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"Narrative Fusion: Clinical Arts and Literary Sciences" with Rita Charon
On March 6, Rita Charon, Bernard Schoenberg Professor of Social Medicine and Professor of Medicine at Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, will give a public talk titled "Narrative Fusion: Clinical Arts and Literary Sciences" as part of the UT Humanities Center's 2022-2023 Distinguished Lecture Series.
Narrating the self has long been the foundation of both literary and clinical practices. Whether in a published memoir or novel or in a visit to one’s doctor or psychoanalyst, one discovers aspects of the self by telling of it to another. Narrative medicine has grown from crossing the literary with the medical. We have achieved clinical success in training health professionals to listen for what their patients tell them and conceptual advances in investigating the interpersonal and aesthetic properties of literature. A just and effective health care may emerge from the creative and self-making capacities of patients and clinicians that are developed in rigorous practices as readers, writers, and seers.
The lecture is free and open to the public and is held in Hodges Library’s auditorium on the UT Knoxville campus. Public parking is available in the Volunteer Hall parking garage for our off-campus visitors. Everyone is welcome! We will also offer a livestream of the talk via Zoom. Register for the link at tiny.utk.edu/DLS-Charon.
About the speaker:
Rita Charon is a general internist and literary scholar who originated the field of narrative medicine. She is the Bernard Schoenberg Professor of Social Medicine, the founding chair of the Department of Medical Humanities and Ethics, and Professor of Medicine at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons. She serves as the Executive Director of Columbia Narrative Medicine. She completed the MD at Harvard and the Ph.D. in English at Columbia, concentrating on the works of Henry James. Charon’s research investigates narrative medicine training, reflective practice, health care justice, and health care team effectiveness and has been supported by the NIH, the NEH, the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, and many other private foundations. She was selected by the NEH to deliver the Jefferson Lecture in 2018, the highest academic distinction awarded by the Endowment. She has authored, co-authored, or co-edited four books on narrative medicine. She lectures and teaches internationally on narrative medicine and is widely published in leading medical and literary journals.
About the Series:
The UT Humanities Center's Distinguished Lecture Series bring acclaimed humanities scholars and renowned artists to the Knoxville campus for research-based conversations with UT faculty and graduate students and to give a public talk on a topic of the speaker's choosing. Speakers are nominated and hosted by faculty from our nine affiliated arts and humanities departments. Because only speakers with exceptional records of publication and research activity are eligible to receive a nomination as a visiting scholar, the program brings to campus some of the most cutting-edge and prolific intellectuals in the humanities today. Details on this season’s program are available at humanitiescenter.utk.edu/public/visiting. If you enjoy this series and would like to support future UT Humanities Center programming, please visit humanitiescenter.utk.edu/giving to learn about giving opportunities.
Event Links
Virtual: https://go.evvnt.com/1580806-0
