On Wednesday, September 5, Dr. Dorothy Roberts, a nationally-known scholar, will be the featured speaker at the first Upper School assembly (10:05-10:50 in the Loeb). Her presentation will launch the community discussions of the all-Upper School summer read, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Dr. Roberts was recently appointed the George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology, along with being named the inaugural Sadie T.M. Alexander Professor of Civil Rights, at the University of Pennsylvania. Read more about Dr. Roberts and her work.
Prior to moving to the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Roberts was a faculty member at Northwestern University’s School of Law. She brings powerful scholarly insights about The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, specifically through the multiple lenses of law, bioethics, race, gender and class.
All parents are welcome to join us for this exciting lecture.
The following evening, September 6, at 7:30 p.m. in the Yarnall Auditorium, the Parents’ Association is hosting a book discussion of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. The event will be led by Dr. Reed Pyeritz, vice-chair for Academic Affairs in Penn’s Medical School, Director of the Center for Integration of Genetic Technologies and a professor of medicine and genetics. He is also senior fellow at Penn’s Center for Bioethics and at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, and spent 17 years at Johns Hopkins and knows many of the medical and science professionals discussed in the book.
We encourage you to bring your (Upper School) students to what will be a fascinating evening.