Over the month of April, we are proud to welcome visiting scholar in residence Dr Richard Barnett: a London based author, professor, and Wellcome Trust Engagement Fellow. Over the course of his tenure with us, Dr Barnett will lead a reading and discussion group on the sublime (The Sublime: After the Fall: History, Anatomy and The Sublime, Mondays March 31, April 7, April 14, April 21); give two Hendrick’s Gin sponsored lectures devoted to the history of gin as explored in his Book of Gin (Quintessence Of A Mystery: The Birth Of Gin on Thursday, April 10 and Dutch Courage And Mothers’ Ruin: The Gin Craze on Friday, April 11); a lecture and book signing for his new Thames and Hudson book on the art of pathological atlases (The Sick Rose: Anatomy and Art in an Age of Revolution : Lecture and Book Signing on Thusday, April 17); and illustrated talks on Nikola Tesla (The Electric Fictions of Nikola Tesla on Sunday, April 13) and 19th century ideas of animal and human minds (The Beast in the Mirror, Tuesday, April 22).
Dr Richard Barnett studied medicine in London before becoming a historian. He has taught the history of science, medicine and evolutionary theory at the universities of Cambridge and London, and now holds one of the first Wellcome Trust Engagement Fellowships. His first book, Medical London: City of Diseases, City of Cures, was published in 2008, and was a Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4, and his next book – The Sick Rose, on anatomy and art in an age of revolution – will be published by Thames & Hudson in the UK and DAP in the US in May. He received the 2006 Promis Prize for poetry, and has made many appearances on BBC television and radio. His writing has also appeared in the London Review of Books, the Lancet, Strange Attractor, and the Natural Death Handbook (fifth edition). You can find him online at sickcityproject.wordpress.com, and on Twitter @doctorbarnett.