Ameenah Shakir will present, "Birthing Liberation: Dr. Helen Dickens, Race, Rights and Health Activism" for the annual Africana Studies Lecture. Dr. Shakir is an Assistant Professor of African American History at Florida A&M University and the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for the 2016-2017 year. Her research explores the intersection of race, health and gender.
This lecture is Thursday (March 1) at 7:30 p.m. in 209 Armstrong Hall and is free and open to the public, and will examine Helen Dickens' leadership of the Pan American Medical Women's Alliance (PAMWA), which was comprised of doctors from Peru, Mexico, Haiti, Puerto Rico and the United States. Dickens served as PAMWA president from 1968-1973. Under her leadership, PAMWA included a sustained effort to increase membership of women of African descent. Specifically, the lecture will explore how differing notions of race and ethnicity informed women's medical professional organizations across transnational boundaries. It will conclude with the effects of PAMWA on women's minority medical school enrollment.
This lecture is sponsored by the WVU Department of History, Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, Africana Studies Program, Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, LGBTQ+ Center, Center for Black Culture and Research, Center for Women and Gender Studies, Humanities Center, and Council for Women’s Concerns.
For more information visit the Birthing Liberation page on the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences website.