Anna Maerker
Reader in History of Medicine
Anna is interested in the intersections of science, medicine and technology in eighteenth- to early twentieth-century Europe, with a focus on the history of (real and artificial) bodies and body technologies.
In her work, Anna investigates the relationship between everyday scientific practice and key epistemological concerns related to issues such as authority and representation. Anna is also interested in the broader political consequences of scientific and medical research and education, especially for the creation of the modern state and reform movements of the modern era.
Ana's project Model Communities: Artificial Anatomies in Global Circulation, c.1820-1920 investigates the creation of the first mass-produced anatomical models for teaching purposes, and follows the models across the globe to analyse how these artificial bodies shaped reform projects and communities from Egyptian midwives to American women’s rights campaigners.
BOOKS
Biography
My undergraduate degree at the University of Regensburg combined physics and history of science; I then moved to Cambridge for a Master’s degree in History and Philosophy of Science, and to Cornell University for a PhD in Science & Technology Studies. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Max Planck-Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and a lectureship at Oxford Brookes University, I started at King’s in 2011.
Research interests and PhD supervision
The material and visual culture of medicine and science since the eighteenth century
The history of expertise
Science, the state and the public in historical perspective
Performance and commodification in medicine and science
Anna welcomes research students with an interest in:
Medicine and science, c. 1700-1900
The history of museums and collections
The history of experts and publics
The visual and material culture of medicine and science
Public history
Science and Technology Studies (STS)
Public engagement
Anna frequently collaborates with museums and collections. Collaborations include consultancy for the Wellcome Collection’s “Exquisite Bodies” exhibition; content development for the Science Museum’s website “Brought to Life”, and for the Hunterian Museum’s showcase on “Model Anatomy”. I engage with a wide range of audiences through public events such as academic stand-up comedy “Bright Club” and the Congress for Curious Peoples.
Other engagement activities include:
Consultant: Florence Nightingale Museum redevelopment, UK Medical Heritage Library.
Exhibition consultant: Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden, Wellcome Collection, Hunterian Museum.
Historian in residence: Royal College of Surgeons, 2016-18.
Appearance on BBC 2 tv programme “George III – The Genius of the Mad King” (30 January 2017).
Appearance on BBC Radio 4, Front Row, “Shakespeare’s medicine” (5 January 2017).
Guest blogger: Wellcome Library Blog, Medicine in Shakespeare’s Time (23 April 2016). http://blog.wellcomelibrary.org/2016/04/shakespeares-medical-world/
Interviewee: BBC Radio 4, Digital Human Series 8, “Body” (9 November 2015).
Short lecture series: “Electricity”, “Anatomy”, “Automata”: Royal Academy Lates: Masquerade (23 May 2016).
Public lecture: “Voice and revolution”, Nerdnite London (20 May 2015).