Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Assistant Professor of History, will give public talk at Temple University. In 2016, “wellness” is a familiar feel-good label slapped on everything from smoothies and school lunch programs to swanky real estate developments. But it was not always so. Historian and wellness advocate Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Ph.D., explains where our current wellness fascination originated and how it’s grown into a massive movement that bafflingly unites libertarian businessmen, the yoga-and-organic food set, soccer moms, and public health advocates, (among others) while alienating a smaller but similarly diverse set. Historical and contemporary research illuminates what potential wellness – a concept ubiquitous but poorly understood – has to make our lives both better and worse.
