John Mulligan's blog

Doctor Zoë Wool, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and a leader in Rice's Medical Humanities program, has published a new, multimedia piece for the online scholarly journal, Somatosphere.

Barry Bergdoll Lecture
Menil Drawing Institute (1412 W. Main Street, Houston, TX)
Thursday, November 14, 2019
7:00 p.m.

"The Art of Children's Illustration: 25 Years of Piñata Books."

We are proud to announce that on Saturday, February 2nd at 12:00pm, an exhibit of illustrations for Latina/o American children's books will go on display at the historical Julia Ideson building's beautiful second-floor gallery. The exhibit was co-curated for Arte Público Press and the Houston Public Library by Elena Valdez, our 2018-19 alt-ac fellow. Elena is currently finishing her Ph.D. in the English department.

Below is an excerpt from Elena's introductory remarks for the opening event:

Dr. Kirsten Ostherr, MPH, founder of the Medical Futures Lab and head of the Medical Humanities program at Rice, speaks with Bryan Vartabedian, MD, on The Exam Room podcast, for an interesting discussion on everything from human centered design in health care to medical education and e-patients. As a Professor of English and one of digital health’s most interesting anti-disciplinary thinkers, this episode is just plain interesting and will hopefully inspire you to think outside the confines of your silo.

At the 2018 Rice Undergraduate Research Symposium (RURS), Miriam Shayeb and Sarah Lasater took home the top awards in undergraduate humanities research. Miriam and Sarah's presentations were condensed versions of the work they presented as part of their final projects in the HRC's practica courses, as part of its medical humanities programming.

Peter Zuk, our alt-ac fellow for the 2017-18 academic year, had an incredibly successful collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine in which he contributed directly as a medical ethicist to two important initiatives. His work in the alt-ac program helped him to think about a broad range of possible applications for his philosophy PhD, which he will defend in September.

Rachel Conrad Bracken, a PhD candidate in Rice's Department of English, has been awarded the Center for Teaching Excellence's Graduate Student Instructor Award for 2017, for her First-year Writing Intensive Seminar, "Science/Fiction and the Future of Medicine."

The Medical Humanities program at Rice is invested in bringing humanistic research on health to publics in and outside the medical field. Medicine, and our broader conceptions of health, are important domains of inquiry and discussion for both healthcare professionals, patients, and people who aren't currently patients (but all of us likely will be some day).