I started my second year of graduate school last week. This term’s focal course: Social Science & Medicine. From the program website: “This course examines the ethnography of moral issues in Western medicine, the social science critique of American bioethics, and the manner in which the social sciences can contribute to the understanding of ethical problems in the clinical setting.”
The weekly lecture series (open to the public and podcasts soon to be available on iTunes) also restarted with a three-part series by Kathryn Montgomery titled “Knowing in Medicine.” Dr. Montgomery is widely known and cited for her work in this area.
Lastly, the work of this summer’s tutorial in oral history & medicine will guide me as I begin work on my thesis. The first interview is scheduled for Monday night. This project has been fourteen years in the making, and is in some ways central to what I hope to do for the rest of my professional and artistic career. No pressure or anything.