#  Ori Ben-Shalom 

 

 



   ![Ben-Shalom Photo](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/styles/hwp_4_5__320x400/public/hos/files/ben-shalom.png?itok=UQ5DVkpQ) 

 



 

 email <oribenshalom@g.harvard.edu> 

 laptop\_windows [Personal Website](https://harvard.academia.edu/OriBenShalom) 

 

 



 

*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 research explores the interplay between medicine and politics. His dissertation, *Fevers in the Archive: Medicine and Historical Practice in Enlightenment Italy*, examines how physicians used historical research as a scientific method to study epidemic diseases. It argues that physicians’ historical practice endowed them with a unique way of knowing, through which they advanced reforms in public health and the environment, thereby positioning themselves as important political actors within the Italian states. Ori’s past publications have similarly addressed the relationship between medical practice and political action, revealing the entwinement of plague control, political structures, and ideological constructs. Building on this work, he is developing a new research project on the history of sanitary border control in Italy.

Ori’s research draws on archival work he conducted in 30 archives and libraries across 14 Italian cities. He has spent several years of his PhD living and working in Bologna, Florence, and Paris. These cities not only shaped the writing of his dissertation but also introduced him to cycling, a passion he would pursue daily if not for the demands of completing his dissertation.

**Publications:**

“Public Health, Medicine, and Religious Reform in Carlo Borromeo’s Milan,” *Sixteenth Century Journal* 55, no. 3-4 (2024): 545-574.

“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



 

 

 





 

 

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