The New York Academy of Medicine Section on Historical Medicine announces
another in its 2002-2003 series of public lectures:

"Measuring Phalluses, Gendering Babies, and Speaking to the Dead: What
History tells Us About Handling Intersex Today"

Alice Domurat Dreger, Ph.D., author of Hermaphrodites and the Medical
Invention of Sex (Harvard University Press, 1998)

Tuesday, December 10, 2002, 6:00 PM (Refreshments will be served at 5:30 PM)

Can and should the history of "hermaphroditism" and other unusual anatomical
types be used to inform the present-day medical and social treatment of
people born with intersex conditions? If so, how do we decide which bits of
history matter? And what do we do with the gaping evidentiary holes? Finally,
in an age of tremendous medical progress, can we take seriously the
possibility that past practices were superior? In this lecture, these
questions are addressed from the point of view of a medical historian who has
been working with physicians, persons with intersex, and patient advocates to
improve the social and medical treatment of intersex.

Professor Dreger is a historian of anatomy at Michigan State University, in
East Lansing, Michigan, where she holds the titles of Associate Professor of
Science and Technology Studies and Associate Faculty in the Center for Ethics
and Humanities in the Life Sciences. She is also Chair of the Board of
Directors of the Intersex Society of North America, a non-profit advocacy and
policy organization. Her research focuses on the biomedical and social
treatment of people born with unusual anatomies and her books include
Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex (Harvard University Press,
1998), Intersex in the Age of Ethics (University Publishing Group, 1999) and
One of Us: How Conjoined Twins Unite Us All (Harvard University Press,
forthcoming in 2003). Dr. Dreger's essays on the human origins and impacts
of science have appeared in the New York Times.

This event is free and open to the public. For more information about NYAM
programs in the history of medicine, write history@nyam.org or call Christian
Warren at 212.822.7314.

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organization dedicated to enhancing the health of the public through
research, education and advocacy, with a particular focus on disadvantaged
urban populations. Please visit our website: www.nyam.org .

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