Workshop June 11-12, 2026RACE AND HEALTH IN AMERICAN HISTORY

20. Mai 2026, von Marianne Weis-Elsner

Foto: shutterstock

The workshop explores intersections of citizenship, race and health in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. How was health negotiated and constructed in medical, cultural and political contexts? How were public health discourses intertwined with racial ideologies? How did ideas about health help shaping debates about citizenship during a time of social and political conflicts? How did literary and cultural texts reflect these racialized understandings of health?

Venue: Carl-von-Ossietzky-Forum at the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg (Main Library), Von-Melle-Park 3, 20146 Hamburg

Program

June 11, 2026: Keynote Lectures and Discussion

• 4:30 - 5:30 pm
  Andrea Stone (Smith College): "Well-being in 19th century Black US-literatur"
• 6:00 – 7:30 pm
  Samuel K. Roberts Jr. (Columbia University): "Governing Addiction: Race–Substance Stigma and the Politics of Expertise"

June 12, 2026: Workshop on Recent Research Perspectives

• 9:00 - 10:00 am 
  Pauline Fischer (University  Erfurt): "Self-care and Health in the U.S. around 1865: Discourses and Practices" 
  Introductory Comment by Barbara Lüthi (University Leipzig)
• 10:15 - 11:15 am
  Paul Skäbe (University Hamburg): "Racialized Epidemiologies: Black Americans and the 1918 Great Influenza Pandemic"
  Introductory Comment by Julia Engelschalt (TU Darmstadt)
• 11:45 - 12:45 am
  Alexander Obermüller (UK Tübingen): "Race and Emergency Medicine in Late Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia"
  Introductory Comment by Nina Mackert (University  Hamburg)

>> Poster showing the  program (PDF) 

Please Register for the Workshop on Friday!
Contact: fg.freiwilligkeit@uni-erfurt.de