Medical Humanities Blog

Call for Applications: “On Healers and Healing: Exploring the Why, What and How of Medical Humanities Pedagogy” (Summer Seminar)

We invite you to apply to a Summer Seminar sponsored by Hiram College’s Center for Literature, Medicine & the Biomedical Humanities:
 
“On Healers and Healing: Exploring the Why, What and How of Medical Humanities Pedagogy”

June 7-10, 2011
Hiram College (Hiram, OH)
http://www.hiram.edu/excellence/litmed/ohh.html
(Application deadline: February 25)
 
This intimate seminar will engage fundamental questions about the reasons, materials and methods central to teaching in the medical humanities.  Participants’ conversations will inform the content of a forthcoming literary anthology, On Healers and Healing, along with a special issue of The Journal of Medical Humanities.  Seminar discussions will be led by key figures in the field:

·         Catherine Belling – Northwestern University
·         Jack Coulehan – Stony Brook University, SUNY
·         Rebecca Garden – Upstate Medical University, SUNY
·         Anne Hudson Jones – University of Texas Medical Branch
·         Bradley Lewis – New York University
·         Allan Peterkin – University of Toronto
 
This seminar is being organized by Tess Jones (University of Colorado at Denver), Delese Wear (Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine), Michael Blackie and Erin Lamb (both of Hiram College).  A more complete seminar schedule is available online.  The cost of participation in the seminar is $475 inclusive of 4 nights lodging, breakfasts, lunches and 2 evening celebrations, or $300 exclusive of lodging.
 
This discussion-based and workshop-style seminar can only accommodate a limited number of participants. We cannot guarantee a space available for all interested applicants. If you are interested in attending, please complete the online application by February 25th. We will notify all applicants of their status by March 1st, and will arrange for official registration of accepted applicants shortly thereafter.
 
For more information, visit http://www.hiram.edu/excellence/litmed/ohh.html or contact Erin Lamb at lambeg@hiram.edu.

(h/t H-DISABILITY)

Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science (SAHMS) 13th Annual Meeting: Program Available

The Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science -
SAHMS- will be hosting its 13th annual meeting in Memphis, TN March 4-5, 2011 in the famous Peabody Hotel. SAHMS is comprised of a group of medical humanities scholars, primarily focusing on the history of medicine and science and is an international society, both in membership and the scope of its presentations.

This year’s program contains some 60 papers, with topics ranging from ancient to current history of medicine topics, several sessions on history of nursing, history of pharmacy, military medicine, and literature and medicine. The full program and information about registration and hotel rates can be found at:

http://www.sahms.net/HTML/2011_conference.htm

__________________________________________

I have the privilege of presenting at this year's conference, and if last year's conference was any guide, the 13th promises to be a rewarding, productive, and collegial atmosphere for discussing topics related to the history of medicine and science (the latter is intentionally construed quite broadly by the organization, which is one of its strengths, IMO).

On the Eighth Wonder of the World

From that veritable paragon of knowledge, The Onion:

PARIS—At a press conference Tuesday, the World Heritage Committee officially recognized the Gap Between Rich and Poor as the "Eighth Wonder of the World," describing the global wealth divide as the "most colossal and enduring of mankind's creations."

"Of all the epic structures the human race has devised, none is more staggering or imposing than the Gap Between Rich and Poor," committee chairman Henri Jean-Baptiste said. "It is a tremendous, millennia-old expanse that fills us with both wonder and humility."

"And thanks to careful maintenance through the ages, this massive relic survives intact, instilling in each new generation a sense of awe," Jean- Baptiste added.

The vast chasm of wealth, which stretches across most of the inhabited world, attracts millions of stunned observers each year, many of whom have found its immensity too overwhelming even to contemplate. By far the largest man-made structure on Earth, it is readily visible from locations as far-flung as Eastern Europe, China, Africa, and Brazil, as well as all 50 U.S. states.

Fabulous.

(h/t POP HEALTH FORUM)

Slow Blogging

Blogging may be slow for the next few days, as I will be traveling to participate in a workshop on ethics and deep-brain stimulation in Bonn, at the Europaische Akademie.

 

 

Call for Papers - Charting the Bench and the Bedside: National Conference for Physician-Scholars

Charting the Bench and the Bedside:
National Conference for Physician-Scholars in the Social Sciences and Humanities

Fourth Biennial Conference
April 16-17th, 2011
Chicago, Illinois

Held within the American Physician Scientists Association (APSA) Annual Meeting.

The National Conference for Physician-Scholars in the Social Sciences and Humanities is a biennial meeting of MD/PhD graduates and trainees whose work focuses on the intersections of the social sciences and humanities with medicine and health. The purpose of this conference is to provide a venue for MD/PhD graduates and trainees to share their scholarship; to connect trainees with established physician-scholars; and to foster dialogue and stewardship over the issues, work, and careers in which humanities and social science physician-scholars engage.

The coordinating committee invites you to submit an abstract of original research for presentation at our April 2011 meeting in Chicago.  Research presentations will feature physician-scholars and trainees working in a wide range of disciplines. Preference will be given to research which seeks to integrate clinical and scholarly perspectives in a meaningful way, and which addresses the many articulations among health, culture, and society. We are particularly interested in highlighting the work of trainees and recent graduates, though we encourage individuals at all career stages to submit.

Presentations may take the form of a 15-20 minute talk or a research poster. Please submit only one abstract, indicating the format in which you would like to present. We ask that you limit your submission to 350 words, and that you specify your primary research question, your methodological orientation, and your general conclusions. Those not selected for research talks will remain eligible for the poster session.

The deadline for abstract submission is February 1st, 2011.

Instructions for registration are available on our conference blog: http://physicianscholars.blogspot.com  

We welcome your comments and questions via email: physicianscholars@gmail.com.

Call for Applications: Ferenc Gyorgyey Research Travel Award, Historical Library of the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University

The Historical Library of the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University is pleased to announce its fourth annual Ferenc Gyorgyey Research Travel Award for use of the Historical Library.

The Medical Historical Library, located in New Haven, Connecticut, holds one of the country's largest collections of rare medical books,journals, prints, photographs, and pamphlets. Special strengths are the works of Hippocrates, Galen, Vesalius, Boyle, Harvey, Culpeper, Haller, Priestley, and S. Weir Mitchell, and works on anesthesia, and smallpox inoculation and vaccination. The Library owns over fifty medieval and renaissance manuscripts, Arabic and Persian manuscripts, and over 300 medical incunabula.  The notable Clements C. Fry Collection of Printsand Drawings has over 2,500 fine prints, drawings, and posters from the 15th century to the present on medical subjects.

The 2011-2012 travel grant is available to historians, medical practitioners, and other researchers who wish to use the collections of the Medical Historical Library. There is a single award of up to $1,500 for one week of research during the academic fiscal year July 1, 2011 - June 30, 2012.  Funds may be used for transportation, housing, food, and photographic reproductions. The award is limited to residents of the United States and Canada.

Please note: The Medical Historical Library is currently undergoing a construction project that has required a large portion of the 19th century collection to be moved off-site for temporary storage.  These materials are not available for research for the duration of this travel award.  If your research requires 19th century materials please check the Notice of Collection Availability.

Applicants should send a curriculum vitae and a description of the project including the relevance of the collections of the Historical Library to the project, and two references attesting to the particular project. Preference will be given to applicants beyond commuting distance to the Historical Library.  This award is for use of Medical Historical special collections and is not intended for primary use ofspecial collections in other libraries at Yale.  An application form can be found on our website: http://www.med.yale.edu/library/historical/about/grant.html.

Applications are due by March 18, 2011.  They will be considered by a
committee and the candidates will be informed by May 13, 2011.

On Health Disparities & Inequalities in the U.S.: 2011 Report

The Centers for Disease Control (U.S.) have released a supplement to their Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) series, a 116-page report entitled CDC Health Disparities and Inequalities Report -- United States, 2011.

This report is the first of its kind from the CDC, although the Foreward, authored by CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, notes that it is the first in a "periodic series."

I will likely have much more to say about this Report once I have had a chance to digest it in full, but the Report is obviously a must-read for anyone interested in health equity and the SDOH in the U.S.

Call for Papers: American Society of Bioethics & Humanities 13th Annual Meeting

ASBH 13th Annual Meeting
October 13-16, 2011
Minneapolis, MN
Hyatt Minneapolis
Theme: Generation(s) and Transformation(s)

The theme for the 2011 ASBH annual conference --"Generation(s) and Transformation(s)"--invites participants to explore and analyze all aspects of the concepts of "generation"-from pediatrics to geriatrics, as well as generative and regenerative practices in medicine-and "transformation," from a focus on the changing landscape of healthcare reform to the development of cutting-edge technologies.  The medical humanities and bioethics have themselves played a role in generating new ideas and transforming practices within healthcare. Further, both disciplines now have "generations" of practitioners, complete with such issues as generational change/conflict/collaboration and legacies.  We invite scholars in the medical humanities and bioethics to submit papers, panels, and workshops that examine not only healthcare practices involving patients young and old, but also explore generation(s) and transformation(s) in light of policy implications, education of learners at all levels, and critical analysis of the disciplines of medical humanities and bioethics.

Here is a link to the guidelines for submission (PDF).

On Evidence-Based Policy & Inequalities

Over at the excellent Inequalities Blog, which has gotten off to a rip-roaring start, Ben Baumberg has a fascinating post entitled Why evidence-based policy won't tackle inequalities.

There is also some interesting discussion going in the comments, to which yours truly has contributed.

Recommended.

On "Being Obesed"

Emma Rich (Loughborough University) has a new paper out in Health (a very cool interdisciplinary sociology journal) entitled ‘I see her being obesed!’: Public pedagogy, reality media and the obesity crisis.  Here is the Abstract:

In recent years a proliferation of reality based media focusing on the body, diet and exercise have sought not only to entertain audiences, but also to operate as pedagogical sites through which to encourage populations to undertake surveillance of their own and others’ bodies in order to address a so-called ‘obesity epidemic’ sweeping across western society. This article examines how reality media function within a broader ‘surveillant assemblage’ (Haggerty and Ericson, 2000) of obesity. Specifically, the article explores how this assemblage functions through interdependent connections between parenting, social class and broader political discourses of parenting and health risks which produce affective relationalities of the body.