Jessica Rutherford

Dr. Jessica Rutherford is an assistant professor of Spanish in the department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Central Connecticut State University. She earned her PhD from The Ohio State University in 2017 in colonial Latin American literature and culture. Her research focuses on Indigenous history and culture from the pre-colonial period to the present in Latin/x America, with an emphasis on understanding the past to advocate for social-justice issues at present. Her current book project, Jesuit Missionary Medicine: Encounters with Non-Christian Healers and Spiritual Leaders in Brazil, Mexico, and Japan, 1549-1650, works to trace the way in which Jesuit contributions to developments in early modern medicine in Western Europe largely draw from Indigenous peoples in the Americas and, in the case of Japan, Buddhist practices.