Writing the Future: Creative Writing, Social Transformation, and the Health Professions
In this article, I discuss the pedagogical interventions I make in the health professions by combining core concepts in medical anthropology with creative writing methods, emphasizing the need for future health professionals to not only think critically about the dominant biomedical epistemologies they have learned, but to also actively imagine creative solutions for the future. Here, the objective is to use creative writing as a tool to stimulate and practice creative thinking as a way of transform- ing the world we live in, our relationships to our bodies, and complicating the ways in which we think about health and illness. Creative writing exercises that force future health professionals to think outside of their training and to re-inhabit their own bodies and social worlds can have a powerful impact on the culture of medicine, health and illness, and the overall social beliefs and practices surrounding health care. As a medical anthropologist, I teach future health professionals creative writing with a social responsibility component with the intention of transforming our present social world, but also and perhaps more importantly, with the goal of imagining and creating a healthier future. Click the link above to access the article.
Writing ‘Trust your Gut:’ Reflections from a Medical Anthropology Student
This is a companion article to “Writing the Future.” It was written by Chidindu Odu, one of my past students as a reflection on the work she did in my class and the projects and lessons that inspired her current endeavors. Chidindu Odu is now a graduate student at Georgia State University studying epidemiology. Her research interests include maternal and child health, community health, and health equity. Using her background in anthropology, she hopes to bring theory into practice within the field of public health.