Rosner Series
Sophie & Alex Rosner Seminar on Health, History & Social Justice: History Now
This seminar series features speakers active in struggles for social justice health equity. The speakers include a progressive slate of labor leaders, elected officials, and activists. This National Endowment for the Humanies endowed Series is named for Sophie and Alex Rosner, parents of the Center's founder David Rosner, Emeritus Lauterstein Professor of Sociomedical Sciences and History. From the 1930s through the 1970s, the Rosners were active in the labor movement, the Civil Rights movement, and various other struggles for human rights and social justice.
Feburary 9, 2026
ICE and Mass Deportation: An Urgent Talk with Mae, Ngai
The View From History Lecture Series
February 9, 2026
Dr. Mae Ngai
Lung Family Professor of Asian American Studies and History, Bancroft Prize Winner
Why I Quit the CDC: Notes from an Insider on Scientific Integrity and the Future of Public Health
January 21, 2026
Dr. Debra Houry
Former CDC Chief Medical Officer & Deputy Director for Program and Science
The Attack on Scientific Research: What's the Path Forward?
November 11, 2025
Dr. Holden Thorp
Editor, Science
George Washington Univeristy, Former Chancellor, UNC
Fighting Authoritarianism in History: The Case of Soviet Union Dissidents
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
History Matters Lecture Series
April 7, 2025
Professor Stephen Vladeck
Agnes Williams Sesquicentennial Professor of Federal Courts at Georgetown Law
Author of One First blog and a regular commentator on CNN
The Future is Fireproof: Putting Out Fires in the American Past
History Matters Lecture Series
March 4, 2025
Dr. Daniel Immerwahr
Northwestern University
New York Times Best Selling Historian; Writer, New Yorker, History Matters
Restraining US Democracy & Pruning the Electorate after the 1965 Voting RIghts Act
History Matters Lecture Series
February 26, 2025
Dr. Julilly Kohler-Hausman
Cornell University
Community Organizing in New York City
January 29, 2025
Chi Osse, New York City Council Member
Where Did Anti-Democratic Movements and Illiberalism Come From?
History Matters Lecture Series
October 30, 2024
Dr. Steve Hahn
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
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
March 29, 2023
Dr. Joia Mukherjee
Chief Medical Officer of Partners in Health
Abortion and Adolescent Contraception Access Post-Dobbs:
Engagement, Reproductive Justice, & Action for a Public Health of Consequence
February 22, 2023
Dr. Julie Maslowsky
Center of Excellence in Maternal & Child Care, University of Illinois
America Without Roe v Wade: Where We Are, What Comes Next, and How You can Fight Back
October 26, 2022
Madeline Gomez, JD
Policy Counsel, Planned Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Fighting for Labor Rights and Combating Sexual Assault in the Modeling Industry and Gig Economy
March 30, 2022
Sara Ziff
Director, The Model Alliance
Sydney Giorano, Associate Director, The Model Alliance
The Model Alliance, (Winner, CFDA Positive Social Influence Award)
Progressive Politics in New York State and New York City: An Update
March 18, 2022
Yuh-Line Niou
Assembly Member (D-65)
Chair, Subcomittee on Castastrophic Disasters
Co-Chair, Asian Pacific American Task Force, New York State Assembly
The New Jim Code? Technological Innovation, Inequity, & Imagination in the Age of Covid-19
February 21, 2021
Dr. Ruha Benjamin
Princeton University
Founding Director, Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab
Author, Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code
The Epidemic Underneath the Pandemic: Policy, Politics, & Public Health
October 13, 2020
Dr. Abdul El-Sayed
Former Deroit Health Commissioner / Progressive Activitist
Progressive Politics and Protest
October 5, 2020
Cori Bush
U.S. Rep-Elect (MI-1)
Nurse, Black Lives Matter Ativist
Star, Knock Down the House (Netflix)
Organized Labor, Racial Equity, and Schools
September 30, 2020
Stacy David Gates
Vice President, Chicago Teachers Union
Executive Vice President, Illinois Federation of Teachers
"One of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Chicago" - Chicago Magazine
Redefining Public Safety: A Path to Ending Mass Incarceration
and Mass Criminilization
March 4, 2020
Tiffany Caban
Former Candidate for Queens District Attorney
National Political Organizer, Working Families Party
Public Defender, New York County Defender Services
The New Era of Progressive Politics
February 20, 2020
Julia Salazar
NY State Senator (D/WFP, 18th Senante District)
Chair of Committee on Women's Health
Labor of Love: Labor Politics, Activism, and
Social Change in the Present
November 6, 2019
Sara Nelson
International President, Association of Flight Attendants - CWA, AFL-CIO
"America's most powerful flight attendant" - New York Times
How Social Science Stopped the Dealth Penalty
The Politics of Life and Death: Lessons from Washington State
October 23, 2019
Dr. Katherin Beckett
Frank S. Miyamoto Professor
University of California, LA
Seminar Recordings
October 22, 2020
The Legacy of Columbia Epidemiologist Alan Berkman (1945-2009):
From Political Revolutinary to Global Health Hero
Dr. Donna Murch, Rutgers University
Dr. Susan Reverby, Marion Butler McLean Professor Emerita, Wellesley