Guenter B. Risse (born 28 April 1932) is an American
medical historian
The medical history, case history, or anamnesis (from Greek: ἀνά, ''aná'', "open", and μνήσις, ''mnesis'', "memory") of a patient is information gained by a physician by asking specific questions, either to the patient or to other peo ...
. He has written numerous books, including his most recent "Driven by Fear: Epidemics and Isolation in San Francisco's House of Pestilence." The
American Association for the History of Medicine awarded him the 1988 William H. Welch Medal for his book ''Hospital Life in Enlightenment Scotland'' and its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. He is Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology, History and Social Medicine, at the
University of California, San Francisco
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It cond ...
, and currently Affiliate Professor of Bioethics and Humanities at the
University of Washington
The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington.
Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...
in Seattle.
Education
Risse is a native of
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
,
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
, where he obtained his
baccalaureate Baccalaureate may refer to:
* ''Baccalauréat'', a French national academic qualification
* Bachelor's degree, or baccalaureate, an undergraduate academic degree
* English Baccalaureate, a performance measure to assess secondary schools in England ...
degree from the
Colegio Nacional in 1951 prior to gaining admission to the
University of Buenos Aires
The University of Buenos Aires ( es, Universidad de Buenos Aires, UBA) is a public university, public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Established in 1821, it is the premier institution of higher learning in the country and one o ...
School of Medicine. Following graduation with a magna cum laude M.D. in 1958, he came to the US to complete an
internship
An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and gover ...
and training in
internal medicine.
In 1962, Risse returned to the classroom, following admission to the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
. Originally enrolled at the
Oriental Institute, he studied
ancient Egyptian culture
Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cove ...
and
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
under the direction of the distinguished Egyptologist
John Wilson. A 1965 plan to participate in an excavation project in
Saqqara
Saqqara ( ar, سقارة, ), also spelled Sakkara or Saccara in English , is an Egyptian village in Giza Governorate, that contains ancient burial grounds of Egyptian royalty, serving as the necropolis for the ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis. ...
near the suspected tomb of
Imhotep
, other_names = Asclepius (name in Greek) Imouthes (also name in Greek)
, burial_place = Saqqara (probable)
, occupation = chancellor to the Pharaoh Djoser and High Priest of Ra
, years_active =
, known_for ...
, the ancient god of healing, was not approved by the
Egypt Exploration Fund
The Egypt Exploration Society (EES) is a British non-profit organization. The society was founded in 1882 by Amelia Edwards and Reginald Stuart Poole in order to examine and excavate in the areas of Egypt and Sudan. The intent was to study and an ...
because the dig was restricted to trained archeologists. Such an outcome and shifts in excavation plans following
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
's call to save
Nubia
Nubia () (Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), or ...
n monuments from the impending flooding caused by the new
Aswan Dam
The Aswan Dam, or more specifically since the 1960s, the Aswan High Dam, is one of the world's largest embankment dams, which was built across the Nile in Aswan, Egypt, between 1960 and 1970. Its significance largely eclipsed the previous Aswan L ...
, induced him to transfer to the History Department. Here he worked under Professors
Allen G. Debus
Allen George Debus (August 16, 1926 – March 6, 2009) was an American historian of science, known primarily for his work on the history of chemistry and alchemy. In 1991 he was honored at the University of Chicago with an academic conference he ...
and
Lester S. King, obtaining his Ph.D. in 1971. His dissertation dealt with eighteenth-century medical systems, notably the theories of the Scottish physician
John Brown John Brown most often refers to:
*John Brown (abolitionist) (1800–1859), American who led an anti-slavery raid in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859
John Brown or Johnny Brown may also refer to:
Academia
* John Brown (educator) (1763–1842), Ir ...
and their impact in Germany during the early 1800s.
Career
Risse held academic appointments at the University of Chicago (1963–1967),
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
(1969–1971),
University of Wisconsin–Madison
A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...
(1972–1985), and University of California
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
, and
Berkeley
Berkeley most often refers to:
*Berkeley, California, a city in the United States
**University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California
* George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher
Berkeley may also refer ...
, (1985–2001). As chair he developed the Department of the History of Medicine in University of Wisconsin–Madison during the early 1970s. In 1985 he reorganized the Department of the History of Health Sciences in San Francisco. He is a member of the
American Association for the History of Medicine,
History of Science Society
The History of Science Society (HSS) is the primary professional society for the academic study of the history of science. It was founded in 1924 by George Sarton, David Eugene Smith, and Lawrence Joseph Henderson, primarily to support the publi ...
,
European Association for the History of Health and Medicine, also holding corresponding memberships in several
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
an and
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
n societies; he was also elected to the now defunct International Academy of Medicine in 1977. A fellowship from the
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...
in 1979 allowed him to study the history of Latin America's health care systems. As part of this project, he established close relationships with the
Sociedad Mexicana de Historia y Filosofia in the early 1980s.
[Guenter Risse, "The AAHM and Medical History in Latin America: An Update," ''Bulletin of the History of Medicine'' 55(1981): 113–115. Dr. Risse reported on this in "Medical History in Latin America," ''Clio Medica'' 15(1981): 233–45.] In addition, Risse was a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies at the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
in 1986 and the Sir Logan Campbell Distinguished Visitor at the
University of Auckland School of Medicine in 1994. He was active in the creation of the European Association for the History of Health and Medicine and co-sponsored the establishment of the
International Network for the History of Hospitals. He is also a past president of the American Association for the History of Medicine (1988–1990).
Bibliography
*Editor and contributor, ''Modern China and Traditional Chinese Medicine'', Springfield: C. Thomas, 1973.
*Editor and translator, ''History of Physiology'', by K. E. Rothschuh, Huntington: R. E. Krieger, 1973 and 1981.
*Edited with R. L. Numbers, and J. W. Leavitt, ''Medicine Without Doctors: Home Health Care in American History'', New York: Science History Publications, 1977.
*''Hospital Life in Enlightenment Scotland: Care and Teaching at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh''. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
*Edited with Victoria A. Harden, ''AIDS and the Historian: Proceedings of a Conference at the National Institutes of Health 20–21 March 1989'', Bethesda: N.I.H. Publications, 1991.
*Edited with Robert Jütte and John Woodward, ''Culture, Knowledge and Healing: Historical Perspectives of Homeopathic Medicine in Europe and North America, Sheffield: European Ass. for the History of Medicine and Health Publ.'', 1998.
*''Mending Bodies—Saving Souls: A History of Hospitals'', New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
*''New Medical Challenges During the Scottish Enlightenment'', Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2005. (Clio Medica 78)
*''Plague, Fear and Politics in San Francisco's Chinatown'', Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012.
*''Driven by Fear: Epidemics and Isolation in San Francisco's House of Pestilence,'' University of Illinois Press; 1 edition (December 30, 2015).
References
External links
Official website*
ttp://dahsm.ucsf.edu/ Academic homepage, Department of Anthropology, History and Social Medicine, University of California, San Franciscobr>
Full list of publications on Researchgate.netFull list of publications on USCF Academia.edu
{{DEFAULTSORT:Risse, Guenter B
American medical historians
Living people
1932 births
People from Buenos Aires
University of Buenos Aires alumni
University of Chicago alumni
University of Chicago faculty
University of Minnesota faculty
University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty
University of California, San Francisco faculty
University of California, Berkeley faculty
American Egyptologists
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
American male non-fiction writers