Medical Humanities

Programs On this Page

Contact

For more details about the Medical Humanities Programs, contact:

Mgbechi Erondu or Jewel Sheehan

Medical Humanities Programs

Department Programs

Arts and Anesthesia

A committee to promote the intersections of the arts with medicine for and by members of the department. Precovid, the committee organized spring Arts and Anesthesia Soirées and create art together sessions for department members and their families. Opportunities for leadership roles and for sharing visual, performing and literary arts. An online version of the Soirée occurred in 2020, and plans for in-person events, including a focus on diversity, are underway.

For more information, contact:

Stanford Programs

Medicine and the Muse Program

The home for medical humanities at the School of Medicine, the program provides multiple opportunities for faculty to engage with arts and humanities, including a choir and chorus, writing and storytelling workshops and events, mentorship for medical students doing projects in medical humanities and arts through the medical scholars program, teaching and mentoring within courses for medical, PA, undergraduate and summer scholar students, engagement with University-wide projects such as COVID remembrance, podcasting and more. Opportunities include becoming affiliated faculty. Resources include an online list of publications which accept creative work.

For more information contact

Jacqueline Genovese, MFA, MA (Executive Director)
Bryant Lin, MD (Director)
Christy Hartman (Program Coordinator)

Or visit link below:

Previous program and event leaders: Audrey Shafer, MD, Alyssa Burgart, MD, Adjoa Boateng Evens, MD

Medical Humanities Faculty Fellowship

A six month certificate program in Medical Humanities and Health Communication for Stanford University School of Medicine faculty. Designed for faculty who wish to build their academic portfolio in medical humanities, with mentorship in writing and the creative arts. The first cohort meets evenings twice a month January to June 2024. Contact your Division Chief or the Chair regarding your participation and program fee coverage.

2024 Faculty Fellows from our department

For more information contact

Malathi Srinivasan, MD (Program Co-Director)
Lauren Edwards, MD (Program Co- Director)

Or download the flyer below

Download Program Flyer

Medical Humanities Workshop

An ongoing workshop series for faculty and students sponsored by Stanford Humanities Center. Hybrid format. 3 meetings per quarter with local and outside speakers on a range of topics in Medical Humanities. Opportunities to network in medical humanities across the University.

For more information:

Professor Tanya Luhrmann

Or visit link below:

Stanford Humanities Center - Research Workshops

Previous Attendees: Audrey Shafer, MD

Writing Medicine

An ongoing workshop series on Saturday mornings via zoom for health care workers, led by the Director of Writing and Storytelling at Stanford Medicine and the Muse.

For more information:

Professor Laurel Braitman

Or visit link below:

Laurel Braitman - Writing medicine website

Previous Attendees: Audrey Shafer, MD, Adjoa Boateng Evans MD, Jody Leng, MD, Alyssa Burgart

Literature and Medicine Dinner and Discussion Series

Offered via Medicine and the Muse and the WellMD Center, this series is open to faculty only. A syllabus of readings is provided, and discussion sessions are led by two experts. The course meets monthly, usually January through June, and dinner is provided. CME currently available.

For more information contact or visit link below:

Previous Attendees: Ronald Pearl, MD, PhD

Pegasus Physician Writers

Open to physicians, medical and pre-medical students, Pegasus offers the opportunity to join an ongoing writing workshop for sharing and improving your writing and giving feedback to others in your group. Participants are assigned to a group that meets monthly, each group has presentation schedules and leaders. Pegasus also offers events open to the public with opportunities to read your work to a receptive audience. Events include readings, poetry and music with the St. Lawrence String Quartet, and book readings.

Program Length and Participation Requirements: Monthly Meetings

For more information:

Jenn Pien, MD

Or visit link below:

Pegasus Physician Writers

Previous Attendees: Audrey Shafer, MD, Alyssa Burgart, MD

Teaching Opportunities

Medical Humanities Minor for Undergraduates

The minor offers opportunities for teaching and mentoring students.

Medical Humanities encompasses disciplines within the arts, humanities, medicine, and social sciences. Its goal is to give students and scholars an opportunity to explore a meaning-centered perspective on medical issues. The approach emphasizes the subjective experience of health and illness as captured through the expressive arts (for example, painting, music, and literature), across historical periods and in different cultures, and with different ethical and political challenges. Medical Humanities draws attention not only to diagnosis but to the meaning and experience of diagnosis, to the way that medicine is an art form as well as a science, and to the way institutions and culture shape the way illness is identified, experienced, and treated.

For more information contact:

Laura Wittman, PhD
Tanya Luhrmann, PhD

Or visit

Department of Anthropology Medical Humanities Minor

SOMGEN 213

The Art of Observation: Enhancing Clinical Skills Through Visual Analysis

Offers medical students the opportunity to enhance their observational and descriptive abilities by analyzing works of art in the Stanford museums. Working with the Cantor Arts Center staff and Stanford Art History PhD candidates, students spend time in each session actively looking at and describing works in the gallery. Discussion with medical school faculty follows, providing a clinical correlate to the gallery session. Classes interrogate a different theme of medical observation and clinical practice and includes opportunities for an applied clinical session in the hospital with course-affiliated physicians.

For more information contact:

INDE 212: Medical Humanities and the Arts

The interdisciplinary field of medical humanities: the use of the arts and humanities to examine medicine in personal, social, and cultural contexts. Topics include the doctor/patient relationship, the patient perspective, the meaning of doctoring, and the meaning of illness. Sources include visual and performing arts, film, and literary genres such as poetry, fiction, and scholarly writing. Designed for medical students in the Biomedical Ethics and Medical Humanities Scholarly Concentration, but all students are welcome.

For more information contact:

Bryant Lin, MD

LIFE 53Q: Storytelling in Medicine (MED 53Q)

Stories are at the core of medical practice, but the skills developed are applicable across disciplines, including technology and business. Storytelling in Medicine is a new sophomore seminar designed to teach skills in multiple modalities of storytelling including narrative, oral, social media, academic presentations and visual storytelling for different audiences. This seminar combines small groups, interactive workshops, and guest speakers who are experts in their fields of medicine. This will also include editing and support to complete your own story by the end of the seminar.

For more information contact:

Stanford Medicine Music

The Stanford Medicine Orchestra and the Stanford Medicine Chorus, sponsored by Stanford Medicine and the Muse, is an opportunity to create music with colleagues, students and staff across Stanford Medicine and Healthcare. Concerts and other opportunities are held throughout the year.

For more information contact:

Jacqueline Genovese, MFA, MA
Lynn Ngai Gerber, MD (concertmaster)

Or Visit:

Conferences and Meetings

Local

Medicine and the Muse Symposium

Annual spring symposium features health humanities work by Stanford medical students with faculty mentorship.

For more information, contact:

Christy Hartman (Program Coordinator)
Alyssa Burgart, MD (Faculty Director)

Or visit:

The Medicine and the Muse Symposium webpage

Techquity Symposium

Exploring how machine learning and artificial intelligence can inform healthcare disparities.

For more information, contact:

Jacqueline Genovese, MFA, MA

Stanford Big Ideas Conference

Join conversations with thought leaders from academia, business, policy, and journalism as they present their Big Ideas that will shape the future of medicine.

For more information, contact:

Jacqueline Genovese, MFA, MA

National

Health Humanities Consortium

Annual spring meeting of scholarly work related to arts, humanities, social sciences and medicine.

For more information, contact:

Health Humanities Consortium

American Society of Bioethics and Humanities

Annual fall meeting of bioethics and health humanities related academic work.

For more information, contact:

Alyssa Burgart, MD

Or Visit:

The American Society of Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH) Annual Conference website

Graphic Medicine

Annual meeting in North America. Academic and creative work related to comics, graphics, health and medicine

For more information, contact:

Graphic Medicine contact form

Creating Space

Canada’s annual health humanities conference, spring. Canadian Association for Health Humanities.

For more information, contact:

The Canadian Association for Health Humanities website

Other Resources and Opportunities

Paul Kalanithi Writing Award

An annual writing contest for unpublished short fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry “addressing patients and providers facing chronic or life limiting illness.” Sponsored by Medicine and the Muse.

For more information contact:

Jacqueline Genovese, MFA, MA

Or visit :

Paul Kalanithi Writing Award

Black Brilliance

A planned annual celebration of Black artists (visual, written, spoken, literary) throughout the Stanford enterprise. Previously cohosted by the Stanford Department of Anesthesia, GME office and Medicine & the Muse.

Contact Jacqueline Genovese, MFA, MA or Adjoa Boateng Evans, MD, MPH for more information.

Contact Jacqueline Genovese, MFA, MA

Publishing Your Creative Work

Many medical and health humanities journals publish short fiction, creative nonfiction (e.g., reflective essays), poetry, images of visual art or combinations. Broad scope journals including JAMA, Academic Medicine, and Lancet have sections for such creative and reflective work. Anesthesia specific journals with such sections include Anesthesia and Analgesia (The Human Experience) and Anesthesiology. An online list is maintained by Medicine and the Muse. Written work can be workshopped before submission by joining Pegasus Physician Writers. Faculty have also initiated writing via the Writing Medicine online workshop, then edited prior to submission and publication.

For more information contact:

Authors in the department include: Adjoa Boateng Evans, MD, Samuel Rodriguez MD, Hannah Rasmussen,MD, Lynn Ngai Gerber, MD

Dorothy Summers Art Prize for Healthcare Professionals,
Students and Trainees

The Stanford Medical Humanities and Arts Program at Stanford School of Medicine sponsors the Dorothy Summers Annual Art Prize, for Healthcare Professionals, Students, and Trainees.

The prize is named in honor of Dorothy Summers, the mother of Dr. Audrey Shafer, the founder of the Stanford Medical Humanities and Arts Program. Dorothy Summers was a visual artist and costume designer who inspired both of her daughters to pursue their dreams, in both art and medicine.

Theme: Art Inspired by or Related to Health Care Education, Experience or Practice

Open to: All clinical health profession students, trainees and faculty (doctors, nurses, physician assistants, social workers, occupational therapists, etc.), and students. You do not need to be affiliated with Stanford University to enter.

Accepted Mediums:

Painting, Drawing, Sculpture, Photography, Ceramics, Mixed Media, Glass, Print Making and Digital Arts

Not Accepted:

Film, video or art created by artificial intelligence.
Previously published work

For more information contact:

Or Visit:

Submission guidelines

Health Humanities Consortium

The Health Humanities Consortium promotes health humanities scholarship, education, and practices that focus on intersections among the humanities, arts and social sciences and health, illness, and healthcare.

Web resources include curricular toolkits, syllabi, publications, conference information, and national leadership in health humanities, partner organizations, and a historical timeline of health humanities in the United States.

For more information, visit:

Health Humanities Consortium

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Medical Humanities

Programs On this Page

Contact

Medical Humanities Programs

Department Programs

Stanford Programs

Medical Humanities Minor for Undergraduates

SOMGEN 213

LIFE 53Q: Storytelling in Medicine (MED 53Q)

Conferences and Meetings

Medicine and the Muse Symposium

Techquity Symposium

Stanford Big Ideas Conference

Health Humanities Consortium

American Society of Bioethics and Humanities

Graphic Medicine

Creating Space

Other Resources and Opportunities

Brief Overview Presentation