May 9, 2025
Critical Global Health Studies / Media, Data, & Health / Medicine, Science, & Humanities / Race, Racism, & Health
9:00am – 4:00pm

Jews as Subjects and Objects in Medicine Workshop

RSVP is not required. Submitting this form gives you access to the papers being discussed. This workshop is for works-in-progress, do not share or cite from the presented papers without the author's explicit permission. Attendance is in-person in the 3rd Floor Seminar Room, Welch Library Building on Friday, May 9, 2025 from 9am to 4pm.
Read More
April 23, 2025
Arts, Humanities, & Health / Medicine, Science, & Humanities / Race, Racism, & Health
8:00pm

A Refutation presented by Theater of War

This is a hybrid event presented both in person and via zoom, to get tickets to either form of attendance, click here.

A REFUTATION presents dramatic readings by acclaimed actors of excerpts from two conflicting historic accounts of Philadelphia’s 1793 yellow fever epidemic as a catalyst for guided audience discussions about health inequities in America today, grounded in the perspectives of nurses, caregivers, and first responders. Featuring pamphlets, letters, and rebuttals by Absalom Jones, Richard Allen, Matthew Carey, and Benjamin Rush, performed by Chad Coleman (The Wire, The Orville, The Walking Dead), Seth Gilliam (The Wire, The Walking Dead, Oz), Bill Camp (Presumed Innocent, 12 Years a Slave, The Queen’s Gambit), and Peter Marks (former Chief Theater Critic of the Washington Post). A REFUTATION was developed with generous support from The Greenwall Foundation in celebration of its 75th anniversary. Presented by Theater of War Productions, Union Memorial United Methodist ChurchEbenezer United Methodist Church - Capitol Hill, the Johns Hopkins Center for Medical Humanities and Social Medicine, the Johns Hopkins Program in Arts, Humanities, & Health, the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, and R3 – Renewal, Resilience and Retention of Maryland Nurses Initiative. Directed, adapted, and facilitated by Bryan Doerries. This free, public, live, hybrid event will take place on Zoom Webinar, broadcast from Union Memorial United Methodist Church. In person registration does not guarantee you a seat. Please arrive by 7:30pm. If you choose to join us online, this event can be accessed on personal devices. The event Zoom link will be distributed via email and available to registered attendees starting two days prior to the event. This event will be Captioned in English on Zoom. All of Theater of War Productions' events follow the same format:
  • The performers will read the texts.
  • Community panelists will kick off the discussion with their gut responses to what resonated with them across time.
  • We will open the discussion to the audience, facilitated by Bryan Doerries. To participate in the discussion online, please raise your hand using the button at the bottom center of the screen. If called upon, please accept the invitation to be promoted to speak and you will be visible and heard by the entire audience for the duration of your comments. If you would prefer not to be seen, please disable your video.
THE TEXTS A letter from Benjamin Rush to Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, written on September 2, 1793, asking them to rally Philadelphia’s Black community to offer their services and care for white citizens afflicted with the yellow fever. An advertisement placed by Absalom Jones and Richard Allen in Philadelphia's General Advertiser on September 11, 1793, asking members of the Black community to serve as nurses for the sick and help bury the dead. A Short Account of the Malignant Fever, Lately Prevalent in Philadelphia, With a Statement of the Proceedings That Took Place on the Subject in Different Parts of the United States - Philadelphia, September 11, 1793, by Matthew Carey, an Irish immigrant and the nation’s most preeminent publisher at the time, was a runaway success. Roughly 10,000 copies of the pamphlet were sold in four editions over the span of two months. The pamphlet made distorted, racist claims about Black nurses, caregivers, and first responders during the height of the epidemic, prompting Absalom Jones and Richard Allen to publish a rebuttal seven weeks after its first print run. A Narrative of the Proceedings of the Black People, During the Late Awful Calamity in Philadelphia, in the Year 1793, and A REFUTATION of Some Censures, Thrown upon Them in Some Late Publicationsby Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, distinguished civic and religious leaders from Philadelphia’s free Black community, was the first publication by Black authors to receive a federal copyright in the United States. Both men were born into slavery, purchased their freedom, and rose to become the important leaders in the nation’s largest free Black community. Jones was the nation’s first Black Episcopal priest, and Allen founded Bethel Church, the oldest African Methodist Episcopal congregation in the nation. Their pamphlet is the only depiction of the 1793 yellow fever epidemic that foregrounds the perspectives and experiences of Black people and the first known text to express Black community anger and directly challenge accusations and libelous statements by a white author. It had a print run of 250 - 500 copies. An address of Matthew Carey to the public on April 4, 1794, in which he responded to Jones and Allen’s accusations.
Read More
April 1, 2025
Critical Global Health Studies / Medicine, Science, & Humanities / Race, Racism, & Health
All Day

New “For the Medical Record” Mini-Episode with Bharat Venkat

In this mini episode, Richard and Mia talk to Bharat Venkat, a professor of anthropology at UCLA, about the research he presented at the Johns Hopkins Program in the History of Science, Medicine & Technology's colloquium series and his upcoming book project, "Swelter: A History of Our Bodies in a Warming World." Related links for Bharat's work: --- For the Medical Record is a Podcast from Johns Hopkins University's Center for Medical Humanities and Social Medicine, hosted by Research Associated Richard Del Rio and Postdoctoral Fellow Mia Levenson. New episodes are released biweekly. In these episodes, we talk to people affiliated with the Center to discuss their research within the history of medicine and the medical humanities. We ask them why their work matters, and how history and the humanities can help us to better understand debates and practices within medicine and care today. Subscribe to our podcast “For the Medical Record” to be alerted when new episodes drop – you can do this on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify.
Read More
March 4, 2025
5:30pm – 7:00pm

Medicine and Society EB Reading Group – First Meeting

Medicine and Society Reading Group
The Medicine and Society Reading Group is an interdisciplinary group based at the East Baltimore campus that was created to provide a space for students interested in exploring the social, cultural, political, and historical dimensions of health and medicine. Meetings, held monthly, are led by students and cover topics like gender identity, vaccination, climate and the environment, race and ethnicity, and many, many others. We welcome all students looking for fruitful discussion and engagement with humanistic material beyond the clinical and scientific curriculums.
 
Join the Medicine and Society Reading Group for the kick-off meeting!
  Time and Date: Tuesday, March 4th, from 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM.
Location: East Baltimore campus, Armstrong Medical Education Building (AMEB) Room 270* * AMEB requires SOM ID Badge swipe to access. We will have students available to let people in for the first ten minutes of each meeting. After that, please email Jonathan Kuo if you are unable to access the building (jkuo17@jh.edu).
Food: Dinner and non-alcoholic beverages will be served!
RSVP: Sign up at the following link to join our listserv and hear about future events: https://forms.gle/LnggqsL59dcHUAPD6 . More Information: Check out our website!
Agenda: In addition to introducing everyone to the group, we will be discussing readings on the theme of "Identity, The Mind, and The Body." Please email Jon Kuo for full reading list.
 
If you'd like to receive email notifications about our meetings and events, please sign up to our listserv by filling out this form!
Read More
February 24, 2025
Medicine, Science, & Humanities
6:00pm – 7:30pm

STS+MH Hub: Sofia Grant

The STS+Medical Humanities Hub will meet next on Monday, 2/24 from 6-7:30pm in Mergenthaler 266 on the Homewood campus. Dinner and drinks will be served.

At the meeting, Sofia Grant, a PhD student in History of Medicine, will workshop her second-year paper.

Please contact Hub organizer Gabrielle Robbins (grobbin4@jhu.edu) for a Zoom link and paper materials.

The STS+MH Hub is a collegial biweekly gathering for emerging scholars (graduate students, postdocs, early-career faculty, etc) to share their work and research. Our aim is to encourage institutional community around scholarship in Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Medical/Health Humanities (MH), as well as allied disciplines. The Hub is co-sponsored by the Center for Medical Humanities and Social Medicine and the Program in Medicine, Science, and the Humanities.
Read More