Dr. Shireen Hamza - The Proximity of Masculinity: Gender, Space, and Medical Authority in Medieval Islam
Dr. , Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Science in Human Culture, Northwestern University
The Proximity of Masculinity: Gender, Space, and Medical Authority in Medieval Islam
Masculinities shape intimacy, and vice versa. Across the medieval Islamic world,
authors of medical texts could draw knowledge from multiple epistemic traditions.
Often, their choices were shaped by which authorities they felt closest to and sought
to emulate in their lives as well as their medical practice. Focusing on the regions
surrounding the western Indian Ocean, I show how physicians and ulema were just
as interested in how medical authorities lived as they were in what they knew. Their
interest in these ancient and contemporary medical men helped them shape their own
notion of an appropriate medical masculinity.
Shireen Hamza is a historian and artist, and an educator with the
Prison & Neighborhood Arts/Education Project (PNAP). She continues her research on
the history of medicine in the medieval Islamic world through a postdoctoral fellowship
at Northwestern University.