New York Academy of Medicine Library Highlights the History of Health Activism

“Changemakers” Series Launches in May with Talks by Writer/Activist Alice Dreger and Historian Merlin Chowkwanyun

New York (May 17, 2016) –  What does it take to produce change in health and medicine? This year, the New York Academy of Medicine Library explores this question via its series “Changemakers: Activism and Advocacy for Health.” Since its inception in 1847, the Academy has been a leading driver of public health change in New York City on issues ranging from food safety to maternal mortality to drug policy. As the Academy continues to address the health challenges facing people in cities, it also serves as a resource to understand the background to current issues through its historical collections and programming. The “Changemakers” series is part of the Library’s 2016 roster of public programming in medicine, history, and the humanities.

“One of the most important lessons from history is not just what changed, but how that change happened—because of people who contested ideas and acted on them. Understanding historical change can be empowering for individuals wondering how to effect change in their own communities,” said Lisa O’Sullivan, PhD, vice president and director of the Academy’s Library and Center for the History of Medicine and Public Health. “We chose speakers deeply engaged in understanding the politic and social issues enmeshed in medical questions and the delivery of health care.”

The series launches on May 18, when writer and activist Alice Dreger will address the question, "Twenty-Five Years Into the Intersex Patient Rights Movement, Why Aren't We Done?" The movement has sought to stop pediatric genital surgeries that are motivated not by medical necessity but by social norms around sex and gender. Dr. Dreger will discuss what has changed, while also trying to explain why some deeply problematic core practices have not changed.

“Around the world, intersex patient rights are increasingly being recognized as human rights, but in the United States, we are still stuck in a simplistic medical model that assumes parents have the right to decide whether doctors should remove healthy tissue from their children’s genitals just because the genitals don’t fit sex and gender norms,” Dr. Dreger says. “Instead of reaching a point of resolution and consensus—which I really thought we were headed for even as little as two years ago—U.S. physicians and intersex rights activists seem to be headed for a showdown likely to include the courts. To this historian of sexuality and medicine, this is a surprising and disappointing development.”

On May 24, Merlin Chowkwanyun of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health will speak on the topic, "Have You Ever Heard of This Thing Called the Lincoln Collective?": The World of New York City Health Activism in the 1970s.” The Lincoln Collective was a group of social justice-conscious young physicians who chose to do their internships and residencies at Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx.

"There's a lot of welcome foment these days from people in the health sector over everything from quality of care; medical education reform; environmental health inequality and police brutality. But there's relatively little attention paid to prior waves of health activism,” Dr. Chowkwanyun says. “The experience at Lincoln Hospital that I'll be talking about—and the milieu from which it emerged—is a big chapter in that history and one that occurred right here in our backyard, New York City. Though we're in a different context than what people faced 50 years ago, enduring dilemmas that bedevil community health activism still remain."

Other upcoming events in the “Changemakers” series include New York State Supreme Court Justice Diane Kiesel on civil rights pioneer Dorothy Boulding Ferebee (September 21), a panel of activist librarians during Archives Week in October (date TBD), and historian Gabriela Soto Laveaga on the history of Mexican physician activism (November 21).

For more information and registration, click here. 

About The New York Academy of Medicine

The New York Academy of Medicine advances solutions that promote the health and well-being of people in cities worldwide.

Established in 1847, The New York Academy of Medicine continues to address the health challenges facing New York City and the world’s rapidly growing urban populations. We accomplish this through our Institute for Urban Health, home of interdisciplinary research, evaluation, policy, and program initiatives; our world class historical medical library and its public programming in history, the humanities and the arts; and our Fellows program, a network of more than 2,000 experts elected by their peers from across the professions affecting health. Our current priorities are healthy aging, disease prevention, and eliminating health disparities.