Jefferson Humanities & Health Programs

Tuesday, September 24, 5-6PM, College Building Room 202. 

Join us for an eye-opening session where we will be exploring the critical issues surrounding racial and gender disparities in the workplace, including disparities in opportunities, professionalism expectations, and wage gaps. Attendees will gain insights into the challenges faced by underrepresented minorities and engage in a crucial dialogue on how we can collectively work towards a more equitable future for our future colleagues.

Speaker: Robin Naples, MD – Clinical Professor, Emergency Medicine, Residency Program Director Jefferson Health

This is not a Jefferson Humanities & Health event but credit is available towards the Asano Humanities & Health Certificate and the Anti-Racism in Health Focus.

Tuesday, October 1, 12-1PM, Scott Memorial Library 200A. Lunch provided.

Join the Health Humanities Reading Group for a discussion of chapter 2, ("Breast Cancer: A Black Lesbian Feminist Experience") or chapter 3 ("Breast Cancer: Power vs Prosthesis) from Audre Lorde's The Cancer Journals. Participants can choose to read either or both of the chapters.

Access the Reading on the Jefferson Humanities & Health Health Humanities Reading Group Canvas page.

Published over forty years ago, this is a powerful account of Audre Lorde's experience with breast cancer and a mastectomy. Lorde questions the rules of conformity for women's body images and supported the need to confront physical loss bit hidden by prosthesis. The Cancer Journals presents Lorde healing and reenvisioning herself on her own terms while offering her voice, grief, resistance and courage to those dealing with their own diagnosis.

Special guest discussant: Ana Mari­a Lopez, MD, MPH, MACP, Professor and Vice Chair, Medical Oncology, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Chief of Cancer Services, Jefferson Health New Jersey, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Copies of The Cancer Journals will be provided at the session. 

About HHRG

The Health Humanities Reading Group (HHRG) gathers regularly to think critically about health as it is understood through various disciplinary perspectives, social contexts and value systems. This ongoing program is open to students, faculty and staff, and offers an informal learning environment facilitated by participants. Participants are expected to read, and come prepared to discuss, the text selected for each session.

Friday, October 11 12-1PM, BLSB 105. Lunch provided. Open to Jefferson students, faculty and staff.

Today, few people know that Africans, Arabs, and East Asians laid the foundation for modern immunizations during the early modern period. Unlike Western Europeans, Africans, Arabs, and East Asians had been practicing a rudimentary form of immunization for generations by the early eighteenth century. Indeed, generations of sub-Saharan West Africans were already familiar with smallpox inoculation, a precursor to the world’s first vaccines. 

The rise of the transatlantic slave trade and American slavery had an indelible impact on the cultural significance of inoculation among eighteenth-century Europeans and Africans alike. In the early eighteenth century, European medical practitioners and slave owners learned of smallpox inoculation from West Africans and Arabs for the first time. They quickly appropriated the practice to control the spread of smallpox along Atlantic slave trading routes throughout Europe, West Africa, and the Americas. They used inoculation to protect their families, safeguard colonial settlements, and expand the slave trade and slavery. Nevertheless, Africans and their descendants continued to perform inoculations in contexts where slavery and colonialism constantly threatened their social ties. In the process, people of African descent imbued inoculation with new significance as they struggled to maintain authority over the practice and protected and reaffirmed their communities’ intergenerational ties to place, ancestry, and kin.

Presenter: Dr. Elise A. Mitchell is a historian of the early modern Black Atlantic in the Department of History at Swarthmore College. She was previously an American Council of Learned Societies Fellow and a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow in the History Department at Princeton University. Broadly, her work examines the social and political histories of embodiment, healing, disease, race, and gender in the early modern Atlantic World, with a focus on the Caribbean region. Her book, Morbid Geographies: Enslavement, Epidemics, and Embodiment in the Early Modern Atlantic World, is under contract with the University of Pennsylvania Press.

Questions? Contact Kirsten Bowen, Humanities Program Coordinator, at kirsten.bowen@jefferson.edu.

Friday, October 18, 12-1PM, Scott Memorial Library 200A. Lunch provided.

Join the Health Humanities Reading Group for a discussion of the New England Journal of Medicine article, Explaining Health Inequities — The Enduring Legacy of Historical Biases by David S. Jones, M.D., Ph.D., Evelynn Hammonds, Ph.D., Joseph P. Gone, Ph.D., and David Willians, M.P.H., Ph.D. 

Access the article here.

When the Journal was launched in 1812, claims had circulated for centuries about differences in anatomy, physiology, and disease susceptibility between different human populations. Physicians’ persistent belief that these differences are innate has long drawn attention away from other possible causes of health inequities. As the Journal explores its history and acknowledges its role in voicing and perpetuating racism and discrimination, it must examine how it grappled with the problem of difference.

Special guest discussant: Ana Mari­a Lopez, MD, MPH, MACP, Professor and Vice Chair, Medical Oncology, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Chief of Cancer Services, Jefferson Health New Jersey, Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center.

About HHRG

The Health Humanities Reading Group (HHRG) gathers regularly to think critically about health as it is understood through various disciplinary perspectives, social contexts and value systems. This ongoing program is open to students, faculty and staff, and offers an informal learning environment facilitated by participants. Participants are expected to read, and come prepared to discuss, the text selected for each session.

Wednesday, November 6, 12-1PM, Scott Memorial Library 200A

Open to all Jefferson students, faculty, and staff. Lunch provided while supplies last.

Reading/Listening:

• ‘Henrietta Lacks’: A Donor’s Immortal Legacy, interview with Rebecca Skloot on Fresh Air (2010) (audio: 37min)

This week, the Health Humanities Reading Group explores the life and legacy of Henrietta Lacks, whose cervical cells, taken and used without her knowledge, have played a role in modernity as we know it: from vaccines to medicine to space travel. Lacks’ story is unique but also representative of the pervasive mistreatment of Black people by institutions of medicine, science, education, and healthcare.

Special guest discussant: Ana Mari­a Lopez, MD, MPH, MACP, Professor and Vice Chair, Medical Oncology, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Chief of Cancer Services, Jefferson Health New Jersey, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center

Tuesday, 5-6PM, College Building, Room 202.

At this event, we will be joined by Dr. Daphne Owens about the community based work of Puentes de Salud, addressing healthcare disparities within the Philadelphia community. This event will examine the systemic challenges and explore actionable solutions aimed at improving health equity for Spanish Speaking communities.

Speaker: 

Daphne Owen, MD – Puentes de Salud: Director of Medical Education and Development

This is not a Jefferson Humanities & Health event but credit is available for the Asano Humanities & Health Certificate and the Anti-Racism in Health Focus.

Wednesday, November 20, 5-6PM, College Building 202

A meet & greet event with community leaders “speed dating” style event aims to give students an opportunity to hear about how healthcare leaders experiences have shaped their approaches to healthcare and patient advocacy. Whether it's through community initiatives, global projects, or innovative clinical practices, students will engage in meaningful conversations with community leaders.

Speakers:

Ryan K. Brannon, MD – Associate Professor, Dept of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Director, Patient Safety and Quality Improvement

Deborah K. Witt, MD – Medical Director, Jefferson Collaborative for Health Equity

Sara Tabi, MD – Assistant Professor, Clinical Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University

Dr. Orlando Kirton, MD – Chair, Department of Surgery

Dr. Karolynn T Echols, MD – Associate Professor, Urogynecology

This is not a Jefferson Humanities & Health event, but credit is available for Asano Humanities & Health Certificate and the Anti-Racism in Health Focus.

Thursday, December 5, 12-1PM JAH 207. Lunch provided. 

In this Anti-Racism in Health Focus discussion, learn to define microaggressions and the steps one can take to disarm their effects.

A microaggression is an unintentional and unconscious action that can negatively affect our day-to-day human interactions. They cause real harm to individuals. There is a large amount of evidence that it can be a major factor in the creation of disparities in the healthcare environment that can ultimately lead to patient-care disparities. In this session, we will define microaggressions, its documented effects in medicine, the concept of silent collusion, and the steps one can take to disarm the effects of microaggression.

At the end of the session, the attendees will be able to

• Define microaggressions.
• Give two examples of how microaggressions affect the patient care environment.
• Define “silent collusion.”
• Name at least three techniques to address a witnessed microaggression.

Facilitator: Bernard L. Lopez, MD, MS, CPE, FACEP, FAAEM, Associate Provost for Diversity and Inclusion, Thomas Jefferson University.

Questions? Contact Kirsten Bowen, Humanities Program Coordinator, at kirsten.bowen@jefferson.edu.

Wednesday, January 22, 12-1PM, BLSB 105. Lunch provided. 

In this Anti-Racism in Health Focus discussion, learn to define microaggressions and the steps one can take to disarm their effects.

A microaggression is an unintentional and unconscious action that can negatively affect our day-to-day human interactions. They cause real harm to individuals. There is a large amount of evidence that it can be a major factor in the creation of disparities in the healthcare environment that can ultimately lead to patient-care disparities. In this session, we will define microaggressions, its documented effects in medicine, the concept of silent collusion, and the steps one can take to disarm the effects of microaggression.

At the end of the session, the attendees will be able to

• Define microaggressions.
• Give two examples of how microaggressions affect the patient care environment.
• Define “silent collusion.”
• Name at least three techniques to address a witnessed microaggression.

Facilitator: Bernard L. Lopez, MD, MS, CPE, FACEP, FAAEM, Associate Provost for Diversity and Inclusion, Thomas Jefferson University.

Participants who have attended the session on October 14, 2024, are not eligible to receive credit for this session towards the Asano Humanities & Health Certificate and Anti-Racism in Health Focus.

Questions? Contact Kirsten Bowen, Humanities Program Coordinator, at kirsten.bowen@jefferson.edu.

Wednesday, February 5, BLSB 105, 12-1PM. Lunch provided. Open to Jefferson students.

We are excited to announce a follow-up meeting for the impactful Microaggressions: An Implicit Factor in Suboptimal Human Interactions sessions led by Dr. Bernard Lopez that will be facilitated by second-year medical students and Asano Anti-Racism in Health Focus Student Liaisons Mat Rodriguez and Obehioye Isesele.

This session will build on the discussions and insights from the initial workshop, fostering continued growth and collaboration in addressing microaggressions in healthcare, and highlight tools to combat microaggression. 

Don’t miss this opportunity to engage in meaningful dialogue and actionable change!

Questions? Contact Kirsten Bowen, Humanities Program Coordinator, at kirsten.bowen@jefferson.edu.

Monday, February 24, 12-1PM, JAH 207. Lunch provided.

The Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) play a significant role in individual and population health outcomes. SDOH is affected by many factors. One factor is racism as it affects all aspects of SDOH. In this session, we’ll define racism, examine its history as it relates to the social determinants of health, and examine the city of Philadelphia’s health outcomes by neighborhood. 

Objectives – at the end of the session, learners will be able to: 

Define the institution of racism and its many forms, including structural racism 

List 5 components of the Social Determinants of Health 

Discuss the importance of structural competency 

Discuss examples of structural racism’s effects as a barrier to health equity 

Facilitator: Bernard L. Lopez, MD, MS, CPE, FACEP, FAAEM, Associate Provost for Diversity and Inclusion, Thomas Jefferson University.

Lunch provided.

Questions? Contact Kirsten Bowen, Humanities Program Coordinator, at kirsten.bowen@jefferson.edu.

This event is free and open to all. 

We are facing a tumultuous future that requires a unified and strategic approach to human rights. To create this future, we must weave our strengths together and use our differences as a platform for modeling a positive future built on justice and the politics of love. We need to make a commitment to recognize and support each other by calling people in rather than calling them out. 

Loretta J. Ross is an award-winning, nationally-recognized expert on racism and racial justice, women's rights, and human rights. Her work emphasizes the intersectionality of social justice issues and how intersectionality can fuel transformation. Ross is a visiting associate professor at Smith College (Northampton, MA) in the Program for the Study of Women and Gender. She was a co-founder and the National Coordinator, from 2005 to 2012, of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective. 

Ross has co-written three books on reproductive justice: Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organize for Reproductive Justice; Reproductive Justice: An Introduction; and Radical Reproductive Justice: Foundations, Theory, Practice, Critique. Her latest book, Calling In the Calling Out Culture, is forthcoming in 2022 from publisher Simon & Schuster. 

Ross is a rape survivor, was forced to raise a child born of incest, and is a survivor of sterilization abuse. She is a model of how to survive and thrive despite the traumas that disproportionately affect low-income women of color. She is a graduate of Agnes Scott College and holds an honorary Doctorate of Civil Law degree awarded in 2003 from Arcadia University and a second honorary doctorate degree awarded from Smith College in 2013. She is pursuing a PhD in Women’s Studies at Emory University in Atlanta. She is a mother, grandmother and a great-grandmother.

Following her talk, Professor Ross will be conversation with Karima Bouchenafa, MA, Assistant Director, Philadelphia University Honors Institute at Thomas Jefferson University.

During 2022-2023, the Jefferson Humanities Forum hosts multidisciplinary scholars and thinkers to investigate the theme of Repair. 

Open to all Jefferson students, faculty, and staff

Reading/Listening:

• ‘Henrietta Lacks’: A Donor’s Immortal Legacy, interview with Rebecca Skloot on Fresh Air (2010) (audio: 37min)
• Ta-Nehisi Coates, “Henrietta Lacks And Race,” The Atlantic, February 2010. (read: 4min)
• Time: 40 min of reading and listening

This week, the Health Humanities Reading Group explores the life and legacy of Henrietta Lacks, whose cervical cells, taken and used without her knowledge, have played a role in modernity as we know it: from vaccines to medicine to space travel. Lacks’ story is unique but also representative of the pervasive mistreatment of Black people by institutions of medicine, science, education, and healthcare.

Special guest discussant: Ana Mari­a Lopez, MD, MPH, MACP, Professor and Vice Chair, Medical Oncology, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Chief of Cancer Services, Jefferson Health New Jersey, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center

Open to all Jefferson students, staff and faculty

Presenter: Kesha Morant Williams, PhD., Senior Advisor for College Diversity, Equity & Belonging, Elizabethtown College

This presentation challenges participants to consider their Center or what guides the way they show up and operate in the world by examining dominant models of health communication. More specifically participants (1) gain an increased awareness of cultural considerations during health interactions, (2) analyze examples highlighting the need for cultural respect in health care interactions (3) receive a model for implementing relationship-centered aspects of health communication in professional interactions. 

An accomplished communicator and researcher, Dr. Kesha Morant Williams works to improve health and well-being by building community social capital through writing, speaking, researching and teaching. She is the author of The Color of STEM, a booklet highlighting the experiences of Black and Brown young women interested in careers in science, technology, engineering, and math, and co-editor of Reifying Women's Experiences with Invisible Illness.

Open to all Jefferson students 

Art Therapy is often used as a healing intervention and as a way to foster creativity. Attend Addressing Racial Trauma through Art and learn about racial trauma and how it impacts us and participate in an artistic method of expression of your diverse self. Engage in an art exercise that will help you explore your experience of the racial and ethnic violence occurring in our world and in our communities.  

The art supplies below will be provided. If you have favorite art materials you would enjoy working with, please feel free to bring your own supplies as well. 

• Paper of various sizes and small canvas options  
• Colored pencils, markers, paint 
• Magazine, scissors, glue stick 

Facilitated by: Dr. Shawn Blue, Staff Psychologist, Student Counseling Center, Thomas Jefferson University. 

Co-presented by the Student Counseling Center and Jefferson Humanities & Health. 

Join us at the African American Museum in Philadelphia for an art-based workshop with Collage artist, Doriana Diaz. Learn more about the Black Healthcare Studies exhibition from the artist and Assistant Curator, Zindzi Harley while participating in a meditative collaging activity.

Black Healthcare Studies

On View (In-Person): Jack T. Franklin Auditorium

October 6 - December 11, 2022

The Black Healthcare Studies exhibition explores the adverse history and barriers faced by Black students pursuing careers in healthcare. Through mixed media and collaged compositions artist, Doriana Diaz transforms everyday objects and archival materials into afro-futuristic depictions of Black figures in healthcare. Diaz draws inspiration from afro-feminist caretaking and activism histories, historical research, and personal testimonials from Janita Matoke, an upcoming Medical Student at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine who received her Master’s in Public Health at Thomas Jefferson University. Diaz’s artistry and Matoke’s scholarship converge for an interdisciplinary analysis of systemic racism faced by Black healthcare students and the unique culture and tools through which they transcend these hardships. The Black Healthcare Studies exhibition encourages visitors to rethink the context and utility of materials as tools for healing, self-care, preservation, and future building in Black communities. The AAMP iteration of the Black Healthcare Studies exhibition is the first of more immersive iterations to come.

A microaggression is an unintentional and unconscious action that can negatively affect our day-to-day human interactions. They cause real harm to individuals. There is a large amount of evidence that it can be a major factor in the creation of disparities in the healthcare environment that can ultimately lead to patient-care disparities. In this session, we will define microaggressions, its documented effects in medicine, the concept of silent collusion, and the steps one can take to disarm the effects of microaggression.

At the end of the session, the attendees will be able to

• Define microaggressions.

• Give two examples of how microaggressions affect the patient care environment.

• Define “silent collusion.”

• Name at least three techniques to address a witnessed microaggression.

Facilitator: Bernard L. Lopez, MD, MS, CPE, FACEP, FAAEM, Associate Provost for Diversity and Inclusion, Thomas Jefferson University

About Team Care Planning

Many factors have led to a higher mortality rate for Black women during childbirth, including provider dismissiveness of Black women’s health concerns and a higher risk for the use of unnecessary interventions (Adams & Thomas, 2017; Bond, et al., 2021; Maril, 2022; Taylor, 2020; Tyler, 2022). This new Team Care Planning case simulates a family meeting to discuss a birthing plan for a Black patient recently diagnosed with preeclampsia. After a previous traumatic birth experience, both the patient and her partner (played by standardized patients) are hesitant about giving birth in a hospital setting. Students must consider both health risks and patient concerns in working with team members to simulate development of a plan. 

Goals are that health professions students will:

1. Recognize and value the distinct role of each care team member
2. Demonstrate clear client-centered communication in an interprofessional care team
3. Participate in collaborative decision-making within a team
4. Create a relevant shared care plan that reflects goals and priorities for the patient and family
5. Recognize structural racism and biases in Black maternal healthcare

Presented by the Jefferson Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education.

Open to Jefferson students, staff and faculty from all colleges and programs.

Every person has a story. In this candid conversation series, we’ll talk with community members about their real experiences at the intersection of healthcare, wellbeing and identity. Each guest brings unique insights and expertise into problems of health that span social and clinical dimensions, and engage questions of access, equity and justice. Sessions will be led by an interprofessional team of Jefferson student moderators and include interactive Q&A with attendees.

Special Guest: Carol Campbell

"When life hands you lemons, you make lemonade" and no one has managed to do that better than, Ms. Carol Campbell. As she explains, she is currently in her 55th year at the University of Life, and she has acquired a wealth of experiences that she is willing to share with her audiences. She is quick to point out that her faith in God, her friends, and her two wonderful children have given her strength over years to face and conquer difficult challenges.

Born and raised in Jamaica, Carol migrated to the States in the early 90's. She started out in the Nursing Home/Personal Care industry as a cook and worked her way up to become an administrator. However, a series of unfortunate events left her a single mother of two with no means of financial support. Instead of crawling under a rock, which would have been extremely easy in that moment, she started cleaning houses, which she has now developed into a business. Her experiences with the health and social system in her new country were beyond challenging, but she is still smiling and always there to help others navigate the barriers, challenges, and overt discrimination they may face as they try to live their healthiest lives. 

Community Voices is presented by the Jefferson College of Population Health, the Jefferson Center for Interprofessional Practice & Education, and Jefferson Humanities & Health.

Join us for a conversation with Philadelphia Health Commissioner Dr. Cheryl Bettigole on policy, activism, public advocacy, and the role students can take on in addressing inequities in health care.

Speaker: Cheryl Bettigole, M.D., M.P.H., Health Commissioner

Dr. Cheryl Bettigole is the Health Commissioner for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. She is a board certified family physician and has previously served as the Director of the Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention for PDPH, and as Chief Medical Officer of Complete Care Health Network, a federally qualified community/migrant health center in southern New Jersey, and as a Family Physician and Clinical Director with Philadelphia’s City Health Centers, where she saw patients for more than 12 years.  She is also a Past-President of the National Physicians Alliance (now part of Doctors for America), where she helped develop physician teams focused on gun violence prevention and drug safety and pricing, while continuing the organization’s work on access to high quality affordable health care. Her current work focuses on achieving health justice through policy, systems, and environmental approaches to the major drivers of poor health in Philadelphia.  

Student moderators:

Ilyse Kramer, MLIS, MPA Occupational Therapy Doctorate Program, Jefferson College of Rehabilitation Sciences, Class of 2023

Matthew Rodriguez, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Class of 2025

Reading: Chapter 4,  Under the Skin by Linda Villarosa

This small-group discussion will be based on Chapter 4 of Linda Villarosa’s book which focuses on factors of interpersonal and structural racism/discrimination at the healthcare system level which contribute to adverse experiences and birth outcomes for persons racialized as Black. Discussion will also touch on the intersection of race, class, and sex/gender identity for birthing people.

Lunch provided. Copies of Under the Skin will be available for participants to take with them after the discussion.

Facilitator: Denine R. Crittendon, MPH, PhD(c), Lecturer, Jefferson College of Population Health 

Open to Jefferson students, faculty and staff. Participants are expected to read, and come prepared to discuss, the selected reading.

Access the Reading:

To access the reading, participants must visit the Anti- Racism in Health Focus module in the Jefferson Humanities & Health organization on Canvas. Most Asano students are already users in the Humanities & Health Canvas course. If that is not the case, participants may email Kirsten Bowen, Humanities Program Coordinator, at kirsten.bowen@jefferson.edu.

Time: Approximately 40 minutes of reading.

Reading: Chapter 8, Under the Skin by Linda Villarosa

This small-group discussion will be based on Chapter 8 of Linda Villarosa’s book which focuses on current and emerging solutions that address structural racism/discrimination within healthcare settings. Barriers, limitations, and deficiencies that impede institutional solutions will also be discussed.

Facilitator: Denine R. Crittendon, MPH, PhD(c), Lecturer, Jefferson College of Population Health 

Lunch provided. Copies of Under the Skin will be available for participants to take with them after the discussion.

Access the Reading:

Participants are expected to read, and come prepared to discuss, the text. To access the reading, participants must visit the Anti- Racism in Health Focus module in the Jefferson Humanities & Health organization on Canvas. Most Asano students are already users in the Humanities & Health Canvas course. If that is not the case, participants may email Kirsten Bowen, Humanities Program Coordinator, at kirsten.bowen@jefferson.edu.

Thursday, August 26, 12-1 p.m., Hamilton Building

Open to all Jefferson students, faculty, and staff

Continue the conversation about race and medicine following Professor Dorothy Roberts’ Berkowitz Humanism in Medicine lecture. Join a small-group discussion, facilitated by a Jefferson faculty member, to debrief with classmates about ways to integrate the history of race and medicine into both the present moment, and your future professional practice. 

Jefferson faculty facilitators:

Denine Crittendon, MPH, PhD(c), Instructor, Master of Public Health Program, Jefferson College of Population Health.

Bernard Lopez, MD, Associate Provost for Diversity and Inclusion, Thomas Jefferson University Senior Associate Dean for Diversity and Community Engagement, Professor and Executive Vice Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine, Sidney Kimmel Medical College

Dimitri Papanagnou, MD, Associate Dean, Faculty Development, Associate Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, Sidney Kimmel Medical College.

Please note: These discussions will take place in-person, in the Hamilton Building on Jefferson's Center City campus. Participants will be randomly assigned to a small group and notified of the room number leading up to the event; lunch provided.

Open to all Jefferson students, faculty, and staff

Reading/Listening:

• ‘Henrietta Lacks’: A Donor’s Immortal Legacy, interview with Rebecca Skloot on Fresh Air (2010) (audio: 37min)
• Ta-Nehisi Coates, “Henrietta Lacks And Race,” The Atlantic, February 2010. (read: 4min)
• Time: 40 min of reading and listening

This week, the Health Humanities Reading Group explores the life and legacy of Henrietta Lacks, whose cervical cells, taken and used without her knowledge, have played a role in modernity as we know it: from vaccines to medicine to space travel. Lacks’ story is unique but also representative of the pervasive mistreatment of Black people by institutions of medicine, science, education, and healthcare.

Special guest discussant: Ana Mari­a Lopez, MD, MPH, MACP, Professor and Vice Chair, Medical Oncology, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Chief of Cancer Services, Jefferson Health New Jersey, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center

Open to all Jefferson students, faculty, and staff

Join a conversation with Deirdre Cooper Owens, PhD, the Charles & Linda Wilson Professor in the History of Medicine and Director of the Humanities in Medicine Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Director of the Program in African American History at The Library Company of Philadelphia. Professor Cooper Owens is the author of Medical Bondage: Race, Gender and the Origins of American Gynecology (University of Georgia Press, 2018). In her book, she investigates the relationship between chattel slavery and modern gynecology in the U.S., retelling the stories of Black enslaved women and Irish immigrant women whose lives were shaped by exploitative medical research. Professor Cooper Owens highlights the role of structural racism in the achievements of pioneering American doctors including James Marion Sims, who received a medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in 1835. 

Materials
Discussion group participants are asked to watch Prof. Cooper Owens’ recorded lecture in advance (Total length: 1 hr to view recorded lecture; begin at approx. 8 min, after introductions, and end at 1 hr 07 min).

• Watch: Deirdre Cooper Owens, PhD, on "Medical Bondage: Race, Gender and the Origins of American Gynecology" at UC Berkeley on Feb. 21, 2020. 
• Optional Reading: Read Chapter 1 of Medical Bondage, available on Canvas. To access the reading, visit the Anti-Racism and Racial Justice Resources page in the DEI Resources Module in the Jefferson Humanities Health Canvas page. Instructions to access Canvas below.

Open to all Jefferson students, staff and faculty; light refreshments provided.

Join us for the fifth annual Interprofessional Story Slam

Over the past year and a half, many of us have become more aware of the manifestations and impact of racism in our society. We have struggled to begin to dismantle and transform the systems that uphold racism, which can feel overwhelming, angering and painful. During the Story Slam, Jefferson faculty, students and alumni will share five-minute stories exploring the theme “A Step Forward: Moving from Awareness to Anti-Racism in Healthcare” and help us consider how we can create change and move forward during a time of growing attention to racism and disparities; stand with each other for social justice and health equity; and ultimately, care for our patients, our communities, our families and ourselves. Following the stories, attendees will be invited to join brief small group discussions and share reflections and goals for the future.

Open to all Jefferson students

Art Therapy is often used as a healing intervention and as a way to foster creativity. Attend Addressing Racial Trauma through Art and learn about racial trauma and how it impacts us and participate in an artistic method of expression of your diverse self. Engage in an art exercise that will help you explore your experience of the racial and ethnic violence occurring in our world and in our communities. 

Art supplies to have on hand:

• A piece of paper, any size, but at least 8.5 x 11 or a canvas or art journal 
• Colored pencils, markers, paint
• Optional: Magazine, scissors, glue stick

Facilitated by: Dr. Shawn Blue, Staff Psychologist, Student Counseling Center.

Co-presented by the Student Counseling Center and Jefferson Humanities & Health. 

Open to all Jefferson students, faculty, and staff

Reading: Marie V. Plaisime, David J. Malebranche, Andrea L. Davis and Jennifer A. Taylor, “Healthcare Providers’ Formative Experiences with Race and Black Male Patients in Urban Hospital Environments,” Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities (2017) 4: 1120-1127. 

Facilitator: Denine R. Crittendon, MPH, PhD(c), Lecturer, Jefferson College of Population Health

How does the normalization of structural racism at systemic levels impact patient-clinician encounters? This discussion will focus on a recent study conducted with Philadelphia-area physicians, nurses and 3rd and 4th year medical students which explored how personal and professional experiences influence interactions with Black male patients.

Participants are expected to read, and come prepared to discuss, the selected reading. To access the reading, participants must visit the Anti-Racism in Health Focus page in the Event Links module of the Jefferson Humanities & Health organization on Canvas. 

Please note: This discussion will take place in-person, in the Hamilton Building on Jefferson's Center City campus. Please only register if you are able to join in-person. Lunch gift card provided.

Open to all Jefferson students, faculty, and staff

Reading: Brad N. Greenwood, Rachel R. Hardeman, Laura Huang and Aaron Sojourner, “Physician–patient racial concordance and disparities in birthing mortality for newborns,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2020) 117 (35): 21194-21200. 

Facilitator: Denine R. Crittendon, MPH, PhD(c), Lecturer, Jefferson College of Population Health

This small-group discussion will consider a 2020 paper that posits that newborn-physician racial concordance (the newborn and doctor have the same race) improves mortality rates for Black babies, especially during more challenging births and in hospital spaces where more Black newborns are delivered.

Participants are expected to read, and come prepared to discuss, the selected reading. To access the reading, participants must visit the Anti-Racism in Health Focus page in the Event Links module of the Jefferson Humanities & Health organization on Canvas. 

Open to all Jefferson students, faculty, and staff

Reading: McMillen, Matt. (2021, April 8). Race-Norming in Health Care: A Special Report. HealthCentral.

Facilitator: Denine R. Crittendon, MPH, PhD(c), Lecturer, Jefferson College of Population Health

Join a discussion about the implications of “race-norming” and the movement to phase out race-based calculations in medical education and clinical settings. Participants are expected to read, and come prepared to discuss, the selected reading. 

Open to all Jefferson students, faculty, and staff

Reading: Marilisa C. Navarro, “Radical Recipe: Veganism as Anti-Racism”
Time: 18 min read

Special guest discussant: Marilisa C. Navarro, PhD, Assistant Professor of African American Studies, College of Humanities and Sciences, Thomas Jefferson University.

This week, HHRG will discuss anti-racism in relation to food, foodways, veganism and cookbooks. Special guest discussant Dr. Marilisa Navarro will join the group in considering how two cookbooks—Afro-Vegan by Bryant Terry and Decolonize Your Diet by Luz Calvo and Catriona Esquibel—go beyond conveying recipes to produce knowledge, critique racism and colonialism, deconstruct the white-centric veganism narrative, and highlight the voices, histories and experiences of people of color.

Participants are expected to read, and come prepared to discuss, the selected reading. To access the reading and registration link, participants must visit the Health Humanities Reading Group: Radical Recipe page in the Event Links module of the Jefferson Humanities & Health organization on Canvas.