Renaissance Men: A Conversation with Harriet A. Washington

Join Columbia University’s Master of Science in Bioethics program on Thursday, December 3, 2026, from 6:00-7:15 p.m. EDT for an online conversation celebrating faculty member Harriet A. Washington’s new book, Renaissance Men: Agents of Medical and Cultural Modernity. Bringing contemporary ethical questions to bear on the history of medicine and culture, this event will explore those whose achievements we remember, whose stories we neglect, and what their choices mean for medicine today.

In Renaissance Men, Washington (winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction for Medical Apartheid) examines the lives of three Black physicians whose influence extended beyond clinical practice: James McCune Smith, Rudolph Fisher, and Louis T. Wright. Working in New York City across different generations, these men advanced medical knowledge while contributing to cultural life and confronting racial injustice. Renaissance Men consider both their achievements and the forces that obscured their place in American history.

Washington will be joined by Columbia historian Samuel Kelton Roberts Jr., PhD, and other Columbia faculty for a discussion moderated by Robert Klitzman, MD, director of Columbia’s Master of Science in Bioethics program. They will consider the book’s historical subjects and the ethical questions their lives pose for institutions, clinicians, and the public.

For questions about this event, please contact Marie Gugnishev (mg4441 [[at]] columbia [[dot]] edu).

To obtain additional information about program offerings at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies, please inquire [[at]] sps [[dot]] columbia [[dot]] edu.

Please visit Columbia University’s Hub for Emergency Preparedness to stay up to date on the latest campus health and safety policies.

If you require closed captioning, sign-language interpretation, or other accommodations, please contact disability [[at]] columbia [[dot]] edu, at least 10 days in advance. Services requested less than 10 days in advance cannot be guaranteed.

This event is open to individuals irrespective of identity and sex.