Topic: How Cancer Crossed the Color Line
Cancer began in the twentieth century as a 'disease of civilization,' apparently more prevalent and deadly in Anglo-Americans (and particularly in Anglo-American women than in men, African-Americans, so-called 'primitive groups,' or any other minority ethnic groups in America). By the end of the century, cancer appeared to have "crossed the color line" and sex line. By the 1970s, experts pointed to the alarming increasing in black America. New diagnostic trends were reshaping the very meaning of the term "cancer." This talk – based on a forthcoming book -- explores the mystery of cancer's transformation in America, and it examines what it teaches us about race, ethnicity, population mobility, the distribution of risk, and the pursuit of equality in America.

Speaker
Dr. Wailoo is an historian of medicine interested in the relationship of disease and the biomedical sciences to questions of race, health politics, group identity, and 20th century American culture. He is jointly appointed in History, and in the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research, having joined the faculty here after 9 years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Department of History and Social Medicine).

To register
This talk is open to the Columbia University community as well as faculty and postdoctoral fellows at other sites of the Robert Wood Johnson Health & Society Scholars (H&SS) Program.

Space is limited to register, please send an email to: chssp@columbia.edu.