Alisha Rankin is a Professor of History at Tufts University. She received her Ph.D. in the History of Science from Harvard University. Her research interests include early modern European history (c. 1450-1700), the history of science and medicine, the history of pharmacy, and women's history. Her first book, Panaceia's Daughters: Noblewomen as Healers in Early Modern Germany (University of Chicago Press, 2013) examines German princesses who became widely known and admired for their medical knowledge in the sixteenth century – and particularly for making medicinal cures. She has also co-edited a collection of essays titled Secrets and Knowledge in Medicine and Science, 1500-1800 (Ashgate Press in 2011). Her latest book, The Poison Trials: Wonder Drugs, Experiment, and the Battle for Authority in Renaissance Science (University of Chicago Press, 2021), looks at the important role poison antidotes played in attempts to evaluate early modern cures – and in the development of early modern experiment more broadly. 

A Five College Renaissance Seminar