Alisha Rankin

My broad research interests encompass the history of science and medicine in early modern Europe (c. 1500–1700), especially Germany. My particular focus centers on the history of pharmacy, the history of experimentation and empiricism, and the history of women and gender. I am particularly interested in early forms of medical empiricism that influenced and informed the development of a full-blown experimental culture in the seventeenth century. My work addresses these topics from two different, overlapping perspectives. My first book, Panaceia's Daughters: Noblewomen as Healers in Early Modern Germany (University of Chicago Press, 2013) focused on women healers, who had been connected to experiential knowledge since the Middle Ages. My current project, tentatively titled The Poison Trials: Antidotes and Experiment in Early Modern Europe examines the role played by poison antidotes in the development of new ideas about evaluating and testing drugs in the sixteenth century. I have also edited, with Elaine Leong, a volume titled Secrets and Knowledge in Medicine and Science, 1500–1800 (Ashgate Publishing, 2011).

I am an Assistant Professor of History at Tufts University, where I teach early modern Europe and the history of science and medicine. Before that, I was a Junior Research Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge. I earned my PhD in the history of science from Harvard University in 2005.