“Negotiating Normalcy: Deafness Cures in American History”

The 86th Historia Medica Lecture is hosted by the Bernard Becker Medical Library in collaboration with the Center for History of Medicine.

Jaipreet Virdi, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Delaware whose research focuses on the ways medicine and technology impact the lived experiences of disabled people. She is author of “Hearing Happiness: Deafness Cures in History” (University of Chicago Press, 2020), co-editor of “Disability and the Victorians: Attitudes, Legacies, Interventions” (Manchester University Press, 2020), and has published articles on diagnostic technologies, audiometry, and the medicalization of deafness.

She joins us for the 86th Historia Medica lecture, and will speak about the perception of life as a deaf person in America and the history of attempted cures for deafness in the past 200 years.

This event is open to the public. Refreshments will be served. Registration is encouraged but not required.

Following the lecture, a special exhibit of Becker Library’s incredible collection of historic hearing devices will be on display in the Archives and Rare Books reading room from 5-6 pm.

Full schedule, Center for History of Medicine lectures

For inquiries contact Elisabeth Brander.