Upcoming events

Unspeakable: Sex, madness, and the malarial treatment of syphilis in Middle America, 1925-1939

Dr. Christi Hancock, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Chair, Department of History, University of Portland
Wednesday, April 24, 2019, 12:00pm
OHSU Auditorium

Join Dr. Hancock for an examination of the social history of the experimental malarial treatment of syphilis as it unfolded at the Central State Hospital for the Insane in Indianapolis, Indiana 1925-1939. Tracing the history of one patient in particular, Mabel Smith, alongside that of the hospital’s lead pathologist, Dr. Walter L. Bruetsch, the talk argues that power inequalities between patients and providers created the context for a steady stream of marginalized patients, which encouraged and sustained ethically questionable medical experimentation.