Art History major wins 1st prize in Kennedy Institute Bioethics Research

Christy Slobogin (COL ’16) was awarded first prize in the Undergraduate Bioethics Research Showcase presented by the Kennedy Institute of Ethics. Christy’s paper, “The Pregnant Female in Jan van Riemsdyk’s Art and William Hunter’s Science,” was written for Professor Keren Hammerschlag’s Spring 2015 seminar on Art and Medicine. Analyzing illustrations in Hunter’s highly influential obstetric atlas, Anatomia uteri humani gravidi tabulis illustrata (1774), the paper argues that the meticulous scientific precision of van Riemsdyk’s images “dehumanizes the dissected women, making them scientific objects instead of individualized humans.” Christy and other prize recipients were interviewed in a public forum by Joe Palca, NPR Science Correspondent, on April 15.