Study about the construction of organs in North Spain by Cavaillé-Coll (19th century)

Abstract submitted to Timbre 2023 conference. This abstract describes a new approach to understanding consonance and dissonance.

फ़रवरी, 2020 तक भारतीय अख़बारों में दुनिया में एक नये वायरस के फैलने की सूचना प्रमुखता से आने लगी थी।
अख़बारों ने हमें बताया कि कोविड-19 सबसे अधिक जानलेवा है। लेकिन यह नहीं बताया कि हमारी हिंदी पट्टी में टी.बी, चमकी बुख़ार, न्यूमोनिया, मलेरिया आदि से मरने वालों की एक विशाल संख्या है। इन बीमारियों से सिर्फ़ हिंदी पट्टी में हर साल 5 से 7 लाख…[Read more]

Presentation in the working group “History of Science in Early South Asia” at https://www.chstm.org/early-south-asia on Dec. 19th 2022.

भारत में क्या हालत हो चुकी है, इसका अनुमान दिसंबर, 2020 में हुए एक सर्वेक्षण से लगता है। इस सर्वेक्षण के अनुसार भारत की आधी से अधिक आबादी को कोरोना-काल में पहले की तुलना में कम भोजन मिल रहा है। इनमें ज़्यादातर दलित और आदिवासी हैं।

लेकिन इन सूचनाओं से भी अधिक भयावह यह है कि भारत का बौद्धिक वर्ग, ग़रीबों के सर पर मँडराते मौत के इस साये से प्…[Read more]

The seminal 1989 study “Mantra in Ayurveda” by Kenneth G. Zysk1 describes four areas in which mantras were used in early Ayurveda: the treatment of wounds and swellings/tumours, of poisoning, of mental disorders, and the collection and preparation of certain medicines. Although this article is a highly important contribution to the study of the…[Read more]

The seminal 1989 study “Mantra in Ayurveda” by Kenneth G. Zysk1 describes four areas in which mantras were used in early Ayurveda: the treatment of wounds and swellings/tumours, of poisoning, of mental disorders, and the collection and preparation of certain medicines. Although this article is a highly important contribution to the study of the…[Read more]

The coronavirus-induced lockdown hasn’t just eroded our physical liberty; it has also eroded our intellectual freedom. Our freedom to think has been put under lock and key. Clearly, we are on the threshold of a dangerous phase. Which way we go from here will depend on how soon and how well we gauge the danger and start exploring the ways to c…[Read more]

अधिकांश लोग समझते हैं कि चिकित्सक ही जांच द्वारा तय करते हैं कि किसे कोविड है और किसे नहीं तथा अगर किसी की मौत होती है तो चिकित्सक ही यह तय करते हैं कि वह मृत्यु कोविड से हुई है या किसी अन्य कारण से। इसलिए जब कोई खुद को चिकित्सक बताता है या अपने परिवार में चिकित्सकों के होने का ज़िक्र करता है तो लोग उसकी बात पर अनिवार्य रूप से विश्वास करते ह…[Read more]

As was expected, the country is witnessing an explosion of Covid cases, leading to chaos and mayhem. People are dying for want of oxygen. The protocol for the treatment of Covid patients is faulty and that is one reason for the high number of deaths. Thanks to the protocol, deaths due to other causes are also being added to the Covid toll. In this…[Read more]

Although he obtained a medical degree at the University of Caen in 1618, Isaac Beeckman never practised medicine. Instead, he developed an atomistic conception of Galenic physiology by discussing, throughout his notebook, the constituents and functioning of the living body. Interestingly, Beeckman applied his atomistic interpretation to the notion…[Read more]

This chapter examines the revolutin in media within music based on Friedrich Kittler’s work. It highlights Kittler’s musical preferences, from Richard Wagner to Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd. For Kittler this music exemplified an “other music” that was based on a cutout from the totality of “worldwide noise” as it was theorized after Arthur Schopen…[Read more]

Historically the Red Cross has created opportunities for women that were otherwise denied to them in their wider society. This role for female Red Cross workers is not a recent thing and is deeply embedded in the past and psyche of the organisation.

The age-old search for an understanding of “consonance” has been hobbled from the beginning by the expectation that a silver bullet can be found. In this section from a book-in-progress, the historical searches are analyzed for their failings and a new approach is suggested based on observing the effects of tonal sounds within the context of…[Read more]

This article examines the political role of illness in Émile Zola’s ‘La Faute de l’abbé Mouret’ (‘The Sin of Father Mouret’, 1875) in articulating the difference between a religious and a secular body. Published in the early French Third Republic (1870–1940), this novel shows the Zolian body as the nexus upon which religious and republi…[Read more]

In ‘Degeneration’ (1892), Max Nordau included Émile Zola in his theory that fin-de-siècle artists were a danger to society. According to Nordau, the ‘false science’ in Zola’s Naturalist novels would erode social progress in their alleged preoccupation with disease, sexual deviancy and amorality. This article proposes that degeneration is, how…[Read more]

Im Ayurveda bedarf die Entstehung von Epidemien einer gesonderten Erklärung, da sie nicht mit dem dort gültigen allgemeinen Verständnis der Krankheitsentstehung in Einklang zu bringen ist. Das Grundkonzept sieht vor, dass Menschen je nach Konstitution, Ernährung, Körperkraft, Gewöhnung,
Charakter und Alter für bestimmte Krankheiten anfäll…[Read more]

In this paper, presented at the 2022 H-Net Teaching Conference, I describe how I teach undergraduate students about disability in music through what I call disclosure-oriented pedagogy. This practice involves demonstrating cross-historical comparisons between my lived experiences of disability and the representations of disability in 19th-century…[Read more]