Christopher Willoughby, a Visiting Assistant Professor of History of Medicine and Health at Pitzer College, talks about his book, Masters of Health: Racial Science and Slavery in U.S. Medical Schools. Professor Willoughby discusses the origins of racialized medicine as was taught in Antebellum Medical Schools. Exploring how the ideas of Essentialism and Polygensis came to define how racial differences were determined and systematized, Prof. Willoughby makes the case that doctors had a vested interest in establishing themselves as masters of race. Determining racial difference occurred in lectures, dissecting theaters, and in medical museums where skulls were weighed and measured.
Christopher Willoughby is a historian of Atlantic slavery, U.S. medicine, and racism and a Visiting Assistant Professor of History of Medicine and Health at Pitzer College.
