Mau­ra Spiegel is a born and bred New York­er, and has been teach­ing lit­er­a­ture and film at Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty for over two decades. She is co-direc­tor of the Divi­sion of Nar­ra­tive Med­i­cine at Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege of Physi­cians and Sur­geons, where she teach­es film to first year med­ical stu­dents. She has pub­lished arti­cles on many sub­jects includ­ing the his­to­ry of the emo­tions, Charles Dick­ens, Vic­to­ri­an fash­ion and film, and dia­monds in the movies.