Abstract
The use of racial categories in medical research and practice remains a topic of contestation and heated debate. However, much of the philosophical debate has been geographically limited, focusing primarily on the United States (US) context and the use of race in the US sense. Given that racial categories and racial schemas vary significantly across the world, and race as a variable is deployed in many medical contexts outside the US, philosophical attention to the use of race in medicine globally is crucial and timely. In this session, we aim to bring together scholars to address the role of race in medicine across varying geographic and national contexts. Through philosophical and historical analysis, we aim to address the epistemic, ethical, and practical challenges that arise when we deploy race in medicine globally, through focus on the key flashpoints of: (1) causation and measurement; and (2) categorization and classification. By bringing together scholars with expertise on these questions and how they arise in a range of settings, this session provides a global perspective on how racial categories are constructed, deployed, and shape medical practices from the lab to the clinic.
