New Perspectives: The Polio Years in Texas
Online Program
April 23, 2020 12:00pm - 1:00pm
The Story of Texas is always changing, explore a historic epidemic in Texas to put current events in context.
Program Details
Join Dr. Heather Green Wooten for a livestream talk on her book The Polio Years in Texas, which explores the response to the epidemic from the 1930s to the 1950s. Polio had sweeping cultural and societal effects in Texas but also led to advancements that changed the medical field nationally.
This program is available as an on-demand recording for CPE credit. To get access to the link and a certificate email Education@thestoryoftexas.com.
Dr. Heather Green Wooten is an adjunct assistant professor for the Institute for the Medical Humanities (IMH) where she teaches courses relative to the history of medicine and medical ethics. Her research specialties include the social history of epidemics and disease outbreaks, racial and gender disparities in medicine and American medical biography. Dr. Wooten’s first book, The Polio Years in Texas: Battling a Terrifying Unknown was a recipient of the Mary M. Hughes Research Fellowship by the Texas State Historical Foundation, the T. R. Fehrenbach Book Award by the Texas Historical Commission, and the Ottis Lock Endowment Award. Recent publications include Old Red: Pioneering Medical Education in Texas (Texas State Historical Association Press) and Skilled Hands: Surgery at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, co-authored with Dr. William Henry Kellar. Her latest endeavor involves writing the 50-year history of the Graduate School for the Biomedical Sciences (GSBS). In 2018, Wooten was appointed Project Director for the Handbook of Texas Medicine, a five-year project that will create the first state-based online encyclopedia of medical history in the United States.
Support for the Bullock Museum's exhibitions and education programs provided by the Texas State History Museum Foundation.
Image credit: Texas Theater Closing. San Angelo, 1949. Image courtesy of West Texas Collection, Angelo State University.
