Medical Humanities Commons^™

Colorblocks, Marianne Koleng

be Still

The use of several colors to highlight the facial features in the portrait represents the various communities to which an individual belongs, including, but not limited to, their family, their school, religion, career, ethnicity, and more. Each color is used in many shapes within the face to evoke the shared importance of each community in creating identity, one is not superior to the other, and without each of them, we would not have the entire face.

The Making Of Man, Marianne Koleng

be Still

The Making of Man is an abstract ink drawing depicting an individual's face, but at closer look, it is the intricacies that compose it. This goes to show that behind every individual, there is a community holding them together, even if it is not immediately apparent.

Side By Side, Elena L. Richardson

be Still

This photograph captures what I came to understand as the true wealth of Mota Fofalia. In a place with few material resources, community was not just present - it was everything. These boys, arms slung around each other, smiling without hesitation, reflect a kind of belonging that doesn’t depend on circumstance. During my eight weeks there, I realized that while so much was limited, connection was abundant - and it was enough.

What She Carries, Elena L. Richardson

be Still

This image captures the quieter side of community—the unseen labor that sustains it. Though she walks alone, everything she carries reflects a life woven into others: provision, responsibility, continuity. In rural Gujarat, I came to understand that community is not only found in togetherness, but in the everyday acts that hold it up.

More Than My Own Understanding, Danielle Gonzalez

be Still

This reflective essay explores the intersection of faith, community, and medical training through the lens of a medical student navigating imposter syndrome, academic pressure, and clinical rotations. Through personal narrative and patient experiences, it examines how spirituality and shared human presence shape resilience, meaning, and belonging in medicine.

Community Within Medical Universities: Finding Belonging, Elizabeth Cunio

be Still

This piece highlights the importance of community and belonging in higher education, specifically medical education. This piece reflects on how value of the student in the design process ensures a sense of beloning in the community.

The Values Of Sotira, Antea Garo

be Still

This essay explores how my grandmother's rural village, which I have visited my entire life, showcases the incredible power of community.

A Community That Always Welcomes Me Back Like I Never Left, Bibi Chaterpateah

be Still

No abstract provided.

Rooted In Resilience, Pranita Talukder

be Still

This poem reflects my evolving understanding of community—not as a fixed place, but as something shaped by loss, memory, and rebuilding. It draws from my experience of displacement and the quiet search for belonging in unfamiliar spaces.

Through simple, fragmented imagery, I wanted to capture the feeling of being untethered, and the slow, intentional process of finding connection again. The poem moves between past and present, holding both absence and presence at once.

Ultimately, it is about realizing that community is not something we return to, but something we carry and create, wherever we are.

Determinants Of Corporal Punishment And Severe Physical Punishment In Egypt: A Mixed-Methods Analysis For Child Protection Policy, Marwa Moustafa Nassef

Theses and Dissertations

Corporal punishment (CP) and severe physical punishment (SPP) remain a major public health, child rights, and child protection policy concern. In Egypt, despite legislative reforms, survey-weighted analysis of the 2021 Egypt Family Health Survey (EFHS) 2021 (CAPMAS, 2022) reveals prevalence rates of 60.5% for CP and 27.4% for SPP among children aged 1–14 (author’s calculations using EFHS-2021, n=7623), yet evidence distinguishing the determinants of routine corporal punishment from escalation to severe physical punishment remains limited in low- and middle-income contexts. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological framework, this mixed-methods study identifies key drivers of CP and its escalation to SPP among Egyptian …

Emotional Intelligence Documentary - The Art Of Compassion: Learning From Spain, Poetry, And Medicine, Emily E. Morin

Cultivating Emotional Intelligence through the Humanities in Spain

The Art of Compassion: Learning from Spain, Poetry, and Medicine explores how art, literature, and cultural experiences can deepen compassion and inform more human-centered healthcare. Drawing on works encountered during a Medical Humanities study abroad program in Spain, the documentary examines compassion as a skill that can be cultivated through self-reflection, recognition of shared vulnerability, and appreciation of multiple perspectives. Through analysis of poetry by Lope de Vega, Jaime Sabines, and Yehuda Halevi, alongside artworks by Diego Velázquez, Francisco Goya, and Pablo Picasso, the film connects themes of empathy, suffering, identity, and healing to contemporary clinical practice. The documentary also …

Emotional Intelligence In Physician Assistant Education: Associations With Success, Burnout And Engagement, Mickey Lebowitz, William H. Holmes

Innovations in Health Sciences Education Journal

Abstract

Background Burnout is prevalent among health care professionals and increasingly recognized among health professions students. Emotional intelligence (EQ) has been associated with reduced burnout among clinicians and learners, but data specific to physician assistant (PA) students remain limited. Methods We conducted a retrospective analysis of two overlapping cohorts of PA students from the entering classes of 2021-2023. Emotional intelligence was assessed using the Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Inventory (SEI®). Burnout was assessed at the end of the first year using the Maslach Burnout Inventory–General Survey for Students and at the end of the second year using the Maslach Burnout …

Pregnancy And Motherhood In Residency, Je'vana Taylor

Journal of Wellness

No abstract provided.

Deep Cuts: Bearing Witness To The Erosion Of Evidence, Maya Lakshmi Srinivasan Md

Masters Theses

In my Master of Fine Arts thesis in Printmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design, I examine the intersection of my dual practices as a general surgery resident and artist. Both disciplines require precision, incision, and tactility to navigate the human condition. My art practice is a method of processing the emotional toll of surgical training and the simultaneous societal erosion of scientific authority. My thesis work focuses on challenging the rise of medical pseudoscience and anti-intellectualism. The focal piece in this installation, In Tallow We Trust, consists of three woodblock relief prints at the scale of an …

Enhancing Medical Student Readiness To Provide Care For Youth Involved In The Juvenile Justice System, Tara Rahmani, Noah Kos, Kristen Bartow, Sospeter Machani, Jonathan Hakim, Elyse Vanderwoude, Anastasia Sahu, Abigail Schuch, Jennifer Mendez Ph.D, Laura Benjamins Md,Mph, Faap, Aahivms, Anupama Devara, Adeel Khan D.O.

Medical Student Research Symposium

Title

Enhancing Medical Student Readiness to Provide Care for Youth Involved in the Juvenile Justice System

Authors

Tara Rahmani, Noah Kos, Kristen Bartow, Sospeter Machani, Jonathan Hakim, Elyse VanderWoude, Anastasia Sahu, Abigail Schuch, Jennifer Mendez, Ph.D, Laura Benjamins, MD, MPH, Anupama, Devara, MD, Adeel Khan, DO

Background

Youth involved in the juvenile justice system face profound health inequities with higher rates of mental health needs, substance use, and trauma. Despite this, medical students rarely receive preparation to work in correctional health settings. Prior research has shown that youth in detention often exhibit behaviors shaped by past trauma and neglect, which …

Exploring Health Insurance’S Role In Chronic Disease Management Among Hispanics, Romelyn Dones

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This qualitative study examined how insured non-English- and English-speaking Hispanic adults perceive the role of health insurance in the management of chronic disease. Chronic conditions remain a leading cause of morbidity in the United States, and although prior research suggests that insurance coverage improves access to care, it does not always enhance how individuals understand or utilize support for chronic disease management. Limited research has explored how individuals with chronic conditions interpret the role of insurance in their daily self-management practices, particularly among Hispanic populations. Guided by Andersen’s Behavioral Model of Health Services Use, this study explored how contextual, enabling, …

Care, Control, And The Racial Regulation Of Black Women’S Reproduction In American Medicine, Rheya K. Wilk

Honors Thesis

Black women in the United States continue to experience disproportionately high rates of maternal mortality, negative reproductive healthcare experiences, and documented disparities in medical treatment. From slavery through the twenty-first century, American medicine has repeatedly positioned Black women’s reproduction as a site of regulation, rather than care, making medical mistrust among Black women a rational response to a long history of institutional conflict embedded in American medicine. Drawing on medical history and bioethical analysis, this thesis traces reproductive abuse across distinct, yet connected, eras. Beginning with antebellum gynecological experimentation on enslaved women, it demonstrates how racialized assumptions about pain and …

What You Don't Hear About Barriers To Healthcare In The Deaf Community: Analyzing Interpreter Experiences In The Deep South, Ryan Augustine

Honors Theses

Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals experience significant health disparities in the United States, yet the perspective of the ASL interpreter has remained largely absent regarding the barriers documented in existing literature. This pilot case study examined the barriers Deaf individuals face when seeking healthcare through the unique vantage point of eight ASL interpreters across the Deep South: Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Guided by grounded theory methodology, eight semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed to find recurring themes. Findings confirmed and revealed barriers that would not have surfaced without the perspective of the interpreter. Four themes emerged from this study: healthcare …

Values-Based Clinical Ethics: A New Model Of Health And Ethics Consultation For Patients Suffering In Extremis, Adam Trainer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation argues that contemporary clinical ethics is inadequately equipped to support patients suffering in extremis because it relies on an insufficiently discriminating account of health and a constrained model of moral reasoning. Drawing on Bernard Lonergan, it reconceives health as an emergent, multi-layered, heuristic notion shaped by biological, psychological, social, and existential goods. On that basis, it critiques principlism’s global applicability thesis and the undergirding claim that its principles form part of the common morality, arguing that this justificatory structure is philosophically insufficient and practically limited for clinical ethics in cases marked by profound suffering, moral plurality, and normative …

Reframing Inclusion Through Scholarship & Equity (Rise) Equity Project 2026, Tonya Bailey, Brandon Harris, Abhinav Krishnan, Trini Mathew, Amita Pai, Julie Zaituna, Tracey Taylor

Posters

The OUWB RISE program is a faculty development educational initiative, and this poster disseminates both clinical and foundation faculty scholars’ year-long, project-based learning focused on advancing inclusive and equitable medical education.

El Papel Del Bilingüismo En La Atención Médica A Pacientes Hispanohablantes, Ariela Deleon

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Spanish-speaking patients in the United States frequently face significant barriers to quality healthcare due to language differences between themselves and their providers. This project examines how English-Spanish bilingualism among healthcare professionals meaningfully improves the quality of care delivered to Spanish-speaking patients. To analyze this, the project draws on a review of academic literature on bilingualism, language concordance, medical interpretation, and health outcomes, as well as interviews with healthcare professionals across various fields who possess different levels of Spanish fluency and regularly work with Spanish-speaking patients. This project argues that bilingualism among healthcare providers is not merely a supplementary skill but …

Miracles Or Mirages? Miracle Language In Medical Communication, Thomas Yu

Senior Honors Theses

The current study seeks to understand how miracle language exists as a persuasive tool by examining the usage of miracle language in the discourse surrounding the release of Xolair for individuals with food allergies. This was accomplished by conducting a qualitative analysis of the miracle language employed by those engaged in the Xolair discourse. An extensive literature review was conducted to gain a foundational understanding of medical persuasion and miracle language, as well as an understanding of the theoretical foundations of this study. Twenty-four pieces of literature from pharmaceutical companies, and food allergy community members were chronicled and studied utilizing …

Waring Library Society Newsletter, Summer 2026, Waring Library Society, Waring Historical Library, Medical University Of South Caroilna, Jude Arendall, Joann Livingston Zeise, Brooke Fox

The Waring Library Society Newsletters

In this issue, the Waring Library Society welcomes its new President and shares updates on recent and upcoming renovations to Waring Historical Library. Waring Historical Library's staff reflect on insights gained from a recent sabbatical, and highlight several events and engagements the Waring has been part of this season.

The Effect Of Facial Adiposity On Hypothetical Medical Treatments As A Function Of Disgust, Lindsey Duran

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Perceivers are capable of estimating the health of individuals through cues to facial adiposity, with such inferences having accuracy in recognizing worse chronic health among those exhibiting greater adiposity. Nonetheless, these inferences could extend beyond health assessments into subsequent anti-fat prejudice based on perceptions of such individuals as pathogenically threatening. Although potentially functional in ancestral contexts, modern healthcare settings could render this functional stigmatization a liability that results in worse medical care toward those with higher adiposity. In this study, I tasked medical workers to evaluate male and female hypothetical patients at high and low levels of facial adiposity, particularly …

Artistic Embodiment: The Role Of Art-Based Research In Communicating Disability Experiences, Juliana Scheopner

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Visual art has immense potential to communicate complex experiences of disability. As a disabled artist, I am interested in how disability has been portrayed in artwork, particularly in how other disabled artists choose to represent their lived experiences. Through art-based research, this study explores how disabled artists have used portraiture to depict their disability. Selected art includes work from Frida Kahlo, Deborah Padfield, Persimmon Blackbridge, and the author. Following an analysis of literature, selected artworks, and salient disability scholarship, emergent themes were identified. The focus on the complexity of disability experiences demonstrated the importance of considering a wide range of …

The Undergraduate Education And Scientific Literacy: Exploring How College Influences Student Perception Of Covid-19 Events, Peyton Brooking

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Current undergraduate students received much of their education following the events of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of these students experienced pandemic events before receiving any or most of their science-based higher education. Exploring their progress through higher education, and how it retroactively influenced their perception of pandemic events, serves as an informative research area. This study explores how undergraduate education in the sciences influences student engagement with complex recent events in science. In addition, this study asked how higher education builds confidence in interpreting this information. Additionally, students were surveyed to understand their scientific literacy baseline at the beginning of …

A Narrative Of The Plague Doctor And How Its Historical Context Translates To The Modern View Of The Plague Doctor, Callie P. Johnston

Honors Theses

The Plague Doctor was once a historical figure who practiced medicine primarily on those infected with the bubonic plague. The plague doctor, as a historical figure and physician, has been transformed in modern culture and media. Originally perceived as a harbinger of both hope and death, the Plague Doctor has undergone a historical transformation from a masked physician to a more stylized character that appears in modern media, digital art, toys, costumes, video games, and popular culture. This thesis examines the evolution of the Plague Doctor from its historical role as a plague physician to its current iconography as a …

Emotional Intelligence Documentary - The Journey, Not The Destination: A Spain Reflection, Elise I. Palacios

Cultivating Emotional Intelligence through the Humanities in Spain

The Journey, Not the Destination follows my study abroad experience in Madrid and Toledo, Spain through a Medical Humanities course. Through art, history, culture, and personal reflection, I explore how travel broadened my understanding of the human experience and shaped my perspective as a future physician. More than a story about a place, this documentary is about growth, empathy, and the lessons we learn along the journey.

The Distinguished Humanitarian Society, Ashley Charales, Grace Desrochers, Lakshmi Tatineni, Shane Jenks, Rajeev Raghavan

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

Background

The Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS) is a nationally recognized organization present at over 80% of medical schools in the United States to promote humanism, integrity, and volunteerism among students. There is no equivalent national honor society present at the majority of Graduate Medical Education (GME) training programs.

Methods

Our institution created the Distinguished Humanitarian Society (DHS) as a local honor society in 2022 to recognize trainees who exemplified the ideals espoused by GHHS. In January and February 2025, we conducted semi-structured interviews to extract themes regarding inductees’ experiences with the DHS. Both interviewers used the same list of …

Governing Addiction: An Anthropological Comparison Of Care In The United States And The Netherlands, Kiren K. Bagga

Bates College Journal of Political Studies

This article examines addiction care as a form of moral governance through a comparative anthropological analysis of the United States and the Netherlands. Drawing on a Foucauldian theory of biopolitics alongside this study argues that approaches to addiction treatment reveal how states differentially value life, citizenship, and vulnerability. Joan Tronto's relational definition of ethical care is used to move beyond a solely moral context, towards an ethical understanding of both caretakers and those who require care. In the United States, addiction policy has historically functioned as a punitive and moralizing project, shaped by racialized drug criminalization, neoliberal ideals of individual …