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Vicki M. Heath

PhD Student
Areas of Speciality
  • Atlantic World
  • History of Medicine
  • Gender
Contact
  • vicki_heath_78@tamu.edu
Professional Links
Chair
Dr. Evan Haefeli

Research Interests

My research examines the intersections of gender, race, age, and class within the medical profession and slavery during the 18th and early 19th century Atlantic World. I am particularly interested in understanding the roots of modern ideas of the raced and gendered body by studying how physicians developed their ideas of disease when confronted with African bodies. My dissertation will explore the ways in which white European male physicians constructed the female condition Pica and the African slave condition “dirt-eating,” or Cachexia Africana, in conjunction with changing views of the body within the medical community, to better understand how our modern ideas of gender and race developed.

Accomplishments

  • TAMU Diversity Top-Up Award, Fall 2017-Spring 2018
  • TAMU Departmental Teaching Assistantship/Scholarship, Fall 2017-Spring 2018
  • “Best Research Paper” in the PhD Category at the 2nd International History of Medicine Symposium, February 2017
  • TAMU Doctoral Graduate Diversity Fellowship, Fall 2014-Spring 2017
  • “Outstanding Oral Presentation” at the UMBC Graduate Research Conference, May 2011