NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Cancer was considered a disease that primarily
struck women and Anglo-Americans at the beginning of the 20th century.
By 1999, it appeared to have crossed the color and sex lines to become
ever more deadly to men and minorities.
Was this perception real, or a measure of changing social attitudes about sex, race and disease?
On
Wednesday, Feb. 18, professor Keith Wailoo of the history department at
Rutgers University will explore those issues during a lecture sponsored
by the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities at Vanderbilt
University.
The 1 p.m. lecture in Room C-2209 of the Medical
Center North building at Vanderbilt University Medical Center is free
and open to the public. It is titled "How Cancer Crossed the Color
Line: The Strange Career of Race and Disease in America."
"This
lecture offers an overview of this history, along with an exploration
and analysis of how this transformation occurred and what this strange
history reveals about race, ethnicity, disease and risk in America,"
Wailoo said.
The lecture by Wailoo is sponsored by the
2003/2004 Fellows Program at the Robert Penn Warren Center for the
Humanities, which is examining the theme "Medicine, Health and
Society."
Wailoo is the author of Dying in the City of the Blues: Sickle Cell Anemia and the Politics of Race and Health.
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
Jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu