Nicole Labruto - on undergraduate education & on plants, science, and colonialism

Join us in our conversation with Nicole Labruto, anthropologist and director of the Medicine, Science, and the Humanities undergraduate major here at Johns Hopkins. In this episode, we discuss both Dr. Labruto’s own anthropological research – on sugar cane, science, the environment, and society – as well as the importance of offering an interdisciplinary education in the medical humanities and science, technology, and society to undergraduate students. In addition to speaking about her fascinating research, Dr. Labruto also shares several of her pedagogical tools and tips for teaching students in STS and the medical humanities. 

As always, we hope you enjoy listening! But we especially hope that you enjoy this episode, as it is Antoine and Christy’s last one as co-hosts. “For the Medical Record” will take a break before re-starting with new co-hosts from the Center for Medical Humanities & Social Medicine community. Thank you for the engagement, listens, and encouragement! 

PEOPLE AND RESOURCES MENTIONED  

Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Map
Kamna Balhara (you can listen to our “For the Medical Record” episode with Kamna Balhara and Nate Irvin here) 
Franz Boas 
Immanuel Wallerstein 
Slum Dwellers International 
Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) 
Mary Poovey, A History of the Modern Fact: Problems of Knowledge in the Sciences of Wealth and Society (1998) 
Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison, Objectivity (2007) 
Howard Zinn 
Sidney W. Mintz, Sweetness in Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History (1986) 
Stuart B. Schwartz, Sugar Plantations in the Formation of Brazilian Society: Bahia, 1550-1835 (1986)
Londa Schiebinger, "Exotic abortifacients: the global politics of plants in the 18th century” (2000) 
Jerry Burgess 
Baltimore Compost Collective
The South Baltimore Community Land Trust 
Black Yield Institute 
Marvin Hayes 
Shashawnda Campbell 
Meleny Thomas 
Greg Sawtell 
Eric Jackson 
Nicole Fabricant