Lundy Braun is a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Africana Studies and a member of the STS Program. Her research analyzes the historical role of science, medicine, and public health in the production of racial hierarchies. Specifically, her research takes an interdisciplinary approach to study the structures of inequality, including the epistemological dimensions of racist, sexist, and class divisions in society that work to naturalize human difference in clinical medicine and public health theory and practice. Projects include 1) the history of race and racism embedded in theories and mathematic formulas assessing lung function; kidney function; and race-norming of concussions (with Lucia Trimbur). 2) the social, political, and scientific production of invisibility about work-related diseases due to asbestos and silica exposure in the mines of South Africa; and 3) the contemporary debate over race, genomics, genetic ancestry, and health inequality, as it impacts explanatory frameworks and especially medical pedagogy. She has participated in national and international workshops on race, imperialism, genetics, and health and is the recipient of a Professional Development Award from the NSF; a Fulbright Senior Specialist in Public Health at the University of Cape Town, South Africa; and a Scholar Award from the NSF. She has also founded a Working Group on Race, Medicine, and Social Justice at the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University, which she now co-directs with Dr. Taneisha Wilson.
She is the author of Breathing Race into the Machine: The Surprising Career of the Spirometer from Plantation to Genetics (University of Minnesota Press, 2014), for which she received the 2018 Ludwig Fleck Award from the 4S (and Honorable Mention for the 2017 Rachel Carson Award.)
| Braun, Lundy. "Arleen Marcia Tuchman. Diabetes: A History of Race and Disease. xvii + 288 pp., illus., notes, bibl., index. New Haven, Conn./London: Yale University Press, 2020. $32.50 (cloth); ISBN 9780300228991." Isis, vol. 112, no. 3, 2021, pp. 613-614. |
| Jessica Cerdena, Rohit Jaswaney, Marie V Plaisime, Lundy Braun. "Assessment of Skin Phenotype Representation in a Popular Medical Licensing Educational Resource." JAMA Network Op, vol. Jan 4;4(1), 2021, pp. e2033164. |
| Braun L. "Race Correction and Spirometry: Why History Matters." Chest, vol. 159, no. 4, 2021, pp. 1670-1675. |
| Braun, Lundy, Wentz, Anna, Baker, Reuben, Richardson, Ellen, Tsai, Jennifer. "Racialized algorithms for kidney function: Erasing social experience." Social Science & Medicine, vol. 268, 2021, pp. 113548. |
| Braun, Lundy. "Book Forum." Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, vol. 80, 2020, pp. 101221. |
| Braun, Lundy. "Michael E. Staub, The Mismeasure of Minds: Debating Race and Intelligence between Brown and The Bell Curve, Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2018. Pp. 232. $29.95. ISBN 978-1-4696-4359-5." Social History of Medicine, vol. 33, no. 4, 2020, pp. 1396-1397. |
| Lundy Braun. "Commentary: Difference and Disease by Suman Seth. Medicine, Race, and the 18th Century British Empire." studies in the history and philosophy of medicine, vol. available online Sept 24, 2019, 2019. |
| Braun, Lundy, Kopinski, Hannah. "Causal understandings: Controversy, social context, and mesothelioma research." BioSocieties, vol. 13, no. 3, 2018, pp. 557-579. |
| Braun, Lundy. "Silicosis: A World History ed. by Paul-Andre Rosental." Bulletin of the History of Medicine, vol. 92, no. 2, 2018, pp. 389-391. |
| "Avoiding Racial Essentialism in Medical Science Curricula." The AMA Journal of Ethic, vol. 19, no. 6, 2017, pp. 518-527. |
| Lundy Braun. "Book review: Testing Fate: Tay-Sachs Disease and the Right to be Responsible." Medical History, vol. 61, 2017, pp. 327-329. |
| Kelsey Ripp Lundy Braun. "Race/Ethnicity in Medical Education: An Analysis of a Question Bank for Step 1 of the United States Medical Licensing Examination." Teaching and Learning in Medicine, vol. 29, no. 2, 2017, pp. 115-122. |
| Ripp K, Braun L. "Race/Ethnicity in Medical Education: An Analysis of a Question Bank for Step 1 of the United States Medical Licensing Examination." Teaching and Learning in Medicine, vol. 29, no. 2, 2017, pp. 115-122. |
| Saunders BF, Braun L. "Reforming the Use of Race in Medical Pedagogy." The American journal of bioethics : AJOB, vol. 17, no. 9, 2017, pp. 50-52. |
| Lundy Braun, Anna Wentz. "Rethinking ethnicity, fetal growth, and customized charts." BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, 2017, pp. in press. |
| Braun, Lundy. "Theorizing Race and Racism: Preliminary Reflections on the Medical Curriculum." American Journal of Law & Medicine, vol. 43, no. 2-3, 2017, pp. 239-256. |
| Lundy Braun. "Theorizing race and racism: Some preliminary thoughts on medical education." american journal of law and medicine, 2017, pp. in press. |
| Braun, Lundy. "Michael Yudell, Race Unmasked: Biology and Race in the Twentieth Century." Social History of Medicine, vol. 29, no. 1, 2015, pp. 199-200. |
| Braun L. "Race, ethnicity and lung function: A brief history." Canadian journal of respiratory therapy : CJRT = Revue canadienne de la therapie respiratoire : RCTR, vol. 51, no. 4, 2015, pp. 99-101. |
| Braun L, Tsai J, Ucik L. "Racial and ethnic differences in breast cancer diagnosis and survival." JAMA, vol. 313, no. 14, 2015, pp. 1475. |
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Lundy Braun.
Breathing Race into the Machine: The Surprising Career of the Spirometer from Plantation to Genetics. University of Minnesota Press, 2014.
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| Braun, Lundy. "Medicating Race: Heart Disease and Durable Preoccupations with Difference by Anne Pollock." Bulletin of the History of Medicine, vol. 88, no. 2, 2014, pp. 393-395. |
| Lundy Braun. "The dilemma of prescription opioids: Shifting attitudes towards the pain patient." Philadelphia Inquirer, 2014. |
| Braun L, Wolfgang M, Dickersin K. "Defining race/ethnicity and explaining difference in research studies on lung function." European Respiratory Journal, vol. 41, no. 6, 2013, pp. 1362-70. |
| Braun, Lundy, Logrono, Amed. "Can science explain the concept of race?." PsycCRITIQUES, vol. 57, no. 16, 2012. |
| Braun L, Hammonds E. "Race, populations, and genomics: Africa as laboratory." Social Science & Medicine, vol. 67, no. 10, 2008, pp. 1580-8. |
| Lundy Braun. "Structuring silence: Biomedical research and asbestos-induced disease in early twentieth century Britain and South Africa." race and class, vol. 50, no. 1, 2008, pp. 59-78. |
| Braun, L. "Structuring silence: asbestos and biomedical research in Britain and South Africa." Race & Class, vol. 50, no. 1, 2008, pp. 59-78. |
| Braun L, Fausto-Sterling A, Fullwiley D, Hammonds EM, Nelson A, Quivers W, Reverby SM, Shields AE. "Racial categories in medical practice: how useful are they?." PLOS Medicine, vol. 4, no. 9, 2007, pp. e271. |
| Braun L, Kisting S. "Asbestos-related disease in South Africa: the social production of an invisible epidemic." American Journal of Public Health, vol. 96, no. 8, 2006, pp. 1386-96. |
| Braun L. "Reifying human difference: the debate on genetics, race, and health." International Journal of Health Services, vol. 36, no. 3, 2006, pp. 557-73. |
| Braun L, Fausto-Sterling A. "Science and technology studies: its relevance to medical education and the practice of medicine." Medicine and health, Rhode Island, vol. 89, no. 9, 2006, pp. 316-8. |
| Braun L. "Spirometry, measurement, and race in the nineteenth century." Journal of the history of medicine and allied sciences, vol. 60, no. 2, 2005, pp. 135-69. |
| Jacobs N, Kisting S, Braun L. "Collaborative research, participatory solutions: research on asbestos in Kuruman, South Africa." International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, vol. 10, no. 2, 2004, pp. 226-32. |
| L Braun. "Engaging expertise: Science education and breast cancer activism." Critical Public Health, vol. 13, no. 3, 2003, pp. 191-206. |
| Braun, Lundy. "Engaging the experts: Popular science education and breast cancer activism." Critical Public Health, vol. 13, no. 3, 2003, pp. 191-206. |
| Braun L, Greene A, Manseau M, Singhal R, Kisting S, Jacobs N. "Scientific controversy and asbestos: making disease invisible." International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, vol. 9, no. 3, 2003, pp. 194-205. |
| L Braun. "Race, ethnicity, and health: Can genetics explain disparities?." Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, vol. 45, no. 2, 2002, pp. 159-174. |
| Braun L. "Race, ethnicity, and health: can genetics explain disparities?." Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, vol. 45, no. 2, 2002, pp. 159-74. |
| Dickersin K, Braun L, Mead M, Millikan R, Wu AM, Pietenpol J, Troyan S, Anderson B, Visco F. "Development and implementation of a science training course for breast cancer activists: Project LEAD (leadership, education and advocacy development)." Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy, vol. 4, no. 4, 2001, pp. 213-20. |
| 40. Dickersin K, Braun L, Millikan R, Mead M, Wu AW, Pietenpol J, Troyan S, Anderson B, Reese-Coulbourne J, Collina S, Michaels M, Visco F. "Development, implementation and evaluation of a science training course for breast cancer activists: Project LEAD (Leadership, Education and Advocacy Development)." Health Expections, vol. 4, no. 4, 2001, pp. 213-220. |
| H. Baer and L Braun. "Knowledge of human papillomavirus infection among young adult men and women: Implications for health education." Journal of Community Health, vol. 25, 2000, pp. 67-78. |
| Hall WS, Goto-Mandeville R, Shih HA, Shank PR, Braun L. "Molecular analysis of episomal human papillomavirus type 16 DNA in a cervical carcinoma cell line." Virus research, vol. 51, no. 2, 1997, pp. 183-95. |
| Braun L, Hall WS. "Pathogenesis of human papillomavirus infection of the genitals." Medicine and health, Rhode Island, vol. 80, no. 10, 1997, pp. 326-30. |
| Sears WL, Goto-Mandeville R, Mirapuri M, Braun L. "Effects of 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate on human papillomavirus type 16-positive keratinocytes at different stages of transformation." Molecular carcinogenesis, vol. 13, no. 3, 1995, pp. 146-56. |
| Braun L. "Role of human immunodeficiency virus infection in the pathogenesis of human papillomavirus-associated cervical neoplasia." The American Journal of Pathology, vol. 144, no. 2, 1994, pp. 209-14. |
| Braun L, Mikumo R, Mark HF, Lauchlan S. "Analysis of the growth properties and physical state of the human papillomavirus type 16 genome in cell lines derived from primary cervical tumors." The American Journal of Pathology, vol. 143, no. 3, 1993, pp. 832-44. |
| Braun L, Dürst M, Mikumo R, Crowley A, Robinson M. "Regulation of growth and gene expression in human papillomavirus-transformed keratinocytes by transforming growth factor-beta: implications for the control of papillomavirus infection." Molecular carcinogenesis, vol. 6, no. 2, 1992, pp. 100-11. |
| Su HC, Leite-Morris KA, Braun L, Biron CA. "A role for transforming growth factor-beta 1 in regulating natural killer cell and T lymphocyte proliferative responses during acute infection with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus." The Journal of Immunology, vol. 147, no. 8, 1991, pp. 2717-27. |
| Gruppuso PA, Mikumo R, Brautigan DL, Braun L. "Growth arrest induced by transforming growth factor beta 1 is accompanied by protein phosphatase activation in human keratinocytes." Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. 266, no. 6, 1991, pp. 3444-8. |
| Braun L, Dürst M, Mikumo R, Gruppuso P. "Differential response of nontumorigenic and tumorigenic human papillomavirus type 16-positive epithelial cells to transforming growth factor beta 1." Cancer Research, vol. 50, no. 22, 1990, pp. 7324-32. |
| Goyette M, Faris R, Braun L, Hixson D, Fausto N. "Expression of hepatocyte and oval cell antigens in hepatocellular carcinomas produced by oncogene-transfected liver epithelial cells." Cancer Research, vol. 50, no. 15, 1990, pp. 4809-17. |
| Mead JE, Braun L, Martin DA, Fausto N. "Induction of replicative competence ("priming") in normal liver." Cancer Research, vol. 50, no. 21, 1990, pp. 7023-30. |
| Fausto N, Mead JE, Gruppuso PA, Braun L. "TGF-beta in liver development, regeneration, and carcinogenesis." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, vol. 593, 1990, pp. 231-42. |
| Braun L, Gruppuso P, Mikumo R, Fausto N. "Transforming growth factor beta 1 in liver carcinogenesis: messenger RNA expression and growth effects." Cell growth & differentiation : the molecular biology journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, vol. 1, no. 3, 1990, pp. 103-11. |
| Braun L, Mikumo R, Fausto N. "Production of hepatocellular carcinoma by oval cells: cell cycle expression of c-myc and p53 at different stages of oval cell transformation." Cancer Research, vol. 49, no. 6, 1989, pp. 1554-61. |
| Plenat F, Braun L, Fausto N. "Demonstration of glucose-6-phosphatase and peroxisomal catalase activity by ultrastructural cytochemistry in oval cells from livers of carcinogen-treated rats." The American Journal of Pathology, vol. 130, no. 1, 1988, pp. 91-102. |
| Braun L, Mead JE, Panzica M, Mikumo R, Bell GI, Fausto N. "Transforming growth factor beta mRNA increases during liver regeneration: a possible paracrine mechanism of growth regulation." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 85, no. 5, 1988, pp. 1539-43. |
| Fausto N, Mead JE, Braun L, Thompson NL, Panzica M, Goyette M, Bell GI, Shank PR. "Proto-oncogene expression and growth factors during liver regeneration." Symposium on Fundamental Cancer Research, vol. 39, 1986, pp. 69-86. |
My research explores the racialized biopolitics of health and medical innovations from a historical perspective. Specifically I am interested in the social assumptions about race that inform biomedical research: the questions ask; the interpretation of findings; and the consequences for reducing the burden of disease. My analyses of the controversy over race, genomics, and health; the HPV vaccination campaign; and the history of asbestos exposure in South Africa attempt to elucidate the complex and changing relationships between the scientific, the social, and the political economic worlds. I am especially interested in the processes by which the social nature of science is obscured, thus masking the fundamental causes of health inequality. My work interrogates how and why certain questions are highlighted and others are silenced.
My book "Breathing Race into the Machine: The Surprising Career of the Spirometer from Plantation to Genetics" University of Minnesota Press, 2014) tracks the racialization of the technology for measuring lung capacity. Beginning with Thomas Jefferson and extending to recent genomic studies I demonstrate the intimate and historically contingent connection between societal beliefs about racial difference that prevailed in the 19th century, technical innovation with the spirometer, and contemporary understandings of race.
Lundy Braun, Breathing Race into the Machine: The Surprising Career of the Spirometer From Plantation to Genetics (University of Minnesota Press, 2014)
Braun L, Wolfgang M, Dickersin, K (2013) Defining Race/Ethnicity and Explaining Difference in Research Studies on Lung Function. European Respiratory Journal, erj00916-2012; published ahead of print, doi:10.1183/09031936.00091612
L Braun and E Hammonds. The dilemma of classification: The past in the present. In eds K Wailoo, A Nelson C Lee, Genetics and the Unsettled Past: The Collision of DNA, Race, History. Rutgers University Press, 2011.
L Braun and L Phoun, HPV Vaccination Campaigns: Masking Uncertainty, Erasing Complexity, In (eds) K Wailoo, J Livingstone, S Epstein, R Aronowitz, Three Shots at Prevention: The HPV Vaccine and the Politics of Medicine's Simple Solutions, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010
L. Braun. Structuring silence: Biomedical research and asbestos-induced disease in Britain and South Africa. Race and Class 50 (2008): 59-78
L Braun and E Hammonds. Race, populations, and genomics: Africa as laboratory, Social Science and Medicine 67 (2008): 1580-1588.
L. Braun L, A. Fausto-Sterling, E. Hammonds, A. Nelson, W. Quivers, S. Reverby, A. Shields. Racial categories in medical practice: Are they useful? PLOS Med 4 (2007):e271.doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0040271.
L. Braun and S. Kisting. Asbestos in South Africa: The Social Production of an Invisible Epidemic. American Journal of Public Health, 96 (2006): 1386-1396.
L. Braun Reifying Human Difference: Race, Genetics, and Health Disparities, Int J Health Services, 36 (2006): 557-573.
L. Braun and A. Fausto-Sterling. Science and Technology Studies: Its Relevance to Medical Education and the Practice of Medicine. Medicine and Health Rhode Island 89 (2006): 315-317.
L. Braun. Spirometry, Measurement, and Race in the Nineteenth Century. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Science. 60 (2005): 135-169.
L. Braun. Genetics and Health disparities: What is at Stake? Proceedings of the Workshop on Genetics and Health Disparities, March 20-21, 2004, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social, University of Michigan, Eleanor Singer and Toni Antonucci, eds.
N. Jacobs, S. Kisting, L. Braun. Collaborative research, participatory solutions: research on asbestos in Kuruman, South Africa. Int J of Occup Env Health 10 (2004): 226-232.
L. Braun et al. Scientific controversy and asbestos: Making disease invisible. International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health 9 (2003): 194-205.
L. Braun. Engaging the experts: Popular science education and breast cancer activism. Critical Public Health 13 (2003): 191-206.
L. Braun. Race, ethnicity, and health: Can genetics explain disparities? Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. 45 (2002):159-174
L. Braun and J. Trimbur. Popularizing science: At the boundary of expert and lay biomedical knowledge. In Popular Literacies: Studies in Cultural Practices and Poetics, ed. J. Trimbur. (Pittsburg: University of Pittsburg Press, 2001).
Recipient, 2018 Ludwig Fleck Award, 4S, for Breathing Race into the Machine.
Honorable mention for the 2017 Rachel Carson Prize for 4S for Breathing Race into the Machine
Elizabeth LeDuc Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Life Sciences, 2014
The President's Award for Excellence in Faculty Governance, 2014
Royce Family Professor in Teaching Excellence, 2010-2013
Dean's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, Advising, and Mentoring in the Biological Sciences, 2010
Dean's Excellence in Teaching Award, Brown University School of Medicine, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2007
Fulbright Senior Specialist Award, 2003
Harriet W. Sheridan Award for Distinguished Contribution to Teaching and Learning, 2003
The Onyx Class of 2001 Award, Brown University, 2001
Profiles in Competence Award, Brown University School of Medicine, 2000
The Onyx Class of 1999 Award, Brown University, 1999
Faculty Teaching Award, Brown University Medical School, 1999
Award for Science Training of Breast Cancer Activists, National Breast Cancer Coalition - 1997
Gender Equity Award, American Medical Women's Association, Brown University chapter, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997
Medical Faculty Teaching Award,1992
Mary Putnam-Jacobi Award, Brown University Women in Medicine, 1989
National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health, 1985-1987
Outstanding Student Research Award, Delta Omega National Honorary Public Health Society, Alpha Chapter, 1980
American Association for the History of Medicine
Society for the Social Studies of Science
American Public Health Association
Delta Omega Honorary Public Health Society
My teaching interests center on the history of causes of health inequality from the 19th century to the present. My courses at the undergraduate and medical school level address questions of racial disparities in health and their explanations; analyze the debate over genomics, race, and health; the relationship between health and popular culture; controversies in medicine and public health, exploring why we ask certain research questions and not others. I also teach a medical elective on social medicine.
| AFRI 1920 - Health Inequality in Historical Perspective |
| AFRI 1930 - Race, Difference and Biomedical Research: Historical Considerations |
| BIOL 1920B - Health Inequality in Historical Perspective |
| BIOL 1920D - Race, Difference and Biomedical Research: Historical Considerations |
