Sarah Ferber | University of Wollongong (original) (raw)

Sarah Ferber

Professor Sarah Ferber is an historian of early modern European religious history, contemporary religion, and modern medicine and bioethics. She is currently writing a general history of demonology and witchcraft in early modern Western Europe and its colonies.

Email: sferber@uow.edu.au
Phone: +61(0)409 123 992

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Papers by Sarah Ferber

Research paper thumbnail of As Sure As Eggs? Responses to an Ethical Question Posed by Abramov, Elchalal, and Schenker

The Journal of Clinical Ethics

Research paper thumbnail of Ecstasy, Possession, Witchcraft

The Witchcraft Reader, 2019

Research paper thumbnail of Possession Sanctified: the case of Marie Des Valles

Research paper thumbnail of REFORMED OR RECYCLED ? Possession and Exorcism in the Sacramental Life of Early Modern France

Werewolves, Witches, and Wandering Spirits, 2002

Research paper thumbnail of ‘Miracle in Iowa’: Metaphor, analogy, and anachronism in the history of bioethics

Monash Bioethics Review, 2004

The term 'bioethics' is commonly associated with debates prompted by innovations ... more The term 'bioethics' is commonly associated with debates prompted by innovations in medical technology, yet the issues raised by bioethics are not that new. They concern the extent to which medicine and social morality exist in harmony or opposition--issues routinely addressed in the social history of medicine. This paper will argue that historical thinking, understood broadly, has a significant role to play in understanding relations between medicine and social morality, and therefore in contemporary bioethics. It explores past and present uses of metaphor and analogy in shaping perceptions of scientific innovation, and argues for the validity of apparently anachronistic thinking in our judgments of the past. The aims of this paper are ultimately pedagogical: to enable students to look at media reports about developments in medicine and biotechnology in order to problematise what are presented as the self-evident terms of current debate.

Research paper thumbnail of The body divided: human beings and human \u27material\u27 in modern medical history

Bodies and body parts of the dead have long been considered valuable material for use in medical ... more Bodies and body parts of the dead have long been considered valuable material for use in medical science. Over time and in different places, they have been dissected, autopsied, investigated, harvested for research and therapeutic purposes, collected to turn into museum and other specimens, and then displayed, disposed of, and exchanged. This book examines the history of such activities, from the early nineteenth century through to the present, as they took place in hospitals, universities, workhouses, asylums and museums in England, Australia and elsewhere. Through a series of case studies, the volume reveals the changing scientific, economic and emotional value of corpses and their contested place in medical science

Research paper thumbnail of Into the Dark Night and Back: The Mystical Writings of Jean-Joseph Surin

Into the Dark Night and Back, 2018

Research paper thumbnail of Joanna Radin, Life on Ice: A History of New Uses for Cold Blood (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017), pp. 288, $40.00, hardback, ISBN: 9780226417318

Research paper thumbnail of Bioethics: The historical questions remain valid

The Brisbane Line, 2005

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Research paper thumbnail of Tom Koch, Thieves of Virtue: When Bioethics Stole Medicine

Social History of Medicine, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of The body divided in time and place: an introductory essay

Research paper thumbnail of Exorcism and Mental Illness FAQs

FAQs, for journalists writing about exorcism and other interested people.

Research paper thumbnail of Charcot's Demons.pdf

Research paper thumbnail of Cultivating Charisma Elisabeth de Ranfaing and the Medailliste cult in 17th century Lorraine

Research paper thumbnail of Clinical ethics and ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome.pdf

Research paper thumbnail of Ferber and Howe - The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Devil -.pdf

Research paper thumbnail of Follow link to SBS TV Australia, 'Inner Demons – suburban exorcists'

Research paper thumbnail of Delivering demons, punishing wives: False imprisonment, exorcism and other matrimonial duties in a late 20th-century manslaughter case

Punishment & Society, 2005

Abstract This article provides an analysis of R v Vollmer and Others, Australia's most famou... more Abstract This article provides an analysis of R v Vollmer and Others, Australia's most famous 'exorcism-manslaughter' case, in which a woman, Joan Vollmer, underwent an 'exorcism' performed by four people, resulting in her death. We examine how taken-for-granted distinctions ...

Research paper thumbnail of On the reintroduction of thalidomide - for theconversation.com

Research paper thumbnail of The Body Divided - Introduction

Research paper thumbnail of As Sure As Eggs? Responses to an Ethical Question Posed by Abramov, Elchalal, and Schenker

The Journal of Clinical Ethics

Research paper thumbnail of Ecstasy, Possession, Witchcraft

The Witchcraft Reader, 2019

Research paper thumbnail of Possession Sanctified: the case of Marie Des Valles

Research paper thumbnail of REFORMED OR RECYCLED ? Possession and Exorcism in the Sacramental Life of Early Modern France

Werewolves, Witches, and Wandering Spirits, 2002

Research paper thumbnail of ‘Miracle in Iowa’: Metaphor, analogy, and anachronism in the history of bioethics

Monash Bioethics Review, 2004

The term 'bioethics' is commonly associated with debates prompted by innovations ... more The term 'bioethics' is commonly associated with debates prompted by innovations in medical technology, yet the issues raised by bioethics are not that new. They concern the extent to which medicine and social morality exist in harmony or opposition--issues routinely addressed in the social history of medicine. This paper will argue that historical thinking, understood broadly, has a significant role to play in understanding relations between medicine and social morality, and therefore in contemporary bioethics. It explores past and present uses of metaphor and analogy in shaping perceptions of scientific innovation, and argues for the validity of apparently anachronistic thinking in our judgments of the past. The aims of this paper are ultimately pedagogical: to enable students to look at media reports about developments in medicine and biotechnology in order to problematise what are presented as the self-evident terms of current debate.

Research paper thumbnail of The body divided: human beings and human \u27material\u27 in modern medical history

Bodies and body parts of the dead have long been considered valuable material for use in medical ... more Bodies and body parts of the dead have long been considered valuable material for use in medical science. Over time and in different places, they have been dissected, autopsied, investigated, harvested for research and therapeutic purposes, collected to turn into museum and other specimens, and then displayed, disposed of, and exchanged. This book examines the history of such activities, from the early nineteenth century through to the present, as they took place in hospitals, universities, workhouses, asylums and museums in England, Australia and elsewhere. Through a series of case studies, the volume reveals the changing scientific, economic and emotional value of corpses and their contested place in medical science

Research paper thumbnail of Into the Dark Night and Back: The Mystical Writings of Jean-Joseph Surin

Into the Dark Night and Back, 2018

Research paper thumbnail of Joanna Radin, Life on Ice: A History of New Uses for Cold Blood (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017), pp. 288, $40.00, hardback, ISBN: 9780226417318

Research paper thumbnail of Bioethics: The historical questions remain valid

The Brisbane Line, 2005

skip nav. ...

Research paper thumbnail of Tom Koch, Thieves of Virtue: When Bioethics Stole Medicine

Social History of Medicine, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of The body divided in time and place: an introductory essay

Research paper thumbnail of Exorcism and Mental Illness FAQs

FAQs, for journalists writing about exorcism and other interested people.

Research paper thumbnail of Charcot's Demons.pdf

Research paper thumbnail of Cultivating Charisma Elisabeth de Ranfaing and the Medailliste cult in 17th century Lorraine

Research paper thumbnail of Clinical ethics and ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome.pdf

Research paper thumbnail of Ferber and Howe - The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Devil -.pdf

Research paper thumbnail of Follow link to SBS TV Australia, 'Inner Demons – suburban exorcists'

Research paper thumbnail of Delivering demons, punishing wives: False imprisonment, exorcism and other matrimonial duties in a late 20th-century manslaughter case

Punishment & Society, 2005

Abstract This article provides an analysis of R v Vollmer and Others, Australia's most famou... more Abstract This article provides an analysis of R v Vollmer and Others, Australia's most famous 'exorcism-manslaughter' case, in which a woman, Joan Vollmer, underwent an 'exorcism' performed by four people, resulting in her death. We examine how taken-for-granted distinctions ...

Research paper thumbnail of On the reintroduction of thalidomide - for theconversation.com

Research paper thumbnail of The Body Divided - Introduction

Research paper thumbnail of Sarah Ferber, Nicola J. Marks and Vera Mackie, IVF and Assisted Reproduction: A Global History, Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.

Research paper thumbnail of Bioethics in Historical Perspective - Introduction

Palgrave MacMillan, 2013. Reproduced with permission of Palgrave Macmillan. This material may no... more Palgrave MacMillan, 2013. Reproduced with permission of Palgrave Macmillan. This material may not be copied or reproduced without permission from Palgrave Macmillan

Research paper thumbnail of Reproductive Studies and the Institutional Value of Disciplinary Awareness - GUINEIS Journal Vol VI

GUINEIS Journal: An interdisciplinary journal of North East India Studies, Volume VI, 2019, pp. 9-21 , 2019

Research paper thumbnail of IVF and Assisted Reproduction: Why a Global History?

History Workshop Online, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of Where the Domestic Meets the Global: Writing the History of Assisted Reproduction

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