Get this patient to theatre! Dramatic arts and medicine combine at conference
Medical humanities event brings doctors and dramatists together
This week the University of Leicester plays host to the 8th Annual Conference of the Association for Medical Humanities. The Drama of Medicine – ‘All the Ward’s a Stage’ covers the area where medicine and the dramatic arts crossover.
The plenary speakers include:
- Professor David Gentilcore from our School of Historical Studies
- Paul Crawford, Professor of Health Humanities at the University of Nottingham
- Professor Laurie Maguire, Tutorial Fellow in English at Magdalen College, Oxford
- Jed Mercurio, junior doctor turned TV scriptwriter who wrote Cardiac Arrest, Bodies and the 2007 BBC version of Frankenstein*
Highlights of the three-day conference include:
- ‘The Philadelphia phlebotomist’: Benjamin Rush, the Yellow Fever and the Rise of Physician Autobiography
- Sex and the surgeon: Emotional distance and intimacy in modern medicine and the medical drama
- Cancer between the lines: the representation of cancer in modern poetry
- The Buddhist Jataka stories as a source for psychotherapy and medical humanities
- Using Hollywood Films to Teach Substance Abuse
In addition, Iraqi artist Ala Bashir, formerly Saddam Hussein’s personal physician, will discuss his work.
The current President of the AMH is Dr Paul Lazarus, Senior Clinical Educator in our Department of Medical and Social Care Education.
*And the non-medical work of comedy genius that was The Grimleys.
