Fall 2024 News

Welcome from the Director

Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Medical Humanities News! We are delighted to feature a selection of updates on medical humanities work by faculty, students, and researchers at Rice University. Check out the In the News link below for all of the recent Rice News stories about our work, including the founding and launch of our new Medical Humanities Research Institute, and be sure to join our feeds to stay in touch.

	Student Awards Congratulations to the 2024 award recipients from the Medical Humanities Research Showcase held on April 9, 2024! Undergraduate students in practicum courses presented their research projects to a public audience. Faculty and staff from the Texas Medical Center with a history of engagement in aspects of medical humanities served as award judges. Read More
	Art Exhibition featuring Pato Hebert The “Health Aesthetics” event held in the Moody Gallery on March 6, 2024 combined an art exhibition by Pato Hebert and a panel discussion. Read More
	Student Spotlight Brandon Chen is a senior at Will Rice College majoring in Cognitive Science, Biochemistry, and Cell Biology. He will minor in the Medical Humanities Program and wants to be a doctor. At Rice, he serves as the editor of The Thresher. Read More
	Course Spotlight Tanya Jain (BioSciences senior) shares highlights of the Literature and Medicine class taught by Dr. Melissa Bailar. Read More
	Postdoctoral Fellow Spotlight Katherine Shwetz is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Medical Humanities. She received her PhD from the University of Toronto. Her dissertation was on "The Virus in the Garrison: Contagious Disease in Canadian Literature." Read More
	Faculty Spotlight Samuel Reis-Dennis is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and steering committee member of the Medical Humanities Program and Medical Humanities Research Institute. Read More
	Sawyer Seminar Series The Medical Humanities Research Institute was awarded an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar grant for an upcoming yearlong series of talks and events on “Reimaging Technologies of Care: Racial Health Equity and Data Justice.” Read More
	Alum Spotlight Allison Taffet is a Medical Humanities Program alum, and a current medical student at NYU. Read More
	Global Paris Workshop The Medical Humanities Research Institute convened leading international researchers to address how social, cultural, and ethical forces shape patients' lived experiences. Read More
	In the News Medical Humanities featured in Rice News. Read More

Upcoming Sawyer Seminar Lectures

• October 22: Andrea Downing, Valencia Robinson, and Ashley Dedmon (The Light Collective)
  "No Aggregation without Representation"
• November 21: Jeremy Greene (Johns Hopkins Medicine)
  "After the Single Use: Healthcare Waste and Environmental Justice"
• December 5: Craig Watkins (University of Texas at Austin)
  "Inclusive Design and the Future of Responsible Health AI"
• January 23: Susannah Fox (author of Rebel Health)
  Patient Advocacy at the Intersection of Health and Technology
• April 10: Roderic Crooks (University of California, Irvine)
  Digital Technology and the Minoritization of Working-Class Communities of Color

Lectures will be held at 4pm. More details can be found at mhri.rice.edu/sawyer.

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