Events

January 21, 2026

Why I Quit the CDC
Notes from an Insider on Scientific Integrity and the Future of Public Health

Debra Houry, MD, MPH
Former CDC Chief Medical Officer & Deputy Director for Program and Science

Tuesday, November 11, 2025  

The Attack on Scientific Research: What's the Path Forward?
Dr. Holden Thorp, Editor, Science
Professor of Chemistry, George Washington University

Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025

Fighting Authoritarianism in History: The Case of Soviet Union Dissidents
Dr. Benjamin Nathans, Winner, Pulitzer Prize (2025)
Alan Kors Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania

2025 Isidore I. Benrubi Lecture in the History and Ethics of Public Health

September 16, 2025

DEFENDING PUBLIC HEALTH, SCIENCE, AND DEMOCRACY IN A TIME OF PERIL
We hosted a conversation with Robert Wood Johnson Foundation President and CEO Richard Besser, in conversation with New Yorker contributor and Dean of the Journalism School, Jelani Cobb. Dr. Besser discuss why he and RWJF have continued to speak forthrightly in defense of public health and the study of racism, inequality, and exclusion, even in a climate increasingly hostile to its study. Dean Jelani Cobb will add his perspectives from the field of journalism, an institution that has come under similar attack. 

Fighting Authoritarianism in History: The Case of Soviet Union Dissidents

Rosner Seminar on Health, History & Social Justice
History Now: Lecture Series Bringing History to Public Health Audiences

October 22, 2025

Dr. Benjamin Nathans
University of Pennsylvania, Alan Kors Professor of History 
(Pulitzer Prize Winner 2025)

Public Health's Constitutional Crisis: What You Need to Know

Rosner Seminar on Health, History & Social Justice
History Now: Lecture Series Bringing History to Public Health Audiences

April 7, 2025

Stephen Vladeck, JD
Agnes Williams Sesquicentennial Professor of Federal Courts at Georgetown Law 
Author of One First blog and a regular commentator on CNN

LEARNING TO HEAL: A Discussion with Professor Ed Cohen (Rutgers)

March 28, 2025

Ed Cohen, PhD
Professor
Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences
Author, On Learning to Heal

The Future is Fireproof: Putting Out Fires In the American Past

Rosner Seminar on Health, History & Social Justice
History Now: Lecture Series Bringing History to Public Health Audiences

March 4, 2025
Daniel Immerwah
New York Times Best-Selling Historian
Writer, New Yorker

Community Organizing in New York City

January 29, 2025

Chi Ossé
New York City Council Member
 

David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz's 
Building the Worlds That Kill Us: Disease, Death, and Inequality in American History 

Thu, November 7, 2024

A panel of distinguished experts who have worked at the intersections of health, history, and politics participated in this conference to celebrate David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz’s new book, Building the Worlds that Kill Us. 

Speakers: Dean Linda Fried, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz, 

Participants: Samuel Roberts, Betsy Blackmar, Kavita Sivaramakrishnan, Merlin Chowkwanyun, David Michaels, Valentina Parisi, Susan Reverby, Simon Szreter, Nick Turse, and Sarah Vogel

Where Did Anti-Democratic Movements and Illiberalism Come From?

Rosner Seminar on Health, History & Social Justice
History Now: Lecture Series Bringing History to Public Health Audiences

October 30, 2024 

Steve Hahn, PhD
Professor of History, New York University
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author of the new Illiberal America

How We Won: The WGA Writers Strike and the Future of Work

Sophie & Alex Rosner Seminar on Health, History & Social Justice
November 1, 2023
Tony Segall,
General Counsel
Writers Guild West
Ann Burdick,
General Counsel
Writers Guild East

The Politics of Global Health, Inequality, and Social Justice in the Age of New Pandemics and Instability

Sophie & Alex Rosner Seminar on Health, History & Social Justice
March 29, 2023
Joia Mukherjee, MD, MPH
Chief Medical Officer of Partners in Health

Ending Black-White Health Disparities: The Case for Reparations

Isidore I.Benrubi Lecture in the History and Ethics of Public Health 
October 12, 2022

Speaker: Mary T. Bassett, MD, MPH
Commissioner, New York State Department of Health

Hate Speech on Campus and the First Amendment: An American Dilemma

Isidore I.Benrubi Lecture in the History and Ethics of Public Health 
April 17, 2019 

Speakers:

• Aryeh Neier 
  Human Rights Activist, President Emeritus of the Open Society Foundations, and Former Executive Director of Human Rights Watch
• Jeremy Waldron
  Prolific Scholar, University Professor at New York University School of Law, and previously University Professor in the School of Law at Columbia University 

Does Equality Have a Future in America?

Isidore I.Benrubi Lecture in the History and Ethics of Public Health 
October 4, 2017

Speaker: Paul Krugman, PhD
Nobel Prize Winner, Economist, Columnist for The New York Times

Keynote Lecture by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse

Isidore I.Benrubi Lecture in the History and Ethics of Public Health 
October 27, 2016

Speaker: Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
U.S. Senator from Rhode Island

From AIDS to Ebola: What Have We Learned?

Isidore I.Benrubi Lecture in the History and Ethics of Public Health 
April 8, 2015

Speaker: Laurie Garrett
Senior Fellow for Global Health Council on Foreign Relations

Beyond Wages and Wealth: How Inequity Harms Our Political Institutions, Our Social Fabric, and Our Well-Being

Isidore I.Benrubi Lecture in the History and Ethics of Public Health 
February 26, 2014

Speaker: Joseph Stiglitz, PhD, FBS
Nobel Laureate
University Professor at Columbia University

The Changing Picture of Childbirth in America

Isidore I.Benrubi Lecture in the History and Ethics of Public Health 
November 8, 2012

Speaker: Judith W. Leavitt, PhD
Rupple Bascom and Ruth Bleier Professor Emerita
University of Wisconsin, Madison

Environment and Risk: Thinking With & Thinking About Etiology and Incidence

Isidore I.Benrubi Lecture in the History and Ethics of Public Health 
November 16, 2011

Speaker: Charles E. Rosenberg, PhD
Professor of the History of Science, Emeritus
Ernest E. Monrad Professor in the Social Sciences
Harvard University

OSHA at 40: Rethinking Worker Protection for the 21st Century

Isidore I.Benrubi Lecture in the History and Ethics of Public Health 
November 4, 2010

Speaker: David Michaels, PhD 
Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA