Medical Humanities Blog

Call for Applications: Tenure Track Position in Humanities/Social Sciences

The Pennsylvania State Milton S. Hershey College of Medicine’s Department of Humanities invites applications and nominations for a tenure-track position in humanities and / or social sciences.  Established in 1967, PSU’s Department of Humanities was the first in any American medical school and currently houses seven full-time faculty and over a dozen affiliated faculty*both M.D.s and Ph.D.s*from diverse backgrounds throughout the College of Medicine, the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, and Pennsylvania State University, which is located ninety miles away in University Park.

The Humanities Department teaches required courses in all four years of medical school.  Additionally, faculty support graduate medical education via an annual residents’ retreat; carry out the initiatives of the Doctors Kienle Center for Humanistic Medicine; and engage in collaborative, interdisciplinary research, teaching, and service throughout the Medical Center and the University.

We invite applications from teacher-scholars early in their career who are enthusiastic about using their humanities and / or social sciences background to educate medical, nursing, and graduate students*as well as other faculty*and to partner with clinicians on interdisciplinary projects.  The department has a special interest in considering individuals who have an educational and research focus in (medical) anthropology, (medical) sociology, folklore, religious studies, cross-cultural studies, or other disciplines that complement the existing strengths of current faculty.  Applicants must have a Ph.D. (or equivalent) in their field of expertise, exceptional teaching ability, strong scholarly promise, experience integrating the humanities /social sciences and medicine, and demonstrated commitment to enriching the departmental ethos of collegiality and collaboration.  All faculty in the College of Medicine are expected to seek extramural funding, so a record of successful grant writing is highly desirable.

Please send curriculum vita and statement of research, teaching, and professional interests to Kimberly R. Myers, Ph.D., Chair, Humanities /Social Sciences Search Committee, Department of Humanities, H 134, Penn State College of Medicine, 500 University Drive, Hershey, PA  17033-2390.  Review of applications will begin immediately.

Penn State is committed to affirmative action, equal opportunity, and the diversity of its work force.

Kimberly R. Myers, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Humanities, H134
Penn State College of Medicine
Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
500 University Drive
Hershey, PA 17033
(717) 531-8778
(717) 531-3894 (fax)
www.hmc.psu.edu/humanities
krm16@psu.edu

Associate Professor
Department of English
Penn State University

(h/t ASBH Lit_Med listserv)

Call for Papers: National Conference for Physician-Scholars in the Social Sciences and Humanities

Call For Papers
Understanding the Past, Transforming the Future:
National Conference for Physician-Scholars in the Social Sciences and Humanities

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
March 28-29, 2009
http://scholarsinmedicine.blogspot.com/

This coming spring, MD/PhD candidates and graduates in the humanities and social sciences are pleased to be hosting a nation-wide gathering for social science and humanities MD/PhD students and graduates. Registration for the conference is now open. The conference builds on foundations laid at the 2007 University of Chicago meeting and the 2005 meeting at UCSF.

The coordinating committee for the 2009 conference would like to invite you to submit an abstract of original research for presentation at our March meeting in Philadelphia.

Given the nature of the conference, the scope of research presentations will inevitably be quite broad. Preference will be given to research which seeks to integrate clinical and extra-medical perspectives in a meaningful way, and which makes a contribution to our understanding of the complex interactions among health, culture, and society. We are particularly interested in highlighting the work of graduate students and new scholars in the field, though we encourage individuals at all stages in their education and career to submit.

Presentations may take the form of a 20-25 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.  We encourage abstract submissions from attendees who are in the early stages of their work or who are pursuing non-traditional enterprises in the social sciences and humanities. Those not selected for research talks will remain eligible for the poster session.

The meeting will take place March 28-29 2009 at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to research presentations and the poster session, our conference will feature keynote addresses by Dr. Vin-Kim Nguyen (Montreal) and Dr. Rita Charon (Columbia), Dr. Walt Schalick (Wisconsin) and Dr. Camara Jones (CDC). We will also host a career panel with an array of perspectives on dual-degree scholarship and practice, and there will be ample opportunity for interaction with colleagues in allied clinical and research fields.

For further information and instructions for submitting an abstract, please visit the conference web site at http://scholarsinmedicine.blogspot.com/

Abstracts are now being accepted, and will continue to be accepted until December 31, 2008.  You can contact the conference organizers at ssh.mdphd.2009@gmail.com .

General registration for the conference is now open.

----

Description of the Conference

Understanding the Past, Transforming the Future

This conference aims to bring together physician-scholars and physician-scholars in training from a wide array of fields in the social sciences and humanities to foster cross-disciplinary communication and promote innovative research. In the process, we hope to encourage novel solutions to contemporary policy issues and advance the overall goal of humanism in medicine.

We are anthropologists, historians, psychologists, economists, sociologists, students of literature and art and so much more. We are at the frontiers of studying the place of medicine in society, and the place of society in medicine. Too often, however, individuals with dual-degree training of this sort find themselves isolated in their home institutions and limited by the confines of their extra-medical disciplines. This conference represents a valuable opportunity to exchange ideas and share experiences with like-minded individuals seeking to incorporate work in the social sciences and humanities into their clinical careers. Participants will also be able to discuss training issues that are unique to clinically trained researchers in multidisciplinary fields. Through contact with established physician- scholars, our meeting will be an occasion for students to establish the sorts of intellectual and social networks that are essential for sustained cross-disciplinary research and for future leadership roles in the medical profession.

The conference will take place March 28-29 at the University of Pennsylvania, and builds on foundations laid at the 2007 University of Chicago meeting and the 2005 meeting at UCSF. In addition to keynote speakers from a variety of fields, events at the 2007 conference will include a career panel, student presentations of original research, break-out sessions organized around clinical vignettes, and a poster session. There will also be ample opportunity to meet with colleagues in allied fields in both formal and informal settings. While the primary emphasis will be on efforts to bridge social scientific and humanities research with clinical work, the conference will be open to physicians and scholars whose backgrounds do not include formal dual- degree training. We encourage MD/PhD students at all stages in their educational trajectories to register, and welcome the involvement of established physician-scholars.

Further information, including speakers, schedule information, and abstract submission guidelines, are available online at http://scholarsinmedicine.blogspot.com/ . You can contact the conference organizers at ssh.mdphd.2009@gmail.com .

Please check back for updated information as the date of the conference approaches.

Conference Coordinating Committee
Elise Carpenter (University of Pennsylvania) Erica Dwyer (University of Pennsylvania) Deborah Doroshow (Yale University) David Myles (Yale University)

_____________________________

What a terrific call; one of the few times I've actually wished I were a physician!

(h/t MED-ANTHRO listserv>

Call for Papers: Society for Disability Studies Annual Meeting

SOCIETY FOR DISABILITY STUDIES
CALL FOR PROPOSALS
ANNUAL CONVENTION 2009
THEME:  "IT'S 'OUR' TIME:  PATHWAYS TO AND FROM
DISABILITY STUDIES—PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE"

The Society for Disability Studies is pleased to announce a call for proposals for its annual convention, to be held June 17-20, 2009, in Tucson, Arizona, at the Hilton El Conquistador Resort.  The theme for this convention is "It’s 'Our' Time: Pathways to and From Disability Studies—Past, Present, Future."  Time, in all its forms,
conceptualizations, and manifestations, will be the central focus of the conference, though proposals on any topic relevant to Disability Studies are welcomed. 

We imagine a number of different ways of approaching the issue of time, a concept critical to all aspects of
disability experience and culture:

o   Cultural:  Is there such a thing as “disability time”?  How do different cultural constructions and experiences of time affect people with disabilities?

o   Economic:  How is time a form of “capital,” both for people with disabilities and those involved in the “disability industry?”  For people with disabilities who must interact with ableist norms of time in the labor force?

o   Political:  What is disability’s “moment” in 2009, a time when, whatever the outcome of elections in the U.S. and elsewhere, “change,” a temporal and political idea, is declaimed and echoed in much rhetoric.  What current issues are particularly “timely” for disability studies—and how are such issues tied to past and future?

o   Educational:  How do issues of time, including controversies around and resistance to accommodations around time for people with disabilities, play themselves out in educational environments?

o   Psychological/Philosophical:  What does phenomenology’s enduring interest in internal time consciousness have to offer to understanding the intersection of disability experience and cross-ability inter-subjectivity?  How is individual experience of time
related to such realms as social and community psychology?  Do different disabilities lead to different psychologies and/or philosophies of time?

o   Historical:  History is, in a sense, the “biggest” unit of time.  How do different eras view the role of time in disability experience? What is the relationship between disability history and temporality?  Both studies of specific historical moments of disability and cross-historical studies are welcome.

o   The Arts:    How is time represented in literary, visual, musical,performing, and mediated forms of art?  How are questions of duration and endurance crucial to the roles of artists with disabilities in the social and cultural domains of the arts?

o   Medicine/Science:  How do issues of longevity, physical and psychological capability, and social regulation of the lives of people with disabilities affect access and opportunities?  How are medicine and science reconfiguring time and creating new conceptions of futures?

These are only suggestions of possible directions proposals around the convention theme might take—we imagine members will go off in many more directions as well.  After all, it’s “our” time.

Formats:
We welcome proposals in the following formats:

o   Individual:  Individuals are encouraged to submit proposals for individual papers and/or presentations.  In general, we assume 15-20 minute length limits for individuals (if you are requesting a longer format, be sure to specify and explain why).  Word limit for individual proposal: 200 words

o   Panels: Groups of individuals are encouraged to submit proposals around a central topic, theme, or approach.  Such proposals should aim for a total length of no more than 75 minutes, including time for responses, discussion, and questions.  Please include names of all panelists, names or presentations, and a brief description of each paper/presentation.  Word limit for panel proposal:  500 words.

o   Didactic/Short Courses:  We welcome proposals for two kinds of “teaching” programs.  The former, didactic sessions, should be 75 minutes in length, featuring either one or a small number of presenters, who will “teach” an audience about some important aspect of
disability studies.  Proposals should also include details about materials provided for audience members and ways in which audience members will be involved interactively.  Short courses will follow the same organization, but may be of greater scope, with a double session scheduled.  A rationale for such a scope should be included as part of the proposal.  Didactic sessions and short courses on issues surrounding teaching disability studies are particularly encouraged.
Word limit:  200 words

o   Poster Session:  There will be a poster session, as has become traditional at the conference, at which  individuals or small teams will be provided a common space to present a visual display of research; presenters should plan on being in attendance at the poster session, in order to amplify the visual display and to interact with viewers.  We encourage people to submit proposals specifically for the poster session.  Word limit:  200 words

o   Artistic/Performance Events:   We encourage submissions of an artistic or performance nature—everything from gallery showings of visual arts to musical concerts to theatrical, literary, and comedy
performances to dance/movement pieces.  These may be proposed by individuals and/or groups, and may or may not fit into the standard time formats specified for other proposals.  Word limit:  200 words

o   Town Halls/Debates:  We encourage proposal of town hall sessions (primary speakers with opportunity for “town” involvement in discussion) or structured debates on a proposition (with assigned affirmative and negative speakers, followed by open discussion).  Again, we envision these as 75 minute sessions, but are open to other proposals.  We welcome lunchtime roundtables and other innovative formats as well—the more inventive the better!  Word limit:  200 words

Accessibility in presentations is central to the philosophy of SDS.  Presenters should explore ways to make physical, sensory, and intellectual access a fundamental part of their presentation.  Presenters must make all printed materials used during the presentation available to audience in standard (12 point font) as well as in large (18 point font) print.  Hard copy images, charts and other visual representations must be captioned or described in a manner that conveys their meaning without having the need to look at it.  Video clips, films and all visual images must include open or close captioning as well as audio description.

Presentations should also be planned so that their delivery will accommodate open-captioning and ASL translation. In order to facilitate ASL interpretation and open captioning, drafts of accepted presentations will be due via e-mail by May 1, 2009. If you have questions about making your presentation accessible, please contact the Program Co-chairs at dsconference2009@yahoo.com.

PROPOSALS ARE DUE NO LATER THAN JANUARY 15, 2009.  Instructions for submitting proposals and other information about the process (including an electronic submission form) are available on the SDS website at the 2009 SDS conference site.  Questions about the application process or other administrative matters may be directed to conference@disstudies.org.

Conference co-chairs for the 2009 convention are:  Christine McCohnell, Ramapo College of New Jersey, Joan Ostrove, Macalester College, and Bruce Henderson, Ithaca College.  Questions may be directed to the co-chairs at sdsconference2009@yahoo.com.

Proposals will be reviewed by the conference Program Committee: Christine Komoroski-McCohnell, Bruce Henderson, Joan Ostrove (co-chairs); Shilpaa Anand, Susan Baglieri, Christopher Bell, Allison Carey, Michael Chemers, Jim Ferris, Deborah Little, Carol Marfisi,
Akemi Nishida, Michael Rembis, and Cindy Wu.

Call for Papers: Rhetorics of Plague: Early / Modern Trajectories of Biohazard

Rhetorics of Plague: Early / Modern Trajectories of Biohazard

A Symposium
University at Albany, SUNY
February 26-27, 2009

Call for Proposals

The threat of biological catastrophe—including that by AIDS, ebola, avian influenza, and species extinction—may seem the specific and daunting provenance of late 20th- and early 21st –century life, but it has in fact been a crucial part of history since ancient times.  It is important to remember, for instance, that starting in the 14th century and extending well into the 18th, the bubonic plague (as the Black Death) ultimately took the lives of at least 35% of the entire population in Europe, as well as nearly that much in central Asia, killing an estimated total of 75 million people.  Given these numbers, it could be argued that premodern and early modern cultures had even more at stake in articulating the role of plague—not to mention the related phenomena of cholera, syphilis, small pox, the so-called English Sweating Sickness, or extensive urban infestations, which are only a few of the shockwaves that preceded our own anxiety about spectacular biological disaster.  This symposium therefore proposes rethinking the connections among recent models, representations, or biocultures of biological threat and their counterparts in the pre- and early modern eras.

A focus on the “rhetorics” of plague highlights the ways in which biological danger becomes conceptually organized, ethically ordered, or socio-politically oriented by the discourses that represent it.  It also underscores the crossing or hybridization of discourses, such as the ways in which early views of medical pandemic, in the absence of a theory of germ contagion, could be linked to models of ecological or environmental dysfunction, or the manner in which disease of the body natural could metaphorize the maladies of the body politic.  Furthermore, in addition to accounting for the interrelated scientific, literary, or philosophical conventions invoked by such discourses, it is important to acknowledge that, like the biological volatility they describe, discourses about plague can undergo their own kind of exponential proliferation, producing a potential plague of rhetorics.  While such discourses may have predominantly originated in the metropolitan centers of Europe, there is also the need to account for their transformation or mutation when applied in non-Western or colonial contexts, as well as for the emergence of counter-discourses from non-European sources—such as China or the Middle East—that may have challenged European models of pandemic explanation, particularly as they have undergirded imperial ambitions.

The University at Albany, SUNY, calls for proposals that forge connections between 21st-century contexts and pre- and early modern periods (up to ca.1820) as a way to foster fruitful conversations across disciplinary, national, ethnic, geographical, and historical boundaries.  Papers may take up recent work on biohazards, for example, to rethink responses to plague in early periods; conversely, papers may consider what early manifestations of and responses to plague tell us about current pandemic episodes, whether real or imagined, including biohazard as political trope.  We welcome approaches from the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities and encourage cross-cultural and transhistorical work; papers focusing on biohazard discourses prior to the nineteenth century are particularly desirable.  We encourage contributions from graduate students or nonacademics who may be working in areas such as the history of medicine, healthcare, and ecological analysis.

All participants in the symposium will have the opportunity to submit expanded versions of their presentations for consideration as part of a special journal issue planned for publication.  More details will soon appear on the symposium website.

More information about the symposium can be found at a link at the Albany Department of English website: http://www.albany.edu/english.

Paper proposals (1-2 pages) should be sent to Professor Helene Scheck, hscheck@albany.com, or Professor Richard Barney, rbarney@albany.edu, by no later than December 10, 2008.

Plenary Speakers:

Kathleen Biddick, Professor, Temple University, on plague, sovereignty, and 21st-century political theory
Graham Hammill, Associate Professor, University of Buffalo, on the biopolitics of disease during the 17th century
Robert Markley, Professor and Romano Professorial Scholar, University of Illinois, Champagne-Urbana, on ecological disaster and disease in 18th-century Britain

Topics to be considered at the symposium include:

• How recent logics of epidemic, trauma, virology, or retrovirology find application to or analogues in earlier historical patterns or discourses;
• how recent logics continue to rely on and/or transform older models of plague, contamination, or disease.
• The aesthetics of infection; the poetics of contagion.
• The multiplicity of diseases as generator for “plagues of rhetoric”—uncontrolled proliferation of competing definitions, descriptions, or discourses; or, in turn, the disseminating tendencies of scientific discourse as an engine for an exponential explosion of apparent symptoms, biological entities, ecological effects.
• The investment of medical or ecological models of pandemic thinking in juridical, legal, political, literary, social, educational, or other pre- and early modern domains.
• The role of pandemic rhetoric in the management of early modern colonial enterprise or imperial conquest; the relevance of similar biological discourses in postcolonial or recently globalized contexts.
• The function of counter-discourses of pandemic that emerged from non-Western sources—China, the Middle East, the South Pacific, etc.—in response to European scientific, political, or colonial efforts.
• The insertion of theological, political, or sociological methodologies into scientific efforts to diagnose massive medical or ecological dysfunction.
• Philosophy and/as pandemic.
• The animal—e.g., the bird or rodent—as liminal figure of pandemic transportation or translation: as biological “other” and/or as ambiguous representative of anthropomorphized nature.
• The transformation of authoritative theological or moral paradigms by emerging scientific analyses of pandemic or contagion.
• The scientific empiricism of spiritual/moral depravity; the spiritualization of scientifically observed biological threat.
• The literature of pandemic (e.g., Bocaccio’s Decameron, Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Year); the literary as pandemic (e.g., romance, the novel, “scribbling women,” Gothicism).
• “Modernity”—pre-, early, or post- —as vital historical threshold or suspect analytical crux for narrating the development of plague rhetorics.
• The interpenetration of biology and culture—termed “bioculture” in a recent special issue of New Literary History (38.3 [Summer 2007])—as a peculiarly postmodern feature of biological threat, or an emergent pattern in pre- and early modern contexts.

Call for Papers: Fat Studies

2009 PCA/ACA

Fat Studies

Call for Papers

Fat Studies is becoming an interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary field of study that confronts and critiques cultural constraints against notions of “fatness” and “the fat body”; explores fat bodies as they live in, are shaped by, and remake the world; and creates paradigms for the development of fat acceptance or celebration within mass culture. Fat Studies uses fat bodies as the starting part for a wide-ranging theorization and explication of how societies and cultures past and present have conceptualized all bodies and the political/cultural meanings ascribed to every body. Fat Studies reminds us that all bodies are inscribed with the fears and hopes of the particular culture they reside in, and these emotions often are mislabeled as objective “facts” of health and biology. More importantly, perhaps, Fat Studies insists on the recognition that fat identity can be as fundamental and world-shaping as other identity constructs analyzed within the academy and represented in media.

Proposals in the area of Fat Studies are being accepted for the 2009 PCA /ACA (Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association) National Conference in New Orleans, LA (April 8-11, 2009; New Orleans Marriott). We welcome papers and performances from academics, researchers, intellectuals, activists, and artists, in any field of study, and at any stage in their career.

Topics may include but are not limited to

• representations of fat people in literature, film, music, nonfiction, and the visual arts
• cross-cultural or global constructions of fatness and fat bodies
• cultural, historical, or philosophical meanings of fat and fat bodies
• portrayals of fat individuals and groups in news, media, magazines
• fatness as a social or political identity
• fat acceptance, activism, and/or pride movements and tactics
• approaches to fat and body image in philosophy, psychology, religion, sociology
• fat children in literature, media, and/or pedagogy
• fat as it intersects with race, ethnicity, class, religion, ability, gender, and/or sexuality
• history and/or critique of diet books and scams
• functions of fatphobia or fat oppression in economic and political systems

By November 30, 2008, please send an abstract of 100 - 250 words or a completed paper to Fat Studies Area Co-chairs, Julia McCrossin (jmccross@gwu.edu) and Lesleigh Owen (goddess_les@yahoo.com).

Please include your complete contact information and a CV and/or 50 word bio, along with anticipated A/V needs. All submissions are welcome, but please use the information above to ensure your paper fits within the academic and political scopes of Fat Studies. Please also be mindful that Fat Studies is a political project and not merely an umbrella for all discussions of larger bodies. Also, we encourage submitters to rethink using words like “obesity” and “overweight” in their presentations unless they are used ironically, within quotes, or accompanied by a political analysis.

Presenters must become members of the Popular Culture Association. Find more information on the conference and organization at http://pcaaca.org/conference/national.php.

(h/t Shapely Prose)

The ASBH Annual Meeting

I'm off to the ASBH Annual Meeting in Cleveland, OH.  I will be presenting, so those of you inclined to come out Sunday morning at 8:30 am will have the grand opportunity to hear me pontificate on chronic pain, stigma, and the Book of Job. 

Readers of MH Blog are always invited to say hello, and/or inquire about guest-blogging opportunities.  No live-blogging, though I will try to post if at all possible.

Call for Papers: Unintended Consequences

The University of Delaware-Hagley Fellows invite scholars to join us in a conversation about "unintended consequences" in the histories of business, technology, consumption, the environment, work, and everyday life.  Seemingly rational actors make decisions, create institutions, shape environments, or develop technologies expecting certain outcomes, but things do not always go as planned.  "Unintended Consequences" seeks to explore the enormous influence of these inevitable yet unexpected occurrences.   How can research on unintended consequence contribute to our understanding of the modern world?  Who decides what consequences are unintended?  To what extent do we know the results of our actions? Why should historians pay attention to unintended consequences?

We invite papers that discuss instances of unintended consequences or address how the research of unintended consequences contributes to our understanding of the world since 1700.  We encourage both graduate students and established scholars to participate.  Financial assistance will be provided to all conference presenters.

Please email a 300-word abstract and a one page CV to the Hagley Fellows at hagley.fellows@gmail.com by December 31, 2008.

Sounds fascinating.  Note that submissions from graduate students are welcome, and that financial assistance will be provided for all presenters.  The notion of unintended consequences is extremely important in policy work, both because it must be avoided wherever possible, and because it is virtually impossible to avoid completely.  Indeed, study of compex adaptive systems, which is important for interdisciplinary work, illustrates that unintended consequences inhere in such systems, and more so, may actually be a boon to overall system sustainability (b/c a certain amoung of complexity, or, chaos, if you prefer, is needed to ensure adaptability).

On A New Student-Run History of Medicine Journal

It is with no small measure of excitement that I report on the establishment of a new student-run (peer-reviewed) journal in the history of medicine.  Housed at the Sigerist Society for the History of Medicine at The George Washington University School of Medicine, the name of the journal is Historia medicinae, and the website is available here.

Some relevant information regarding HM:

The journal is open to all students of medical and dental students, residents/interns, health professions students (RN, PA, MPH, etc.) and also history students across the globe and is presently seeking submissions and reviewers to take part in the first issue of Historia medicinae.

Our mission is to publish articles which cover a unique topic in the history of medicine from an innovative and informed perspective.  The journal will cover all periods of medical history from classical and ancient medicine to historical developments in modern medicine.  It will consist of short letters written on important individuals, inventions, and developments in medicine as well as longer analyses related to the history of medicine.

I am thrilled to see a project like this get off the ground, and I heartily encourage* students interested in the history of medicine to consider getting involved in the journal in some form or another.

*Full disclosure: I have volunteered to serve as an assistant editor.

(h/t H-SCI-MED-TECH listserv)

Call for Applications: Faculty Position in Literature & Medicine

Hiram College’s Center for Literature, Medicine and Biomedical Humanities invites applications for a full time, tenure track faculty position in literature and medicine to begin in the Fall of ‘09.  The Center is the oldest of Hiram’s six centers of excellence, and its innovative programming and Biomedical Humanities curriculum are supported by an NEH endowment.  The successful candidate will teach interdisciplinary undergraduate courses in medical humanities, emphasizing use of literature or arts to examine topics such as, bioethics, aging, illness, and health care disparities.   Opportunities also exist to teach within our Graduate Interdisciplinary Studies program.  The successful candidate may also help with the editing of the Center’s literature and medicine series from Kent State University Press, annual summer seminars for health care professionals, bioethicists, literary scholars and students, and other center initiatives.  This new position is part of a team of faculty teaching interdisciplinary courses that serve Hiram’s biomedical humanities majors, nursing students, masters’ students, and many other majors.  Our unique 12-3 semester plan allows for traditional and intensive courses, as well as faculty lead study abroad opportunities.  Hiram College is recognized as one of the best liberal arts colleges in the U.S., with a strong tradition in the natural sciences and humanities.  Our graduates get into the top medical, veterinary, and graduate school programs, as well as into jobs in industry, not-for profit, and government. 

The ideal candidate will have a PhD in humanities or the arts, with experience in health care and bioethics.  Submit a letter of application, curriculum vitae, statement of teaching philosophy, and names and telephone numbers of three professional references as word documents to Dr. Michael Blackie, Search Chair by email at LitMed@hiram.edu. Review of applications will begin November 1 and will continue until the position is filled.

(h/t ASBH Lit&Med listserv)

On Place as a Determinant of Health

The RWJF Commission to Build a Healthier America, which we've touched on here, recently conducted in Philadelphia a second public hearing related to the way in which place (i.e., communities, houses, neighborhoods) determines health.  A primary objective of the Commission is to explore the determinants of health beyond access to acute care, which obviously implicates the SDOH.  The press release notes:

Research shows social and economic conditions of neighborhoods are linked with a range of health conditions, including mortality, overall health status, chronic conditions, health behaviors, disability, mental health, birth outcomes, injuries and violence. Poor quality and inadequate housing also contribute to health problems such as infectious and chronic diseases, injuries and poor childhood development. In fact, where and how people live, learn, work and play has more impact on their health than medical care.

Indeed.  On the Commission website, you can download two issue briefs addressing the role of housing and neighborhood on health.  The Commission is doing some important work, both substantively and by signaling (finally!) that stakeholders interested in public health policy cannot ignore the robust evidence demonstrating that social and economic conditions are primary determinants of health.  I encourage anyone interested in these issues to make use of the Commission resources.

The next public hearing will be held in Denver in December 2008.