Public Lecture: Professor Lundy Braun

The University of Bristol’s Life of Breath Project, The Centre for Black Humanities, and The Centre for Health, Humanities and Science were delighted to welcome Professor Lundy Braun for a public lecture on “Race Correction” in Medicine: A History of Lung Function Measurements.

Lung function measurements are routinely “corrected” for race and/or ethnicity transnationally. This talk drew upon the historical and scientific literature on lung function measurements to examine how philosophical ideas of racial difference in lung function in the US became scientific; how race intersected with social class and gender; and how ideas of innate difference gained sufficient traction, such that they persist to the present day with little contestation.

Lundy Braun is a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Africana Studies at Brown University (USA) and author of Breathing Race into the Machine: The Surprising Career of the Spirometer from Plantation to Genetics (University of Minnesota Press, 2014).

After her lecture, Lundy Braun was joined by historians Dr Michael Bresalier (University of Swansea) and Dr Coreen McGuire (University of Bristol) for a panel discussion and audience Q&A, followed by reception with wine and light buffet.

Contact: Lundy Braun– Lundy_Braun@brown.edu

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