Why the History of Medicine Matters in Birthing Justice
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.
More events
Fall 2025 Meeting of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry
Invited speakers will present on topics ranging from medieval medicine to modern climate science.
School Lunch Tour
This interactive drop-in tour reveals how food scientists, the government, and the public have shaped in-school nutrition.
Stories of Science: Spooky Science
Join us in our museum EVERY SATURDAY for a family-friendly program that highlights strange and surprising stories from the history of science!