Cooper Owens, a historian, teacher, and reproductive justice advocate, is an associate professor of history and Africana studies at the University of Connecticut.
Occidental College is pleased to welcome Deirdre Cooper Owens for a two-day campus residency Feb. 18-19. On Feb. 18 at 7 p.m. in Choi Auditorium, she will present a free public lecture titled “Slavery, Gynecology and Black Placental Resistance: Why Black Mothers Matter.” She will also visit classrooms to talk with students while on campus and will hold a healing circle on Feb. 19.
“We are delighted that Professor Deirdre Cooper Owens will be joining us as this year's Stafford Ellison Wright Scholar-in-Residence,” says Professor of Black Studies Erica Ball. “Her groundbreaking interdisciplinary scholarship epitomizes what is most exciting about Black Studies research today. This is going to be a fantastic experience for the Oxy community.”
Before her appointment at the University of Connecticut, Cooper Owens worked simultaneously at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln directing its humanities in medicine program and directing the program in African American History at the Library Company of Philadelphia, the nation’s oldest continuously running cultural institution. During that time, Cooper Owens was the only Black woman in the U.S. heading a medical humanities program.
Black Studies and American Studies double major Mikayla Woods ’25 says she had the privilege of working with Cooper-Owens at the Library Company of Philadelphia in the summer of 2023.
“While working with Professor Cooper-Owens, I was not only blown away by her sophisticated and crucially relevant scholarship on the history of race, slavery, and gynecology, but I was struck by her dedication to mentorship and support for aspiring scholars. Professor Cooper-Owens is a true trailblazer in the field, and her devotion to the intersections of scholarship and advocacy work is particularly inspiring.”
Cooper Owens is a popular public speaker, having appeared in several documentaries, podcasts and television newscasts as a historical expert, and she is a nationally recognized reproductive justice advocate. She is an Organization of American Historians’ (OAH) Distinguished Lecturer, a past American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Fellow, and a newly elected member of the American Antiquarian Society. Time magazine named her as one of the country’s “best historians.”
Cooper Owens has won several prestigious honors and awards for her scholarly and advocacy work in history and reproductive and birthing justice. Her first book, Medical Bondage: Race, Gender and the Origins of American Gynecology, won a Darlene Clark Hine Book Award from the Organization of American Historians as the best book written in African American women’s and gender history. It has been translated into Korean. She is currently working on a popular biography about Harriet Tubman that will examine her life through the lens of disability and is also writing a historical monograph about race, medical discovery, and the C-section.
Created by Occidental’s Black Alumni Organization (BAO), the Stafford Ellison Wright Endowment enables distinguished Black scholars, artists, elected officials, and others to spend time in residence at Occidental each year. BAO members believe that a student’s educational experience will be enriched by in-depth contact with individuals who serve as symbols of excellence.
The Endowment honors Occidental’s first Black graduates, all members of the Class of 1952: Dr. Janet Stafford, George F. Ellison, and Barbara Bowman Wright.
