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Go Big Read Capstone Event, April 15–16
Posted 4/04/2011
MADISON, Wis. – A free, two-day conference will serve as the capstone event for the 2010–2011 Go Big Read program. “Who Owns My Body and Where Is It Now?” will explore questions related to Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, issues surrounding the body as property as well as the ways in which the current landscape has and has not changed since the days of Henrietta Lacks.
Co-sponsored by the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, UW Law School, the UW–Madison Libraries and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, “Who Owns My Body and Where Is It Now?” features discussions, keynote lectures and films. A detailed agenda can be found here.
Highlights on Friday, April 15 include an exploration of who owns human specimens and materials and why it matters, a keynote lecture by Ruth Faden, Executive Director of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics on the controversies raised in Skloot’s book, and a showing of “Made in India” (as seen at the Wisconsin Film Festival) followed by a moderated discussion.
On Saturday, April 16 panelists including UW–Madison faculty members Alta Charo, Pilar Ossorio and Norm Fost will explore whether Henrietta Lacks and her cells would meet with the same fate in today’s environment. The day will conclude with a keynote lecture by Vanessa Northington Gamble, University Professor of Medical Humanities at the George Washington University entitled, “Henrietta Lacks Beyond Her Cells: Race, Racism, and American Medicine,” and additional film showing and discussion following.
