Inaugural Michaels Lecture: Gender, Race, and Science in Med School Design

 “Forming the Modern Physician: Gender, Race, and Science

in Early Twentieth-Century Medical School Design”

April 2, 2024 ~ Inaugural Michaels Lecture ~

Katherine L. Carroll, PhD (Independent Scholar)

Architectural historian Dr. Carroll has presented widely on medical school design and the intertwined ways in which the built environment influences scientific culture, as well as the ways in which cultural and social priorities affect building choices. As the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine celebrates the one-year anniversary of the opening of the new West Wing of Scaife Hall, and Duquesne University renovates its campus to welcome a brand-new DO medical school, this was thoughtful commentary about how past schools have made other choices. Click here for the recording (starts at 4:40).

This was the first annual Milton Meyer Michaels lecture. A life-long Pittsburgher, Dr. Michaels (1927-2022) practiced Hematology and Internal Medicine for over five decades. He supported the C.F. Reynolds Medical History Society for many years, having also served as its President. We thank the generosity of his wife, Lois Glazer Michaels, and their children, Eric, Marian, and Jacob, for endowing this speakership.

The C.F. Reynolds Medical History Society thanks the University of Pittsburgh Center for Bioethics and Health Law for its support of the continuing relevance of medical history in our world.

Image: University of Pittsburgh School of Dentistry shortly after construction (1912). University of Pittsburgh Archives photograph collection, 1971-2006, item 31735070042936.

Image description: A sepia-toned photograph depicts a long, rectangular building with two stories of tall plain windows and one story of short windows. There is decorative stone work around the entrance portal and a small facade on the roof.