Date: Sat, 19 Oct 1996 17:10:49 -0400 (EDT)
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To: medsoc@csf.colorado.edu
From: Phil_Brown@brown.edu (Phil Brown)
Subject: A hearty welcome
As the Chair of the Medical Sociology Section of the ASA, I extend a hearty 
welcome to the first subscribers to MEDSOC.  As I write this, there are 19, 
just a few days after we went public. I am sure it will grow when people 
hear about it (including your prompting them).  I am pleased that a good 
chunk of these people are from abroad, including the UK and Netherlands.  I 
am hoping that our list will help facilitate international contacts among 
medical sociologists, as well as serving the ASA's Medical Sociology Section.  

This list will work only if everyone participates.  There is always lots of 
interesting news to share(e.g. US legislation passed last week against 
genital mutilation; recent events in Canada, including hospital closings and 
'export' of obstetrical patients to the US!!), queries to post, and 
intellectual exchanges to engage in.  

I am happy to report on two events here at Brown University involving 
medical sociologists.  Ann Dill was promoted to Associate Professor of 
Sociology with tenure several weeks ago.  Also, this fall Chloe Bird was 
appointed as Assistant Professor (Research) in the Department of Community 
Health, and she has also been made an adjunct Assistant Professor of 
Sociology.  

Also, we kicked off our University Lectureship Series on "Inequalities and 
Health" with a wonderful talk by Richard Wilkinson from the University of 
Sussex.  He was here in the US to speak at Brown, Harvard School of Public 
Health, New England Research Institute, and the Health Institute at 
Tufts/New England Medical Center.  For those of you do not know of 
Wilkinson's work, he has done great work on the relationship of income 
inequality and mortality, among other topics.  His new book, UNHEALTHY 
SOCIETIES (Routledge 1996), is out in the UK but not in the US until 
January.  There is increasing interest in medical sociology about this 
subject, and I hope that the work of Wilkinson and others will gain more 
attention.

Keep the communications going,

Phil

Phil Brown, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Brown University
Box 1916
Providence RI 02912
(401) 863-2633 (secretary 863-2367)
fax (401) 863-3213