History of Science Lecture with Jennifer Derr

World Wounds: The Damming of the Nile River and the Transformation of Medicine

The damming of the Nile River transformed agriculture and human health in 20th-century Egypt. While dams enabled year-round irrigation and provided hydroelectricity, the prevalence of parasitic disease also skyrocketed. Professor Derr explores the effects of damming the Nile on the health of Egyptians and the impact of large-scale environmental transformation on the knowledge and practice that made medicine during the 20th century.

Register to attend in-person or virtual

In Person Reception: 5:30 p.m.
Lecture 6 p.m.
In-person and virtual
Free and open to the public

Presented by the UC Santa Cruz Emeriti Association

Jennifer Derr is an associate professor in the History Department at UC Santa Cruz. Her first book, The Lived Nile: Environment, Disease, and Material Colonial Economy in Egypt, won the Middle East Political Economy Book Prize. In 2019, the National Science Foundation awarded Derr a History of Science at the Interface of Biomedical and Environmental Concerns CAREER grant to support her research. In 2024-25, she was a fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute.