Student Voices: Lauren Danielowski on Historian Pamela Long

This blog post was written by Lauren Danielowski (IAC 2014-15) on the symposium discussion by Pamela Long, a historian of science and technology.

The International Arts and Culture (IAC) and Science, Health, and Medicine (SHM) cohorts had a collaborative symposium with MacArthur fellow Pamela Long, a Historian of Science and Technology who is currently writing a book about 16th century Roman infrastructure.

I found her job to be extremely interesting because she had such a strong sense of numerous disciplines, especially architecture, engineering, and history. I think that a true mastery of any discipline is only achieved when you can effectively integrate it with another discipline completely unlike the other and then are able to articulate these conjoined ideas to a large audience that is not as informed about these subjects. Pamela Long spoke with great passion about her research in 16th century Roman architecture and overall infrastructure, and the various challenges and opportunities that presented themselves throughout her career were both interesting and inspiring. I could never imagine going from an engineering major to a career in historical writing! Starting on a path to medicine in her undergraduate career and eventually earning her PhD in history, Ms. Long showed us that often your greatest work may not come until later in life and that it is possible to combine such diverse interests into a meaningful career.