My research focuses on the historical production of concepts of race in public health and medicine. My monograph tentatively titled "Racialization of Lung Capacity Measurements: A Transnational Perspective" examines the ways in which race shaped and was shaped by the development, application, and globalization of the technology of spirometry from 1844 to the present. A related research project explores the history of the production of invisibility of asbestos-related disease in South Africa.

Biography

Lundy Braun (Ph.D. 1982, Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health) is a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Africana Studies and a member of the Science and Technology Studies Program. Her current research focuses on: 1) the history of the global circulation of knowledge about race and lung capacity in the 19th and 20th centuries; 2) the socio-political and economic production of invisibility about occupational disease, especially asbestos-related diseases in South Africa; and 3) race, genomics, and health inequality. She has participated in national and international workshops on race, genetics, and health. During the academic year 2002-2003, she was a recipient of a Professional Development Award from the National Science Foundation, which she pursued as a Visiting Scholar at the History of Science Department, Harvard University. In 2003, she was a Fulbright Senior Specialist in Public Health at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. In addition to numerous teaching awards at Brown, including the Harriet W. Sheridan Award for Distinguished Contribution to Teaching and Learning, Braun has also been recognized for excellence in teaching of science to breast cancer activists. Courses include: General Pathology for medical students and Biological and Social Context of Disease, Race in Medicine and Public Health, Colonialism, Imperialism, Public Health in Africa: Past and Present, and Health Inequality in Historical Perspective for undergraduate students.

Awards

Royce Family Professor in Teaching Excellence, 2010
Dean's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, Advising, and Mentoring in the Biological Sciences, 2010
Dean's Excellence in Teaching Award, Brown University School of Medicine, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2007
Fulbright Senior Specialist Award, 2003
Harriet W. Sheridan Award for Distinguished Contribution to Teaching and Learning, 2003
The Onyx Class of 2001 Award, Brown University, 2001
Profiles in Competence Award, Brown University School of Medicine, 2000
The Onyx Class of 1999 Award, Brown University, 1999
Faculty Teaching Award, Brown University Medical School, 1999
Award for Science Training of Breast Cancer Activists, National Breast Cancer Coalition - 1997
Gender Equity Award, American Medical Women's Association, Brown University chapter, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997
Medical Faculty Teaching Award,1992
Mary Putnam-Jacobi Award, Brown University Women in Medicine, 1989
National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health, 1985-1987
Outstanding Student Research Award, Delta Omega National Honorary Public Health Society, Alpha Chapter, 1980

Affiliations

American Association for the History of Medicine
Society for the Social Studies of Science
American Public Health Association
Delta Omega Honorary Public Health Society

Funded Research

Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation Scholar Award, "Racialization of Spirometry: A Transnational Project, July 1, 2009-June 30, 2010.

Courses Taught

• Biological and Social Context of Disease (BI 85)
• Colonialism, Imperialism, and Public Health in Africa: Past and Present (192)
• General Pathology (BI 186)
• Health Inequality in Historical Perspective (BIOL 1920B)
• Race in Medicine and Public Health (BI 10)

Selected Publications

• Braun L, Wolfgang M, Dickersin, K (2012) Defining Race/Ethnicity and Explaining Difference in Research Studies on Lung Function. European Respiratory Journal, erj00916-2012; published ahead of print, doi:10.1183/09031936.00091612(2012)
• L Braun and E Hammonds. The dilemma of classification: The past in the present. In eds K Wailoo, A Nelson C Lee, Genetics and the Unsettled Past: The Collision of DNA, Race, History. Rutgers University Press, 2011.(2011)
• L Braun and L Phoun, HPV Vaccination Campaigns: Masking Uncertainty, Erasing Complexity, In (eds) K Wailoo, J Livingstone, S Epstein, R Aronowitz, Three Shots at Prevention: The HPV Vaccine and the Politics of Medicine's Simple Solutions, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010(2010)
• L. Braun. Structuring silence: Biomedical research and asbestos-induced disease in Britain and South Africa. Race and Class 50 (2008): 59-78(2008)
• L Braun and E Hammonds. Race, populations, and genomics: Africa as laboratory, Social Science and Medicine 67 (2008): 1580-1588.(2008)
• L. Braun L, A. Fausto-Sterling, E. Hammonds, A. Nelson, W. Quivers, S. Reverby, A. Shields. Racial categories in medical practice: Are they useful? PLOS Med 4 (2007):e271.doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0040271.(2007)
• L. Braun and S. Kisting. Asbestos in South Africa: The Social Production of an Invisible Epidemic. American Journal of Public Health, 96 (2006): 1386-1396.(2006)
• L. Braun Reifying Human Difference: Race, Genetics, and Health Disparities, Int J Health Services, 36 (2006): 557-573.(2006)
• L. Braun and A. Fausto-Sterling. Science and Technology Studies: Its Relevance to Medical Education and the Practice of Medicine. Medicine and Health Rhode Island 89 (2006): 315-317.(2006)
• L. Braun. Spirometry, Measurement, and Race in the Nineteenth Century. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Science. 60 (2005): 135-169.(2005)
• L. Braun. Genetics and Health disparities: What is at Stake? Proceedings of the Workshop on Genetics and Health Disparities, March 20-21, 2004, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social, University of Michigan, Eleanor Singer and Toni Antonucci, eds.(2004)
• N. Jacobs, S. Kisting, L. Braun. Collaborative research, participatory solutions: research on asbestos in Kuruman, South Africa. Int J of Occup Env Health 10 (2004): 226-232.(2004)
• L. Braun. Engaging the experts: Popular science education and breast cancer activism. Critical Public Health 13 (2003): 191-206.(2003)
• L. Braun et al. Scientific controversy and asbestos: Making disease invisible. International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health 9 (2003): 194-205.(2003)
• L. Braun. Race, ethnicity, and health: Can genetics explain disparities? Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. 45 (2002):159-174(2002)
• L. Braun and J. Trimbur. Popularizing science: At the boundary of expert and lay biomedical knowledge. In Popular Literacies: Studies in Cultural Practices and Poetics, ed. J. Trimbur. (Pittsburg: University of Pittsburg Press, 2001).(2001)