William Bynum Prize 2021 announcement

Medical History is delighted to announce Manikarnika Dutta’s essay, titled ‘Cholera, British seamen and maritime anxieties in Calcutta, c.1830s-1890s’ as the winner of the William Bynum Prize 2021. 

The award is welcomed by Professor Bill Bynum, who had this to say about this work: 

‘This rich study, well researched and jargon-free, reminds how much there is to be learned about even a subject as well researched as cholera. By concentrating on seamen, the author contributes to the important topic of occupational health (and disease), and to development of port city health strategies. The range of voices that are present here is also welcome, and I thought the theme of contaminated water as a vehicle of spread was especially well handled. The internal themes in the essay are appropriate and reinforce the paper’s central messages. This is an admirable piece of narrative history.’ 

All in the Medical History editorial office and Cambridge University Press offer our congratulations to Dr. Dutta. 

The essay appears in the most recent issue of the journal, which appears online and in print, in October 2021. 

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Sanjoy Bhattacharya, Editor, Medical History, and Professor of the History of Medicine, University of York, UK