Jaipreet Virdi
Biography
Jaipreet Virdi is a historian of medicine, technology, and disability. Her research and teaching interests include the history of medicine, the history of science, disability history, disability technologies, and material/visual culture studies. She received her Ph.D. from the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto (2014).Dr. Virdi is currently completing her first book, Hearing Happiness: Fakes, Frauds, and Fads in Deafness Cures, to be published by University of Chicago Press. This book rethinks how therapeutic negotiation and the influence of pseudo-medicine shaped what it meant to be a "normal" deaf citizen in American history. Examining how deaf/deafened individuals attempted to amplify their hearing through various types of surgical, proprietary, and/or technological "deafness cures," the book charts the dissemination of ideas about hearing loss from beyond medical elites to popular culture and the popular imagination.She is also working on three other projects. Objects of Disability is an online resource database of historical artefacts used by, and/or crafted by, Canadians with disabilities, with the site scheduled to launch in 2019. Her second book project, From Prevention to Conservation: American Research on Hearing Impairment, 1910-1960 focuses on the network of specialists and services that aimed to improve the hearing of American citizens. By analyzing how various factions aimed to normalize hearing impairment through military rehabilitation efforts, social organizations, and advanced otological techniques, this project historicizes how deafness became construed as an urgent public health matter. Additionally, Dr. Virdi is collaborating with Dr. Coreen McGuire tracing the historical roots of scientific research on disabilitiessuch as deafness and breathlessnessin Britain and the role of women scientists. This project, Instrumental Injustices: Women Scientists and the Politics of Disability in Interwar Britain especially focuses on how scientific instruments were used by women to demonstrate the value of their research against criticism and assert control over (deaf) bodies.Dr. Virdi serves as Contributing Editor of the journal Pharmacy in History and Co-Editor of Communiqu, the newsletter of the Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science.