Whitney Dirks
Faculty
Whitney Dirks specializes in early modern English social and medical history with an emphasis on bodies and unusual anatomies. Her first book, Curiosity to See And Behold: Monstrosity, Bodies, and Knowledge in Early Modern England (Amsterdam University Press), has been peer reviewed and is in final stages of revision. The book revolves around a unique legal case involving the alleged kidnapping of a pair of neonatal conjoined twins born in 1680, which is contextualized in terms of broader cultural beliefs about physically unusual humans and animals between 1450 and 1800. Her most recent article, "'Weighty Celebrity': Corpulency, Monstrosity, and Freakery in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century England," was published in Disability Studies Quarterly (https://dsq-sds.org/article/view/6602/5410). Future projects will examine the centuries-long urban legend of a pig-faced woman residing in London and the popular versus medical understandings of intersex in early modern England.
Education
PhD 2013 The Ohio State University, MPhil 2007 University of Cambridge, BA 2005 Beloit College
Areas of Expertise
Courses Taught
HIS-221 (The Reformation) and HIS-344 (ST:History Medicine)
Synonym | Title | Times Taught | Terms Taught |
---|---|---|---|
HIS-103 | World History to 1500 | 8 | 2022/FA, 2021/FA, 2020/FA, and 2020/SP |
HIS-110 | Europe 1000-1648 | 6 | 2022/SP, 2021/SP, and 2019/FA |
HIS-244 | ST:Crafting the Renaissance | 4 | 2023/JN, 2022/FA, 2022/JN, and 2020/FA |
HIS-221 | The Reformation | 4 | 2022/SP, 2021/SP, and 2019/FA |
HIS-344 | History of London | 2 | 2021/FA and 2020/SP |
HIS-207 | Early Modern Crafts | 1 | 2020/JN |