Claire Bubb holds a Ph.D. in Classical Philology from Harvard University (2014). Her doctoral dissertation, “Galen’s Anatomy: Audience and Context,” explored the identity and motivations of the surprisingly broad audience at which Galen’s technical text, “On Anatomical Procedures,” was aimed. She received her BA in Classics: Greek and Latin from Brown University (2006), where she also completed the undergraduate half of the Program in Liberal Medical Education. Her research centers on ancient medicine and science, with a particular focus on Galen and his contemporaries; her academic interests also include Aristotle, the literature of the second century AD, and education and childhood in antiquity.
While at ISAW, Claire will be developing a project that considers the prevalence and social significance of scientific and medical interest among educated Greek and Roman laymen in the first and second centuries AD. She approaches the question both by detailed analyses of selected literary authors and by consideration of the complimentary role of contemporary intellectual and social trends, such as the Second Sophistic, the use of philosophical study as a marker of elite status, and the burgeoning popularity of religious healing cults.