Nancy Gillian Siraisi (born 1932) is an American historian of
medicine
Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...
, and distinguished professor emerita in history at
Hunter College
Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...
, and
City University of New York
The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...
.
Life
Siraisi received a B.A. (1953) and an M.A. (1958) from the University of Oxford and a Ph.D. (1970) from the City University of New York. She was a professor of history at Hunter College (1970–2003) and the Graduate Center (1976–2003) at the City University of New York.
Siraisi is a leading scholar in the history of medicine and science of the Middle Ages and the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
. Her research has ranged widely across these two distinct fields, from her first book on the university curriculum in medieval Padua to her current work on the role of doctors in history-writing in the Renaissance.
Through her numerous publications and professional activities, Siraisi has contributed to the growth of the history of science and medicine while also fostering the continued close interaction of these fields with "mainstream" history, notably through her faithful teaching of general medieval and Renaissance history and her insistence on careful contextualization.
Awards and honors
*1997 Elected to the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
*2003
George Sarton Medal
The George Sarton Medal is the most prestigious award given by the History of Science Society. It has been awarded annually since 1955. It is awarded to a historian of science from the international community who became distinguished for "a lifet ...
*2008
MacArthur Fellows Program
The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and ...
*2010 Charles Homer Haskins Prize Lecturer by the American Council of Learned Societies.
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Works
*''Taddeo Alderotti and His Pupils: Two Generations of Italian Medical Learning'', Books on Demand, 1981,
''The clock and the mirror: Girolamo Cardano and Renaissance medicine'' Princeton University Press, 1997,
''Medicine and the Italian universities, 1250-1600'' BRILL, 2001,
''History, Medicine, and the Traditions of Renaissance Learning'' University of Michigan Press, 2007,
''Communities of Learned Experience: Epistolary Medicine in the Renaissance'' Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013,
''Natural particulars: nature and the disciplines in Renaissance Europe'' Editors Anthony Grafton, Nancy G. Siraisi, MIT Press, 1999,
*''Historia: empiricism and erudition in early modern Europe'', Editors Gianna Pomata, Nancy G. Siraisi, MIT Press, 2005,
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Siraisi, Nancy
1932 births
Living people
American medical historians
Alumni of the University of Oxford
Hunter College faculty
CUNY Graduate Center faculty
CUNY Graduate Center alumni
MacArthur Fellows
American women historians
American historians of science
Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America
21st-century American women
Members of the American Philosophical Society