Past Events

2024 Emerson Lecture

The Ethical Integration of Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy

See lecture recording

Amy McGuire headshot

Amy McGuire, JD, PhD
Leon Jaworski Professor of Biomedical Ethics
Director, Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy
Baylor College of Medicine

Thursday, February 22, 5:30pm
Great Hall, Trent Semans Center

Duke University

Trent Humanities in Medicine Lecture

Race and Place in the History of Psychiatric Diagnosis: Lessons from Southern Asylums During Segregation

See lecture recording

Kylie Smith headshot

Kylie Smith, PhD
Department of History & School of Nursing
Emory University

Wednesday, January 24, 12:00-1:00pm
Duke Hospital Lecture Hall 2002

Trent Humanities in Medicine Lecture

Remembering Maltheus Avery: Race, Medicine, and Duke Hospital in the Jim Crow Era

See lecture recording

Drs. Damon Tweedy and Jeffrey Baker, headshots

Damon Tweedy, MD
Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Jeffrey Baker, MD, PhD
Director, Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine
Professor of Pediatrics and History

Wednesday, November 15, 12:00-1:00pm
Duke Hospital Lecture Hall 2002

Trent Humanities in Medicine Lecture

The Power of Human Connection: Caregiver Peer Mentoring in Chronic Illness

See lecture recording

Jori Fleisher headshot

Jori Fleisher, MD
Associate Professor of Neurological Sciences
Rush University

Wednesday, October 4, 12:00-1:00pm
Room 4067 Trent Semans Center

2023 Boyarsky Lecture

Examining Slavery, the Archives of the Womb & the Birth of American Modern Gynecology

Deirdre Cooper Owens

Deirdre Cooper Owens, PhD
Associate Professor of History & Africana Studies
University of Connecticut

Wednesday, September 20, 5:30pm
Love Auditorium, Levine Science Research Center

Duke University

Trent Humanities in Medicine Lecture

Journeys End, Journeys Begin: A Story of Accompaniment in Complex Grief

Alison Hartman and Shapir Rosenberg headshots

a conversation between Alison Hartman and Shapir Rosenberg, MD
Thursday, April 27, 2023, 5:30-7:00pm

Great Hall, Trent Semans Center

See a recording of the event (Duke NetID and password required for access)

2023 McGovern Lecture

Ending the Legacy of Medical Violence: Centering Black Women’s Resistance
Dorothy Roberts image

Dorothy E. Roberts
George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology
University of Pennsylvania
Tuesday, March 28, 2023, 5:45pm
Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University

See a recording of the lecture.

Only Mostly Dead? The Evolving Ethical Evaluation of Death by Neurologic Criteria
Janet Malek headshot

Tuesday, March 21, 2023 - 12:00-1:00pm
Duke Hospital Lecture Hall 2002


Janet Malek, PhD
Associate Professor, Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Baylor College of Medicine
Visiting Associate Professor, Duke Science & Society Initiative

Professor Malek explored the ethical issues raised by recent challenges to the concept of death by neurologic criteria (DNC - aka "brain death").  After offering a brief history of the debate over DNC, she used cases to analyze questions about whether consent is required to test for DNC, when organ donation is permissible, and how to respond when patients or clinicians reject the concept of DNC. 

See a recording of this event.

Trust Science? Political and Religious Polarization as a Public Health Problem

Emma Green and Molly Worthen headshots

Thursday, February 16, 2023 - 5:30-7:00pm
Great Hall, Trent Semans Center

Emma Green

Journalist/writer, The New Yorker
Molly Worthen
Historian and journalist, UNC - Chapel Hill; The New York Times

In a moderated discussion, journalist Emma Green (New Yorker) and historian and journalist Molly Worthen (UNC, New York Times) considered how today’s religious and political polarization is a public health problem and ways that clinicians, health systems, and public health officials can respond. They helped us to understand the dynamics of the polarization, to envision ways that clinicians and health systems can work to build trust and to be trustworthy, and to explore ways of speaking and listening that lead to shared commitment to the health of our neighbors and to the common good.

See a recording of the lecture. 

A History of Present Illness
Anna DeForest headshot

Wednesday, January 25, 2023 - 12:00-1:00pm
Duke Hospital Lecture Hall 2002 and on Zoom

Anna DeForest, MD
Palliative Care Physician and Novelist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Palliative care physician and novelist Anna DeForest discussed the role of attention in clinical work, and ways of being present for the experience of others that allow us to find meaning and fulfillment in the face of great suffering, both physical and existential.

See a recording of the event.

The Gender of Care: Alzheimer's Disease in the 1980s
James Chappel headshot

Wednesday, November 30, 2022 - 12:00-1:00pm
Zoom Webinar
Humanities in Medicine Lecture

James Chappel, PhD
Gilhuly Family Associate Professor of History, Duke University

In the 1980s, Americans grappled like never before with dementia, and specifically with Alzheimer’s Disease. This talk will return to this era with a historian’s eyes, asking specifically why families, and women in families, were viewed as the indispensable deliverers of care.

See a recording of the lecture.

One Vacant Chair: Remembering Children

Perri Klass headshot, smiling

Tuesday, November 1, 2022 - 5:30-6:30pm
Great Hall, Trent Semans Center for Health Education
Humanities in Medicine Lecture

Perri Klass, MD, Physician & Author
Professor of Journalism and Pediatrics, New York University

This talk looked back at the "lost world," not so far away chronologically, of childhood mortality rates so high that they touched almost every family, and consider children's illness and death in art and literature, examining the narrative reflections of a world in which all people lived with the possibility of losing children.

PUSHING COOL: Big Tobacco, Racial Marketing, and the Untold Story of the Menthol Cigarette

Image of Kool Cigaratte Billboard Ad on Street; headshot Keith Wailoo, PhD

Tuesday, September 20 19, 2022 - 5:45-7pm

Keith Wailoo, PhD gave the 2022 McGovern Lecture, Pushing Cool: Big Tobacco, Racial Marketing, and the Untold Story of the Menthol Cigarette, Tuesday, September 20, 5:45pm at the Nasher Musuem of Art.

What's the Story? Exploring the What, Why and How of Narrative Medicine

Water Rocks Image with Workshop name, date, place
Friday, September 16, 2022, 8:00am-1:00pm

Keynote by Rita Charon, MD, PhD, Professor and Founding Chair, Department of Medical Humanities and Ethics, Professor of Medicine, Columbia University

This workshop offers an in-depth exploration of narrative medicine and its relevance to caring for our patients and ourselves. What is it?  Why is it essential to good clinical practice, and how can we use it to reduce moral injury and address critical issues raised during the past two years?  We all have stories that we carry with us, as patients and clinicians—as humans.  The practice of narrative medicine has been shown to improve not only patient and clinician satisfaction, but patient outcomes as well by building community across disciplines.

The Song of our Scars: The Untold Story of Pain

Haider Warraich headshot smiling
Thursday, May 19, 2022 - 5:15pm to 6:30pm
 
Haider J. Warraich, MD - physician and author

Inspired by his own experience with chronic back pain, in The Song of Our Scars – The Untold Story of Pain, Dr. Warraich explores the very nature of pain, the profound racial and gender disparities in how we attend to and alleviate it, and how the entire medical profession was complicit in the opioid epidemic. At a time when COVID-19 is igniting the crisis of chronic pain, he advocates for a new approach towards people in extremis.
 
See a recording of the event.

Annual School of Medicine Faculty Awards Ceremony

Tuesday, May 10, 2022 - 5:00pm to 7:30pm

On May 10, John Moses, MD received the 2022 Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award.

Playing Between the Lines: Poetry by a Pediatrician

Irène Mathieu reading a book
Wednesday, March 9, 2022 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Irène P. Mathieu, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Assistant Director, Program in Health Humanities, University of Virginia

How do creative writing and reading - specifically poetry - open up a space for clinicians to play with language? How might this "playtime" help us tackle burnout, compassion fatigue, and even health equity? Award-winning poet and pediatrician Dr. Irène Mathieu reads her latest work and discusses these questions and more.

See a recording of the event.

Drug Development and Access: Justice Challenges During the Pandemic and Beyond

Holly F Lynch headshot
Wednesday, February 9, 2022 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm
 
Holly Fernandez Lynch, JD, MBE

Unprecedented resources, collaboration, and regulatory flexibility resulted in the rapid development and authorization of several prophylactic and therapeutic options for COVID‐19. However, we have faced important justice challenges in making those options fairly available during the pandemic – and we face additional justice challenges in determining which other disease areas should get this sort of special attention, as well as how best to balance the interests of current and future patients. This lecture addresses these justice challenges through the lenses of bioethics and health policy.

See a recording of the event.
See also a paper by Professor Fernandez Lynch.

Kidney to Share: A Living Kidney Donor's Experience and Lessons Learned

Martha Gershun and John Lantos headshots, Kidney to Share book cover
Tuesday, January 25, 2022 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Martha Gershun and John D. Lantos, MD

In 2018, Martha Gershun donated a kidney at the Mayo Clinic to a woman she read about in the newspaper. In this talk, Ms.Gershun will discuss her decision to donate a kidney to a stranger and the long, complicated process that finally led to a successful surgery nine months later.  Dr. John Lantos, physician and bioethicist, will use her story to illustrate the ethical issues that arise in recovering and allocating organs from both living and deceased donors. They will suggest ways that the medical community could thoughtfully and safely reduce the burdens on living donors.  Doing so could shorten the waiting list for transplants and save lives.

See a recording of the event.

Respecting Autonomy and Enabling Diversity: The Critical Need for Demographic Variation in Research Datasets

Kayte Spector-Bagdady headshot
Wednesday, November 10, 2021 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Kayte Spector-Bagdady, JD, MBioethics, Associate Director, Center for Bioethics & Social Sciences in Medicine, Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, University of Michigan Medical School

Professor Kayte Spector-Bagdady discusses different theoretical as well as recruitment and consent approaches to improve data collection and sharing practices in ways that are both respectful of individual patient autonomy and equitable in impact across diverse communities.

See a recording of the event.

The Problem of Alzheimer's: How It Became a Crisis & What We Can Do About It

Jason Karlawish headshot, smiling
Tuesday, October 5, 2021 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Jason Karlawish, MD, Professor of Medicine, Medical Ethics and Health Policy, University of Pennsylvania

From its beginning as a rare disease, Alzheimer’s quite From its beginnings as a rare disease, Alzheimer’s quite quickly became a common disease and then turned into a crisis. The stories of how these events happened are a tangled weave of science, culture, and politics, sometimes in harmony, often in conflict.quickly became a common disease and then turned into a crisis. The stories of how these events happened are a tangled weave of science, culture, and politics, sometimes in harmony, often in conflict.

See a recording of the event.

Responsible Conduct of Research Short Course

The Fall 2021 Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) course was held on Tuesdays, August 31-September 28, 8:00-9:45am.

Fifth Annual SCOPES Medicine and Art Exhibition

Banner with text: 5th Annual SCOPES Art Exhibition
Tuesday, August 3, 2021 - 5:30pm to 7:30pm

The 2021 SCOPES Art Exhibition: A Multi-Media Reflection on Chronic Illness took place on August 3.

From August 4 - September 30, the art from the exhibition was displayed in the Mars Gallery in the Duke University Hospital Concourse. The 2021 SCOPES virtual exhibition is online at https://sites.duke.edu/scopes/.

Aaron McDuffie Moore, MD: The Story of Durham's First Black Physician and Founder of Lincoln Hospital

 
Friday, April 16, 2021 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm
Boyarsky Series on Race & Health - Panel Discussion

This event is a conversation about the impact of the life of Dr. Aaron McDuffie Moore (1863-1923) on the health of Durham’s Black residents. Panelists discuss his role as a pioneering physician, educator, and driving force behind the establishment of Lincoln Hospital, the first secular, freestanding African American hospital in North Carolina. They also explore Dr. Moore’s legacy for our current times.

See a recording of the event.

Narrative Medicine: A Patient's Perspective

Dana Creghton and Sneha Mantri headshots with cover of book, A Family Disease
Tuesday, March 30, 2021 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm

In 2006, Dana Creighton was diagnosed with spinocerebellar ataxia, an inherited neurological condition that also took the lives of her mother and several family members. Fifteen years later, she has published a powerful new memoir, A Family Disease: A Memoir of Multigenerational Ataxia, drawing on research in neuroplasticity, personal memories, and medical records to highlight how the stories we tell about illness can create meaning out of trauma. Following a reading from her memoir, Ms. Creighton and her neurologist, Dr. Sneha Mantri, join in conversation.

See a recording of the event.

Climate Change Series: Finding Our Roots and Looking to Our Future

Stacked series images of four elements with text: Climate Change, Health, and Social Justice / Issues, Ethics & Action / a three-part lecture series
Wednesday, March 3, 2021 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Nature's Guardians: What Indigenous Voices Can Teach Us

Lori Byron, MD, St. Vincent Healthcare, Billings, MT
Robert Byron, MD, MPH, Bighorn Valley Health Center, Hardin, MT

The Climate Crisis and Pregnancy

Bruce Bekkar, MD, Women's health physician, author, and educator
Nathaniel DeNicola, MD, MSHP, Caduceous Medical Group

This event is the third in a three-part series of lectures on Climate Change, Health, and Social Justice: Issues, Ethics, and Action. See more information on the series and recordings of previous sessions.

Climate Change Series: Structures and Systems - From Geography to the Workplace

Stacked series of four elements with text: Climate Change, Health, and Social Justice / Issues, Ethics & Action / a three-part lecture series
Wednesday, February 3, 2021 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm

The Geography of Environmental Inequality

Jeremy Hoffman, PhD, Science Museum of Virginia, Richmond, VA

Healthcare Delivery in the Climate Crisis

Emily Senay, MD, MPH, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City, NY

Existing structures and systems deeply impact the intersectional relationship between climate change, health, and social justice. What are these factors? What issues must be recognized and acknowledged? What must we understand and how should we respond?

This event is the second in a three-part series of lectures on Climate Change, Health, and Social Justice: Issues, Ethics, and Action. See more information on the series and recordings of previous sessions.

From Planet to Patient: Understanding Connections, Issues, and Action

Stacked series of images depicting four elements with text: Climate Change, Health, and Social Justice / Issues, Ethics & Action / a three-part lecture series
Wednesday, January 13, 2021 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Connecting Planetary Health and Human Health... Ethically

Howard Frumkin, MD, DrPH, University of Washington School of Public Health

Opportunities for Clinical Action at the Intersection of Climate Change and Health Equity

Aparna Bole, MD, Case Western Reserve School of Medicine

From the big picture perspective of a changing planet, moving to a lens on the human and individual level, Drs. Howard Frumkin and Aparna Bole collaboratively discuss the complex interconnections between planetary health and human health. What are the far-reaching impacts of climate change on health?  What are the ethical considerations? What are the implications for patients and clinicians? And what are our opportunities and responsibilities for action?

This event is the first in a three-part series of lectures on Climate Change, Health, and Social Justice: Issues, Ethics, and Action. See more information on the series and recordings of previous sessions.

Remembering a 1979 Moral Moment: Medical Activists, Racial Justice, and Confronting the KKK

Newspapers showing headlines of 1979 Greensboro Massacre

Tuesday, December 15, 2020 - 5:30pm to 6:45pm
Webinar

Boyarsky Series on Race & Health - Panel Discussion

Following a segment from a recent film about what became known as the 1979 Greensboro Massacre, survivors share why this story is worth remembering, and why it remains relevant to health and racial justice activism today.

See a recording of the event.

Race and Reproduction: Eugenic Sterilization Revisited

Boyarsky Series on Race & Health - Race and Reproduction: Eugenic Sterilization Revisited - Johanna Schoen, PhD - Th Oct 29, 2020, 12-1pm

Thursday, October 29, 2020 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Boyarsky Series on Race & Health

Johanna Schoen, PhD, Professor of History, Rutgers University - New Brunswick

This talk in the Boyarsky Series on Race & Health analyzes the history of North Carolina’s eugenic sterilization program which operated from 1929-1975 and authorized the sterilization of more than 7,000 people.

See a recording of the talk.

Keepers of the House: Documentary Screening and Discussion

Headshots of six housekeepers with text Keepers of the House

Tuesday, October 13, 2020 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Humanities in Medicine Lecture

Discussion to follow.
 
In this 15-minute documentary video, eight hospital housekeepers talk about their special human relationships with patients and their families and the ways in which they believe their work contributes to healing.
 
See a recording of the event.
 
Creativity & Mental Health Poster with panelist headshots

Wednesday, October 7, 2020 - 4:30pm to 5:30pm

A discussion marking the 30th anniversary of William Styron's Darkness Visible, a memoir of his depression & recovery.

Duke Hospital's History: A Conversation about Race and Memory

Headshots Drs. Damon Tweedy and Jeff Baker

Tuesday, September 22, 2020 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Special Event

Damon Tweedy, MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Jeffrey Baker, MD, PhD, Director, Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine; Professor of Pediatrics and History

From 1930 to the 1960s, Duke hospital’s wards were segregated by race. Did people of color truly receive “separate but equal” care? In what ways did the civil rights movement successfully challenge these inequities?  Did the racism associated with the Jim Crow era collapse, or re-appear in new forms?

See a recording of the talk.

Fourth Annual SCOPES Medicine and Art Exhibition

Fourth Annual SCOPES Medicine and Art Exhibition poster with heart image

Tuesday, August 18, 2020 - 12:00pm to Thursday, December 31, 2020 - 12:00pm

Visit the 2020 SCOPES Art Exhibition here

Research Unbound: Seeking Ethical Solutions to New (and Old) Problems

Research Unbound: Seeking Ethical Solutions to New (and Old) Problems poster with Jeremy Sugarman headshot

Tuesday, March 3, 2020 - 5:30pm

Endowed Lectureships

Jeremy Sugarman, MD, MPH, MA, Harvey M. Meyerhoff Professor of Bioethics and Medicine, Johns Hopkins University

Recent controversies such as the birth of the first gene-edited babies in China, unchecked uses of unproven stem cell-based therapies, clinical trials conducted without patient consent, and HIV research with vulnerable populations challenge existing approaches aimed at ensuring that research is ethically sound. New and creative solutions are needed to appropriately manage research that seems to be unbound.

The Ethics of Automating Informed Consent: A Comparative Study

The Ethics of Automating Informed Consent: A Comparative Study poster with Chris Simon headshot

Tuesday, February 11, 2020 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Humanities in Medicine Lecture

Chris Simon, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Population Health Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine

Informed consent has entered the digital age. Automated consent processes are replacing face-to-face (F2F) discussions of research. Is this a good thing? For whom? How do we advance the ethical and legal integrity of consent processes as the emphasis shifts to technological efficiency? Professor  Simon addresses these questions with the support of fresh data from a multisite randomized trial comparing electronic and F2F consent processes for genomic biobanks.

See recording of Chris Simon's talk.

Frozen In The Toilet Paper Aisle of Life

Frozen In The Toilet Paper Aisle of Life poster with image William J. Doan in front of brain drawing

Friday, February 7, 2020 - 7:00pm

Special Event

William J. Doan, PhD, Professor of Theater/Artist in Residence, Pennsylvania State University

A part of The Anxiety Project, Frozen In The Toilet Paper Aisle Of Life combines stories and drawings in a very personal and in depth look at the complex ways we understand anxiety and depression.

CANCELED - Smallpox Eradication 40 Years On: An Alternative Commemoration

Smallpox Eradication 40 Years On: An Alternative Commemoration with headshot Sanjoy Bhattacharya

Thursday, January 30, 2020 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Humanities in Medicine Lecture

Sanjoy Bhattacharya, PhD, Professor of History of Medicine; Director, Centre for Global Health Histories, University of York, United Kingdom

CANCELED
due to travel complications from UK

An effective vaccine caused health officials around the world to start dreaming about the prospect of smallpox eradication. In the mid-1960s, a series of US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and USAID- supported pilot programs in western and central Africa proved the efficacy of the freeze-dried vaccine and provided the strategic template for worldwide smallpox eradication. But was it really all so simple?

Could Poetry Save Doctoring?

Francis Neelon headshot

Tuesday, December 3, 2019 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Humanities in Medicine Lecture

Francis A. Neelon, MD, Associate Professor Emeritus of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine

"Doctoring"-- the therapeutic interaction of health professionals with patients -- has two components:  1) transferring information; 2) establishing a healing relationship. Today, over-reliance on information transfer imperils the fragile balance of these components....

See recording of Frank Neelon's talk.

Opening Reception: Exhibition Documenting Durham's Health History

Opening Reception: Exhibition Documenting Durham's Health History, April 22, 2019 with four topical images

Thursday, November 21, 2019 - 4:30pm to 6:30pm

Special Event

Remarks by Jeffrey Baker, MD, PhD, Director, Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine

How have racial health disparities in Durham been understood over the past century? To what extent have their structural roots been appreciated? What role has Duke Health played in this history?

Race, Medical Research, and Reparations

Terri Laws headshot

Thursday, October 31, 2019 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Humanities in Medicine Lecture

Terri Laws, PhD, MDiv, African and African American Studies and Religious Studies, University of Michigan-Dearborn

What is the moral aim of medical research in the context of race-based health inequity and health disparity? The history of race in medical research is fraught with misinformation, deceit, and disproportionate suffering and burden-bearing.

Sans Frontières: What Border-Crossing in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West Can Teach Us About Medical Practice

Sneha Mantri headshot

Tuesday, October 8, 2019 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Humanities in Medicine Lecture

Sneha Mantri, MD, MS, Assistant Professor of Neurology, Duke University School of Medicine

In this talk, Sneha Mantri shows how a novel featuring no doctors at all contains essential truths for medical education, training, and practice.

See recording of Sneha Mantri's talk.