Year in Program: 7
Fields: East Asia (Modern China), Medicine, Gender, & Digital Humanities
Advisor: Aminda Smith
Committee: Dr. Ethan Segal, Dr. Naoko Wake, Dr. Yulian Wu
Research Languages: Mandarin Chinese
Educational Background: B.A. Wittenberg University, OH
Email: holteri1@msu.edu
Research:
My research explores the crucial role of midwives in improving infant and maternal health in China and Taiwan during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. I argue that the relationship between the government and midwives redefined midwifery into a medical power, but the continued plurality of medicine meant that the state could not ignore the importance of earned medical authority to patients. The different approaches taken by the governments of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC) illuminate the ways medical epistemology, grass roots organizations, and government standards affected women’s health, infant mortality, and modern medical infrastructure. I am also deeply interested in how changes to birth work affected personal conceptions of self in the medical context.
Courses:
HST 368 – China from 1900, SP23 & F23
Past Teaching Assistant Positions:
IAH 206 – Science, Society and Self (Nuclear Age)
ISS 355 – War and Revolution
HST 368 – China from 1900 to Present
HST 420 – History of Sexuality
IAH 206 – Asia and the World