The McGoogan Health Sciences Library is sponsoring “Why Health Sciences Students Need the Humanities,” a presentation by Deirdre Cooper Owens, PhD, of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, on Oct. 11, from 11:30 a.m. -12:30 p.m.
Dr. Cooper Owens is the Charles and Linda Wilson Professor in the History of Medicine and director of the Humanities in Medicine program. As the director of a medical humanities program and a historian, she understands the importance of the humanities.
Her presentation will touch on why humanities programs and education are necessary for students interested in health sciences: for instance, that the various humanities disciplines allow students to study the social, cultural, ethical and historical dimensions of how doctors, patients, and communities understand the lived experience of health and disease; that the humanities engender critical thinking and interdisciplinary approaches: and that subject covered in the humanities, such as aspects of history and race, and how that legacy of harm to underrepresented groups results in continued health disparities today, helps expand critical health science students critical thinking and compassionate learning.
Dr. Owens is a distinguished lecturer of the Organization of American Historians. A popular public speaker, she has published essays, book chapters, and blog pieces on issues that concern African American experiences. Her first book, “Medical Bondage: Race, Gender and the Origins of American Gynecology,” won the 2018 Darlene Clark Hine Book Award from the OAH as the best book written in African American women’s and gender history.