Check out our Campus Celeb of the Week: The Medical Humanities of Boston College and find out what this amazing organization is all about!
The Leaders:
Name: Emilee Herringshaw
Year: 2016
Position in Medical Humanities Journal: Managing Editor, co-founder
Name: Christopher Kabacinski
Year: 2016
Position in Medical Humanities Journal: Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief
What exactly is the Medical Humanities Journal?
EH: The Medical Humanities Journal of Boston College is a student led, multidisciplinary publication that seeks to represent issues of illness, health, caregiving and bioethics through multiple vantages. The journal aims to reach a broad audience, as it includes a variety of genres and topics of discussion. Ideally, the journal will generate conversation about health related issues and create solidarity through commonality of experience.
CK: The Medical Humanities Journal of Boston College is a student-led publication which features creative and critical work in the medical humanities written by undergraduate students. We are funded by the Institute for the Liberal Arts, and our faculty advisor is Professor Amy Boesky, who directs the Medical Humanities, Health, and Culture Minor.
What type of submission pieces are you looking for?
EH: The range includes, but is not limited to; research papers, poetry, narrative, op-eds and artwork. The diversity and inclusivity of the journal makes for an interesting composition. Each issue will have a unique assembly of topics and styles of work, which is very exciting.
CK: We are looking for undergraduate work in all disciplines. Medical humanities as interdisciplinary course of study, so we’re looking to highlight the ways in which different perspectives—say, English and biology or sociology and theology, public health and philosophy—intersect, diverge, or show points of tension. As such, student work in all media is fit for the journal: memoirs, research papers, op-eds, photographs, academic essays, poetry, fiction, painting, mixed media, interviews. Some suggested areas of focus are health, illness, medicine, caregiving, representations of the body, bioethics, health policy, and disability.
Why did you start this publication?
EH: This publication has helped me grapple with the larger implications of health care management. As a pre-medical student, I have been challenged to understand the biophysical phenomena that qualify an individual’s state of health. Recently, I have begun to examine the other facets of health care that construct that larger picture. Medical humanities posits that health transcends what is contained in natural sciences, as it is includes an individuals lifestyle, relationships and unique set of circumstances in the consideration of their wellbeing. Health touches us all. No one is immune to the effects of personal care management. The meaning behind all of this is investigated by the field of medical humanities and contextualized by the journal. My hope is that the journal encourages discussion, investigation and representation of experiences that elucidate the humanistic side of health care.
CK: Emilee and I cofounded the journal after our sophomore years. If I can speak for both of us, I think it is the complex and dynamic challenging questions and issues in medical humanities that we found so challenging and productive. Medical humanities prompts us to ask pressing questions, to explore multi-faceted issues. Reducing any of these questions to a single discipline or perspective is problematic: it only represents one side of the story. The journal is a site for the conversations around these issues to occur. The medical humanities community is vibrant at Boston College. It draws on students from all disciplines who are committed to raising and exploring these questions and points of tension. There’s nothing I enjoy more than sitting down with students with other perspectives—whether in class or at a journal meeting—and discussing issues in medical humanities. Students here at Boston College produce fine, rigorous work—whether its creative writing or artwork, biology research or literary criticism—and we believe this work merits recognition. This journal is a site for conversations in medical humanities to occur
What are your hopes for this year’s issue?
EH: This issue strives to facilitate an exchange of ideas amongst the medical humanities community, which can hopefully extend into the larger Boston arena. I am excited to see partnerships emerge amongst local Boston institutions and for BC students to showcase the work and ideas they have carried with them from their summer experiences. In addition, I would love to incorporate more artwork in this publication- the representation of medically related topics through visual works creates for a very intriguing, interpretive and highly personal experience.
CK: We are expecting this fall’s issue to build on the positive momentum of our Spring 2015 inaugural issue. We are immensely grateful for the compliments and feedback we have received, and, having established the journal as a premier publication on campus, we hope to continue featuring the insightful, rigorous, and varying work of students.
Tell us about the Harvard-Boston College Medical Humanities collaboration
EH: The collaboration will bridge the medical humanities partnership between both institutions and hopefully elicit attention form the larger Boston audience. There is a wealth of opportunity for discussion regarding the issues of medical humanities in the health care arena, and this collaboration offers a unique space to engage these topics and forge meaningful exchanges. The event is envisioned to be an annual partnership that will fortify our relationship with Harvard, the Boston community and other partners in the medical humanities conversation.
CK: The event will take place on October 8 at 5:30 PM in Higgins 310. The night will feature a number of students from both Boston College and Harvard, each of whom will read their original creative work. We hope to highlight the impressive writing occurring at both of our institutions, and we hope to demonstrate the ways in which creative writing represents and addresses issues in medical humanities.
How can writers submit their work and how can prospective editors get involved?
EH: Visit mhjbc.org for submission guidelines! We are currently accepting submissions for our fall issue. The deadline has been extended until October 2nd. The anticipated release is mid-November. Prospective editors can inquire about involvement by contacting our email account, bc.mhj.1@gmail.com.
CK: Students can send submissions or questions to bc.mhj.1@gmail.com. Prospective editors should also get in touch with us via email, as news about meeting times and applications for editorial board positions will come out later this fall.
Photo Sources:
http://www.bc.edu/publications/chronicle/FeaturesNewsTopstories/2015/fea…