Launched in 2009, the Renée C. Fox Lecture honors the influential work of Renée Fox, who became a member of the University of Pennsylvania's faculty in 1969, serving as a Professor with appointments in Psychiatry, Medicine, and Nursing. She was the Annenberg Professor of Social Sciences and led the Department of Sociology as its Chair from 1972 to 1978. In 1998, she became Annenberg Professor Emerita of the Social Sciences and Emerita Senior Fellow of the Center for Bioethics. Dr. Fox's academic focus spanned the sociology of medicine, medical research, education, and ethics. This led her to conduct extensive participant observation-based research across Europe, Central Africa, China, and the United States. A prolific author and speaker, Dr. Fox wrote nine books and numerous articles, and her lectures reached audiences worldwide. This lectureship celebrates Renée Fox's significant impact on the fields of medicine, sociology, and bioethics.
2024 Renée Fox Lecture
Jennifer James, PhD, MS, MSW
Associate Professor, Institute for Health & Aging
University of California, San Francisco
Previous Renée Fox Lecturers
2023
Jason Karlawish, MD
Professor, Penn Memory Center, University of Pennsylvania
"A Mind in Splints: What it is Like to be a Person Living with Dementia"
2022
Peter Hotez, MD, Ph.D., DSc (hon), FASTMH, FAAP
Professor and Dean, National School of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine
Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development
"COVID-19 Vaccines: Science vs Antiscience"
2021
Agnes Binagwaho, PhD
Co-Founder and Retired Vice Chancellor of the University of Global Health Equity, Kigali, Rwanda
Senior Lecturer, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School
"What Went Wrong and What Went Well in the World: Lessons from COVID-19 Management”
2019
Julie Fairman, PhD, RN
Endowed Chair, Nightingale Professor in Honor of Nursing Veterans, Penn Nursing
"Nurse Practitioners: Their History and their Future in a Changing Health Care Environment"
2018
Elizabeth Rosenthal, MD
Senior Writer, The New York Times.
2016
Ernest Drucker, PhD
Professor of Public Health, NYU College of Global Public Health
“Decarcerating America: From Mass Punishment to Public Health”
2015
Sophie Dalaunay
Executive Director, Doctors Without Borders, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)
“Saving the World, Or Saving One Life at a Time? Lessons My Career With MSF Has Taught Me”
2014
Anne Fadiman
Essayist, Reporter, and Teacher
“The Spirit Catches You and You Will Fall Down”
2013
Farhat Moazam, MD, PhD
Professor and Founding Chair, Centre of Biomedical Ethics and Culture, Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation, Karachi, Pakistan
“We are the Children of our Landscape: Practicing Medicine in Pakistan”
2012
Chris Feudtner, MD, PhD
Steven D. Handler Endowed Chair of Medical Ethics, The Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia
"Hope, Emotions, and the Provision for Palliative Care"
2011
Nicholas Christakis, MD, PhD
Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science, Yale University
"Connected: Understanding and Using Social Networks in Health"
2010
Deborah Frank, MD
Professor in Child Health and Well-Being, Boston University
"What if Food Was a Medicine? The Pediatrician and Childhood Hunger"
2009
Paul Farmer, MD, PhD
University Professor, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School
"Partners in Health"