On the evening of Thursday, June 10, BCAM will host a discussion of breast and prostate cancer activist movements in the US, presented and facilitated by Dr. Karen Kedrowski. In terms of morbidity and mortality, prostate cancer is to men what breast cancer is to women. Yet the two diseases occupy very different positions in public consciousness, media coverage and policy responses.

What accounts for these differences? Dr. Kedrowski argues that women are much better at building and maintaining grassroots social movements than are men. This presentation will highlight and explain the differences between women’s and men’s approaches.

Dr. Karen Kedrowski is the Visiting Fulbright Chair in Health, Indigenous Peoples, Media and Education at the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, where she is studying women’s health activism — in particular, breast cancer and breastfeeding movements. Her permanent affiliation is as Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. She is author or coauthor of Cancer Activism: Gender, Media and Public Policy and Breastfeeding Rights in the United States, as well as many journal articles and book chapters.

BCAM is fortunate that Dr. Kedrowski has agreed to share her expertise while in Montreal. Bring your friends and join us as we learn more about activism as it pertains to both the breast and prostate cancer movements.