Associate Professor, Department of Liberal Arts, Minneapolis College of Art and Design
2018 to 2019
Research Fellow
The Transparent Woman: Medical Visualities in Fin-de-Siècle Europe and the United States, 1890–1914
My research comprises a cross-cultural analysis of visual imagery, teaching models, and medical instruments related to the professional practice and teaching of anatomy and medicine in the United States, France, and Scotland at the end of the 19th century. The objective of this research project is to explore, analyze, and map the shift from anatomical study based on post-mortem dissection to a new mode based on the examination of living subjects both by tactile means such as bimanual palpation and surgical penetration and by increasingly non-invasive means of medical imaging, such as x-rays, as reflected in fin-de-siècle medical illustration. I examine the movement of physicians, texts, and specialized knowledge between three poles of medical education—Philadelphia, Paris, and Edinburgh.
Read more about Jessica's work here.