Critical Medical Humanities: Perspectives on the Intersection of Race and Medicine

With the participation of faculty across the college, the inaugural Public Humanistic Inquiry Lab (PHIL) at Colby critically explores the relationship between medicine and race. While the medical professions have recognized that racial and health inequities are closely linked, the humanities and social sciences point to structural racism’s impact on health outcomes across time and place and offer new ways of thinking about medicine in racialized societies. In 2021-24, the PHIL aims to stimulate campus-wide interest in critical medical humanities, which relies on interdisciplinary analytical tools to interrogate the power structures that have defined medical practices and to reveal the socially constructed, intersectional, and embodied experiences of health and illness. It creates opportunities for Colby faculty to publicly lead in this field and supports their efforts to promote both scientific advancement and racial justice through their research and teaching. By engaging students in faculty-led research, the PHIL also hopes to prepare the broader Colby community to think critically about race in health experiences and professions.

Organizers and Collaborators:

Tanya Sheehan, Jay Sibara, Dean Allbritton, AB Brown, Gail Carlson, Nadia El-Shaarawi, Inga Diederich, Britt Halvorson, Aaron Hanlon, Christel Kesler, Kassandra Miller, Tiffany Miller, Winifred Tate