Each quarter, the UC Davis College of Biological Science offers student-led courses that explore anti-racist themes through guided discussions about a curated list of books, films, podcasts and more. We have also provided resources for starting to explore these topics on your own or with family, friends, and peers.
In this course, we will read and discuss selected chapters from the award-winning book, “Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present” by Harriet Washington while working through prominent case studies of racism and systemic bias in bioethics throughout American history (e.g., the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments, antebellum medical experimentation on enslaved Black women, radiation experiments on Black Americans, etc.). We will explicitly frame our discussions through an anti-racist lens, and weigh the human costs of perpetuating systemic bias and injustice in American healthcare in modern times.
This course is open to upper division undergraduate students, and can be audited by graduate students, postdocs, faculty, and staff. Students taking the course for credit are required to colead the discussion for one lecture period. If you want to be included on the Canvas site as an auditor but do not plan to enroll, please email Vicky with your request.
To receive the course CRN, or if acquiring a copy of the book would be a financial hardship for you, please email Vicky (vmmorgan@ucdavis.edu).
In this course, we will read and critically discuss The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, and also work through prominent case studies of racism and systemic bias in bioethics throughout American history (e.g., the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, Harvard University birth control trials on Puerto Rican women, racial disparities in Black maternal healthcare, etc.). We will explicitly frame our discussions through an anti-racist lens, and weigh the human cost of perpetuating systemic bias in American healthcare.
We plan to read and discuss excerpts from Isabel Wilkerson’s best-selling book alongside supplementary readings from the primary literature that explore the concept of caste in human societies, social insects and other non-human systems. We will explore whether ecological and evolutionary theory can help us understand the multiple meanings of the term, and guide us to reducing its impact on human societies and cultures.
In this reading group, we will read and discuss chapters from Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s New York Times bestselling book, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which addresses how “anti-Black thinking has entrenched itself in the fabric of American society not solely through ignorance, but through a rationalization of inequity in institutional practices” (The Atlantic). This reading group is open to all UC Davis students, faculty, staff, and affiliates. Please email Vicky (vmmorgan@ucdavis.edu) to be added to our email list and to receive the weekly Zoom meeting information.
“Stamped from the Beginning is a history of how racist ideas are built, and how they are built to last. Understanding this history is essential if we want to have any hope of progress. This book will forever change the way we think about race.” -Touré, MSNBC contributor and author of Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness
“An accomplished history of racist thought and practice in the United States from the Puritans to the present … in this tour de force, Kendi explores the history of racist ideas -- and their connection with racist practices -- across American history … Racism is the enduring scar on the American consciousness. In this ambitious, magisterial book, Kendi reveals just how deep that scar cuts and why it endures, its barely subcutaneous pain still able to flare.” -Kirkus Reviews
