When medicine, technology and the humanities intersect, the result is a conversation that challenges the status quo and reimagines the future of health care. That is the driving force behind the upcoming Sawyer Seminar Research Symposium at Rice University, an all-day event designed to explore the role of humanities in addressing racial health equity and data justice.
Scheduled for March 6 in the Baker Institute for Public Policy Auditorium, the symposium is part of Rice’s yearlong Andrew W. Mellon Sawyer Seminar on the Comparative Study of Cultures with the theme Reimagining Technologies of Care: Racial Health Equity and Data Justice. The initiative seeks to uncover and challenge inequitable health care practices by integrating humanistic methodologies into the development and application of medical technologies and health data.
“We are quite intentionally bringing together experts with very diverse backgrounds in terms of what fields they work in,” said Kirsten Ostherr, the Gladys Louise Fox Professor of English and founding director of the Medical Humanities Research Institute (MHRI). “We’re doing that in order to foster a conversation in the local research community about the value and benefits of hearing perspectives that are not often heard.”
The symposium will feature a series of interdisciplinary panels where scholars, medical professionals, engineers and patient advocates engage in critical discussions. See the full list of speakers here.
“We have experienced patient advocates, one who was recognized by the Obama administration for their work in this field,” Ostherr said. “They’re going to be speaking on panels with Ph.D. researchers. We’ll have people from the humanities with engineers. There’s going to be people from social sciences with patients and with medical doctors. We’re really intentionally bringing a lot of different kinds of voices so that people understand both the complexity of the questions we’re asking and also the value of hearing from a wide range of sources on them.”
A highlight of the symposium will be a poster session showcasing medical humanities research by students from Rice and the Texas Medical Center.
“The poster session will be a great opportunity for our students to be able to share their research in a very public way with high profile scholars, doctors and patients to get feedback,” said Melissa Bailar, senior lecturer and MHRI executive director.
The symposium is the latest installment in the Sawyer Seminar’s broader efforts to scrutinize how emerging health care technologies shape patient experiences and access to care. Through speaker series, workshops and public symposia, the initiative encourages cross-disciplinary collaboration among scholars, medical professionals, engineers and patient communities.
“Having a really high-profile event like this with multiple experts from across the country coming in is important in signaling the importance of medical humanities beyond academia,” Bailar said.
The Sawyer Seminar at Rice is structured around the belief that technology is not neutral, medicine is not objective and health care outcomes are not inherently equitable. Its scholars examine the role of social values in shaping medical advancements and explore how humanities-driven perspectives can guide technological innovation toward more just and inclusive health care practices.
Through public discussions and interdisciplinary collaboration, the seminar seeks to develop models that prioritize health equity across race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and ability. The Sawyer Seminar is hosted by the MHRI, which aims to ensure that health care remains patient-centered and ethically driven amid rapid technological change.
In addition to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, support for the seminar comes from the Rice Building Research on Inequality and Diversity to Grow Equity program, Rice Scientia Small Conference Fund, the Baylor College of Medicine’s Office of Community Engagement and Health Equity, the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center’s Office of Community Outreach and Engagement and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston’s McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics.
For more information and to register for the symposium, click here.