Date: 1-2pm, Wednesday 14 February 2018
Location: Room 216, the Hetherington Building, University of Glasgow
The Medical Humanities Research Centre is delighted to announce the next speaker and topic for the Medical Humanities Discussion Group. On 14th February, Charlotte Orr (PhD student in Medical Humanities, University of Glasgow) will give a talk entitled ‘The self-construction of the scientist in Sir Ronald Ross’s Memoirs: with a full account of the great malaria problem’.
ABSTRACT: Sir Ronald Ross (1857-1932) was a physician, malariologist, writer and polymath. He was, and still is, a renowned figure in the field of parasitology because of his Nobel prize-winning research on malarial transmission (1902). However, Ross did not feel that his labour for science was adequately rewarded. Gordon A. Harrison describes Ross as ‘one who viewed life as a struggle and himself as a soldier perpetually in battle with people and forces that sought […] to frustrate him and hold back the course of human progress’ (Harrison 1978). This presentation examines Ross’s self-construction in his most celebrated literary work: Memoirs: with a full account of the great malaria problem. By exploring Ross’s self-construction in Memoirs, and conceptualising the findings in relation to recent Medical Humanities scholarship on Victorian physician-writers, this presentation will establish how Ross constructs his memoir in order to memorialise himself as a member of the scientific elite and, moreover, as a national hero.
The discussion group meetings will all take place between 1-2 pm in Room 216, the Hetherington Building at the University of Glasgow. Refreshments will be provided.