Root Canals, "Race Records", and A Radical Reimagining of Medical Ethics

Bioethics Events in September and October 2025

Looking for upcoming bioethics-related events? Here are two I’m particularly excited about - one centered on the history of dentistry and blues music, and another on medical anthropology.

Rockefellers, Root Canals, and “Race Records”

The Toothache Blues and the Story of Dentistry Reform in Interwar Harlem

Black dentists in Harlem, 1925. Source: Pinterest Collection.

Bronwen McVeigh, a post-doctoral fellow at the University College Dublin, currently uses her PhD in Historical Musicology to study the blues in relation to endemic illness, dental hygiene, public health campaigns, and political fractures within and beyond African American communities in interwar America.

• Sponsor: National Collaborative on Humanities & Ethics in Dentistry (NCHED)

• Speaker: Bronwen McVeigh, PhD

• Date: September 30, 2025

• Time: 10 AM (PT)/11 AM (MST)/12 PM (CT)/1 PM (ET)

• Location: ZOOM

• Register: Here

• Continuing Education Credits: Available for dental professionals

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Analyze blues narratives alongside materials from Harlem-based public health campaigns to uncover themes of alienation and access barriers within dentistry.

2. Foster critical thinking about how artistic expressions like blues can serve as visceral records of community experience, deepening our understanding of the triumphs and failures of campaigns aiming to improve dental hygiene among lower-income African American communities in interwar Harlem.

3. Better understand ongoing challenges in broadening healthcare access and achieving patient trust by examining understudied historical primary source materials.

When Care Comes First

A Radical Reimagining of Medical Ethics

35th Annual Jonathan J. King Lecture at Stanford University

Physician and anthropologist Arthur Kleinman and two of his most famous books, The Soul of Care and The Illness Narratives

Arthur Kleinman, MD, author of the acclaimed The Illness Narratives: Suffering, Healing, and the Human Condition, is a world-renowned expert and luminary whose influential career spans anthropology, global health, ethics, psychiatry, and narrative and cultural medicine.

In this timely and thought-provoking lecture, Dr. Kleinman will explore the moral dimensions of caregiving and propose a transformative vision for the future of ethical medical practice.

Educated at Stanford and a distinguished professor at Harvard for nearly five decades, Kleinman has notably served as Chair of both Harvard’s Department of Social Medicine and Department of Anthropology and directed Harvard’s Asia Center.

He is also the author of multiple books, including The Soul of Care, and co-editor of seminal volumes such as Reimagining Global Health. Kleinman's prestigious accolades include membership in the National Academy of Medicine, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Franz Boas Award from the American Anthropological Association. A revered mentor, Kleinman has guided generations of scholars in transforming global perspectives on health and human suffering.

• Sponsor: The King Lectureship at Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics

• Speaker: Arthur Kleinman, MD

• Date: Tuesday, October 14, 2025

• Time: 5:30 PM (PT)/ 6:30 PM (MST)/7:30 PM (CT)/8:30 PM (ET)

• Location: Hybrid - Stanford Faculty Club and Zoom

• Register:

  • Virtual registration (Hors d’oeuvres reception will follow the lecture)

  • In-person registration

You can learn more about Jonathan King and his legacy on the King Lectureship page.