Kathlene McDonald discusses medical humanities and advocacy in rescheduled Presidential Conversation

Interdisciplinary Studies Associate Professor Kathlene McDonald talks about her work in the field of medical humanities in the third installment of the City College of New York’s 2015-16 “Presidential Conversations: Activism, Scholarship, and Engagement” series on Thursday, Mar. 31. The talk, “From Chaos to Advocacy: End-of-Life Care, Narrative, and Social Change,” rescheduled from its original date of Nov. 19, takes place from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture’s Sciame Auditorium, and is free and open to the public.

“Medical humanities draws on the humanities and arts to provide insight into experiences of illness and care and their socio-cultural contexts,” McDonald said.  “As a writer and a writing teacher, I am interested in how these insights can lead to advocacy for patients and their caregivers, both within the medical realm and in terms of public policy.”

McDonald is the author of Feminism, the Left, and Postwar Literary Culture (UP Mississippi, 2012). She also works with cancer patients and family caregivers through the “Visible Ink” writing program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Inaugurated in 2014, “Presidential Conversations: Activism, Scholarship, and Engagement” is a forum that features City College faculty sharing their research and creative scholarship with CCNY President Lisa S. Coico. 

About The City College of New York

Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided low-cost, high-quality education for New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. More than 16,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in: the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture; the School of Education; the Grove School of Engineering; the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, and the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership. U.S. News, Princeton Review and Forbes all rank City College among the best colleges and universities in the United States.