Deirdre Cooper Owens is a historian of medicine working at the intersection of science, race, and gender. She is the Charles and Linda Wilson Professor in the History of Medicine and director of the Humanities in Medicine program at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, as well as a distinguished lecturer for the Organization of American Historians (OAH).

Cooper Owens also serves as director of the Program in African American History at the Library Company of Philadelphia, the oldest cultural institution in the United States. Her first book, Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology (University of Georgia Press, 2017) won the 2018 Darlene Clark Hine Book Award in African American women’s and gender history.


Cooper Owens’s Lunchtime Lecture is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of the Institute’s Innate: How Science Invented the Myth of Race project.

About the Series

Our virtual Lunchtime Lecture Series is for scholars and anyone curious about the history of science, technology, and medicine. Topics range from rigorous to entertaining, and help expand perceptions of the nature of science and how it’s done.

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May 9, 2026
For Families

Stories of Science: Fireworks!

Spend your Saturday exploring the sparkling and explosive history of fireworks!

May 11, 2026
Science on Tap

Explosive History: Telling the Story of Fireworks at the U.S. 250th

How do you bring something dangerous, something explosive, something ephemeral, into a physical museum?

guests and guides gathered near Object Explorer for touch tour
May 12, 2026
Museum Programs & Activities

From Nature to Nylons: A Touch-Based History of Textiles

This private learning experience combines a personally guided exploration of select gallery exhibits and a hands-on study of objects.

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