Disparities in health care based on race and culture will be discussed
during a three-day conference at Vanderbilt University that will bring
participants from the United States, Canada and Europe to campus.
The “Rethinking Inequities and Differences in Medicine”
interdisciplinary conference will be held April 29 to May 1. Events
will be held in 208 Light Hall (1161 21st Ave. S.) on April 29 and 30
and in Room 118 of the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural
Center (2301 Vanderbilt Place) on May 1.
Events are free and open to the public, with the exception of small
charges for two lunches and a dinner. Attendees must register by April
23 at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/mhs/Inequalities-Conference.htm.
The conference is sponsored by the Center for Medicine, Health and
Society and the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, both of
Vanderbilt. It developed out of the 2003-2004 Warren Center
Fellows Program, whose topic was Medicine, Health, and Society.
“Over the last decade, two interconnected issues have occupied a
rapidly growing place in social studies of medicine: disparities in
health and health care, and cultural differences that affect
health-related behaviors and patients‘ interactions with the
health-care system,” said Matthew Ramsey, director of the Center for
Medicine, Health and Society at Vanderbilt. “This conference will bring
together scholars from multiple disciplines to share and discuss new
approaches.”
A complete agenda for the conference can be found at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/mhs/Conference%20Program.htm. There are two keynote speakers, David R. Williams of the University of Michigan and Vinh-Kim Nguyen, of McGill University.
Williams speaks at 9 a.m. on Friday, April 29, on “Racial/Ethnic
Disparities in Health and Health Care: Challenges and Opportunities.”
Nguyen speaks at 9:15 a.m. Saturday, April 30, on “The Embodiment of
Health Inequalities: the Case of Rapidly Expanding Access to
Antiretrovirals in West Africa.”
“This exciting conference grew out of a year-long program at the Robert
Penn Warren Center for the Humanities that involved participants from
nearly every division of our university,” said Mona Frederick,
executive director of the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities.
In conjunction with the conference, the Jean and Alexander Heard
Library at 419 21st Ave. S. is hosting an art exhibit, “Perspectives on
the Diseased Body.” The exhibit includes five oil paintings made
between 1836 and 1852 by Cantonese artist Lam Qua of Chinese patients
of the Rev. Peter Parker, a medical missionary.
The exhibition is open to the public throughout April during normal
business hours at the library, in the Special Collections department.
The curator is Steve Rachman, a 2003-2004 Vaughn Fellow at the Robert
Penn Warren Center for the Humanities.
For more information on the art exhibit, contact the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities at 615-343-6060 or rpw.center@vanderbilt.edu.
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
Jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu