DIVISION OF MEDICAL HUMANITIES | DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE
NEWS AND RESOURCES:
Hurricane Sandy, including accounts of the evacuations of Bellevue & NYULMC:
 “The Storm and the Aftermath” by Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD: “What transpired next can only be
described as breathtaking. There was certainly tension in the air, but the evacuation was smooth,
calm, and orderly. Intense clinical preparation preceded each patient’s exit. The sickest patients
were brought down first. Then the hospital was evacuated ward by ward into the early hours of
Wednesday morning.”http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1213843
 “Seeing in the Dark” by Eric Manheimer, MD: “Hospital-evacuation decisions are based on
less-than-perfect information. Layers of agencies weigh in on an approaching storm, calculating
both its trajectory and likely impact. This is the quotidian world of medicine — managing the
unexpected, deploying local expertise in the face of complex considerations, front-line
engagement.” http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1213611
 “Facing Uncertainty — Dispatch from Beth Israel Medical Center, Manhattan” by Sushrut
Jangi, MD: “Around 9 p.m. on October 29, 2012, the bright lights at Manhattan's Beth Israel
Medical Center flickered and went out. Dr. Harris Nagler, hospital president, stepped out onto
16th Street to find every building around him in shadow. ‘I remember feeling a kind of awe,’ he
says, ‘that despite all of the complex variables, meteorologists predicted this almost to the minute,
and there it was in front of us,
happening.’”http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1213844
 “New York Welcomes You” by Paul Lapis: “More eerie still was the sight of the VA hospital
across the street—a blue fire alarm blinking in each darkened room instead of the usual warm
lighting. Standing there in the empty darkness, I started to feel
uneasy.”http://www.pulsemagazine.org/index.cfm
Additional articles of interest:
 “What Can We Learn From Eleanor Roosevelt’s Death?” by Barron Lerner: “Mrs. Roosevelt's
case vividly demonstrates how crucial it is for physicians to have frank end-of-life discussions
about goals of care with patients and families -- something that is still too often avoided. By
challenging her physicians on this topic, she was, as usual, ahead of her
time.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barron-h-lerner/eleanor-roosevelt-end-of-lifecare_b_2006247.html
 “The Reciprocity of Recognition — What Medicine Exposes about Self and Other” by Rita
Charon, M.D., Ph.D: “She watched me in similarly intense ways. The flicker of a facial
expression, the tempo of the touch on a belly, the time spent gazing at the tympanic membrane
said something to her. The highly attentive person, patient or doctor, offers an exposing,
magnifying, perhaps truth-telling mirror to the other and receives one in
return.”http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1210787?query=TOC?query=NC
Present Tense: A Journal of Rhetoric in Society publishes issue on medical, gender, and body
rhetorics
“Medical rhetoric, much like gender and body rhetorics, enjoys a rich interdisciplinary history and so
feels at home in a journal dedicated to the rhetorical study of socially significant and timely topics.
Medical rhetoric research has institutional homes across the university in diverse fields, such as
composition studies, rhetoric of science, technical communication, writing in the disciplines, health
communication, medical humanities, gender studies, medicine, and disability studies. Finding homes in so
many fields makes the rhetorical study of health and medicine a “transdisciplinary”
endeavor.” http://www.presenttensejournal.org/
Video available of Dr. Arthur Caplan’s colloquium on “German Medicine, Nazi Ethics and the
Legacy of the Holocaust”
Dr. Arthur Caplan’s recent talk, entitled “German Medicine, Nazi Ethics and the Legacy of the
Holocaust,” is available to view online:http://pophealth.med.nyu.edu/news/new-noteworthy/germanmedicine-nazi-ethics-holocaust
Seeking Nominations for Gold Humanism Honor Society Resident Chapter
We are seeking nominations of residents and fellows within the NYULMC Graduate Medical Education
(GME) Program for membership in the NYULMC Chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society
(GHHS). Nominations will be accepted through 1 January 2013. More
information:http://medicine.med.nyu.edu/medhumanities/education/gold-humanism-honor-societyresidents-program/nominate
OPPORTUNITIES:
These listings were featured in detail in previous editions of the newsletter. Please visit our archive (link
at bottom) or the individual program websites for more information.
Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE)
The tentative program dates for FASPE Medical are June 16 – June 27, 2013. Completed applications
must be received by January 11, 2013. http://www.faspe.info
Creating Space III: Deepening the Discussion - Arts, Humanities and the Social Sciences in the
Education of Health Professionals
Conference: April 19 - 20, 2013 (http://www.ahssm-eig.ca/creatingspaceiii.html)
Call for Abstracts: Deadline December 15, 2012 (http://www.ahssm-eig.ca/creatingspacesabstracts.html)
Grand Prix Essay Competition sponsored by Hektoen International
Seeking essays of 1,000 to 2,500 words on a subject related to medicine and culture. Deadline: 3/1/13
http://hekint.org/contest-page.html
Yale University Summer Institute in Bioethics
June 3 – July 26, 2013 • New Haven, CT
Application deadline for U.S. applicants: January 15, 2013
For further information, please see www.yale.edu/bioethics/summer.shtml
UPCOMING EVENTS AND CONFERENCES:
Geisha – The Golden Years 1870-1890
Exhibit runs through 11/30
The Resobox Gallery, 41-26 27th St., Long Island City | info@resobox.com or 718-784-3680
The images in this exhibition showcase the best of Japanese photographs that were made to show the
perceived exotic nature of Japan to the West. Several of the great early photographers’ studios are
represented, including Kusabi Kimbel, Ogawa Kazumasa and Baron von Stillfried. These photographs are
the original images used by Dr. Stanley Burns and his daughter Elizabeth to create their noted
book, Geisha: A Photographic History 1872-1912.
Addiction Between Compulsion and Choice
Friday, November 16, 4:00-6:00 pm
5 Washington Place, Room 202
Reception to follow. RSVP required. Sponsored by the NYU Center for
Bioethicshttp://bioethics.as.nyu.edu/page/events
Richard Holton, Professor and Chair, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, Massachusetts Institute
of Technology
“Much of the discussion of addiction is polarized between those who see it as an uncontrollable disease,
and those who see it as involving ordinary choice. We aim to take a middle course. The incentive salience
model, which sees addiction as involving the formation of intrinsic desires for drugs that are independent
of liking and other cognitive states, is well supported. But that does not mean that addictive behaviour is
uncontrolled, since there is still a step from the desire to action; and this is where self-control can be
deployed. The primary issue is not that addictive behaviour is compulsive, but that it is very hard to
control.”
Should You Ever Happen to Find Yourself in Solitary: Wry Fancies and Stark Realities
An All-Day Wonder Cabinet and Symposium
Saturday, November 17, 10:45am till 8:30pm
NYU Cantor Film Center, 36 E. 8th Street
Free & Open to the Public (first-come, first-in) | Sponsored by The New York Institute for the Humanities
and the Institute for Public Knowledge at NYU
Details at nyihumanities.org; RSVP on facebook
With Tony Kushner, Mike Daisey, The Yes Men, Walter Murch, Juan Mendez, and other writers, artists,
and human rights activists. Featuring three sessions: “Dreams of Solitaire,” “Four Who Have Spent
Time,” and “The Scandal of Solitary in the US Today”
Young Athletes: The Costs, Sacrifices, and Consequences
Monday, November 19, 6pm (registration at 5:30pm)
Eisner & Lubin Auditorium - 4th Floor, NYU Kimmel Center for University Life, 60 Washington Square
South
Please RSVP at Miller Dialogues RSVP | For event information, e-mail:samantha.amazan@nyu.edu
Sponsored by NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies, Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism,
and Sports Management, and NYU Langone Medical Center
The competitive athletic path is a difficult one that seems to claim a casualty for every success story. This
conversation will center upon how doctors, educators, parents, sports professionals, ethicists, and business
leaders can work together to better protect this generation as they pursue their athletic dreams.
Arts in the CommonHealth: Transforming Space through the Healing Arts
Friday November 30 - Saturday December 1, 2012 from 9:00am-5:00pm
Co-sponsored by Lesley University and Boston Arts Consortium for Health
http://www.lesley.edu/ce/ls/conferences.html
This year’s conference will focus on how space can be transformed through music, dance, drama and
visual art and design to support mental, emotional, and physical health.
Health-Arts-Humanities Consortium Meeting
Sunday, December 2, Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts
The purpose of the meeting is to determine whether it is feasible to initiate one or more multi-institutional
research and community engagement projects around health and the arts and humanities. If you are
interested in attending, please contact Dr. Caroline Wellbery at wellberc@georgetown.edu in order to
receive meeting materials in advance. (There is no cost to attend this meeting, but no funding s available
for travel or overnight stays.)
Value-based judgments and health care decision making: A closer look at the role of trust in patient
noncompliance
Wednesday, December 19, 12pm
227 East 30th Street, 6th Floor, Rm 619
Sponsored by the Department of Population Health at NYU Langone Medical Center
Sweta Chakraborty obtained her Ph.D. in Risk Management from Kings College London. She is
originally from NYC and holds a B.S. in Decision Science and a B.A. in International Relations from
Carnegie Mellon University. She moved to London to continue with her studies at the London School of
Economics before beginning her doctorate at Kings. The focus of Sweta’s Ph.D. was Risk and the Public
Health and Pharmaceutical Sectors. She has worked extensively on public reactions to drug safety scares
and their accompanying implications for future risk management. Her key areas of research include risk
perception/ management/ communication/ regulation, social trust, and quantitative and qualitative
combination risk research methods.
Doing bioethics in the real world—opportunities, pitfalls and rewards
Thursday, January 31, 6:15pm-7:30pm
Arthur Caplan, Ph.D., Director, Division of Medical Ethics, NYU Langone Medical Center
Morningside Campus (Room to be announced)
Refreshments will be served. Sponsored by the Columbia University Masters of Bioethics Program. To
RSVP or request more information, please contact Patricia Contino at pc2561@columbia.edu
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Division of Medical Humanities website: http://medicine.med.nyu.edu/medhumanities
Archive of Past Newsletters: http://medicine.med.nyu.edu/medhumanities/medical-humanities-newsletter-archive