August 12, 2003

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE TO SPONSOR SYMPOSIUM IN OCTOBER 2003
ON "VISUAL CULTURE AND PUBLIC HEALTH"

Public health has a long and distinguished visual record. From
seventeenth-century engravings to the latest digital images, visual
representations have played a critical role in educating the public
about modern health crises. But what purposes do these images serve
beyond their immediate role in health prevention and education? What
do they tell us about the history of health care, or attitudes
toward our bodies, or the world that we live in?

"Visual Culture and Public Health" is the second in a series of
symposia sponsored by the History of Medicine Division of the National
Library of Medicine. It will include a keynote speaker and twelve
presentations representing the disciplines of history of medicine,
history of science, anthropology, sociology, geography, art history,
and visual and media studies.

All sessions will be held in the National Library of Medicine's
Lister Hill Auditorium, on the campus of the National Institutes
of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. The symposium is free and open to
the public.

Proposed Program:
Thursday, October 16, 2003
1:30-3:30: Panel #1: Visual Media and Contemporary Health Issues
4:00-5:30: Keynote Address by Barbara Maria Stafford, William B. Ogden
Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Art History, University
of Chicago: "Public Health as Public Art: The Role of Images in a Time
of Epidemics"

Friday, October 17, 2003
9:30-11:30: Panel #2: Visual Imagery and Epidemics
1:00-3:00: Panel #3: Visualizing AIDS
3:30-5:30: Panel #4: Visual Culture and Environmental Health
Reception to follow

Confirmed Speakers:
Lisa Cartwright, Communications, University of California at San Diego
Roger Cooter, History of Medicine, Wellcome Trust, University College London
Arthur Frederick Hasler, Scientific Visualization and Analysis Laboratory, NASA
William Helfand, Independent Scholar and Collector
Nicholas King, Social Epidemiology and Population Health, University of
Michigan
Lenore Manderson, Anthropology, University of Melbourne
Emily Martin, Anthropology, New York University
Gregg Mitman, History of Science, University of Wisconsin at Madison
Mark Monmonier, Geography, Syracuse University
Katherine Ott, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Shawn Michelle Smith, American Studies, St. Louis University
Paula Treichler, Institute of Communications Research, University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign

For on-line registration, directions to the National Library of Medicine,
and other information about the symposium, please see our website at
www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/visualculture or e-mail visualculturenlm.nih.gov.