Doctoral Dissertation Research: An Historical Study of Medical, Scientific, and Cultural Perspectives on Vision

本博士论文研究项目是对视力的研究，追溯近代早期欧洲眼科的发展。这项研究将使用档案资料和历史分析来调查在16和17世纪的欧洲，眼睛是如何被研究的，眼睛疾病是如何被治疗的，以及眼睛知识是如何传播的。关于眼睛的知识不仅构成了医学和技术研究的一个重要分支，而且具有文化和科学意义。该项目将捕捉欧洲历史上一个独特的时刻，当时人们对眼睛的解剖学、生理学和病理学产生了浓厚的兴趣，这与视觉作为知识基础的强烈反思相对应。该项目的成果将通过出版物和教学活动进行宣传。研究成果将作为学术文章和论文的一部分发表；这位研究人员还计划写一本通俗易懂的书，既适合学术读者，也适合普通读者。这项研究的结果也将用于开发本科课程，并纳入高中学生的学习活动，以弥合科学与人文之间的差距。这项研究的总体目标是揭示早期现代欧洲医学、科学和艺术实践之间的相互联系。研究人员将研究各种来源，包括文本、图像和材料人工制品，如代表手术工具和程序的插图、解剖模型和光学仪器。通过将这些材料汇集在一起，该项目将描绘出早期现代科学和医学发展中从理论构建到实践制作和实践的各种“认识方式”。该项目的成果将揭示传统学术长期被忽视的观点，并将挑战现有的视觉史学。它将以医学史上的学术为基础，在科学和医学的视觉和物质文化方面提供新的见解。通过定位和联系不同的人群，如工匠和理发师，除了君主统治者和自然哲学家之外，该项目将扩大我们对不同社会阶层和职业的早期现代科学实践者的认识。它将拓宽我们对知识是如何产生、传播和传播的看法；它将有助于更深入地了解早期现代欧洲更广泛的见闻文化。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This doctoral dissertation research project is a study of vision that traces the development of ophthalmology in early modern Europe. The research will use archival sources and historical analysis to investigate the ways in which the eye was studied, eye diseases were treated, and the knowledge of the eye was transmitted during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Europe. Knowledge of the eye not only formed a critical branch of medical and technological investigation, it was also of cultural and scientific significance. The project will capture a distinctive moment in European history, when the emergence of the strong interest in the anatomy, physiology and pathology of the eye corresponded to an intensified reflection on vision as the foundation of knowledge. The results of this project will be communicated through publications and pedagogical initiatives. The research products will be published as scholarly articles and as part of a dissertation; the researcher also has plans to write a book in an accessible style for both academic and general audiences alike. The results of this study will also be used to develop undergraduate curriculum and incorporated into learning activities for high school students that will bridge gaps between the sciences and the humanities.The overarching goal of this research project us to reveal interconnections between medical, scientific and artistic practices in early modern Europe. The researcher will examine a variety of sources, including texts, images and material artifacts, such as illustrations representing surgical tools and procedures, anatomical models, and optical instruments. By bringing these materials together, the project will chart a variety of "ways of knowing," from theoretical construction to practical making and doing, in the development of early modern science and medicine. The results of this project will bring to light perspectives that have been long overlooked in traditional scholarship, and it will challenge the existing historiography of vision. It will build on while departing from scholarship in history of medicine by offering fresh insights in visual and material culture of science and medicine. By locating and connecting a diverse group of people, such as artisans and barber surgeons in addition to princely rulers and natural philosophers, the project will expand our knowledge of the variety of practitioners of early modern science across social classes and professions. It will broaden our perspective on how knowledge was produced, communicated and circulated; and it will contribute to a deeper understanding of the wider culture of seeing and knowing in early modern Europe.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.