Integrations at Columbia

The Division of Narrative Medicine is proud to be a part of these other initiatives taking place on Columbia’s campus:

Narrative, Health and Social Justice University Seminar

This seminar was co-founded by faculty members Sayantani DasGupta and Marsha Hurst in 2010, and is currently chaired by Mario de la Cruz, MS with Zahra Khan, MS as Rapporteur. This interdisciplinary and inter-institutional seminar explores the connection between narrative, health, and social justice. If disease, violence, terror, war, poverty and oppression all manifest themselves in narrative, then it is equally true that resistance, justice, healing, activism, and collectivity can be products of a narrative-based approach to ourselves and the world. Narrative understanding helps unpack the complex power relations between North and South, state and worker, disabled body and able-body, bread-earner and child-bearer, subject and researcher, patient and provider, as well as self and the other. The seminar will draw from such fields as journalism, performance arts, law, public health, trauma studies, anthropology, sociology, literary studies, medicine, writing, and cultural studies. The common thread will be the narratives we tell as individuals, families, communities, and nations that situate our experience in social, political, and cultural contexts, and that express in so many ways our search for justice in our world and for our world. Our aim is to broaden the mandate of each of our disciplines, challenging each of us to bring a critical, self-reflective eye to our scholarship, teaching, practice, and organizing. How are the stories we tell manifestations of social injustice? How can we transform such stories into narratives of justice, health, and change? Learn more about the seminar or contact Mario or Zahra here.

Graphic Medicine Club

The Graphic Narratives/Graphic Medicine workshop grew out of an inspiring Comics and Medicine conference in Toronto in 2012. Pat Stanley and Marsha Hurst returned from this Conference determined to create a discussion community based in Narrative Medicine for anyone interested in reading and exploring graphic novels, and particularly graphic illness narratives. The group has met roughly once per month during the academic year since Fall 2012, usually at the Columbia Alumni Center, or at Butler Library. The workshop is now co-coordinated by graphic artist Kriota Willberg, Narrative Medicine alumni Mario de la Cruz, and Narrative Medicine faculty member Marsha Hurst. We are often joined by Karen Green, Graphic Novels Librarian and Curator for Comics and Cartoons at Columbia and director of Comics@Columbia. The workshop is open to anyone who is interested in graphic novels and would like to share this close reading experience with others. To put your name on the email list for meeting announcements, contact Kriota at kriota@earthlink.net. Join us and enjoy!

Narrative Medicine Workshops for Columbia College and Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program

Students enrolled in Columbia College or Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program are eligible to participate in a six-week Narrative Medicine workshop series each spring. This workshop series introduces students to the framework of Narrative Medicine, while also allowing them to experience its practice first-hand. An information session is held at the beginning of February. Columbia College students interested in applying for participation should contact Dean Curtain or Dean Rigney. Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program students should contact Dean Sunshine.

Reflexions

The Program in Narrative Medicine is a proud supporter of Reflexions, the literary and visual art magazine of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. The magazine features health and non-health themed poetry, fiction, narratives, photography, and art. Submissions are accepted from CUIMC students, faculty, and staff. More information can be found on the journal here.