of+the+left+side+of+the+face%2C+with+a+mustache+and+eyeglasses.++The+entire+object+is+located+inside+a+plastic+case%2C+and+has+some+text+describing+the+history+of+the+mask+inside+it+as+well. The Unessay https://aparnanairhistr.com/digital-historyoral-history daily 0.75 2021-01-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fd514df3c1f6275809e1dd2/1610288700947-X8HHM9WJ6GJ5MVOR93W7/The+color+photo+shows+an+old+woman+with+grey+hair+wearing+a+white+sari+and+white+blouse%2C+with+a+stick%2C+seated+in+a+chair+at+a+table%2C+smiling+at+the+camera. Digital History/Oral History The color photo shows an old woman with grey hair wearing a white sari and white blouse, with a stick, seated in a chair at a table, smiling at the camera. The photo shows one participant, Kochikka, of Kilimanoor district. Photo: Aparna Nair and the AvaBhai Archives, 2010