Dr. Amy Wiese Forbes spoke today at the National Library of Medicine on “Medical Identity and Ethnicity in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans.” Dr. Forbes is Associate Professor of History and Director of European Studies at Millsaps College.Circulating Now interviewed her about her work.

Circulating Now: Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from? What do you do? What is your typical workday like?

Amy Forbes: I was born and raised in Louisiana.  We lived in Baton Rouge, but had family and friends in New Orleans, and I developed an early interest in the city’s history.  Growing up, I read about the things I saw:  French immigration and influence, the famous above-ground cemeteries, and, of course, the popular stories of Voudun practioners.  In college, courses in French history made institutions like European carnival seem deceptively familiar, and challenged me to set them in cultural context.  When I went to…