October 19, 2021
Why I Quit - Opinion Piece
Cornelia Lambert writes: Like many historians of science and medicine, I’ve learned to walk a fine line between advocating for science and exercising caution in the face of the discipline’s myriad missteps. For every scientific success story, there’s a corresponding narrative of horror, in which the pursuit of knowledge took place within power structures that willingly sacrificed the well-being — the lives, even — of people of color, colonial subjects, women, and queer persons. Studying the history of medicine has attuned me to how powerful institutions take risks with vulnerable populations. I recognize the calculus of indifference when I see it.