Florida State University will spotlight the growing field of medical humanities during the Arts-Health-Humanities Symposium VI 12-2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 10, at FSU's Claude Pepper Center.
The symposium involves faculty and students - from design, medicine, music education, music therapy and musicology - carrying conversations about current research and future interdisciplinary collaborations. It is part of the Festival of the Creative Arts, an annual campuswide event hosted by FSU's Office of Research that features creative and innovative voices that span across university disciplines.
Tuesday's symposium, a fusion of arts and medicine, includes FSU Associate Professor of Medical Humanities Tana Jean Welch, a poet and scholar of contemporary American poetry and medical humanities. In her field, she shows how reading and writing poetry, all forms of creative writing, can benefit those in the high-stress medical field.
Welch says that poetry echoes the human experience, drawing countless parallels between what is written and what is felt.
"Poetry's use of blank space, collage, ambiguity, and fragmented language echoes our embodied experience in many ways," Welch said. "The meaning of a poem, just like the meaning of a body, can shift from reader to reader or from day to day - in this way, poetry can be a truer representation of the body and bodily health. The way we feel in our bodies - emotionally, physically, psychologically - is constantly changing as our bodies encounter other bodies. Poetry provides space for variation."
Welch teaches courses in literature, writing and humanities and serves as the director of the Chapman Humanities and Arts in Medicine Program (CHAMP), seeking to enhance the intellectual and emotional environment at the FSU College of Medicine through extracurricular arts and humanities programming.
She is also the managing editor for a journal called "HEAL: Humanism Evolving through Arts and Literature." In the seasonal journal doctors, students and patients share stories, painting and poems about their lives in the medical world. Welch believes tapping into this creativity helps medical professionals in their everyday work.
"Creative and reflective writing is important for anyone in any field," Welch said. "It is a critical thinking tool - the act of writing can reveal hitherto unknown knowledge and emotions. Searching for the right words forces us to think deeper. This can be quite valuable in the medical profession."
