Nancy Siraisi

{{Redirect|Siraisi|her husband, the Japanese-American artist and designer|Nobuyuki Siraisi}} {{Short description|American historian of medicine (1932–2026)}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Nancy Siraisi | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image = | imagesize = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth year|1932}} | birth_place = Catterick, North Yorkshire, England | death_date = {{death date and given age|2026|4|24|93}} | death_place = | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | other_names = | residence = | citizenship = | fields = Historian of medicine | workplaces = Hunter College | patrons = | alma_mater = University of Oxford, City University of New York | thesis_title =  | thesis_url =  | thesis_year =  | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = | influences = | influenced = | awards = MacArthur Fellows Program | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | spouse = Nobuyuki Siraisi (1961–2016) | partner =  | children = 2 | signature =  | signature_alt = | website =  | footnotes = | birth_name = Nancy Gillian }}

'''Nancy Gillian Siraisi''' (1932 – April 24, 2026) was an American historian of medicine and distinguished professor emerita in history at Hunter College<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/history/faculty_news.shtml|title = Welcome to the History Department — Hunter College| date=9 November 2020 }}</ref> and City University of New York.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www1.cuny.edu/mu/podcasts/2008/11/10/nancy-siraisi-wins-macarthur-award/|title = Nancy Siraisi Wins MacArthur Award – CUNY Podcasts}}</ref>

==Life and career== Siraisi received a B.A. (1953) and an M.A. (1958) from the University of Oxford and a Ph.D. (1970) from the City University of New York. She was a professor of history at Hunter College (1970–2003) and the Graduate Center (1976–2003) at the City University of New York, where she studied under Pearl Kibre.<ref name="Scanlon">Jennifer Scanlon and Shaaron Cosner, eds., [https://books.google.com/books?id=XJSdT_4NWTMC&dq=Pearl+Kibre+Guggenheim&pg=PA131 ''American Women Historians, 1700s-1990s''] (Greenwood Publishing 1996): 131-132. {{ISBN|9780313296642}}</ref>

She was a leading scholar in the history of medicine and science of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Her research ranged widely across these two distinct fields, from her first book on the university curriculum in medieval Padua to her work on the role of doctors in history-writing in the Renaissance.

Through her numerous publications and professional activities, Siraisi contributed to the growth of the history of science and medicine while also fostering the continued close interaction of these fields with "mainstream" history, notably through her faithful teaching of general medieval and Renaissance history and her insistence on careful contextualization.

Siraisi died on April 24, 2026, at the age of 93.<ref>[https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/nytimes/name/nancy-siraisi-obituary?id=61384588 Nancy Siraisi] Legacy. Retrieved 8 May 2026.</ref>

==Awards and honors== * 1997 Elected to the American Philosophical Society<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Nancy+Siraisi&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-12-10|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> * 2003 George Sarton Medal * 2008 MacArthur Fellows Program<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.4537287/k.84A7/Nancy_Siraisi.htm|title = MacArthur Foundation}}</ref> * 2010 Charles Homer Haskins Prize Lecturer by the American Council of Learned Societies.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/abouthunter/faculty_spotlight.shtml |title=About Hunter College |website=www.hunter.cuny.edu |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060519105025/http://hunter.cuny.edu/abouthunter/faculty_spotlight.shtml |archive-date=2006-05-19}} </ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.acls.org/news/Default.aspx?id=4198 |title=ACLS American Council of Learned Societies {{!}} www.acls.org |website=www.acls.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090703043129/http://www.acls.org/news/Default.aspx?id=4198 |archive-date=2009-07-03}} </ref> * 2016 Gustav Neuenschwander Prize<ref>https://eshs.org/gustav-neuenschwander-prize/</ref>

==Works== *''Taddeo Alderotti and His Pupils: Two Generations of Italian Medical Learning'', Books on Demand, 1981, {{ISBN|978-0-7837-9445-7}} *[https://books.google.com/books?id=eQKqbOvg-QQC&q=Nancy+Siraisi ''The clock and the mirror: Girolamo Cardano and Renaissance medicine''], Princeton University Press, 1997, {{ISBN|978-0-691-01189-9}} *[https://books.google.com/books?id=3c0Tn7PnVnYC&q=Nancy+Siraisi ''Medicine and the Italian universities, 1250-1600''], BRILL, 2001, {{ISBN|9789004119420}} *[https://books.google.com/books?id=zgIGVWo_2FkC&q=Nancy+Siraisi ''History, Medicine, and the Traditions of Renaissance Learning''], University of Michigan Press, 2007, {{ISBN|978-0-472-11602-7}} *[https://books.google.com/books?id=6IuHj_lz-nAC&dq=Communities+of+Learned+Experience%3A+Epistolary+Medicine+in+the+Renaissance&pg=PA1550 ''Communities of Learned Experience: Epistolary Medicine in the Renaissance'']. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013, {{ISBN|978-1421407494}} *[https://books.google.com/books?id=acOk-oCuuMsC&q=Nancy+Siraisi ''Natural particulars: nature and the disciplines in Renaissance Europe''], Editors Anthony Grafton, Nancy G. Siraisi, MIT Press, 1999, {{ISBN|978-0-262-07193-2}} *''Historia: empiricism and erudition in early modern Europe'', Editors Gianna Pomata, Nancy G. Siraisi, MIT Press, 2005, {{ISBN|978-0-262-16229-6}}

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Siraisi, Nancy}} Category:1932 births Category:2026 deaths Category:American medical historians Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford Category:Hunter College faculty Category:CUNY Graduate Center faculty Category:CUNY Graduate Center alumni Category:MacArthur Fellows Category:American women historians Category:American historians of science Category:Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America Category:20th-century American women Category:21st-century American women Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society