History of Medicine: From Farmer’s Daughter to Physician: The Advocacy, Activism, and Legacy of Dr. Mary Bennett Ritter and her Contemporaries

Reception at 5:00pm

Free and open to the public.

Registration is required. Register online now through Eventbrite or email us at ContactChom@hms.harvard.edu.

Dr. Gesa Kirsch: Professor of English at Bentley University

Dr. Gesa Kirsch will discuss Dr. Mary Bennett Ritter, an early 20th-century woman physician, her cohort of Western women physicians, and the role of the Woman’s Medical Journal in creating and sustaining a large professional network of early women physicians. This lecture will speak directly to Dr. Ritter’s life and leadership and why this story is worthy of restoring to medical and women’s history.

Gesa E. Kirsch is Professor of English at Bentley University. Her work in women’s studies and rhetorical studies is extensive; she has authored and coauthored three books and edited five others. In March 2017, she published a new edition of More Than Gold in California, the memoir of Dr. Mary Bennett Ritter, an early California physician, civic leader, and women’s rights’ activist (Globe Pequot Press 2017). Her current research explores the rhetorical strategies, professional networks, and social activism of a group of late nineteenth-century women physicians.