Birthing Ideas in Ancient Greece and the Modern World

Dr. Yurie Hong of Gustavus Adolphus College will present the Antiquity in the New Millennium Lecture: "Birthing Ideas in Ancient Greece and the Modern World: A Personal and Professional Story."

In ancient Greece, as now, pre-existing cultural ideas about men, women, and the body greatly influenced the way that medical practitioners thought about and treated reproductive issues.

This talk will focus on characterizations of the maternal-fetal relationship in ancient medical texts but also on the birthing of ideas themselves and how research on ancient medicine led to a scientific conference on reproductive technologies. In so doing, it will consider the importance of interdisciplinary connections between science and humanities as well as the value of engaging with the ancient past when thinking through modern problems.

Dr. Hong is an associate professor and chair of Classics, and associate professor of gender, women, and sexuality studies at Gustavus Adolphus.