History Center Events
Spring 2023 Nursing History Forums (All Virtual)
Tuesday, March 14, 2023, at 12 p.m.
"Medicine of Care: Oral History of Nurse Practitioners in New York State"
Morag Martin, PhD
This oral history project traces the educational, professional, and personal journeys of nurse practitioners in the New York region who entered the profession when it was still relatively new and quickly evolving in nature and scope. It draws on 30 interviews with nurse practitioners who trained between 1980-2000 at the University of Rochester, one of the first nursing schools to offer the NP certification.
Morag Martin, PhD, received the 2021 Nurse Practitioner History Research Scholar Award from the Bjoring Center. She is a professor and chair of the History Department at the State University of New York Brockport.
Tuesday, April 18, 2023, at 12 p.m.
Randolph Award Lecture
"History and Memory of Filipino Nurses in U.S. Health-Care Delivery"
Catherine Ceniza Choy, PhD
Catherine Ceniza Choy, PhD, is the recipient of the 2023 Agnes Dillon Randolph Award from the Bjoring Center. This award recognizes her outstanding scholarship documenting the experiences of Filipino nurses in U.S. history and the importance of that history for understanding ongoing issues in health care, including the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Filipino nurses in the U.S.
Dr. Choy is the award-winning author of Asian American Histories of the United States (2022), Global Families: A History of Asian International Adoption in America (2013), and Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration in Filipino American History (2003). She is a professor of ethnic studies at the University of California Berkeley, where she also serves as Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Justice in the Division of Computing, Data Science, and Society.
An engaged public scholar, Dr. Choy has been interviewed and had her research cited in many media outlets, including ABC 20/20, CNN, Los Angeles Times, NBC News, New York Times, and San Francisco Chronicle, on topics such as the disproportionate toll of COVID-19 on Filipino nurses in the United States, and racism and misogyny in the March 16, 2021, Atlanta spa shootings.
Photo of Dr. Choy by Kirstin Lara Getchell
These events will be held via Zoom. Please email us for the Zoom invite.
View the 2022 Randolph Conference Program and 2022 Randolph Conference Program Abstracts from our international event, held virtually in March 2022.
"Understanding the Experiences of Male Nurse Practitioners, 1980 to Present" by Marcus D. Henderson, MSN, RN (from Oct. 2022).
"Black Nurses’ Silent Struggle to Integrate Hospital Nursing in the North, 1950-1970" by Hafeeza Anchrum, PhD, RN (from Nov. 2022).
For recordings of these talks, please contact the Bjoring Center's manager at mks2d@virginia.edu.
A Virtual Roundtable on the History of Black Midwives
In recognition of Black History Month in February 2022, the Bjoring Center hosted a panel discussion of distinguished scholars, featuring Dr. Wangui Muigai, a historian of medicine at Brandeis University who is writing a book on the history of Black infant mortality in the U.S.; Dr. Michelle Drew, a practicing midwife and chair of the American College of Nurse Midwives Caucus for Reproductive Justice and Birth Equity; and Dr. Gertrude Fraser, associate professor in UVA's Department of Anthropology and author of African American Midwifery in the South: Dialogues of Birth, Race, and Memory. Read or download the History of Black Midwives Roundtable transcript.
Program Details
"Ancient Wisdom, Resistance and Reclamation: The Historical Contributions of African and African American Midwives 1619 to the Present" - by Michelle Drew, DNP, MPH, CNM, FNP-C, C-EFM
"Trust, Training, and Tradition: Black Midwifery in the Early 20th Century" - by Wangui Muigai, PhD
This presentation examines the contributions of a range of Black women, including midwives, health officials, nurses, and pregnant women, as they worked to ensure the health of Black mothers and newborns in the early 20th century and the challenges they faced in their efforts. The talk considers the legacies of this moment on the birth and reproductive experiences of Black Americans today.
"African American Doulas: Carrying on the Tradition, Navigating Spaces of Care and Exploitation" - by Gertrude J. Fraser, PhD
This presentation will explore emerging work from primarily feminist scholars about African American doulas, especially in urban communities who are caught between the desire to serve their clients of color who are at higher risk for mortality and serious illness during pregnancy and the need for a living wage. Further, I will discuss how health officials may place doulas front and center in intervention strategies to reduce maternal mortality while at the same time failing to monetarily value their contributions or to invest significantly in ameliorating the root causes of reproductive health care disparities. My goal is to engage in dialogue about how doulas may be valorized for their devotion to provide culturally salient care for women of color, on the one hand, and on the other, be subject to different forms of exploitation.
Black Midwives: A History Forum
