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Full text release has been delayed at the author's request until July 26, 2029

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Serology & the State: A Cultural History of the Wassermann

Olthaus, Casey Renee
http://orcid.org/0009-0006-5892-7775
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1721996559423547

Abstract Details

2024, Master of Arts, Miami University, History.
This thesis argues for an interdisciplinary examination of the origins and subsequent appearance of the Wassermann blood test, the first test developed for detecting syphilis, in eugenics initiatives and medicolegal mandates. When this seemingly impartial medical tool intersected with preexisting social and cultural biases regarding syphilis its story became one of blood purity initiatives for the preservation and proliferation of white normativity. Reframing the Wassermann as more than a passive medical tool highlights how ostensibly impartial medical processes can produce institutional violence in masculinized spaces of control. While the Wassermann offered a source of hope for protecting against syphilitic infection, in application, the serodiagnostic tool served as a source of scientific validation when misapplied as a quantifiable method for justifying medicolegal interventions in the 20th century US. This examination traces the bioethical legacy of the Wassermann from its 1906 development in Berlin to its appearance in eugenics-based legal mandates in the US. Through an analysis of scientific publications and court records at archives across the East Coast this paper centers those who didn’t benefit from the Wassermann and investigates how scientific authority derived from an imperfect diagnostic test was harnessed to reproduce and reinforce the sociocultural biases that linger today.
Kimberly Hamlin (Advisor)
Madelyn Detloff (Committee Member)
Amanda McVety (Committee Member)
63 p.
American History; European History; Gender; History; Law; Medical Ethics; Medicine; Public Health; Science History; Technology; Womens Studies
Wassermann; syphilis; serology; serodiagnostic; blood test; eugenics; social history; cultural history; Neisser; Morrow; Fournier; laboratory; United States; Germany; Carrie Buck; science; technology; medicine; public health; bioethics; gender; health; law; medicine; technology; sexuality

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Olthaus, C. R. (2024). Serology & the State: A Cultural History of the Wassermann [Master's thesis, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1721996559423547

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Olthaus, Casey. Serology & the State: A Cultural History of the Wassermann. 2024. Miami University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1721996559423547.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Olthaus, Casey. "Serology & the State: A Cultural History of the Wassermann." Master's thesis, Miami University, 2024. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1721996559423547

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

miami1721996559423547
© 2024, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Miami University and OhioLINK.