Event

History co-sponsored event: 

Hearing Happiness: Deafness Cures in American History

Dr. Jaipreet Virdi

March 13, 2024

4:00pm - 5:30pm EDT

Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion, Kislak Center, Van Pelt Library

Join the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing for a seminar on disability, Deafness, and medical technologies with Jaipreet Virdi, PhD.

During the late nineteenth century, entrepreneurs began to glut the direct-to-consumer medical market with a plethora of remedies they professed could miraculously cure deafness. They claimed their remedies and machines fostered a world of unbridled optimism for providing “hope” to deaf ears. Even as medical specialists denounced these “cure-all” treatments as quackery in its finest form, the messages of restoring hearing would transfer over to the hearing aid industry. Focusing on the marketing of deafness cure—hearing trumpets, electrotherapy apparatuses, and hearing aids—this presentation unravels the many ways deaf people sought to restore or gain hearing. This history provides broad context for understanding the lived experiences of deaf people and how cultural pressures of normalcy significantly stigmatized deafness.

Please follow this link to learn more about the event and to register to attend in person or virtually.

Co-sponsored by: GSWS, the Department of History, and Penn ASL