Lectures and Events
The events below include our weekly Montgomery Lectures, other events we host, and relevant events hosted by other groups at Northwestern University and its affiliated clinical partners.
The Montgomery Lectures Series is presented weekly on Thursdays from noon to 12:45pm, and is open to all. Presenters are faculty in the Master of Arts in Medical Humanities & Bioethics program, CBMH members, and special guests. This series was named in 2013 for Emeritus Professor Kathryn Montgomery.
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Feb
06
Santiago Molina - "Social Control at the Edge of Science: Positive Deviance in Human Genome Editing"
Evanston - 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM
Speaker
Santiago Molina, Northwestern University
Title
"Social Control at the Edge of Science: Positive Deviance in Human Genome Editing"
Abstract
This lecture draws on archival, interview, and ethnographic data on genome editing to explore how the normative limits of new technologies are produced. Genome editing constitutes an exceptional case for analyzing mechanisms of social control in modern science as new normative limits have to be articulated and enforced. Recent instances of deviance and moral unhingement illustrate how technological development in the field is coupled with the blurring of these normative limits. Through an in-depth case study of the controversial first case of the birth of gene-edited babies in 2018, I argue that an opaque system of positive deviance can be found within the genome editing community that contrasts with the responsible and democratic mechanisms of social control that the community presents externally. To make this argument, I look at three sites of social control. First, I trace how the practices of self-governance surrounding genome editing produced a flexible patchwork of normative frameworks. Second, I draw from ethnographic data collected at genome-editing conferences and interviews with scientists linked to the "CRISPR babies" controversy to examine the crisis of legitimacy and the repair mechanisms that followed. Lastly, I draw from observations of ethics and misconduct trainings and of discussions in biomedical laboratories in the San Francisco Bay Area to examine the reproduction of this system of positive deviance.
Biography
Santiago J. Molina (he/they) grew up moving between the United States and central Mexico. He received his PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley and his BA from the University of Chicago. Their work sits at the intersections of science and technology studies, political sociology, sociology of racial and ethnic relations, and bioethics. On a theoretical level, Santiago s work concerns the deeply entangled relationship between the production of knowledge and the production of social order.
Feb
09
Raymond Curry - The “Young Birth-Helpers”: Obstetrical Education at the Chicago Maternity Center, 1934-1971
Chicago - 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM
The Master of Arts in Medical Humanities & Bioethics Program
Presents
A Montgomery Lecture
With
Raymond Curry, MD, FACP
Professor of Medicine and Medical Education
University of Illinois at Chicago
Senior Associate Dean for Educational Affairs
University of Illinois College of Medicine
The Young Birth-Helpers :
Obstetrical Education at the Chicago Maternity Center, 1934-1971
The Chicago Maternity Center (CMC) provided obstetrical services for the medically underserved on Chicago s west side for nearly 80 years (1895-1974). Medical students and residents were heavily involved in providing patient care, routinely delivering babies in patients homes with minimal supervision by attending physicians or midwives. Northwestern University Medical School alumni have often spoken of these deliveries as the most formative and memorable experiences of their clinical education. This aspect of the center s history can provide a window into concepts and practices of the era with respect to experiential education, institutionally-based charity, and evolving concepts of equitable access and quality of care. This work explores the experiences of medical students over time at the CMC through a combination of prior scholarly and popular publications about the center, institutional archives, and interviews with alumni and retired faculty. The use of the CMC as an educational setting also illustrates the role that the academic medicine community played in the marginalization of care for the medically underserved in the United States. Through over-reliance upon physicians in training to provide these services, the maternity center and its university sponsor positioned themselves as charitable institutions eager to serve the community, while avoiding direct responsibility for the care of this segment of the population.
This lecture will be held in-person for Northwestern students, faculty, and staff in the Searle Seminar Room in the Lurie Research Building (303 E Superior). Chicago Campus. For those outside the Northwestern community and anyone who would prefer to attend remotely, the Zoom option will continue to be available.
** PLEASE REGISTER TO RECEIVE THE ZOOM LINK**
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Feb
10
X: THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES (1963) on 35mm
Evanston - 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Roger Corman s visionary sci-fi classic follows a scientist (Ray Milland) who develops eyedrops that allows him to see beyond the spectrum of visible light, penetrating mysteries of the human body and the deepest reaches of the cosmos. What starts out as a hospital drama about medical ethics takes more than one turn towards the lurid and the hallucinatory asking profound questions about the limits of vision along the way. This 35mm screening features an introduction by Dr. Catherine Belling, Associate Professor of Medical Education at NU, whose research explores the ways that horror films reflect widely-held fears and uncertainties about our bodies and about the medical profession.
About the speaker:
Catherine Belling is Associate Professor of Medical Education and core faculty of the graduate program in Medical Humanities and Bioethics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Her first book, A Condition of Doubt: The Meanings of Hypochondria (Oxford University Press, 2012), won the 2013 Kendrick Book Prize (Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts). She chaired the Modern Language Association division on Medical Humanities & Health Studies, served on the Board of Directors of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, and was editor-in-chief of the journal Literature and Medicine (2013 - 2018). She has published in the Journal of Medical Humanities; Literature and Medicine; the UK Journal of Literature and Science; Narrative; Perspectives in Biology and Medicine; the Journal of Clinical Ethics; and Academic Medicine, among others. Her current work explores horror both the feeling and the genre in medicine.
About the series:
Science on Screen: Inner and Outer Space
Presented in conjunction with the exhibition The Heart s Knowledge: Science and Empathy in the Art of Dario Robleto, this series explores representations of the inner workings of the human body and the celestial mechanics of the cosmos throughout the history of cinema. Across our Winter and Spring calendars, Block Cinema will present a range of screenings, from cult classics to silent treasures and contemporary blockbusters, that resonate with the key themes of Dario Robleto s artwork: the role of new technologies in expanding humanity s spatial and perceptual reach; the emotional consequences of scientific discovery; the role that art can play in transcending boundaries that separate us.
Supported by the Sloan Foundation and the Coolidge Corner Cinema s Science on Screen program, each of the screenings in the Inner and Outer Space series will feature extended introductions by scientists, historians, and scholars, who will shed light on the themes and histories depicted on screen.
An initiative of the COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE, with major support from the ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION.
Feb
16
Literature and Medicine: The Journal at 40.... Michael Blackie | Anna Fenton-Hathaway | Catherine Belling
Chicago - 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM
The Master of Arts in Medical Humanities & Bioethics Program
Presents
A Montgomery Lecture
With
Michael Blackie, PhD
Editor-in-Chief, Literature and Medicine (2020 - present)
Associate Professor of Health Humanities
Department of Medical Education, College of Medicine
University of Illinois at Chicago
Anna Fenton-Hathaway, PhD
Managing Editor, Literature and Medicine
Former Lecturer, Chicago Field Studies Program, Northwestern University
Former Medical Humanities & Bioethics Graduate Affiliate
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Catherine Belling, PhD
Former Editor-in-Chief, Literature and Medicine (2013 - 2018)
Associate Professor of Medical Education
Center for Bioethics & Medical Humanities
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Literature and Medicine:
The Journal at 40 and the Future of Medical Humanities Scholarship
The three speakers will introduce one of the founding journals in the field and, in conversation, discuss its recent past and its role in the evolving place of "literature" in medical/health humanities scholarship, publishing, and education.
This lecture will be held in-person for Northwestern students, faculty, and staff in the Searle Seminar Room in the Lurie Research Building (303 E Superior). Chicago Campus. For those outside the Northwestern community and anyone who would prefer to attend remotely, the Zoom option will continue to be available.
** PLEASE REGISTER TO RECEIVE THE ZOOM LINK**
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Read more about this series | Sign up for lecture announcements
Feb
23
Truth Serum and Narcoanalysis - Jenna Nikolaides
Chicago - 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM
The Master of Arts in Medical Humanities & Bioethics Program
Presents
A Montgomery Lecture
With
Jenna Nikolaides, MD, MA, FACEP
Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine,
Medical Toxicology and Addiction Medicine
Director, Substance Use Intervention Team
Departments of Emergency Medicine and Psychiatry
Rush University Medical Center Chicago, IL
Truth Serum and Narcoanalysis
This talk will discuss the history of the development of various "truth serums." It will focus on the drugs that have been used, including an explanation of their pharmacologic and toxicologic properties. It will also discuss the societal influences that lead to the search for "truth serum," the advocates for these methods, the role of law enforcement, and supreme court rulings on the practice. Lastly, Dr. Nikolaides will explain the medical practice of Narcoanalysis, highlighting how it differs from law enforcement's past use of drug-facilitated interviews, but also how it influenced the practice.
This lecture will be held in-person for Northwestern students, faculty, and staff in the Searle Seminar Room in the Lurie Research Building (303 E Superior). Chicago Campus. For those outside the Northwestern community and anyone who would prefer to attend remotely, the Zoom option will continue to be available.
** PLEASE REGISTER TO RECEIVE THE ZOOM LINK**
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Read more about this series | Sign up for lecture announcements
Feb
27
Michelle N. Huang - "Racial Disintegration: Biomedical Futurity at the Environmental Limit"
Evanston - 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM
Speaker
Michelle N. Huang, Northwestern University
Title
"Racial Disintegration: Biomedical Futurity at the Environmental Limit"
Abstract
Illuminating how biomedical capital invests in white and Asian American populations while divesting from Black surplus populations, this talk proposes recent Asian American dystopian fiction provides a case study for analyzing futurities where healthcare infrastructures intensify racial inequality under terms that do not include race at all. Through readings of Chang-rae Lee s On Such a Full Sea (2014) and other texts, Huang develops the term studious deracination to refer to a narrative strategy defined by an evacuated racial consciousness that is used to ironize assumptions of white universalism and uncritical postracialism. Studious deracination challenges medical discourse s colorblind approach to healthcare and enables a reconsideration of comparative racialization in a moment of accelerating social disintegration and blasted landscapes. Indeed, while precision medicine promises to replace race with genomics, Asian American literature is key to showing how this postracial promise depends on framing racial inequality as a symptom, rather than an underlying etiology, of infrastructures of public health.
Biography
Michelle N. Huang (she/her/hers, Ph.D. English and Women s Studies, Pennsylvania State University), jointly appointed in the English Department and in the Asian American Studies Program, has research and teaching interests in contemporary Asian American literature, posthumanism, and feminist science studies.
Mar
02
The Purpose of the Pelvic: A Historical Analysis - Wendy Kline
Chicago - 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM
The Master of Arts in Medical Humanities & Bioethics Program
Presents
A Montgomery Lecture
With
Wendy Kline, PhD
Dema G. Seelye Chair in the History of Medicine
Purdue University
West Lafayette, Indiana
The Purpose of the Pelvic: A Historical Analysis
Ever since the introduction of the pelvic exam as a gynecological procedure in the late nineteenth century, consumers and doctors have struggled to define the boundaries between preventive health and sexual impropriety. In the early twentieth century, for example, cancer awareness programs were stymied by the failure of the press to print particular words deemed inappropriate, such as uterus, cervix, discharge, bloody, or menses. And despite the emergence of second wave feminism in the 1970s, discomfort around discussing female sex organs remains a major problem, even leading to a congresswoman getting banned from speaking on the House floor after using the term vagina in 2012. This shaming of women s reproductive anatomy takes a toll on all women, who have picked up the cue that they, too, should remain silent about their bodies. Researchers have documented the impact this silencing has had on women s care, including a lack of basic anatomical knowledge and the importance of routine gynecological care. In a 2017 US study, for example, only about half of women surveyed about cervical cancer screening felt they knew the purpose of the routine pelvic exam. This talk suggests that the pelvic exam is more than just a medical procedure; it is a window into a deeper, more meaningful set of questions about gender, medicine, and power. From gynecological research on enslaved women s bodies to practice on anesthetized patients, the pelvic exam as we know it today carries the burden of its history. By looking through that window, we can begin to understand why the pelvic exam remains both mysterious and contentious.
This lecture will be held in-person for Northwestern students, faculty, and staff in the Searle Seminar Room in the Lurie Research Building (303 E Superior). Chicago Campus. For those outside the Northwestern community and anyone who would prefer to attend remotely, the Zoom option will continue to be available.
** PLEASE REGISTER TO RECEIVE THE ZOOM LINK**
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Read more about this series | Sign up for lecture announcements
Mar
09
Medical Humanities & Bioethics Program - Montgomery Lecture Series
Chicago - 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM
The Montgomery Lectures series addresses diverse topics within bioethics and the medical humanities. Presenters are faculty, affiliates, and alumni of the Medical Humanities & Bioethics Graduate Program--along with special guests. The lectures run every Thursday from noon to 12:45pm during The Graduate School's fall, winter, and spring quarters. They are open to students, faculty, and the general public. Formerly titled, "Special Topics in MH&B," this series was renamed in 2013 for Emeritus Professor Kathryn Montgomery.
Watch this space--updates will be posted!
Mar
30
Medical Humanities & Bioethics Program - Montgomery Lecture Series
Chicago - 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM
The Montgomery Lectures series addresses diverse topics within bioethics and the medical humanities. Presenters are faculty, affiliates, and alumni of the Medical Humanities & Bioethics Graduate Program--along with special guests. The lectures run every Thursday from noon to 12:45pm during The Graduate School's fall, winter, and spring quarters. They are open to students, faculty, and the general public. Formerly titled, "Special Topics in MH&B," this series was renamed in 2013 for Emeritus Professor Kathryn Montgomery.
Watch this space--updates will be posted!
Apr
06
Medical Humanities & Bioethics Program - Montgomery Lecture Series
Chicago - 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM
The Montgomery Lectures series addresses diverse topics within bioethics and the medical humanities. Presenters are faculty, affiliates, and alumni of the Medical Humanities & Bioethics Graduate Program--along with special guests. The lectures run every Thursday from noon to 12:45pm during The Graduate School's fall, winter, and spring quarters. They are open to students, faculty, and the general public. Formerly titled, "Special Topics in MH&B," this series was renamed in 2013 for Emeritus Professor Kathryn Montgomery.
Watch this space--updates will be posted!
Apr
13
Medical Humanities & Bioethics Program - Montgomery Lecture Series
Chicago - 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM
The Montgomery Lectures series addresses diverse topics within bioethics and the medical humanities. Presenters are faculty, affiliates, and alumni of the Medical Humanities & Bioethics Graduate Program--along with special guests. The lectures run every Thursday from noon to 12:45pm during The Graduate School's fall, winter, and spring quarters. They are open to students, faculty, and the general public. Formerly titled, "Special Topics in MH&B," this series was renamed in 2013 for Emeritus Professor Kathryn Montgomery.
Watch this space--updates will be posted!
Apr
20
Medical Humanities & Bioethics Program - Montgomery Lecture Series
Chicago - 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM
The Montgomery Lectures series addresses diverse topics within bioethics and the medical humanities. Presenters are faculty, affiliates, and alumni of the Medical Humanities & Bioethics Graduate Program--along with special guests. The lectures run every Thursday from noon to 12:45pm during The Graduate School's fall, winter, and spring quarters. They are open to students, faculty, and the general public. Formerly titled, "Special Topics in MH&B," this series was renamed in 2013 for Emeritus Professor Kathryn Montgomery.
Watch this space--updates will be posted!
Apr
27
Medical Humanities & Bioethics Program - Montgomery Lecture Series
Chicago - 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM
The Montgomery Lectures series addresses diverse topics within bioethics and the medical humanities. Presenters are faculty, affiliates, and alumni of the Medical Humanities & Bioethics Graduate Program--along with special guests. The lectures run every Thursday from noon to 12:45pm during The Graduate School's fall, winter, and spring quarters. They are open to students, faculty, and the general public. Formerly titled, "Special Topics in MH&B," this series was renamed in 2013 for Emeritus Professor Kathryn Montgomery.
Watch this space--updates will be posted!
May
04
Medical Humanities & Bioethics Program - Montgomery Lecture Series
Chicago - 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM
The Montgomery Lectures series addresses diverse topics within bioethics and the medical humanities. Presenters are faculty, affiliates, and alumni of the Medical Humanities & Bioethics Graduate Program--along with special guests. The lectures run every Thursday from noon to 12:45pm during The Graduate School's fall, winter, and spring quarters. They are open to students, faculty, and the general public. Formerly titled, "Special Topics in MH&B," this series was renamed in 2013 for Emeritus Professor Kathryn Montgomery.
Watch this space--updates will be posted!