Saturday, November 2, 2013
Lecture: 7:30-9 p.m., free
Catered VIP reception: 6-7:30 p.m. $10 students, $15 seniors, $20 general.
Hellenic American Cultural Center and Museum, 3131 NE Glisan, Portland, OR
Greek Medicine is synonymous with Hippocrates, Dioscorides and Galen – credited with the flattering titles of “Father of Medicine,” “Father of Pharmacology” and “Greatest Authority in Medicine in the West,” respectively. Though technically precise, this vision of Greek medicine as a gallery of portraits neglects the daily practice of medicine in antiquity, the long and tenacious efforts of physicians and scientists to understand the mechanisms of action of medicinal plants, and the great chain of knowledge transmitted from early Greece to modern medicine. Renewed research over the past four decades reconstructs a vivid history of Greek medicine.
About the speakers
Currently a research collaborator at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., Emanuela Appetiti is a sociologist with a specialization in ethno-anthropology who has done research in several institutions throughout the world, and studied and visited traditional populations worldwide. She gained intercultural experience and professional expertise in public relations, media relations, marketing, and sales during her time with the auction house Christie’s Italy in Rome, where she was press officer and clients liaison. For the past several years, sharing life and a strong passion for research with Alain Touwaide, she has become increasingly focused on history of medicine and of ethnobotany in the Mediterranean basin. She is fluent in Italian (mother tongue), English, French and Spanish.
Currently a research associate at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., Alain Touwaide, Ph.D‘s research deals with the history of botany, particularly the medicinal plants, from Antiquity to the 17th century, in the Greek, Latin, and Arabic cultures that flourished around the Mediterranean Sea. Through a trans-disciplinary approach, which involves philology and history, medicine and pharmacy, pharmacology and ethno-anthropology, he analyzes ancient texts in their original language (Greek, Latin, Arabic), prepares critical editions of major works (with English translation and scientific analysis), searches in libraries all across the world for unknown ancient manuscripts, and produces reference works on ancient botany, therapeutics, and plant representations (paper and internet publications).
Dr. Touwaide is a Fellow of the International Academy for the History of Pharmacy, of the Washington Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Medical Society, and the Accademia di Storia dell’Arte Sanitaria (Italian Academy for the History of Medical Arts). He is fluent in French (mother tongue), English, Italian and Spanish, and has a good knowledge of several other languages.
This event is generously hosted and co-sponsored by the Hellenic-American Cultural Center and Museum.
