Pennsylvania Hospital

Wednesday, April 2, 2014, 12:30 pm EDT

The Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia, will host its Ninth annual History of Women’s Health Conference on Wednesday, April 2, 2014. The History of Women’s Health Conference focuses on areas of women’s health from the 18th century to the present. Robert Aronowitz, MD, chair of the Department of History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania, will be our keynote speaker, presenting a history of breast cancer from his book Unnatural History: Breast Cancer and American Society (Cambridge University Press, 2007). He is also the author of the book Making Sense of Illness: Science, Society, and Disease and numerous articles.


The History of Women’s Health Conference began in 2006 as part of the Pennsylvania Hospital’s celebration of co-founder Benjamin Franklin’s tercentenary. Each year since, scholars from the humanities and health care professionals gather to discuss the past, present, and future state of women’s health. The conference is jointly sponsored by the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department and the Pennsylvania Hospital Historic Collection.


We will again offer a lunch buffet for $10. Lunch will take place in the historic Pine Building. Please send a check payable to the Pennsylvania Hospital Historic Collections to: Pennsylvania Hospital Historic Collections c/o Stacey Peeples, 3 Pine East Rm. 2, 800 Spruce St., Philadelphia, PA 19107.


Please RSVP by March 30, 2014 to Stacey C Peeples, Curator-Lead Archivist, Pennsylvania Hospital stacey.peeples@uphs.upenn.edu

When registering, please indicate if you would like to purchase the $10 lunch. Vegetarian option will be available.

Please call (215-829-5434) or e-mail with any questions or for more information.


2014 History of Women’s Health Conference Program:

Zubrow Auditorium, 800 Spruce St., Philadelphia


Keynote: 7:30-8:30am

Robert Aronowitz, M.D., Professor & Chair, History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania

"Do not delay": early detection campaigns before mammography


Session One: 9am-9:50am

Karol K. Weaver, Associate Professor of History/Women's Studies, Susquehanna University

“That Awful Business”: Female Death Workers in Nineteenth-Century Pennsylvania


Carol-Ann Farkas, PhD, Associate Professor of English

MCPHS University

Constructing the “Lady Doctor”: Femininity and Female Professionalization in the Popular Press of the Late Nineteenth-Century


Session Two: 10am-11am

Gina M. Greene, Ph.D. , Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholar

University of Pennsylvania

Architecture in Utero: From Maternity Ward to Maternal Environment at the Prentice Women’s Hospital (1975-1985)


Jodi Vandenberg-Daves, Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies and History, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse

“The Maternal Body in U.S. History: Discipline, Fragmentation, and the Potential for Empowerment"


Susan E. Klepp, Ph.D., Professor Emerita of History, Temple University

"The Pregnant Revolution: Women and Fertility in the New Nation"


Session Three: 11:10am-12pm

Carrie Adkins, Ph.D., Instructor, University of Oregon

This Is Catharine Macfarlane’s Life: Gender and Power in Twentieth-Century American Medicine


Mary M. Mahoney, Ph.D. Student in History, University of Connecticut

“Taking a Literary Pulse: Ruth Tews and the Mystery of Bibliotherapy.”


LUNCH 12:10-1:15pm


Session Four: 1:20-2:10pm

Kelly O'Reilly, Ph.D. Student in History, Vanderbilt University

"Doctor-less" Birth Control: Bringing Birth Control to California's Migrant Workers, 1939-1942


Jennifer Fraser, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Toronto

“From Nuns to Natives”: The Postcolonial History of the Cytopipette,"


CLOSING COMMENTS: 2:10-2:15pm