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A newsletter from the Division of Medical Humanities
at NYU Langone Health
November 6, 2020

Watch Your Language!—Misusage and Neologisms in Clinical Communication

This essay by Andrew M. Luks, MD, and Zachary D. Goldberger, MD, discusses the prevalence of medical jargon and how clinicians can consciously avoid this type of language and work to improve communication with patients and their families.

The Wisdom of Pandemics

"We don’t usually associate the intellectually ‘soft’ idea of wisdom with the ‘hard’ ideas of natural science," writes David Waltner-Toews—but our understanding of pandemics depends on being able to synthesize knowledge from multiple perspectives.

A Care Package for Caregivers

The On Being Project offers a curated collection of poetry, podcasts, and meditations for the healthcare community. Featured pieces include an excerpt of a conversation with Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen on 'The Difference Between Curing and Healing," a reading of Mary Oliver's poem "Wild Geese," and more.

Imagining the Postantibiotic Future: The Visual Culture of a Global Health Threat

Using antimicrobial resistance as an example, Rachel Irwin explores how public health data and knowledge are repackaged into visualizations and presented in four contemporary genres: the animation, the TED Talk, the documentary and the satire program.

Highlights from Projects in the Humanities and Ethics at NYU Langone Health

New Annotation: Howard Carter on Scales to Scalpels: Doctors Who Practice the Healing Arts of Music and Medicine by Lisa Wong

“This is a quick and personal history of the Longwood Symphony Orchestra (LSO), a group of Boston area musicians who, in their working lives, are medical personnel.”

Watch - Stories Worth Telling: Inside the Bellevue Hospital Psychiatric Prison Ward

Elizabeth Ford, MD, former chief of psychiatry for Correctional Health Services for NYC Health + Hospitals, spoke about the deep complexities of mental health in the criminal justice system and how she found her calling in forensic psychiatry, as well as read selections from her memoir, Sometimes Amazing Things Happen. This 2017 event was sponsored by the Master Scholars Program in Humanistic Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

Calls for Submission & Other Opportunities

Wellcome Photography Prize 2021
This year, the Wellcome Photography Prize is exploring the human side of three urgent health challenges: mental health problems, infectious diseases, and global heating. Deadline January 18, 2021. More information.

Call for Submissions: UnLonely Film Festival
Submissions are open for the 5th UnLonely Film Festival, which will begin in June 2021. They are looking for short films in the categories of narrative, documentary, and animation, in both comedy (especially uplifting) and drama genres. Films must include the theme of loneliness, which can be in the following categories: Loneliness In Everyday Life • Addiction and Recovery • College Life and Young Adults • Caregivers • Creativity & Connection • Health Challenges • Immigrants • Older Adults • Veterans • People of Color • LGBTQ+ • Workplace • Politics • Mental Health
More information

Dan David Prize
The Dan David Prize awards three $1,000,000 prizes to those who have made extraordinary discoveries and outstanding contributions to humanity in selected fields representing the three time dimensions – past, present and future. The Dan David Prize is seeking nominations for individuals and organizations making a major impact in this year's selected fields: History of Health and Medicine (Past), Public Health (Present), and Molecular Medicine (Future). Nomination deadline: November 30, 2020. More information.

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Events & Conferences

NOV
9

How Music Moves Us: Exploring the Connection Between Music and Emotions

NOV
12

Ethical Death Cafe

Online, hosted by the New York Society for Ethical Culture
NOV
12

Poetry for the Pandemic

NOV
13

Medical Heritage Library Tenth Anniversary Conference

The Medical Heritage Library, Inc. is pleased to announce its Tenth Anniversary virtual conference will take place on Friday, November 13, 11:00am - 5:00pm EDT. Dr. Jaipreet Virdi, author of Hearing Happiness: Deafness Cures in History and Assistant Professor for the Department of History at the University of Delaware, will be the keynote speaker. The conference is free and open to the public.
NOV
16

Whose Pain Matters? Reflections on Race, Social Justice, and COVID-19’s Revealed Inequalities

The NYU School of Global Public Health and its Center for Bioethics are partnering with The Greenwall Foundation to sponsor the 2020 William C. Stubing Memorial Lecture, featuring a talk by Keith Wailoo, PhD, Henry Putnam University Professor of History and Public Affairs, Princeton University.
NOV
18

MedHumChat: A Question of Time

The #MedHumChat community will ponder A Question of Time with two pieces: “Solving for X” by Pam Durban and “Assiduously” by Claudia Castro Luna. (Postponed from November 4th)
NOV
19

Theater of War for Frontline Medical Providers: Mount Sinai

Dramatic readings of Sophocles' Philoctetes and Women of Trachis as a catalyst for a discussion about the impact of Covid-19.
DEC
2

Writing Matters: Collaborative Writing

Sponsored by the NYU Center for the Humanities
DEC
9

Circling Around Disability in Dance

A Conversation with Alice Sheppard and Jennifer Homans
Sponsored by the NYU Center for the Humanities
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