Gideon De Laune Lecture and Monckton Copeman Lecture

Last Updated on 12/09/2026

Gideon De Laune Lecture: Plague and the Global War on Rats – by Prof Christos Lynteris

Monckton Copeman Lecture: History of wax anatomical models and how they have contributed, from the 17th century onwards by Dr Roberta Ballestriero

Society Members: Lecture & Drinks £20 / Lecture & Supper £60
Non-Members: Lecture & Drinks £25 / Lecture & Supper £65

Presenting Plague and the Global War on Rats (Gideon De Laune Lecture)
To be given by Prof Christos Lynteris

Rats are today seen as a sine qua non of plague, but this is a very recent idea. The lecture explores how the rat became understood as a carrier and spreader of the disease. Contesting that this was simply the result of scientific discoveries, Christos Lynteris unravels this story by focusing on the Third Plague Pandemic, a global outbreak of bubonic plague between 1894 and the 1950s that claimed an estimated 15 million lives and transformed the world in complex and enduring ways. Weaving together of epidemiological reasoning and imagination, the lecture will shed new light to the ways we have approached the relation between plague and rats.

Christos Lynteris is Professor of Medical Anthropology at the University of St Andrews. His research focuses on the anthropological and historical examination of epidemics with a particular focus on zoonotic diseases, and colonial medicine. He is the author of 6 books, the most recent of which is How Plague Got Rats: Mastering a Zoonotic Pandemic (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2026).

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Presenting History of wax anatomical models and how they have contributed, from the 17th century onwards, to the development of medical education (Monckton Copeman Lecture)
To be given by Dr Roberta Ballestriero

History of wax anatomical models and how they have contributed, from the 17th century onwards, to the development of medical education.