Todd L. Savitt, historian of
medicine, will give a talk titled “Race, Medicine, Scientific Authorship, and
the 'Discovery' of Sickle Cell Anemia” on Monday,
Feb. 16, at 7:30
p.m. in the Nott Memorial.
The
talk, sponsored by the Hewlett Foundation, is free and open to the public.
The first two case histories of
sickle cell anemia appeared in the medical literature within three months of
each other in 1910 and 1911. Circumstances surrounding these cases were
very different. Savitt will identify the physicians and patients and set their
stories in the racial and medical context of early 20th-century America.
Savitt is professor of medical
humanities at Brody School of Medicine, East
Carolina University,
where he specializes in African-American medical history and medical history of
the American West and South. He is coeditor
of Disease and Distinctiveness in the American South.
He is the writer or editor of five
books: Medicine and Slavery: The Diseases and Health Care of Blacks in
Antebellum Virginia; The Dictionary
of American Medical Biography; Science
and Medicine in the Old South; Disease
and Distinctiveness in the American South; and Medical Readers'
Theater: A Guide and Scripts and
articles on the history of sickle-cell anemia, sudden infant death syndrome
(SIDS), use of African Americans for medical experimentation, the entry of
black physicians into the American medical profession, and early
African-American medical schools and medical journals.
A
reception will follow in Hale House.
For more
information, call 388-6233.
(On Tuesday, Feb. 17, at 11:30 a.m. in Reamer Campus Center Auditorium,
Savitt and Union students will be doing a readers'
theater presentation titled “Follow Your Heart,” a story by Dr. Richard Selzer
'48 about the impact of organ donation on the donor's survivors. Readers'
theater offers an opportunity to discuss medical issues of common concern in an
open forum with other citizens and with future physicians. The event is free
and open to the public.)