JOINED THE DEPARTMENT
2019
BIO
Deirdre Cooper Owens is The Charles and Linda Wilson Professor in the History of Medicine and Director of the Humanities in Medicine program. She is also an Organization of American Historians’ (OAH) Distinguished Lecturer. A popular public speaker, she has published essays, book chapters, and blog pieces on a number of issues that concern African American experiences. Her first book, Medical Bondage: Race, Gender and the Origins of American Gynecology (UGA Press, 2017) won the 2018 Darlene Clark Hine Book Award from the OAH as the best book written in African American women’s and gender history.
Professor Cooper Owens is also the Director of the Program in African American History at the Library Company of Philadelphia, the country’s oldest cultural institution. Currently, she is working on a second book project that examines mental illness during the era of United States slavery and is also writing a popular biography of Harriet Tubman that examines her through the lens of disability. She primarily teaches classes on the history of medicine.
COURSES TAUGHT
HIST 228: History of Medicine in Western Society (Fall 2019)
PUBLICATIONS
“Black Maternal and Infant Health: Historical Legacies of Slavery” by Deirdre Cooper Owens and Sharla Fett, American Journal of Public Health (2019)
Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and The Origins of American Gynecology (UGA Press, 2017)
INVITED TALKS AND CONFERENCE PAPERS
Keynote Speaker, Law, Difference, and Healthcare Conference, Princeton University
Keynote Speaker, Stephanie Camp Memorial Lecture, University of Washington
Invited Speaker, The London School of Economics
Keynote Speaker, Crown Forum, Morehouse College
HONORS AND AWARDS
Winner of the 2018 Darlene Clark Hine Book Prize for the best book on African American women’s history or gender history, Organization of American Historians
Contributor to Understanding and Teaching American Slavery (University of WI Press, 2016), 2019 James Robinson Prize for the most outstanding contribution to the teaching and learning of history in any field, American Historical Association