On Monday, March 12th Confer Hall, Dr. Helen King gave a lecture to Gustavus faculty and students about how classical myths are being altered and changed even today, especially with the aid of the internet and the way that we instantly communicate news today.

King is currently a visiting professor at The Open University in the United Kingdom and studies ancient Greek and Roman medicine and how it is perceived in today’s society.

She is a part of the Rydell Professorship, which was started in 1993 by Drs. Robert E. and Susan T. Rydell.

“The Rydell Professorship is a scholar-in-residence program designed to bring Nobel laureates and similarly distinguished scholars to the campus as catalysts to enhance learning and teaching,” Classics and Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies Professor Yurie Hong said.

Hong is a big supporter of this program in which Gustavus students are given the incredible opportunity to meet with scholars for a long period of time.

“What’s so incredible about it is that scholars don’t just fly in, give a lecture, and then fly out. They’re around for a good chunk of time, which allows them to have contact with a much broader swath of the campus community and deepens the relationship they forge in ways that just aren’t possible when you meet someone once. The impact is exponential,” Hong said.

On March 12, King spoke about a troubling piece of false information about the Greek physician, Hippocrates on a Wikipedia page.

Her lecture centered around the ability of misinformation to be spread to multiple sources, even some that are seemingly reliable, thanks to the internet and the fact that news can be shared instantly.

“She pulled back the curtain on how Wikipedia pages get constructed and edited. She shared some quotes from the conversations that she and editors were having about a completely made up story that somehow got onto the Hippocrates Wikipedia page about him being imprisoned for practicing medicine…and I loved that she talked, not just about the fact that the story was wrong, but why people seemed invested in repeating it and how they adapted it to justify their own ideas about personal health and rebelling against authority,” Hong said.

Many students attended the lecture and were excited for what. King had to say and one student in particular, Junior Stephanie Nguyen, was happy to be able to see.

King again after spending time with her at The Nobel Conference, held at Gustavus, back in October of 2017.

“I hosted Helen for The Nobel Conference. She’ll be coming back…now and in April,” Nguyen said.

Both the faculty and students were grateful and eager to hear. King speak on a topic that she is so educated and passionate about along with. King’s enthusiastic and entertaining delivery.

“…Professor King’s energy, wit, and humor. Man, that was a good time. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much during a lecture before,” Hong said.
In addition to hearing about the classics, Nguyen was interested in the combination of medicine and classical history.

“…Professor King’s energy, wit, and humor. Man that was a good time. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much during a lecture before.”

“I’m a [Biology] and Classics major and she’s a Classicist who focuses on ancient medicine so it…ties in the two, which makes me really excited,” Nguyen said.

King’s lecture made some who attended question whether or not they were using the right tactics to double check sources and perform even more accurate and thorough research.

First year Xavier Sanga enjoyed the reminder to question the rate of accuracy when it comes to researching for classes.

“I really though it was interesting how, since there was wrong information on this page, it had been spread around in different sources and expanded to be even more wrong. It makes me question the validity of any source,” Sanga said.

Hong was also interested in the point. King repeated to investigate even seemingly reliable sources.

“…she talked about how misinformation spreads not only online but also into print and how hard it is to stamp it out.

It brought home all the more clearly how important it is for all of us to be critical readers and thinkers.

Fake news is not a new problem, but the internet has definitely changed the game and raised the stakes,” Hong said.