What: Manuella Meyer will address the Trinity College community with her lecture: “Madness, Psychiatry, and Brazilian Republicanism 1889-1930.”  Her talk examines psychiatric discourse at the turn of the 20th century in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  Versed in the idioms of criminology, eugenics, and degeneration theory, psychiatrists spoke of science, expertise, and efficiency to address not only mental illness but a range of issues such as poverty, crime, delinquency and drunkenness.  These approaches played a fundamental role in changing the social position of psychiatry from a peripheral discipline of dubious scientific status to a socially sanctioned profession able to provide the state with a standardized language to address medical, political and social concerns.  A wine and cheese reception will follow the lecture.  Students, faculty, administration and staff are welcome and encouraged to attend.

When: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 ~ 4 p.m.

Where: Terrace Room B, Mather Hall on the Trinity College campus

Background:  Manuella Meyer graduated from Brown University in 2001 with a B.A. in History and Latin American Studies.  She is currently a doctoral candidate in the joint History and African American Studies Program at Yale University, where she received an M. Phil and M.A. in 2004.  Her dissertation project is a history of the construction and management of madness in Rio de Janeiro from 1808 to 1930.