Author Reception: Carving a Niche

The Book Store at Western, 1151 Richmond Street, London, ON
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Luz María Hernández Sáenz will present her new publication Carving a Niche: The Medical Profession in Mexico 1800-1870 as part of the University of Western Ontario's annual Faculty Author Reception. The author will join other faculty members to celebrate their achievements of publishing a book in the past year. The event will take place at The Book Store at Western, in the University Community Centre.

Carving a Niche traces the evolution of various medical occupations in Mexico from the end of the colonial period to the beginning of the regime of Porfirio Díaz, demonstrating how competition and collaboration, identity, ever-changing legislation, political instability, and foreign intervention resulted in a complex, gradual, and unique process of medical professionalization - one that neither conformed to theoretical models nor resembled hierarchies found in other parts of the world. Through extensive research, Luz María Hernández Sáenz analyzes the uphill struggle of practitioners to claim their place as public health experts and to provide and control medical education in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.

Luz María Hernández Sáenz is associate professor of history at the University of Western Ontario.