Research Interests: History of medicine; early modern science; intellectual history; European history; Italian history; The Enlightenment; enviromental history; epidemics; historical epistemology.

Ori Ben-Shalom is a PhD candidate in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard. His dissertation, “Medicine and Historical Practice in Enlightenment Italy,” examines the role of history in the learned medical world of 18^th-century Italy. It asks why doctors in this period were so preoccupied with history and how—through citing, cataloging, archiving, excavating, and commemorating—they constructed their relationship with time. Ori’s research propses that physicians’ extensive use of historical practices endowed them with a unique way of knowing, through which they promoted changes in medical theory, consolidated their professional status, and advanced environmental reforms across the Italian states.

Publication:

“Geographies of Plague: Public Health Relations and Epidemiological Divides in the Mediterranean,” Harvard Library Bulletin (2021) [online]: https://harvardlibrarybulletin.org/geographies-plague-public-health-relations-and-epidemiological-divides-mediterranean

Previous Degrees:

M.A., History, Tel Aviv University
The Adi Lautman Interdisciplinary Program for Outstanding Students, Tel Aviv University