Overview

A critical reflection on the relationship between materials and the reproduction of medical knowledge.  Medical knowledge manifests in materials, and materials are integral to the reproduction of medical knowledge. From the novice student to the expert practitioner, those who study and work in and around medicine rely on material guidance in their everyday practice and as they seek to further their craft. To that end, this edited collection brings together historians, anthropologists, educators, artists, and curators to explore the role of materiality in medical education.  With a broad temporal focus and international scope, the volume focuses on the materials, objects, tools, and technologies that facilitate the reproduction of medical knowledge and often also reify understandings of medical science. Experimental in form and supplemented with ethnographic, museological, and historical cases from around the world, this edited volume is the first to fully explore the matter of medical education in the modern world.

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9781789385779

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Reviews

'What is novel in the collection is its invention and ingenuity in trying to reach new audiences outside of Science and Technology Studies (STS). Doctors, artists and educators all feature as authors and participants in the essays, and often essays find experimental ways to explore the terrains of medical education. Uniting these various interlocutors is the consideration of how materials shape knowing. [...] There is a degree to which to know something one must do that something. To know how to steer a boat, one should get as close to the rudder as possible, should feel more closely the way that the water pushes against the instrument as it carves through its surface. One can’t learn at a distance. In Making Sense of Medicine, this collection suggests that we need to reposition ourselves, move our hand closer to the rudder. I am inclined to agree.' -- Max Perry, The Polyphony

Author Information

John Nott is an economic and medical historian and a research fellow at the University of Edinburgh. He previously worked as part of the ‘Making Clinical Sense’ project at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. Anna Harris is associate professor of anthropology and science and technology studies at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. Her work concerns issues of learning, sensing (and other bodily practices) and the contemporary/historical role of technologies in medicine. She leads the European Research Council funded project ‘Making Clinical Sense.’

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