Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 6 p.m.

Livestream Link

The Morgan Lecture

The Black Birthing Crisis: Why Understanding Slavery & Gynecology Helps Us All

For decades, the United States has been the most dangerous high-income earning nation for pregnant Black women and birthing people. The current birthing crisis didn’t originate in a vacuum. With roots in colonial America, medical doctors and surgeons exceptionalized Black women’s medical experiences and lives throughout slavery and Jim Crow. Cooper Owens will present on the layered history of American slavery, the birth of gynecology, and the current U.S. birthing crisis offering insights and possible solutions to end this state of emergency.

The program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of Africana studies, history, women’s, gender & sexuality studies and the Women’s & Gender Resource Center. This program was initiated by the Clarke Forum’s student project managers. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s annual theme, Alternative Models.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Deirdre Cooper Owens is an associate professor of history and Africana studies at the University of Connecticut. Before her most recent appointment, she simultaneously directed the Program in African American History at the Library Read more