Kristin Hussey

Postdoctoral Researcher

My work at Medical Museion
I am a postdoctoral researcher (or postdoc) at Medical Museion and the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research (CBMR) working on a project called Body Time . This interdisciplinary project brings together science, culture, history, and philosophy to think about circadian rhythms – the 24-hour cycles which drive our lives. I collaborate closely with chronobiologists at CBMR, in particular the Zierath and Gerhart-Hines groups.

I am especially interested in what I call ‘rhythmic history’ – or the idea that we can use rhythms and rhythmic disruption as a lens for interrogating the interface of body and environment in the past. My research focuses on the 19th and 20th centuries where the pressures of the ‘modern world’ led to increasing disruptions of daily rhythms in sleeping and eating. I also study the historical development of chronobiology as a scientific practice, with a special interest in early time isolation experiment sin the 1950s and 1960s. My research aims to bring temporality into conversation with the history of science and medicine.

I am also a curator and I have been involved in a number of exhibition projects while at Medical Museion including Z-Time (2020) and The World is in You (2021).

My background
I have an interdisciplinary background as a curator and a historian of science and medicine. I have an MA in Art Gallery and Museum Studies from the University of Manchester and I followed this with a number of collections and curatorial roles at institutions like the Science Museum in London, the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, and the Royal College of Physicians Museum. I gained my PhD from Queen Mary University of London in 2018 in the School of Geography, where my project ‘Imperial Mobilities’ explored imperial medical knowledges and practices in late nineteenth and early twentieth century London. I joined the Medical Museion and CBMR in my current role as a postdoctoral researcher in 2019.

My first book ‘Imperial Bodies in London: Empire, Mobility and the Making of British Medicine, 1880-1914) (UPitt Press) was published in 2021.

Collaborations
I would be very interested to hear from researchers and artists who work with themes around time and temporality, sleep and sleeplessness in its historical and cultural contexts, and light / electricity and health.

Supervision

I am open to supervising BA student projects from the SUND faculty on subjects in the history of science and medicine in the modern period.

Keywords

Temporality, circadian rhythm, medicine, knowledge, empire, sleep, digestion, physiology

Timeless Spaces: Cave experiments in chronobiology

Kristin Hussey

Ask a chronobiologists about the history of the discipline, and you find that specific places are central to it.

august 1, 2022

Still from Time Animals – Isabella Martin, 2021

Curating Time

Kristin Hussey

What does time mean to you? Is it the ticking of a clock? The rhythm of a dance? The oscillation of a cell?

september 1, 2021

Vi har brug for dig. Deltag i vores spørgeundersøgelse

Kristin Hussey

I forbindelse med den kommende udstilling Verden er i dig har vi brug for at høre fra publikum. Hvad er forbundethed for dig? Hvor vigtig synes du, videnskab er? Foretrækker du historiske objekter eller samtidskunst?

februar 17, 2021

Chronobiologists leave the labs between experiments, Isabella Martin, 2020.

Z-Time Online! Announcing our newest web exhibition

Kristin Hussey

A reflection on curating the Z-time digital exhibition during a COVID 19 lockdown

februar 12, 2021

Z-Time: The art and science of circadian rhythms

Kristin Hussey

We are very excited to announce the launch a new pop-up display in collaboration with artist Isabella Martin called Z-Time: The art and science of circadian rhythms. This new display is an opportunity to share the process of developing a collaborative artwork exploring the science of circadian rhythms. The pop-up, created by Isabella Martin and Museion researcher Kristin Hussey, presents the workings of creating a piece of video art responding to the work of chronobiologists at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research (CBMR).

november 6, 2020

Laughing at (with?) science

Kristin Hussey

The lockdown has brought many challenges but one of its unexpected benefits has been the growth of digital conferences, lectures and events that allow us to tune in no matter where we are in the world. My favorite science comedy night in London, Science Showoff, even moved itself to the virtual world, and last week I took the opportunity to present my own comedy ‘set’ about my work with circadian scientists at CBMR.

juni 26, 2020

The eternal quest for a good night’s sleep

Kristin Hussey

The lockdown seems to have only intensified our obsession with our sleep and how to sleep better – if the proliferation of sleep tracking apps is anything to go by. And while all of this might seem very modern, people have actually been worrying about how to get a good night’s sleep for a very long time.

juni 9, 2020

Saving the Sunshine: Health, Chronobiology and Daylight Saving Time

Kristin Hussey

As we approach the end of March, many countries around the world from Mongolia to Paraguay to Greenland are preparing to ‘spring forward’ and move the clocks forward an hour. Each year, Daylight Savings Time (DST) brings with it passionate debates about whether it should be scrapped or retained. And in 2019, the EU member states voted to stop the observance of DST from 2021 – making this (possibly) the last year that the seasonal time change will be observed in Denmark.

marts 28, 2020

Body Time: The rhythms that make us human

Kristin Hussey

If I told you that I studied circadian rhythms, it probably wouldn’t mean very much to you. What about ‘chronobiology’? The biology part is easy enough, the study of living things, but what about ‘chrono’? These scientific names obscure a simple fact about being human that most of us take for granted – that our daily lives are governed by time.