Medicine, History, Generosity Come Together at New Stone Lecture

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Dr. Edward J. Larson headlined the inaugural Marvin J. Stone, MD, Medical History and Humanities Lecture, hosted by the Hobson Wildenthal Honors College at The University of Texas at Dallas on Oct. 30.

Larson, who is a university professor of history at Pepperdine University, discussed his book Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for history in 1998. The lecture marked the centennial of the Scopes trial, the landmark 1925 case that challenged the legality of teaching evolution in public schools.

“I hope people enjoy the story. The way something is remembered and how it is told is itself a product of an interaction,” Larson said. “How people perceive things isn’t always how it happened. In this case, the folklore surrounding the Scopes trial is very different than the facts and what happened.”

The new annual lecture series was born from discussions between Dr. Donal Skinner, the Mary McDermott Cook Chair in the Hobson Wildenthal Honors College and dean of the college, and Dr. Marvin Stone, former clinical professor in the Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology at UT Dallas. Their goal was to provide students with opportunities to learn about medical history and apply insights from the past to contemporary practice.

“When I was a young physician, two areas were particularly prominent but lacking in medical school education: namely, medical history and the humanities,” said Stone, who is chief emeritus of hematology and oncology at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. “Nearly 40 years later, the same disciplines remain lacking in medical school and postgraduate medical education. I was interested in trying to improve the attention given to them on a regular basis, and a lecture seemed to be one way to do so.”

Skinner reflected on a lecture he once attended by British physicist Stephen Hawking and spoke about the ways in which students benefit by engaging with distinguished scholars.

“It is exciting to meet these people that I have only ever heard about,” Skinner said. “In that sense I am still a student. There is a lot more than what is in a book. The Marvin Stone Lecture Series is something that will have a lasting impact on students.”

Larson commented on the importance of providing students with different perspectives beyond their academic fields.

“Education is about learning. In premed you learn about diseases and illnesses and treatments,” he said. “Whenever a lecturer comes in, it further broadens a person. That is what the whole purpose of higher education is.”

Stone said the idea for the lecture series surfaced while teaching a medical history and humanities honors course with Dr. Dennis Kratz, director of the Center for Asian Studies, senior associate provost and the Ignacy and Celina Rockover Professor at UT Dallas.

“We had a wonderful time teaching, and the students put up with us; they were very kind,” Stone said. “That led to the idea of trying to sponsor a lectureship in arts and humanities in the Honors College.”

Skinner and Stone hope that the lecture series not only encourages more students to explore the past, but also that the broader community will enjoy learning from speakers at future lectures.

“I’d like the community to know more about UT Dallas and what goes on here. It is a marvelous place,” Stone said.

Larson expressed admiration for the University’s goals in creating the Stone lecture series.

“I am thankful to Dr. Stone for endowing not just this lectureship, but a program in medical humanities. He wants to make better medicine, better doctors, and I believe in his dream,” Larson said. “Dean Skinner is a medical historian, which is exciting because you have the synergy of this actively engaged dean who really cares about education and students combined with the resources provided by Dr. Stone. That’s an opportunity to move ahead.”