Ph.D. candidate, Aimee Dávila Hisey, has a new book review published in the Hispanic American Historical Review. The quarterly publication is one of the premiere journals for Latin Americanists.
Hisey reviewed Marvels of Medicine: Literature and Scientific Enquiry in Early Colonial Spanish America by Associate Professor at Durham University Yari Pérez Marín. The book was a great choice for Hisey, as it perfectly related to her research interests of knowledge circulation in the early modern Atlantic.
According to Hisey, the book’s author did a “fantastic job of dismantling the center-periphery discourse of knowledge production.” This was particularly noteworthy because through Pérez Marín’s analysis, she was able to examine “New World” critiques of scientific rigor in Europe. Hisey noted this was important because “many authors in the Spanish viceroyalties questioned the scientific rigor of their contemporaries in Europe who imported specimens for scientific research. These authors argued that this research from afar could not possibly compare with, let alone replace, that done on the ground and in the ‘lab’ of the ‘New World.’”
This kind of scholarship is exciting for Hisey because of its emphasis on histories of science, rather than, “the well-worn, singular history of northern Atlantic, European countries as superior places of knowledge production.”
As an advanced doctoral candidate Hisey can typically do 1-2 reviews at a time. She plans to solicit for more reviews at the beginning of the calendar year.
CATEGORIES: Graduate Students