Erin Newton to Deliver Burkhardt Lecture on Tactile Healing
The Burkhardt Lecture Series features work by members of the history department at Knox College.
Erin Newton, visiting assistant professor of history at Knox College, will give the Burkhardt Lecture, titled “Tactile Healing: Educating Mothers and Nurses in Meiji Japan," at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 19. The lecture will take place in the Alumni Room of Old Main on the Knox College campus and is free and open to the public.
Newton is a historian of modern Japanese history. She has a B.A. in international affairs and Japanese language and literature from George Washington University, an M.A. in Asian studies and women and gender studies from the University of Texas at Austin, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago.
Newton’s lecture centers on Japanese medical history, specifically examining how education for mothers was connected to training for nurses. “On one hand, you had mothers—often called Meiji Mothers—who were learning how to care for colds, coughs, and other common ailments at home. On the other hand, nurses were being trained to assist with tasks like holding patients for vaccinations, preparing them for setting limbs, and helping with surgery when necessary,” Newton said. “The lecture explores how all these practices were oriented around touch, a sense that women were encouraged to refine for the sake of health during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.”
The Burkhardt Lecture Series features work by members of the history department at Knox College. Newton’s lecture was sponsored by the Edgar S. and Ruth W. Burkhardt Fund for History, established by Knox College alumni Richard and Dorothy Burkhardt, both Class of 1939, in memory of Mr. Burkhardt's parents.
Published on February 16, 2026
- Scott Holland, Knox College Office of Communications