The hidden lives of the dissected
In this illustrated talk, author and journalist Jackie Dent uncovers the extraordinary history of the dissected. Her own grandparents donated their bodies to an Australian university—and a chance encounter led Jackie to investigate what really happened to their bodies.In this talk, she reveals the stories of those who have been studied in the name of science: from the 17th-century British attorney John Knill to the high-profile dissection of Indian Marxist politician Jyoti Basu in 2010. Beyond voluntary donations, Jackie will explore the lives of the poor and vulnerable who were dissected without consent—a practice still prevalent in many parts of the world today.
Tracing the ever-shifting attitudes toward cutting up the dead, Jackie takes us from the “holy anatomy” of the 14th-century Italian nun Chiara de Montefalco to today’s humane anatomy movement, where donors are honoured with ceremonies, sculptures and tombstones.
Speaker Bio:
Jackie Dent is a journalist and author of “The Great Dead Body Teachers”, a book exploring the history of whole body donation and anatomy. She has worked for many media outlets including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian, Monocle, The New York Times, Reuters, Strewth! and The Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Her career has also included stints with the United Nations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, North Ossetia and South Sudan. She currently works as a medical writer and is completing a PhD at the University of Sydney on “The Pleasures of War”.
IMAGE:“The Relations of the Principal Blood Vessels to the Viscera of the Thoracico-Abdominal Cavity” by Joseph Maclise in Surgical Anatomy, 1851. Coloured lithograph courtesy of Wellcome Collection.
Hosted by:
Cat Irving has been the Human Remains Conservator for Surgeons’ Hall since 2015 and has been caring for anatomical and pathological museum collections for over twenty years. After a degree in Anatomical Science she began removing brains and sewing up bodies at the Edinburgh City Mortuary. Following training in the care of wet tissue collections at the Royal College of Surgeons of England she worked with the preparations of William Hunter at the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow University, where she is now Consultant Human Remains Conservator. Cat is a licensed anatomist, and gives regular talks on anatomy and medical history. She recently carried out conservation work on the skeleton of serial killer William Burke
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