English

Happenings in the English Department:

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot: Community Summer Reading for 2010

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is an important new nonfiction work that explores the intersection of science, society, and ethics.  Author Rebecca Skloot pursues multiple narratives:  breakthrough research in modern medicine and social and racial issues in American society.  Henrietta Lacks was an African-American woman who died of cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the early 1950s.  Her cells—HELA cells—became the first line of cells to be cultured to live outside the body, and the cells are still alive today.  Since the 1950s, HELA cells have been involved in critical medical advances including curing polio and mapping the human genome, yet the woman behind the breathtaking developments was largely unknown.  Author Skloot uncovers her story and reveals the difficult lives of her children, who despite the billions of dollars of medical research done with their mother’s cells, cannot afford health insurance. 

Read this fascinating and significant story for summer community reading.  In the fall, students may earn bonus credit in English class through a test on the book.

“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is an ideal book for classroom discussions in bioethics, history of science, and journalism. Author Rebecca Skloot does an exceptional job of raising critical issues that should encourage both scholars and students to reevaluate the research decision-making process, the way research subjects are treated, and the balance of power in this country as determined by race, economics, and even education. An incredibly readable and smart text that should be a part of countless university discussions.”

DEBORAH BLUM, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON

“Heartbreaking and powerful, unsettling yet compelling, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a richly textured story of the hidden costs of scientific progress. Deftly weaving together history, journalism and biography, Rebecca Skloot’s sensitive account tells of the enduring, deeply personal sacrifice of this African American woman and her family and, at long last, restores a human face to the cell line that propelled 20th century biomedicine. A stunning illustration of how race, gender and disease intersect to produce a unique form of social vulnerability, this is a poignant, necessary and brilliant book.”

ALONDRA NELSON, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY