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Holly Tucker

Curriculum Vitae

Current and Past Positions

Vanderbilt University

    • Professor, Department of French & Italian 2012-
      • Professor, Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society 2014-
      • Co-Director, R. Penn Warren Center for the Humanities Fellows Program, 2015-2016
      • Associate Director, Center for Medicine, Health, & Society, 2006-2008
      • Director of Graduate Studies, Department of French & Italian, 2011-2012
      • Associate Professor of French Studies, 2004-2012
      • Associate Professor of Medicine, Health and Society, 2008-2012
      • Co-director, R. Penn Warren Center for Humanities, Fellows Program, 2005-2006
      • Acting Chair, Dept. of French & Italian, 2004-2005
      • Director, Vanderbilt-in-France, 2003 summer
      • Professor in Residence, VIF, 2003-2004, 2013, 2015
      • Assistant Professor, 1996-2002

Education

  • Ph.D.
    University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of French & Italian. May, 1996.
    Minor:  History of Science
  • M.A.
    University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of French & Italian. May, 1991
  • B.A.
    Indiana University, Double major, French and Political Science. May, 1989
  • MPH, core coursework.  Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, 2015-2016

 

Awards and Honors

  • Ethics of Health and Everyday Flourishing,Vanderbilt TIPs Award, co-PI. $300K
  • Chancellor’s Award for Research, Vanderbilt University, 2012
  • Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist, Science/Technology, 2012
  • Times Literary Supplement Best Books, 2011
  • Seattle Times Best Books of the Year, 2011
  • China Times (Taiwan), Book Award, 2015
  • American Society of Journalists and Authors, Non-Fiction prize, honorable mention, 2012
  • Vanderbilt Center for Ethics, seed funding, 2006-2008.  “Public health literacy among university students” (Freedman D, Bess K, Tucker H, Boyd D, Tuchman A, Wallston K)
  • Wellcome Library for the History of Medicine, Travel Fellowship, 2005-2006
  • Newberry Library Short-Term Fellowship, 2005-2006
  • Fellowship, Francis C. Wood Institute for the History of Medicine, 2005-2006
  • Jacques Voegli Fellow, Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, 2005-2006
  • Research Scholar Fellowship (Vanderbilt University), 2005-2006
  • Fellow, Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities 2002-2003
  • Research Scholars Grant, 2003-2004; 2002-2003
  • Travel Grant, University Research Council (Vanderbilt University), 1997, 1999

Publications

Books

  • Tucker, H.  City of Light, City of Poison. W.W. Norton, 2017.  Locus (Taiwan), in press.

Reviews and interviews: The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Sunday Telegraph, New York Journal of Books, Newsday, Jezebel, American Library Association (“Spring Pick”), Publisher’s Weekly (starred review), Booklist, Book Talk, WYPL-Memphis, among others.

  • Tucker, H.  Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution. W.W. Norton, 2011; Kawade Shobo (Japan), 2013; Science Press (China), 2013; Locus (Taiwan), 2013.

Reviews and interviews: The Economist, The Atlantic, Nature, Scientific American (Notable Book), Science News, Der Spiegel, Corriere della sera, Boston Globe, Seattle Times, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Publishers Weekly (starred review), Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, Capitol Times [Madison], New York Journal of Books; NPR “Science Friday”; NPR-PRI “To the Best of Our Knowledge”; KUER-NPR “Talk of the West”; Wisconsin Public Radio “University of the Air”; Alaska NPR; CSPAN Book TV; Book Talk, WYPL-Memphis; “Moncrief,” Irish Public Radio.

  • Tucker, H. Pregnant Fictions:  Childbirth and the Fairy Tale in Early-Modern France. Wayne State UP, 2003.

Reviews:  Isis, Romanic Review, Social History of Medicine, South Atlantic Quarterly, Journal of Folklore Research, Marvels & Tales, Choice, H-Net

  • Scott, VM, Tucker, H, eds.  SLA and the Literature Classroom:  Fostering Dialogues. American Association of University Supervisors and Coordinators.  Issues in Language Program Direction.  Heinle & Heinle, 2001.  Reviews:  Modern Language Journal.
  • Tucker, H, ed. Reframing the Early French Fairy Tale. Special Issue of Marvels & Tales, 2005.1

Articles

  • “Life.”  Cahiers du Dix-Septième. 2013. (Editor, special issue, with Jérôme Brillaud)
  • Freedman D, Bess K, Tucker H, Boyd L, Tuchman A, Wallston K.  “Public Health Literary Defined.”  American Journal of Preventative Medicine 36 (2009): 446-451.
  • Tucker, H. “Birth Defects Before Epigenesis.” Clinical Genetics 74 (2008): 338-342.
  • Tucker, H. “Books and Bodies: Early-Modern Medicine and Gender.”  Options for Teaching Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century French Women Writers. Ed. Faith Beasley.  New York:  MLA. (in press)
  • Tucker, H. “Communication Collaboration:  Language, Literature, and Communicative Competence Redefined.” Modern Language Journal 90 (2006): 264-66.
  • Tucker, H. “Fairies, Midwives, and Birth Spaces in the Tales of Mme d’Aulnoy.” Classical Unities:  Place, Time, Action. Ed. Erec R. Koch. Biblio 17. Tübingen:  Gunter Narr Verlag, 2001. 89-94.
  • Tucker, H. “’The Place of the Personal’: The Changing Face of Foreign-Language
  • Literature in a  Standards-Based Curriculum.”  ADFL Bulletin 31 (2000): 53-59.
  • Tucker, H. “Like Mother, Like Daughter: Maternal Cravings and Birthmarks in the Fairy Tales of Mme d’Aulnoy and Mlle de la Force.” French Literature Series. Vol 27. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2000. 33-50.
  • Tucker, H. “Pleasure, Seduction, and Authorial Identity in Charles Sorel’s Le Berger extravagant.” Neophilologus 84 (2000): 347-358.
  • Tucker, H. “’Une Autre de votre ventre: Parodic Musicality in Charles Sorel’s Histoires comiques.”  French Forum 24 (1999): 303-314.
  • Tucker, H. “The Entombment of Lysis:  Degradation, Ostracism, and (Classical) ‘Death’ in Sorel’s Berger extravagant.” Papers on French Seventeenth Century Literature 45 (1996): 511-525.
  • Tucker, H. “Corneille’s Médée:  Gifts of Vengeance.” The French Review 69 (1995): 1-12.

Other

  • Tucker, H.  “Blood Lust: The Early History of Blood Transfusion.”  Scientific American (July 12, 2011 online).
  • Tucker, H., and J. Katz.  “The Misunderstood Leech.”  New Scientist (December 16, 2009).
  • Tucker, H.  “Best Five Books:  Academic Studies of Fairy Tales.”  Wall Street Journal (October 17, 2009),
  • Tucker, H.  “Enigma of a Twenty-Three Year-Old Baby.”  New Scientist (July 23, 2009).
  • Tucker, H. “Trick or Treatment: Alternative Therapy Study.” San Francisco Chronicle (August 24, 2008)
  • Tucker, H. “iBrain Examines Digital Era’s Mind Games” San Francisco Chronicle (October 12, 2008).
  • Tucker, H.  “In Triumph’s Wake” San Francisco Chronicle (December 9, 2009).
  • Tucker, H.  “The Quiet Power of a Family Portrait.”  Christian Science Monitor (July 21, 2008)

Most Recent Invited Talks

  • Queen’s University (Belfast), keynote speaker, “French Medico-Literary Cultures”, March 2018.
  • Florida State University, Humanities Institute (2017)
  • Duke Franklin Institute for the Humanities & Global Health Institute (March 2015)
  • Washington University-Saint Louis, Medical School  (March 2014)
  • Oxford University (July 2012)
  • Nature/MacMillan Publishing Group (June 2012)
  • USA Science and Engineering Festival (April 2012)
  • New York Academy of Medicine (March 2011)
  • University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine (March 2011)
  • University of Utah School of Medicine (March 2011)
  • University of Illinois at Chicago, Biocultures Research Group (March 2011)
  • Newberry Library (March 2011)
  • CUNY Graduate School of Journalism (March 2011)
  • Cleveland State University, Department of History (April 2011)
  • University of California-Berkeley, Department of History; Department of French (April 2011)
  • Johns Hopkins University, Berman Institute for Bioethics (May 2011)
  • World Conference of Science Journalists (Doha, Qatar: June 2011)
  • Emory Center for Ethics (September 2011); Winship Cancer Institute Grand Rounds (September 2011)
  • USC-Huntington Library (September 2011)
  • University of Colorado-Boulder (October 2011)
  • Dean’s Lecture, Vanderbilt University Medical School (December 2011)

Teaching

Vanderbilt University

Masters in Liberal Arts & Science: Narrative Medicine; Medicine and Culture, Antiquity to the Enlightenment.

Center for Medicine, Health & Society: History of Medicine (Antiquity to the Enlightenment); Medicine and Literature; Narrative Medicine.

Department of French & Italian (graduate): The “Scientific Revolution”; Women and Literature in 17th Century France; Medicine and Literature in Early-Modern France; Research Methods (Theory and Practice in Literary Studies); Research Methods (Digital Humanities)

Department of French & Italian (undergraduate): Mind, Body and Soul; Medicine and Literature in Early-Modern France and the New World; French History and Culture (Middle Ages to the Revolution); Age of Louis XIV; Advanced French Grammar and Composition.

Program in Womens’ and Gender Studies (graduate): Introduction to Gender Theory: Graduate Proseminar in Gender Studies

Vanderbilt University Summer Research Program

“18th Century Wax Anatomies–Research at the Wellcome LIbrary for the History of Medicine, London.”  Elizabeth Dangelo, 2012.

“Louise Bourgeois, 17th Century Midwife–Research at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.” Danielle Kruglak, 2010.

“Early-Modern Battlefield Surgical Manuals–Research at the Paris School of Medicine archives.”  Christopher Corbett, 2005.

University Committees/Service

Vanderbilt Medical School

  • Research Mentor: Medical Humanities

Vanderbilt Chancellor/Provost Committees

  • Provost’s Committee for Public Humanities 2017-
  • Chancellor’s Committee on the Humanities  2015-
  • Trans-Institutional Awards Review Panel, Co-Chair 2014-2015
  • Trans-Institutional Research, Institutional Planning Steering Committee  2013-2014
  • Vanderbilt University Press, Editorial Committee  2011-
  • Appellate Board (university) 2010-
  • Commencement Marshall 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007
  • University Library Committee. 1996-1997

College of Arts & Sciences Committees

  • Global Studies Steering Committee 2016-
  • Senior Appointment & Review Committee 2015-2016, 2017-
  • Committtee on Individual Programs 2013-2014
  • A&S Faculty Council 2004-2005; 2011-2012
  • Curriculum Committee 2009-2010
  • College Mentoring Committee 2007-
  • Executive Committee, Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities 2007-2009
  • Associate Director, Center for Medicine, Health & Society 2006-2008
  • Health Professions Advisory Committee, 2006-2008
  • Co-Director, Warren Center Fellows Program 2005-2006 (with Leah Marcus)
  • AXLE Implementation Committee, 2004-2005, 2006-2007
  • Masters of Liberal Arts, Medicine & Literature (summer 2007)
  • College Scholars Program (Faculty Interviews) 1998-
  • International House Advisory Committee 1999-2004
  • Center for European Studies   2001-2004
  • Study Abroad 2002-2004
  • Pre-Major Adviser. 1996-1998, including summers.

Department of French & Italian (recent)

  • Chair, Junior Faculty Mentoring 2017-
  • Faculty Merit Review committee, 2017
  • Italian Curriculum Committee, 2016-2017
  • Study Abroad Committee, 2016-2017

Doctoral Committees

Director:

  • Bonnie Griffin, Ph.D. candidate
  • Caroline Rockefeller, Ph.D. candidate
  • Bérénice Le Marchand (Ph.D., 2004, tenured, University of California-San Francisco)

Reader:

  • Cara Wilson, Ph.D. candidate
  • Kate Devine, Ph.D. candidate
  • Anna Young, Ph.D. candidate (History)
  • Eva Dessein, Ph.D. (2012)
  • Olivia Grenvicz, Ph.D. (2012)
  • Allistaire Tallent, Ph.D. (2004)
  • Lara Semones, Ph.D. (2001)
  • Christie St. John, Ph.D. (1999)
  • Amanda Brooks, Ph.D. (1996)
  • Lara Mangiafico, Ph.D. (1996)
  • Katharine Williams, M.A. (1999)