Participant Info
- First Name
- Sara
- Last Name
- Ray
- Country
- United States
- State
- PA Pennsylvania
- sararay@sas.upenn.edu
- Affiliation
- University of Pennsylvania
- Website URL
- https://hss.sas.upenn.edu/people/sara-ray
- Keywords
- disability, embryology, early modern, anatomy, monstrosity, surgery, midwifery, natural history, biology, history, history of science, history of medicine, enlightenment, anatomical collecting, museum studies, the netherlands, dutch, eighteenth century
- Availability
- Media Contact
- Additional Contact Information
- I am currently in the Netherlands for the year so email is the best way to reach me.
- PhD
- other credentials
Personal Info
- Photo
- About Me
I am a fifth year doctoral candidate at Penn whose research uses anatomical collections of “monstrous births” to examine the intersection of obstetrics, embryology, disability, and natural history between 1697-1849. I focus on the preservation of human fetuses with congenital abnormalities, looking both at the history of these bodies– their births, their mothers, their collectors– as well as their scientific use as objects of evidence for those pursuing the mysteries of generation and nature’s order. Lastly, my work interrogates the consequences of these scientific rationalizations on the socio-political identity of those living in “monstrous” bodies.
Though outside of my dissertation’s scope, I also have a strong background in neo-Platonism, natural magic, western mysticism, and Romantic philosophy.
I am currently in the Netherlands on a Fulbright Award.
- Recent Publications
- Media Coverage
- I have been interviewed about my work on WHYY (The Pulse) and for Philadelphia Magazine. Outside of academia, I won the title "Philadelphia's Best Storyteller" in 2017 and am a published fiction author.
- Social Media
- kappapej
- Country Focus
- The Netherlands, France
- Expertise by Geography
- France, Netherlands, United States
- Expertise by Chronology
- 17th century, 18th century, 19th century, Early Modern
- Expertise by Topic
- Disability, Gender, Medicine, Museums, Public History, Science, Women
