2017 Visiting Speaker
Autism and Its Transformations – The History of a Contested Diagnosis
On Oct 3, Dr Jeffrey Baker, Professor of Pediatrics and History of Medicine, enthralled a large Schulich Medicine audience with his 2017 Visiting Speaker lecture – “Autism and Its Transformations: The History of a Contested Diagnosis.” Dr Baker described five different narratives that emerged during the past century as physicians and parents grappled to understand and diagnose autism. His talk highlighted themes of disease complexity, physician authority, doctor-parent relationships, and more. An engaging question-and-answer session followed Dr Baker’s lecture. It was wonderful to see that this year's lecture topic drew our most diverse audience yet, including medical students, faculty, physicians and members of the public. Thank you all for attending!
Jeffrey Baker, MD, PhD is the Director of the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities and History of Medicine as well as Professor of Pediatrics and History of Medicine at Duke University, Durham, NC.
