MDE 8057: Medicine and the Arts: NYC Voices and Visions 15-16

Students must commit to this course by emailing kbrown2@health.usf.edu no later than October 1st. 

This month-long course is designed to introduce students to a broad examination of visions and voices occurring in various forms of the arts. Unlike most basic science classes, courses, and medical school tests, materials selected for this course emphasize the telling of a story from non-scientific, non-objective perspectives. Artists and writers have always been the record keepers of their society; separately and collectively they present unknowable, imprecise, and slippery aspects of humanity that can not be defined easily or measured with certainty.

Just as Steinbeck’s classic novel, Grapes of Wrath, generated a broader awareness to the plight of migrants and poverty and the recent play, Wit, portrayed subjective insights to dying in a hospital setting, the assignments in this course employ a humanistic lens to reveal aspects of issues confronting individuals and/or groups in contemporary society.

Students will have first-hand experiences with theatre, music, historical markers, available writers, art film selections, as well as docent-led museum visits and special lectures. Alzheimer’s disease, aging concerns, depression, and gender perspectives are among the topics addressed in our assignments and seminars.

Upon completion, students will be able to understand and articulate the following:

1. Recognize and identify specific representations from the arts that extend and illuminate ranges of illness and suffering.
2. Evaluate the reasons for the production of specific works for today’s audience as well as the effect it is likely to produce. Consider how these works complement the medical text or reveal that  which is illusive. How might paintings by Hopper, for example, describe individual and social elements affecting patients and their families or circumstances, and what does a play such as Rent or Night Mother contribute to our understanding of human condition.
3. Understand how catastrophic events (911) are responded to and interpreted by writers and artists
4. Consider the historical place of Bellevue Hospital in medical history. Meet with the Bellevue Literary Review Editor.
5. Experience a full day of programming by faculty at the NYU Medical School. Hands-on experience provided for the NYU Literature/Medicine DataBase.

Optional one night excursion to Philadelphia

Note: MD Students and MBMH students will be admitted to this course.

Three weeks of course time occurs at USF, one week occurs in NYC. Students are responsible for all NYC expenses and travel arrangements.