Reckoning with Race & Racism in Academic Medicine
A symposium at the JHU Institute of the History of Medicine, May 5-6
The legacies of race and racism cast a long shadow on academic medical institutions today. — The Molina Symposium on the History of Medicine
Thursday and Friday of this week, May 5-6, we’ll join our colleagues during a two-day long symposium, “Reckoning with Race & Racism in Academic Medicine.” It’s a hybrid event, so plan to join wherever you are. Or, follow the proceedings on Twitter with the hashtage #RacismReckoningMed22! You won’t want to miss keynote speaker Dr. Dorothy Roberts, Professor of Africana Studies, Sociology, and Law and director of the Program on Race, Science & Society at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Roberts’ talk will be followed by two days of research presentations and policy debates.
The symposium program echoes insights that shed light on work in the Hard Histories Lab. First is how the force of racism at Johns Hopkins is also at work at many of our peer institutions. The symposium is an opportunity to compare our history with that of health systems in cities like Philadelphia and Detroit. Secondly, inquiries into race and racism in academic medicine do not begin or end with the segregation of patients on the wards and in other sites of care. The education and training of health care professionals and the quality of patient care also have been adversely shaped by racism. Again, setting our history at Johns Hopkins alongside that of schools from Howard to Harvard brings into relief the structural dimensions of racism in academic medicine.
Many of you may know the Johns Hopkins history of race and racism in academic medicine through the important story of Mrs. Henrietta Lacks. You can read about the on-campus building project named in honor of Mrs. Lacks here. Our colleagues in the Department of the History of Medicine, Center for Africana Studies, Program for Racism, Immigration, and Citizenship, and the Center for Medical Humanities & Social Medicine aim to share an even broader story that permits us to better understand how the exploitation of Mrs. Lacks fit into structures of inequality at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere.
Today, Johns Hopkins Medicine promises that it will “Embrace and value different backgrounds, opinions and experiences.” This week’s symposium reminds us what a new and ambitous objective this is for our institution and for academic medicine more generally. This week’s probing look at our past sets the stage for how we might arrive at a different future.
— MSJ.