Events
Cosponsors
- The University Seminar on Narrative Health and Social Justice
- Institute for Comparative Literature and Society
- The Institute for Research on Women and Gender
- The Center for Gender and Sexuality Law
- Department of History, Barnard College
Notes
- Free and open to the public
- First come, first seated
Over the next four years, the Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia will offer a series of events on the topic of “Evaluation, Value, and Evidence.” This series aims to examine the methods by which various disciplines and field studies describe, measure, assess, articulate, judge, and produce knowledge by different means and for different ends.
Taking “medical humanities” as its subject, the first conference in this series considers some of the investigations and interventions made by those who study illness and health from the perspectives of the arts, humanities, and human sciences. Presentations by medical practitioners, historians, social justice advocates, medical journalists, disability studies and narrative studies scholars will be interspersed with readings by poets and novelists, reports from the field, and a theatrical performance.
Among the questions to be addressed are: What roles do methods like description, measurement, prediction, and interpretation play in the evaluative practices of the interdisciplinarily diverse context known as “medical humanities”? How are diverse values—ethical, clinical, psychological, experimental, political, aesthetic, financial, and so forth---measured and assessed? How do disciplinary investments and methodological differences affect how evidence is produced, evaluated, and valued? How, for example, do healthcare practitioners evaluate health and value human life? How do narrative practices affect medical evaluation? How is the price of a human organ determined—or the worth of efforts to save an individual life? How does “data” gain and lose its evidentiary status as it moves between the various “medical humanities” disciplines? To what material, formal, and social constraints is evidence subject? How do categories of evidence gain authority or fall under suspicion? How do representational forms affect the persuasiveness of evidence—and for which audiences or constituencies? Whose testimony matters? How do new kinds of evidence (DNA, for example) change existing regimes of knowledge?
This Conference is made possible through the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Program
time8:30am - 9:15am EDT
Breakfast
time9:15am - 11:00am EDT
Panel I: Medicine, Humanities, and the Human Sciences: A Historical Perspective
This session will take place in Jerome Greene Annex.
Welcoming Remarks
Eileen Gillooly
Executive Director
Heyman Center for the Humanities
“Performing Authentic Cripples in 1300”
Christopher Baswell
Ann Whitney Olin Professor of English
Barnard College
"Medical Investigation and the Archive: The Case of Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga (1562-1612)”
Valeria Finucci
Professor of Italian Studies and Theater Studies Romance Studies
Duke University
"The Medical Case across Cultures: Comparing the European Observatio and the Chinese Yi'An"
Gianna Pomata
Professor, Institute of the History of Medicine
The Johns Hopkins University
Moderator
Rita Charon
Director and Founder, Program in Narrative Medicine
College of Physicians & Surgeons of Columbia University
time11:10am - 11:30am EDT
Narrative Treatment
This session will take place in Jerome Greene Annex.
A reading
Marie Myung-Ok Lee
Author
time11:30am - 1:00pm EDT
Panel II: Health and Truth in Social Justice Stories
This session will take place in Jerome Greene Annex.
“Stories Are Actions: The Use of Personal Storytelling as an Advocacy Tool”
Paul Browde
Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
New York University
Murray Nossel
Founder & Director
Narativ
"Bringing Human Rights Home: the Breakthrough Way”
Ishita Srivastava
Multimedia Producer
Breakthrough
“The Criminal Justice System and the Role of Narratives:Resisting the Destruction of Self"
Kathy Boudin
Assistant Professor
Columbia University School of Social Work
Moderator
Sayantani DasGupta
Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and Faculty, Master's Program in Narrative Medicine
Columbia University
Moderator
Marsha Hurst
Lecturer, Master Program in Narrative Medicine
Columbia University
time1:00pm - 2:30pm EDT
Lunch Break
time2:30pm - 4:00pm EDT
Keynote
This session will take place in Lehman Auditorium, 202 Altschul Hall, Barnard College.
Chair
Judith Shulevitz
Author
time4:10pm - 5:40pm EDT
Panel III: Keywords: Toward a Critical Vocabulary of Disability Studies
This session will take place in Lehman Auditorium, 202 Altschul Hall, Barnard College.
"The Keywords Concept"
Benjamin Reiss
Professor
Emory University
"Representing Disability Studies"
David Serlin
Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Communication
University of California, San Diego
"Bridging Disciplinary Divides"
Rachel Adams
Professor of English and Comparative Literature
Columbia University
Moderator
Elizabeth Emens
Professor of Law
Columbia University
time6:00pm - 7:30pm EDT
Performance
New Location!: This performance will take place in Davis Auditorium, the Schapiro Center.
I Got Sick and Then I Got Better (Directed by James Lapine and Darren Katz)
Jenny Allen
Writer and Monologist
time8:30am - 9:00am EDT
Light Breakfast
time9:00am - 10:30am EDT
Keynote
This session will take place in Lehman Auditorium, 202 Altschul Hall, Barnard College.
Chair
Uzodinma Iweala
Author/Physician
time10:40am - 12:10pm EDT
Panel IV: Narrative in Health Care
This session will take place in Lehman Auditorium, 202 Altschul Hall, Barnard College.
“The Importance of Personhood in Medical Practice andIts Relation to Narrative in Medicine”
Eric J. Cassell
Emeritus Professor of Public Health
Cornell University
“What (Some) Illness Narratives Tell Us about the Mind-Body Split”
Neil Vickers
Reader in English Literature & Medical Humanities
Kings College, London
“Using the Evidence of Autobiography in Narrative Medicine”
James Whitehead
Lecturer in Medical Humanities and English
Kings College, London
Moderator
Brian Hurwitz
D’Oyly Carte Professor of Medicine & the Arts
Kings College London
time12:10pm - 1:30pm EDT
Lunch Break
time1:30pm - 3:00pm EDT
Panel V: Humanistic and Clinical Evidence
This session will take place in Lehman Auditorium, 202 Altschul Hall, Barnard College.
"Neuroscience, Reification, and Reduction: Evidence in the Case of the Freestyling Rappers"
Jordynn Jack
Associate Professor, Department of English
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
“Attending to Evidential Practices in Biomedical Science Education”
Barry Saunders
Associate Professor, Social Medicine
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
“Evidence at the Limits: What ‘Old’ Means”
Terrence Holt
Assistant Professor of Social Medicine and Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Geriatric Medicine
University of North Carolina, School of Medicine
Moderator
Rishi Goyal
Doctor and Scholar
time3:00pm - 3:20pm EDT
Poetic Treatment I
This session will take place in Lehman Auditorium, 202 Altschul Hall, Barnard College.
A reading
Rachel Hadas
Professor of English
Rutgers University
time3:30pm - 4:45pm EDT
Reports from the Field
This session will take place in Lehman Auditorium, 202 Altschul Hall, Barnard College.
“Arts & Minds in Action”
Carolyn Halpin-Healy
Executive Director
Arts & Minds
"Narrative Medicine in Practice: The VA Hospital and the Staff of a Program for Survivors of Torture"
Maura Spiegel
Associate Professor of English
Columbia University
“The Hubbard Project”
Susan Coppola
Clinical Professor, Division of Occupational Science
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Cherie Rosemond
Co-Director: The Hubbard Program
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Jane Thrailkill
Associate Professor, Department of English and Comparative Literature
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Moderator
Alvan A. Ikoku
Assistant Professor
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
time5:00pm - 5:30pm EDT
Poetic Treatment II
This session will take place in Lehman Auditorium, 202 Altschul Hall, Barnard College.
A reading/performance
Joshua Bennett
Poet
Participants
- Rachel Adams Professor of English and Comparative Literature Columbia University
- Jenny Allen Writer and Monologist
- Christopher Baswell Ann Whitney Olin Professor of English Barnard College
- Joshua Bennett Poet
- Kathy Boudin Assistant Professor Columbia University School of Social Work
- Paul Browde Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry New York University
- Eric J. Cassell Emeritus Professor of Public Health Cornell University
- Rita Charon Director and Founder, Program in Narrative Medicine College of Physicians & Surgeons of Columbia University
- Susan Coppola Clinical Professor, Division of Occupational Science University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Sayantani DasGupta Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and Faculty, Master's Program in Narrative Medicine Columbia University
- Elizabeth Emens Professor of Law Columbia University
- Valeria Finucci Professor of Italian Studies and Theater Studies Romance Studies Duke University
- Eileen Gillooly Executive Director Heyman Center for the Humanities
- Rishi Goyal Doctor and Scholar
- Rachel Hadas Professor of English Rutgers University
- Carolyn Halpin-Healy Executive Director Arts & Minds
- Terrence Holt Assistant Professor of Social Medicine and Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Geriatric Medicine University of North Carolina, School of Medicine
- Marsha Hurst Lecturer,Master Program in Narrative Medicine Columbia University
- Brian Hurwitz D'Oyly Carte Professor of Medicine & the Arts King's College London
- Alvan A. Ikoku Assistant Professor Albert Einstein College of Medicine
- Uzodinma Iweala Author/Physician
- Jordynn Jack Associate Professor, Department of English University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Marie Myung-Ok Lee Author
- Murray Nossel Founder & Director Narativ
- Gianna Pomata Professor, Institute of the History of Medicine The Johns Hopkins University
- Benjamin Reiss Professor Emory University
- Cherie Rosemond Co-Director: The Hubbard Program University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Barry Saunders Associate Professor, Social Medicine University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- David Serlin Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Communication University of California, San Diego
- Judith Shulevitz Author
- Maura Spiegel Associate Professor of English Columbia University
- Ishita Srivastava Multimedia Producer Breakthrough
- Jane Thrailkill Associate Professor, Department of English and Comparative Literature University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Neil Vickers Reader in English Literature & Medical Humanities King's College, London
- Jonathan Weiner Maxwell M. Geffen Professor of Medical and Scientific Journalism Columbia University
- James Whitehead Lecturer in Medical Humanities and English King's College, London