We look forward to having you join us for the 2021 Joseph I. Waring Lecture!

The Joseph I. Waring Lecture, sponsored by the Waring Historical Library, will be held Thursday, March 11, 2021, at 6:00 PM virtually on Zoom. Dr. Stephen Casper, from Clarkson University, will present, "Punch Drunk Slugnuts: Violence and the Vernacular History of Disease."

Since hits to the head cause dementia, why are we only now realizing it? Neurological illnesses follow recurrent hits to the head was tempered by the very languages that first called the diseases into scientific existence: punch drunk, slug nutty, slap-happy, goofy, punchie, and a host of other colloquialisms accompanying class identities. Thus the discovery of disease and its medicalization ran straight into a disbelief about losers - losers in boxing, losers in life, losers in general. To medicalize such individuals was to fly in the face of a culture that made them jokes. Yet, a subculture began to emerge around pathological understandings, first in medicine, then in journalism, then in the courts, and then finally with patient accounts about illness.

Seating is limited and registration is required by Wednesday, March 10, 2020, at 12 PM to reserve your seat and receive log in information. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact the Waring at 843-792-2288 or waringhl@musc.edu.

The Waring Lecture is named in memory of Dr. Joseph I. Waring, a local pediatrician and medical historian, who became the first director of the medical history collections of the University. This lecture takes place annually in the Spring semester.