Corinna Treitel, chair and professor of history, will co-direct an exploratory seminar at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute in June 2022. With Sari Altschuler (Northeastern University), Treitel will guide a group of 12–15 leading scholars on a discussion about “Rethinking Health and the Humanities During and After COVID-19.”
The Radcliffe Exploratory Seminar Program provides funding and space for scholars, practitioners, and artists to explore interdisciplinary research areas in the early stages of development. In order to be included in the institute’s lineup of seminar offerings, seminar leaders must complete a competitive application process.
Washington University’s medical humanities minor, which Treitel co-founded, is one of several undergraduate majors and minors created by universities nationwide in recent years to address a growing interest in health humanities. The global pandemic has since brought even greater attention to questions about medical ethics, healthcare access, and history that are foundational to the work of scholars in health humanities.
“Health humanities is a field that has undergone much change in the past decade or so,” Treitel said. “The seminar brings together leading practitioners to discuss where we are now and where we might want to go in the future. Because this is an interdisciplinary area and most of us do not inhabit the same professional spaces, there are surprisingly few opportunities for all of us to get together. The Radcliffe Exploratory Seminar program provides a rare chance for us to meet, take stock, and brainstorm.”
More information about the seminar can be found on the Harvard Radcliffe Institute’s website.
