S.3 E.4 // Anandabai Joshee's Thesis: The First Feminist Medical Ethnography?

Anandibai Joshee was the first South Asian woman to receive a degree in Western medicine in 1886 from the Women's College of Medicine of Pennsylvania, now known as the Drexel University School of Medicine. This speculative history and experimental audio piece by Mariam Rizvi brings life to the words of Anandibai's revolutionary 1886 thesis, exploring the dreams she carried for the field of obstetrics in Philadelphia in what may have been the very first insider feminist medical ethnography recorded in history.

This episode was written, recorded, and produced by Mariam Rizvi as part of Reckoning and Repair Season 3, "Black reproduction & justice in Philly," a set of immersive oral histories and multimedia figurations that engage with reproductive justice in Philly,  drawing from the "Reproduction, Justice, and Care: Listening in Philly" course co-taught by Dr. Alissa Jordan and Dr. Daniela Brissett at the University of Pennsylvania.

For episode extras, and to learn more about the artists, hosts, and organizations involved, check out the Reckoning and Repair website: rnrphilly.com

Reckoning and Repair is part multimedia counter-archive, part laboratory, for telling stories and listening to stories in cities. Each season traces stories of resistance to (and repair from) the enduring and specific legacies of exclusion/withholding/erasure that haunt our cities. Through immersive oral histories and collaborative storytelling, student scholars, activists, and creatives illuminate the slow, difficult, yet vital work of accountability and healing in haunted worlds. The project is directed by Dr. Alissa Jordan at the Center for Experimental Ethnography at the University of Pennyslvania. ​