Uploaded November 2023 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
Watch more Left of Black: https://fhi.duke.edu/engagement/left-black/
James Marion Sims, the "father" of gynecology, walked a horrific path towards medical innovation that involved inhumane and perverse experiments conducted on enslaved women in the 19th century. His legacy, founded on the dehumanization of Black women and the dismissal of their pain, is now being reckoned with. Yet, oddly enough, some of those same attitudes towards Black women that permeated medicine during slavery are still pervasive among healthcare professionals today. Prof. Deirdre Cooper Owens joins host Dr. Mark Anthony Neal to discuss present-day Black maternal health and her book, "Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology," published by the University of Georgia Press.
Find her book here: ugapress.org/book/9780820354750/medical-bondage
Learn more about Dr. Deirdre Cooper Owens, the Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies at the University of Connecticut, here: deirdrecooperowens.com
Left of Black is the Webby Award-nominated series featuring interviews with Black Studies scholars, created and hosted by the James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of African and African American Studies Dr. Mark Anthony Neal. From 2010-2020, it was produced by the John Hope Franklin Center for International and Global Studies. In 2020, the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute took over production, with funding support from Trinity College of Arts & Sciences.
Directed & edited by Eric Barstow, M.F.A.
Camera & assistant editor, Jakiah Glass
@dukeuniversity @FranklinHumanities @dukeuniversitysdepartmento2485 @FranklinCenterAtDuke
Watch more Left of Black: https://fhi.duke.edu/engagement/left-black/
James Marion Sims, the "father" of gynecology, walked a horrific path towards medical innovation that involved inhumane and perverse experiments conducted on enslaved women in the 19th century. His legacy, founded on the dehumanization of Black women and the dismissal of their pain, is now being reckoned with. Yet, oddly enough, some of those same attitudes towards Black women that permeated medicine during slavery are still pervasive among healthcare professionals today. Prof. Deirdre Cooper Owens joins host Dr. Mark Anthony Neal to discuss present-day Black maternal health and her book, "Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology," published by the University of Georgia Press.
Find her book here: ugapress.org/book/9780820354750/medical-bondage
Learn more about Dr. Deirdre Cooper Owens, the Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies at the University of Connecticut, here: deirdrecooperowens.com
Left of Black is the Webby Award-nominated series featuring interviews with Black Studies scholars, created and hosted by the James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of African and African American Studies Dr. Mark Anthony Neal. From 2010-2020, it was produced by the John Hope Franklin Center for International and Global Studies. In 2020, the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute took over production, with funding support from Trinity College of Arts & Sciences.
Directed & edited by Eric Barstow, M.F.A.
Camera & assistant editor, Jakiah Glass
@dukeuniversity @FranklinHumanities @dukeuniversitysdepartmento2485 @FranklinCenterAtDuke
