Race, Health, & Society Seminar Notes, April 19, 2001
 

What We Thought of "Spinning Into Butter"

-Too simplistic  dialogue, characters
-What did it mean that the major protagonist was posting the notes himself?
-How did we take it that the play focused on the "white people" when the African American student didn't appear?

Notes from Discussion of "Building the Color Line" by Joanne Brown, visitor and presenter from Dickonson College

What is the use of Scholarship on Race and Medicine?  Brown noted her reluctance to publish the article because it seemed to support the logic of segregation.

Does Genetics make "difference" unsolvable?  Does it reduce difference to biology?

What are we to make of the "different languages" of health and public history?  What does it mean to have Public Health and History learn from one another?   How about the relation of public health and culture to other forms of expression, eg. the Blues Songs of Tuberculosis?  How does method function in the disciplines of history and public health?  How do historians select evidence?

Segregation of Priorities in Medicine=Segregation of groups in society.

What about the end of segregation that came about about the same time as the rise of antibiotics?

How has race factored into public health in history, eg. the "Irish Race" in Boston?