Sal Marx, M.S. Candidate in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University
Advisor: MK Czerwiec, RN, MA
Independent Study Goals:
1. Analyze the scope and potential for graphic medicine to communicate health education,
first-person narratives, and/or advocacy.
2. Examine erasure, invisibility, and dehumanization as they intersect with areas of health,
illness, disability, and caregiving, both for long-term patients and healthcare providers.
3. Conduct an oral history interview with 3-5 patients and caregivers.
4. Working with each individual, develop a series of graphics that honor their stories and
reflect their embodied experiences.
5. Apply the theory of narrative humility to the process of co-constructing a visual narrative.
6. Develop practical experience by leading a conversation with the narrative/graphic
medicine community. How might visual graphics create a possibility for mutual
recognition, acknowledgement, acceptance of complexity in the clinical space?
7. Analyze the strengths and limitations of the method of co-creation as a potential for
future health storytelling and advocacy.
8. Connect with other medical illustrators and folks in the graphic medicine community.
I intend to create a series of visual narratives to facilitate patient and caregiver storytelling in
conversation with each other. Building off an oral history project I completed last semester, I aim
to collaborate with other patients to visually communicate their lived experiences. Working with
caregivers in a similar method of oral history and narrative co-construction, I will explore the
process of visual storytelling as a modality to facilitate mutual recognition and visibility in the
clinical space. The final project will be a series of graphics for an art installation, community
event, and/or virtual publication. I will complete this project over the course of Summer B (6/28 –
8/6), developing an intended timeline ahead of the session, and begin conducting my interviews
in early June.
Independent Study Plan: