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Department OfMedicine, Health, and Society

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Events

Upcoming Events

Health Humanities symposium: “Primitive, Subtle, Sensual, Obscene”: Being Human in a Techno Age – Thursday, February 12, & Friday, February 13, 2026, Community Room, Central Library. Register here.

Co-sponsored with Generous Support from the Curb Center and the Vanderbilt University Department of English along with Vanderbilt LGBTQ+ Policy Lab

 

Thursday 12th February:

Opening Remarks (12:00-12:30pm)

  • Dr. Jonathan Metzl, Chair of the Department of Medicine, Health, and Society

Narrative Histories of Medicine (12.30 – 1.30pm)

  • Dr. Lauren Mitchell, scholar & direct care practitioner, Senior Lecturer in MHS, Vanderbilt University
  • Dr. Claire Clark, historian of medicine, Associate Professor of Behavioral Science, University of Kentucky 
  • Sarah Dunham, Managing Partner at MTWTF and Assistant Professor of the Practice in Design, Vanderbilt University 

Narrative as Evidence: LGBTQ+ Health in Research, Practice, and Memory (1.45 – 2.30pm)

  • Dr. Kirsty Clark, social & psychiatric epidemiologist, Assistant Professor in MHS, Vanderbilt University
  • Dr. Gilbert Gonzales, Associate Professor in MHS, director of Public Policy Studies, Associate Director of LBTQ+ Policy Lab, Vanderbilt University
  • Sarah Calise, librarian and curator of community histories and founder of Nashville Queer History, Vanderbilt University
  • Greg Marshall, memoirist and author of Leg: The Story of a Limb and Boy Who Grew From It’
  • Nat Nigro, therapist at Healing Umbrella Psychotherapy

Medicine, Ethics, and AI  (3 – 4pm)

  • Dr. Lauren Mitchell, scholar & direct care practitioner, Senior Lecturer in MHS, Vanderbilt University
  • Dr. Laura Stark, Associate Professor of MHS and History, Vanderbilt University
  • Dr. Jay Clayton, Chair, Department of English, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor, Department of English, Cinema and Media Arts, Communication of Science and Technology

Music & Songwriting (4.15 – 5.15pm)

  • Kelly Corcoran, Composer and Conductor, Social Scientist, Vanderbilt Music Cognition Lab
  • Odie Lindsey, novelist & dramaturg, Writer-in-Residence MHS, Vanderbilt University
  • Alice Randall, songwriter, novelist, Writer-in-Residence AADS, Vanderbilt University
  • Morgxn, Recording artist

Creative Writing Workshop (5:30pm- 6:30pm)

  • A hands-on workshop on the craft of writing the body, led by Jamil Jan Kochai, Greg Marshall, and Fatima Kola. Please bring a notebook and pen.

Thursday Night Reception and Featured Readings

7:00pm- 9:00pm

Please join us at the home of Caroline Randall Williams for a gathering where we will hear from our featured writers at the symposium.

This event is limited to faculty, staff, and their guests.

 

Friday 13th February:

Metaphor & Pain: Writing the Body (9:30am – 10:30am)

  • Dr. Fatima Kola, writer, Senior Lecturer MHS, Vanderbilt University
  • Jamil Jan Kochai, novelist & National Book Award finalist, Assistant Professor, Princeton University
  • Eliana Ramage, author of To The Moon and Back
  • Greg Marshall, memoirist and author of Leg: The Story of a Limb and Boy Who Grew From It

Making a Body: Motherhood and Maternal Health in Art & Practice (11.15am – 12.15 pm)

War Stories and Stories at War (12.30pm – 1.30pm)

  • Odie Lindsey, novelist & veteran, Writer-in-Residence MHS, Vanderbilt University
  • Dr. Ken MacLeish, Associate Professor, Vanderbilt University
  • Jamil Jan Kochai, novelist & National Book Award finalist, Assistant Professor, Princeton University

Medical Humanities in Practice (1:45pm- 2:45pm)

  • Dr. Lauren Mitchell, scholar & direct care practitioner, Senior Lecturer in MHS, Vanderbilt University
  • Dr. Camellia Koleyni, Family Medicine Physician and Affiliated Faculty in MHS, Vanderbilt University
  • Dr. Margaret Achee, Assistant Medicine Physician and Affiliated Faculty in MHS, Vanderbilt University
  • Dr. Lauren Chan, Internal Medicine Physician and Medical Humanities specialist, Vanderbilt University
  • Dr. Andy Wooldridge, Assistant Professor, Palliative Care and Internal Medicine, Program Director, Arts and Humanities in Healthcare, Department of Medicine, VUMC
  • Dr. Tara Minor, Senior Program Manager, Pediatric Residency & Fellowship Programs
  • Dr. Claire Clark, Historian of Medicine, Associate Professor of Behavioral Science, University of Kentucky

Closing Remarks (3:00- 3:30pm)

  • MHS Humanities for the Health Professions Faculty

Friday Evening Undergraduate Open Mic

4:30-6:30pm

Please join us for a closing event featuring our undergraduate writers as they read their work.

 

Please contact fatima.kola@vanderbilt.edu for further info.

 

Past Events

Undergraduate Students

  • Advising Pizza Party – Wednesday, March 20, 2024, 12-2pm in Sarratt Promenade
  • Vandy in Health – Thursday, March 21, 2024, 12:15-1:15pm in Buttrick 344
  • MHS 4+1 Open House – Wednesday, April 3, 2024, 4:30-5:30pm in MHS Suite (3rd floor of Calhoun Hall)

Graduate Students

  • Admitted Student Day – Tuesday, March 19, 2024, 1:10-2:00pm in the MHS Suite (3rd floor of Calhoun Hall)
  • MA Student Speed Presentations – Tuesday, April 2, 2024, 12:45-2:00pm in the MHS Suite (3rd floor of Calhoun Hall)
  • MA Graduation Awards Party – Thursday, May 9, 2024, 3-5pm in Memorial Room (Alumni Hall)

All Students

  • Hot Topics Speaker, Kali Rubaii – Thursday, February 13, 2024, 4:10-5:40 in Furman 114
  • August 29, 2023: 4-5:30pm in Buttrick Atrium – Ice cream social
  • September 18, 2023: 4:00pm – Sigal Ben-Porath talk & faculty panel discussion
  • October 10, 2023: 3-4:30pm in Wilson Hall 125 – Jenn Carlson
  • October 11, 2023: Advising Pizza Party
  • November 2, 2023: 10-11am – MHS Alumni Event
  • November 14, 2023: 3-4:30pm in Wilson Hall 125 – Maria Hinojosa
  • January 27, 2023, 12:00 -1:00 pm CST , “Taking “Social Factors” Into Account In the Mental Health Clinic: Lessons From Brazil” w/ Dominique P. Behague
  • February 1, 2023, 11:30am CST, Sarratt 189, “US Gun Violence & Asian Americans” w/ Jonathan Metzl
  • March 23, 2023 12-2pm CST, Calhoun Portico MHS Advising Pizza Party
  • March 28, 2023, 12:30-1:30pm CST, Sarratt 189, “The Power of Place in Shaping Illness and Health” , MHS Colloquium w/ Sanyu Mojola, Princeton University
  • May 11, 2023, 3:00-5:00pm CST, MHS Graduation & Rewards Reception
  • Aug. 23, 2022, TBD, Master’s Orientation
  • Aug. 30, 2022, 4:00-5:30pm, Calhoun Portico, MHS Ice Cream Social
  • Jan 11, 2022, 12:45-2:00 pm CST, via Zoom: MHS/PPS Search Committee presents “Policing substance use: Chicago’s Treatment Program for Narcotics Arrests” with Panka Bencsik, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Chicago, Urban Labs
  • Jan. 13, 2022, 12:45-2:00pm CST, via Zoom: Eugenio Weigend Vargas, Director for Gun Violence Prevention, American Progress, presents “No Shots Fired: Emotional and Physical Symptoms After Threats of Gunfire in the United States, 2009-2019”
  • Jan. 22, 2022, 8:00-3:00pm CST, Dominique Behague, Gilbert Gonzales, and Ken MacLeish will participate in the Vanderbilt Critical Psychiatry Conference (VCPC), a student-led virtual and free event organized by MHS junior Joseph Sexton ’23
  • Jan. 25, 2022, 12:45-2:00 pm CST, via Zoom: MHS/PPS Search Committee presents: “What doesn’t kill us, hurts us longer: Community gun violence and functional disability in four U.S. cities” with Daniel C. Semenza, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice, Affiliated Scholar, Center for Urban Research and Education, Rutgers University – Camden; Faculty Affiliate, New Jersey Center on Gun Violence Research
  • Jan. 27, 2022, 12:30-12:20pm CST, MHS/GHSM Virtual Coffee Hour Series for Students presents “Are we really interested in decolonizing Global Health?” with Laura Mkumba, MSc – Clinical Research Coordinator at Duke University
  • Feb. 17, 2022, 12:30-12:20pm CST, MHS/GHSM Virtual Coffee Hour Series for Students presents “Creating community with the Social Medicine On Air Podcast”. Meet part of the team running the Social Medicine on Air podcast series: Sebastian Fonseca, Brendan Johnson, and Leila Sabbagh
  • Mar. 1, 2022, 1:10-2:00pm, “Laboratory Life and Social Death: The Problem of Diversity in Science and Society” MHS e-Colloquium w/ Dr. James Doucet-Battle, Assistant Professor of the Department of Sociology, Science and Justice Research Center, University of California, Santa Cruz
  • Mar. 24, 2022, 7:30pm, Sarratt Cinema, Prof. Tara McKay hosts a public screening of Cured (2020), a documentary about the removal of homosexuality from the DSM, as part of the International Lens Film series. Co-sponsored in collaboration with the Vanderbilt LGBTQ Policy Lab, and the Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender, and Sexuality
  • Mar. 30, 2022, 3:30-4:15pm CST, MHS/GHSM Virtual Coffee Hour Series for Students presents “Building the Health Equity Network of the Americas” with Arachu Castro, Ph.D., MPH, Samuel Z. Stone Chair of Public Health in Latin America, Tulane University
  • Apr. 5, 2022, 1:10-2:00pm, MHS e-Colloquium w/ Tara McKay presents a work-in-progress “Social Networks, Aging, and Health in the VUSNAPS Cohort” as part of the MHS e-Colloquium series
  • Apr. 6, 2022, 12:30-2:30pm, Calhoun Portico, MHS Advising Pizza & Ice Cream Party
  • May 11, 2022, 3:00-5:00pm, Calhoun Portico, MHS Graduation Reception
  • Aug. 12, 2021, Prof. Tara McKay will present “Struggles for Inclusion: Incorporating Same-Sex Practising Men into National HIV Prevention and Surveillance in African Countries, 2000–2020” in a Book Launch Webinar, Springer Books
  • Aug. 19, 2021, 12:00pm, via Zoom, Prof. Tara McKay and Prof. Gilbert Gonzales will present their “LGBTQ Health and COVID-19 in the US South” research at the 2021 Southern LGBTQ Heath Symposium, hosted by the Vanderbilt University Medical Center
  • Aug. 24, 2021, 9:00-11:00am, Master’s Orientation
  • Sep. 21, 2021, 1:10-2:00pm, “People, contexts and systems: Intersections that matter for health equity” MHS e-Colloquium with Dr. Sirry Alang, Associate Professor of Sociology and Health, Medicine and Society, and Chair of Health Justice Collaborative, Lehigh University
  • Sep. 21, 2021, 4:30-5:00pm, MHS 4+1 Information Session
  • Sep. 22, 2021, 4:00pm,  Vanderbilt MHS MA Program Information Session (for external applicants)
  • Sep. 30, 2021, 12:30-12:20pm CST, MHS/GHSM Virtual Coffee Hour Series for Students presents “Nutrition and Food Security” with Saul Morris, Ph.D., Epidemiologist and Director of Programme Services, Gain Health
  • Sep. 30, 2021, Prof. Tara McKay will present “Advancing Social Justice for LGBTQ Populations in the Global South through HIV Research and Policy” at Grand Rounds, HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies, Columbia University
  • Oct. 12, 2021, 1:10-2:00pm, Matthew Facciani, postdoctoral researcher in MHS and the LGBT Policy Lab, presents “The Intersection of Identities and Networks on Political Polarization and Misinformation”, part of the MHS e-Colloquium series
  • Oct. 19, 2021, 12:00-2:00pm, Calhoun Portico, MHS Spring 2022 Registration Advising Event
  • Oct. 20, 2021, 4:30-5:00pm, MHS 4+1 Information Session
  • Oct. 26, 2021, 1:10-2:00pm, “Indigenous Biomarkers, Bioethics, and Biobanks” MHS e-Colloquium with Dr. Krystal Tsosie, incoming Assistant Professor of School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, and Co-founder of Native BioData Consortium
  • Oct. 28, 2021, 12:30-12:20pm CST, MHS/GHSM Virtual Coffee Hour Series for Students presents “Politics of vaccine equity in Covid-19” with Katerini Storeng, Ph.D., Anthropologist, University of Oslo
  • Nov. 2, 2021, 2:30-3:30pm CST, “Pandemic America: Where the &$@! Are We Heading?”  webinar symposium with featured speakers Hon. Stacey Newman (The Future of Women’s Reproductive Rights), Sam Quinones (The Future of Addiction), Melissa Harris-Perry (The Future of Social Justice Movements), Caroline Randall Williams (The Future of Narrative), moderated by Jonathan Metzl and Celina Callahan-Kapoor, co-sponsored by the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center
  • Nov. 15, 2021, 8:00-2:00pm CST, “Queer Populations, Perspectives and Policies” conference hosted by the Vanderbilt University LGBT Public Policy Lab and Birmingham University, United Kingdom, Social Policy Association. Prof. Tara McKay will present “Building Coalitions with Policy Makers and Practitioners”.
  • Nov. 16, 2021, 1:10-2:00pm, Prof. Dominique Béhague and co-authors Mikayla Alsopp, James Blair, Trey Minter, and Mariah Sanders present an a work-in-progress article manuscript, “Rethinking “the social”: critical pedagogy and mental health among university students”, as part of the MHS e-Colloquium series
  • Dec. 2, 2021, 12:30-12:20pm CST, MHS/GHSM Virtual Coffee Hour Series for Students presents “Healthcare as self-organized direct action: How to understand the relationship between recent protests and health?” with Cristian Montenegro, Ph.D., University of Exeter and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
  • Dec. 6, 2021, 11:00-12:00pm CST, EBL, “The Intersection of Mental Health, Firearms, and LGBT Health” discussion led by Prof. Tara McKay and Prof. Kirsty Clark, in collaboration with the Vanderbilt LGBT Policy Lab, VUSM Student Wellness Committee, and Vanderbilt SAFE