51³ÉÈËÁÔÆæ

Course Description

Summary

Long before the existence of a discipline we would recognize as "science," there were women working with men in the pursuit of "scientia". Scientia embraced a mixture of philosophy, medicine, religion, literature, and knowledge of the natural world – a mixture that would eventually devolve into the separate disciplines we know today. But who were these ancient Greek female philosophers, these medieval "doctoresses," and these Enlightenment lady astronomers? How was it that they were so celebrated in their lifetimes, and yet they are so completely obscure today? What does that say about our understanding of the discourse and practice of "gender," or -- perhaps more importantly – our understanding of what we now deem to be the nature of scientific knowledge?