Event Description
Ideas about what is natural pervade American public life. From mesmerism to phrenology, and even the invention of the Graham cracker, Americans have long struggled to sift through conflicting and contradictory claims about “natural” health and wellness regimes, family structures, and gender dynamics. While internet subcultures today offer one way of cutting through the noise, Americans regularly encounter shifting definitions of the normal that blend scientific and pseudoscientific claims with moral prescriptions. Join a conversation with historians of religion and medicine as they unpack the stakes behind these competing senses of “natural.”
Event Information
Free and open to the public; registration recommended. Please visit the event webpage or email [email protected] for additional information.
Hosted by the Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life at Columbia University.
