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A newsletter from the Division of Medical Humanities
at NYU Langone Health
December 6, 2019

Humanism in Healthcare Research Roundup

The Gold Foundation's Jeffrey Silver Humanism in Healthcare Research Roundup features summaries of recently published studies on humanism in healthcare. Their latest roundup highlights articles about compassion in the clinical context, physician and non-physician insights about practices of human connection, and more.

John F. Kennedy Kept These Medical Struggles Private

"Only in the past few decades we have had a more thorough understanding of President Kennedy’s complex medical history. To put it bluntly, long before he died at age 46, Kennedy was a very sick man." Dr. Howard Markel's monthly column for PBS NewsHour highlights the anniversary of a momentous event that continues to shape modern medicine.

The Lost Art of Convalescence

Convalescence is the gradual return to health after illness or injury, a gentle process of recovery. But whereas the heroines of 18th-century novels were apt to read and rest while sipping broth in a lace nightdress, nowadays we’re expected to be back at work as soon as the acute phase of an illness has passed.

A Prescription of Poetry to Help Patients Speak Their Minds

Doctors at several major hospitals are experimenting with poems as a source of psychological relief and connection.

Highlights from
Division of Medical Humanities Projects
at NYU Langone Health

BLR Announces Winners of Annual Prizes

The BLR's annual literary prizes award outstanding writing about health, illness, and humanity. The latest winners, just announced, are: “Rivers” by Yalitza Ferreras (Goldenberg Prize for Fiction, judged by Bryan Washington); “Refugere” by Nina Adel (Felice Buckvar Prize for Nonfiction, judged by Sheri Fink); and “Ordinary Psalm with Near Blindness” by Julia B. Levine (Marica and Jan Vilcek Prize for Poetry, judged by DéLana R.A. Dameron). The winning pieces will appear in Issue 38 of the BLR, due out in Spring 2020.

New Annotation:
Howard Trachtman on Spring by Ali Smith

"In a novel whose scope includes the most destructive features of modern society, Smith is able to infuse small day-to-day events and artifacts with meaning and optimism.... And this is why I suggest that this book be mandatory reading for medical students and trainees in all disciplines."

Calls for Submission & Other Opportunities

2020 Vilcek-Gold Award for Humanism in Healthcare
The Vilcek Foundation and The Arnold P. Gold Foundation are now accepting nominations for the 2020 Vilcek-Gold Award for Humanism in Healthcare. Any foreign-born person based in the United States who works in healthcare, medicine, or public health advocacy and demonstrates a commitment to humanistic values is eligible to be nominated. The Vilcek-Gold Award for Humanism in Healthcare includes an unrestricted $10,000 cash prize and will be presented at the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Annual Learn Serve Lead Meeting in November 2020. The deadline for nominations is January 22, 2020. More information

The 2020 Project Narrative Summer Institute: Narrative, Medicine and Disability
PNSI is a two-week workshop on the campus of Ohio State University that offers faculty and advanced graduate students in any discipline the opportunity for an intensive study of core concepts and issues in narrative theory. The focus for summer 2020 will be Narrative, Medicine and Disability, and the co-directors will ground their approach in the principle of dialogue. More specifically, they will explore the connections and tensions among a range of objects of study—the three objects named in the Institute’s subtitle—and of discourses about them: narrative theory, narrative medicine, and disability studies. Sample dialogues: What can narrative theory and narratives about illness do for each other? What can narrative medicine and narratives of disability do for each other? What can narrative theory, narrative medicine, and disability studies do for each other? What are the limitations of efforts to find synergies among these objects of study and discourses about them? Application deadline: April 1, 2020. More information

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Events & Conferences

DEC
12

Film Screening: "DNA: The Secret of Photo 51"

DEC
12

The Nocturnists: A Night of Storytelling

The Nocturnists brings their live show to New York City for a special event on the theme of LEARNING. The lineup includes storytellers who work in the fields of emergency obstetrics, neurology, ICU medicine, and primary care, among others.
DEC
18

Publish or Perish: Scientists Review Christmas Movies

JAN
4

Classic Charcoal Drawing: Anatomy

FEB
7-9

British Society of Aesthetics Conference: Art, Aesthetics and the Medical and Health Humanities

Registration is now open
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