Happy New Brain Year!

My dearest Benjamin Franklin and I (see picture below) spent the last days racking our brains about a reading list. We needed to come up with something useful for an independent study in the upcoming Spring semester. The class on the history and culture of the mind and brain sciences in the 20th and 21st centuries will formally be taught by John Tresch,1 but I came up with the first draft of the syllabus and I don’t want to withhold it from you. You can download the pdf here. It will serve as a foundation for brain/mind science history reading list in preparation for my Orals Examination in May 2016. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with any suggestions to complete and improve it! Continue reading

  1. He’s also the one who came up with the title “Life of Brain” in commemoration of Monty Python’s “Life of Brian.” []

Lecture 09/24: A French Revolution in Medicine

https://www.flickr.com/photos/10699036@N08/2353185908/in/photolist-4zWGbQ-4zSrRp-81KXwy-oH2Vf-bs5mCC-8xWZ5x-9xHL7s-9xEQxp-9okAH6-c8vs1N-7DhjtZ-9xHQF7-9xHUn3-9xEYDP-9xHPL3-9xEWY6-9xEXLi-c8vt9N-c8vsFb-c8vspw-9oDA2r-6VC8C2-du8qH3-9wozwW-du2R3c-61nTsD-61s74d-9ooxos-du8mCf-du8gXh-du8sFN-du8jh5-du8pML-7DhGhT-7Dhj3r-9okwCe-7DhjNi-7DhGJn-du8eBG-7DmtYq-du8o1y-du8few-9okyai-7Dmtrj-7DhEDD-6VC8BR-9ooBeS-aEqrYK-aEmJoB-du2Gyk/

”Paris, Pitié-Salpêtrière: statue du Docteur Pinel” by Frédérique PANASSAC, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 

Three weeks ago, I started teaching. And I love it! My students are adorable, they are smart and polite, and they laugh about almost all of my jokes (the only exception is that nobody seemed to find it funny that I thought Cambodia is an African country until I was in my teens—maybe they still believe it themselves??). Yay to teaching!

If you want to see me in action, join the first lecture I will be giving: Beth Linker, for whose Medicine in History lecture course I’m teaching two recitation sections, invited me to guest lecture this Wednesday, 10–11 am. So if you don’t have anything better to do (and what could be better than that?), sneak into Claudia Cohen Hall 402.—More input on my work to follow shortly. I have to read (and talk) about the French Revolution in Medicine first.