Maria Mercedes G. Planta is a Professor of History at the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP), UP Diliman. She was educated at the University of the Philippines (UP) and the National University of Singapore (NUS), where she obtained her Ph.D in History as a full scholar. Her book, Traditional Medicine in the Colonial Philippines, 16th to the 19th Century (University of the Philippines Press, 2017) won the 2018 Philippine National Book Award for Science, from the National Book Development Board and the Manila Critics' Circle. 

She was a Visiting...