Seminar Announcement and Call for Applications
Changing the Narrative on Roma in Healthcare Settings
November 1st to 7th, 2015
Schloss Arenberg, Salzburg, Austria
The Open Society Public Health Program is pleased to invite you to apply to
participate in a special seminar on Changing the Narrative on Roma in
Healthcare Settings, to be held from November 1 to 7 at Schloss Arenberg in
Salzburg, Austria.
The seminar will deliver keynote lectures and small-group training in the
fundamentals of narrative approaches to health care. These will explore the ways in
which narratives shape Roma patients’ experience of ill health and of the health care
system and either encourage or stand in the way of empathy and understanding
between health care professional and patient. Through participatory exercises and
theoretical discussions, participants will look at ways in which language used and
stories told by health care workers shape and influence the way that Roma people
are treated within, and experience, the healthcare system.
Participants will learn how to develop attentive listening and how to evolve selfaware and mindful professional identity. Seminar attendees will also discuss the
concept of human rights in patient care, and how it can be used to illustrate issues of
discrimination and social exclusion that often underlie abuse against Roma
patients. As a group, we will begin to strategize a way forward towards
transforming narratives about Roma in the context of healthcare.
The faculty members for the course will include:

Paul Browde, MD. Browde is a psychiatrist in private practice in New York
City, and adjunct teaching faculty in the Narrative Medicine Masters’ Program
at Columbia University. He is a practitioner of Encounter Centered Couples
Therapy working with both individuals and couples to explore the relational
space and the reciprocal relationship between listening and telling. As cofounder (with Murray Nossel) of Narativ, a storytelling company, he has
worked closely with the Open Society Foundations, teaching advocacy
through personal storytelling. Paul is co-creator and performer of Two Men
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Talking, a live, unscripted personal storytelling performance that began as
deeply personal research. Paul has performed Two Men Talking
internationally, including at the Edinburgh Festival, in major theaters in
South Africa, on the West End of London and Off Broadway.

Rita Charon, MD, PhD. Charon is a general internist and literary scholar at
Columbia University who originated the field of narrative medicine. She is
founder and Executive Director of the Program in Narrative Medicine at
Columbia. Her research focuses on the consequences of narrative medicine
practice, reflective clinical practice, and health care team effectiveness. At
Columbia, she is Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Medical
Center, Director of the Narrative and Social Medicine Scholarly Concentration
Track, Director of Faculty Development for the Division of General Medicine,
and Director of the Columbia/Macy Interprofessional Education Project. She
is the author of Narrative Medicine: Honoring the Stories of Illness (Oxford
University Press, 2006) and co-editor of Stories Matter: The Role of Narrative
in Medical Ethics (Routledge, 2002) and Psychoanalysis and Narrative
Medicine (SUNY Press, 2008). Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine,
a co-authored textbook of Narrative Medicine, is in preparation for Oxford
University Press.

Mindy Thompson Fullilove, MD. Fullilove is a research psychiatrist at the
New York State Psychiatric Institute and a professor of clinical psychiatry
and public health at Columbia University. She has conducted research on
AIDS and other epidemics of poor communities, with a special interest in the
relationship between the collapse of communities and decline in health.
From her research, she has published Root Shock: How Tearing Up City
Neighborhoods Hurts America and What We Can Do About It (2004), and The
House of Joshua: Meditations on Family and Place (1999). She is a co-author
of Rodrick Wallace’s Collective Consciousness and Its Discontents:
Institutional Distributed Cognition, Racial Policy and Public Health in the
United States (2008).

Dezideriu Gergely. Gergely is a human rights lawyer and member of the
Bucharest Bar association. As a human rights and anti-discrimination expert,
he collaborates with international institutions (CoE, ODIHR) and nongovernmental organizations in Romania. Previously, he served as the
executive director of the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) in Budapest
(2011-2014). Prior to this, Gergely served as the Secretary of state at the
National Council for Combating Discrimination and represented Romania in
the Governmental Experts Group on non-discrimination of the European
Commission. He represented Romania with the Council of Europe Committee
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of Experts on Roma and Travellers and was twice elected Chair of the
Committee as well as vice Chair during 2005-2010. He has lectured widely on
anti-discrimination law in Romania providing training sessions for judges,
prosecutors, police officers, activists and students.

Murray Nossel, PhD. Nossel is an Oscar® nominated documentary
filmmaker, teacher and performer. Nossel previously practiced as a clinical
psychologist in his native South Africa. In the USA, he received a Ph.D. (social
work/ anthropology) from Columbia University, where he now serves on the
teaching faculty of the Department of Narrative Medicine. Nossel is cocreator / performer in the internationally acclaimed storytelling
performance Two Men Talking, which has appeared on London’s West End,
South Africa, Australia and off- Broadway in New York, and is currently
touring throughout the U.S. Nossel is co-founder (with Browde) of Narativ, a
company which creates media based on its own listening and storytelling
method.

Ilona Notar. Notar is a cultural anthropologist and an intercultural
communication trainer. She started developing her Intercultural
Communication and Health Care Communication course while studying to
become a midwife, and has continued adjusting it to needs of diverse
audiences while guest lecturing at various Hungarian universities including
ELTE University of Budapest, Semmelweis Medical University, University of
Miskolc, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and Corvinus
University. Her teaching and research interests include health care
communication with a special focus on conflicts between health care workers
and Roma patients in Hungary. She has been also involved in various
grassroots projects, as a mentor and educator.
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ELIGIBILITY:
Participants in the seminar should be:

Physicians or nurses or working in Macedonia, Romania or Bulgaria;
And/ OR

Faculty or students in medical schools, nursing schools or healthcare
professional schools in Macedonia, Romania or Bulgaria;

Roma applicants who meet these criteria are particularly encouraged to
apply.

Participants should ideally be comfortable participating in the seminar in
English (both understanding presentations, and speaking during
participatory exercises)
The final selection of participants will be made by a Selection Committee composed
of the representatives of the Open Medical Seminars Program, OSF and the Seminar
Faculty.
The cost of round-trip economy airfare or railroad travel, accommodations, and all
meals will be provided. Visa costs, in-country transportation costs, insurance, and
per diems are not covered and are the responsibility of each participant.
Interested individuals should complete the attached application form and submit via
email to: Anna Segelman at anna.segelman@opensocietyfoundations.org.
Applications must be received by July 17th, 2015. Selected candidates will be
notified by August 1st, 2015. The application form follows on the next page.
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Application Form
Seminar you are applying for:
Seminar Date
Changing the Narrative on Roma in
Sun. Nov 1st to Sat 7th Nov, 2015
Healthcare Settings
Deadline for
Application
July 17th, 2015
Please type in your answers in ENGLISH only and email this completed form to
anna.segelman@opensocietyfoundations.org
Personal Information
Family name (as it appears on your passport):
First name:
Title: (Mr/Ms/Dr etc)
Home mailing address (invitation letters will be sent to you at home):
Home telephone number:
Home fax number:
Home email address:
Name of Institution:
Department:
Work mailing address:
Your work email address:
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Name of supervisor:
Email address of supervisor:
Citizenship:
Passport Number:
Sex (male or female):
Date of birth (day/month/year):
Place of birth:
Country of Citizenship:
Date Passport Issued:
Date Passport Expires:
ID Number:
Date Issued:
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Changing the Narrative on Roma in Healthcare Settings
November 1st to 7th, 2015
Salzburg, Austria
Application Form (all questions must be answered. Please type in your
answers)
1.
Please briefly outline your background and experience in relation to Roma
health:
2.
Please briefly explain your interest in attending the seminar:
3.
What insights or experiences about the narrative about Roma in health care
in your country might you be able to contribute to this seminar?
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4.
Do you belong to any professional organizations?
“comments” section.
Yes
5.
Comments:
Are you comfortable participating in English
Yes
6.
 No
If yes, please list in
 No
Comments:
Do you understand that you must pay for visa costs, in-country
transportation, insurance and per diems while at the conference?
Yes
 No
Comments:
Please attach a copy of your CV (curriculum vitae) to the email along with your
application and send to
anna.segelman@opensocietyfoundations.org by July 17th 2015.
Applications can only be received electronically.
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