Noted author to discuss 'Medical Apartheid' at WestConn
Black History Month event sheds light on shameful history
DANBURY, CONN. — Author and bioethicist Harriet Washington will discuss her award-winning book “Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present” at Western Connecticut State University as one of several events in celebration of Black History Month this month.
The discussion will be at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 20, in the Student Center Theater. It will be followed by a book signing and reception in the Faculty Dining Room. Both events are in the Student Center on WestConn’s Midtown campus, 181 White St. in Danbury. Admission will be free and the public is invited. Washington’s book will be available for purchase.
The first and only comprehensive history of “racial pseudoscience,” Washington’s book profiles the medical atrocities perpetrated upon black citizens from the slavery era to the more recent U.S. Public Health Service’s syphilis experiments in Tuskegee, Ala.
Washington has written for the Harvard Public Health Review and The New England Journal of Medicine. She also has served as a fellow in ethics at the Harvard Medical School and as a senior research scholar at the National Center for Bioethics at Tuskegee University. “Medical Apartheid” is the nonfiction winner of the 2007 PEN Oakland Award and the 2007 American Library Association Black Caucus Award. It is a finalist for the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award.
Dr. Bryan Samuel, director of WestConn’s Office of Multicultural Affairs, said Washington’s talk is the first in a series of upcoming lectures at the university about diversity.
“The Diversity Lecture Series will bring a broad spectrum of scholars, activists, performers, historical figures and professionals to campus to speak on the many prevalent issues along the diversity continuum,” Samuel said. “The series will serve to augment the curriculum experience and extend learning opportunities beyond the boundaries of the classroom. By providing the campus community programming with real world application, we can enhance our understanding, awareness and appreciation of the importance of diversity issues affecting our world.”
Future speakers in the series will include: Dr. Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, the Courtney Sale Ross University Professor of Globalization and Education at The Steinhardt School of Education, New York University; and Dr. Michelle Williams, associate professor of psychology and African American studies at the University of Connecticut, who will speak about race-related stress and campus violence.
In addition to support from WestConn’s Office of Multicultural Affairs, Washington’s lecture is sponsored by the School of Professional Studies, the department of education and educational psychology, the Honors Council and the University Enrichment Fund.
For more information, call the Office of Multicultural Affairs at (203) 837-8278 or the Office of University Relations at (203) 837-8486.
