STS@VCU Fall Lecture Series Continues

By Mike Porter

STS@VCU, Virginia Commonwealth University’s Science, Technology And Society Program, continues next week with a lecture that examines Germany’s response in treating disabled soldiers injured during World War I.

“World War I and the Invention of Disability in Modern Germany” takes place from 3 p.m. until 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 11, in the Forum Room of the Virginia Commonwealth University Student Commons, 907 Floyd Ave. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Heather Perry, Ph.D., is an associate professor of history, who teaches courses in modern German and European history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her research interests include modern German history; the history of medicine and war; and the history of technology, gender and the body.    

Perry will discuss how technology available in Germany during World War I led to the destruction and re-creation of the male body. Perry’s lecture will examine the response of German industry and medicine in treating wounded soldiers, explaining how medical professionals at the time were able to rationalize the artificial re-creation of the wounded body because they envisioned the body as a machine that needed to be repaired or reproduced.

The Science, Technology, And Society Program began in 2006 to encourage VCU students, faculty and staff to think broadly about scientific, technological, and medical work through campus and community lectures, coordinated curricular planning, and faculty research and teaching development. The theme of this fall’s lectures is science, technology and war.

For more information about this lecture and other Science, Technology, And Society Program offerings, visit http://www.has.vcu.edu/sts/ or contact Wanda Clary at wclary@vcu.edu or 804-828-8427.