A very long shot, but does anyone know of any historians working on or who have worked on the history of cancer? It's a very small field but there must be some people out there!
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
Alanna Skuse at Reading (English) wrote "Constructions of Cancer in Early Modern England". She generally works in medical & surgical history. Great stuff!
@biohistorian.bsky.social (Robin Wolfe Scheffler) has worked/is working on the War on Cancer, cancer viruses, and molecular medicine (including biotech), strong focus on US-contexts
Hello! Yes @claireturner.bsky.social I'm focused on the 20thC US but I also teach a broader undergraduate course on the history of cancer, I might be able to suggest others once I learn more about what you're looking for and what you already know!
I'm mostly focusing on sensory experiences of cancer in the early modern period, but looking to branch out to later centuries. My work so far has focused on identity and gender, but I'm also hoping to branch out to space and work!
Not sure if you've seen it but there are some interesting studies of 19th and 20thC cancer hospitals that would be apropos. From my own background work on cancer and contagion I have lots of references to odor and cancer-- many are running around in the notes of Ch1 in my book.
I love to talk about it :) I don’t have much public facing other than my two books but when I get some time will be adding stuff to https://museumofradium.co.uk
I’d suspect if you checked the references section of Siddhartha Mukherjee’s book “The Emperor of all Maladies” you’d find a bunch of them.
Also Siddhartha Mukherjee while you’re at it 😁.
I’m more on the literature side, but I’ve been working on breast cancer in the long 19c for ~15yrs. My 2023 book (Women’s Health in Britain & America: Texts & Contexts) has a chapter on breast and gynecological cancers.
Ilana Löwy has written on cervical cancer, so has Linda Bryder; Ornella Moscucci has written on gender and cancer in England pre NHS - all fairly recent publications, don't know if they are still working in same area but would probably know who is.
Comments
Also Siddhartha Mukherjee while you’re at it 😁.
https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691070513/the-nazi-war-on-cancer