Katherine Walker

Katherine Walker, A gendered History of Pain, circa 1620-1740. History Department – McMaster University, 2011.

Katherine Walker questioned certain areas of the history of medicine through a study of gendered pain as conceived and perceived by physicians and patients English in modern times. In constant dialogue with the relevant historiography, she manages to transcend the history of medicine to join cultural history and the history of the body and emotions. The end result is a finely written and nuanced study, original in its approach and its choice of gender as a category of analysis, which has the additional merit to raise new questions about this little known aspect of medical history.