Jefferson Humanities & Health

Wednesday, February 26, 4PM and 6PM, JRFC Studio 1. Open to Jefferson students, faculty, and staff.

Join us for an uplifting, energizing, and joyful laughter experience incorporating movement, singing, dancing, breathing exercises, playfulness, and stillness!

Alexa Drubay is a Laugher Yoga Master Trainer (CMT) and a certified Breathwork Emotional Release Coach. She trained in India with the founder of Laughter Yoga, former physician Dr. Madan Kataria. Laughter yoga encompasses laughter exercises, yogic breathing, and mindfulness meditation. Spots are limited.

Presented by Jefferson Recreation & Fitness Center.

This is not a Jefferson Humanities & Health event.

Wednesday, February 26, 5-6:30PM, BLSB 105. Refreshments provided. Open to Jefferson students, faculty, and staff.

Every person has a story. In this candid conversation series, we’ll talk with community members about their real experiences at the intersection of healthcare, wellbeing and identity. Each guest brings unique insights and expertise into problems of health that span social and clinical dimensions, and engage questions of access, equity and justice. Sessions will be led by an interprofessional team of Jefferson student moderators and include interactive Q&A with attendees.

Special guest: Oronde McClain

Oronde McClain is the newsroom liaison at the Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting, a Stoneleigh Foundation Emerging Leader Fellow and a gun violence survivor. He is leading a new PCGVR project called the Survivor Connection, which will identify, recruit, prepare and support survivors of firearm violence who will make themselves available to local journalists via a secure, digital directory. Oronde previously produced a short documentary for PCGVR’s Credible Messenger Reporting Project, call “They don’t care about us. Or do they?” Oronde also holds a Masters Degree in Psychology.

Read or listen to this interview with Oronde McClain and WHYY.

Community Voices is presented by the Jefferson College of Population Health, the Jefferson Center for Interprofessional Practice & Education, and Jefferson Humanities & Health.

Questions? Please contact Kirsten Bowen, Humanities Program Coordinator.

Thursday, February 27, 12-1PM, Scott Memorial Library 200A. Open to Jefferson students. Lunch provided.

Join us for a discussion of Chapter 2: Bones from All in Her Head: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women's Bodies and Why It Matters Today by Elizabeth Comen, MD.

For as long as medicine has been a practice, women's bodies have been treated like objects to be practiced on: examined and ignored, idealized and sexualized, shamed, subjugated, mutilated, and dismissed. The history of women’s healthcare is a story in which women themselves have too often been voiceless—a narrative instead written from the perspective of men who styled themselves as authorities on the female of the species, yet uninformed by women’s own voices, thoughts, fears, pain and experiences. The result is a cultural and societal leg­acy that continues to shape the (mis)treatment and care of women.

Memorial Sloan Kettering oncologist and medical historian Dr. Elizabeth Comen draws back the curtain on the collective medical history of women—how they work, the actual doctors and patients whose perspectives and experiences laid the foundation for today’s medical thought, and the many oversights that still remain unaddressed. Dr. Comen follows the road map of the eleven organ systems to share unique and untold stories, drawing upon medical texts and journals, interviews with expert physicians, as well as her own experience treating thousands of women.

Access the reading here. Copies of All in Her Head will be available for students after the discussion.

Facilitator:

Katherine Hubbard, MA, Teaching Instructor, JeffMD Humanities Selectives, Sidney Kimmel Medical College.

Participants are expected to read, and come prepared to discuss, the text selected for each session. To access the reading, participants must visit the Health Humanities Reading Group module in the Jefferson Humanities & Health organization on Canvas. Most Asano students are already users in the Humanities & Health Canvas course. If that is not the case, participants may email Kirsten Bowen, Humanities Program Coordinator.

About the Health Humanities Reading Group:

The Health Humanities Reading Group gathers regularly to think critically about health as it is understood through various disciplinary perspectives, social contexts and value systems. This ongoing program is open to students, faculty and staff, and offers an informal learning environment facilitated by participants. Participants are expected to read, and come prepared to discuss, the text selected for each session.

Tuesday, March 4, 12-1PM, JAH Atrium. Lunch provided. Open to Jefferson students, faculty, and staff.

Join us for Acting Without Boundaries presents: "Best Practices for Interacting with People who have Disabilities"

In this program, participants will explore common misunderstandings that may occur when interacting with people with disabilities and learn ways to naturally and respectfully improve those interactions.  

Actors from AWB will share personal stories, hypothetical situations and universal best practices for how to interact with someone who has a disability. Specific attention will be given to scenarios in the medical setting. An open discussion, sensitivity activities and a Q&A will be part of the presentation.

AWB is a performing arts organization for people with disabilities. Learn more here.

Questions? Contact Kirsten Bowen, Humanities Program Coordinator. 

Thursday, March 6, 6-7PM, Zoom.

Join us online for a conversation between artist Dominic Quagliozzi and curator Amanda Cachia. This conversation is held in conjunction with the exhibition "Dominic Quagliozzi: Corporis Fabrica" at Helix Gallery at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.

CART captioning and ASL Interpretation provided. 

For more information, visit here.

Tuesday, March 18, 12-1PM, Scott Memorial Library 200A. Lunch provided. Open to Jefferson students.

Join us for a discussion of chapter eight from the 2023 Pulitzer Prize finalist Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on Health in America by Linda Villarosa.

Access the reading here.

In Under the Skin, Linda Villarosa lays bare the forces in the American health-care system and in American society that cause Black people to “live sicker and die quicker” compared to their white counterparts. Today’s medical texts and instruments still carry fallacious slavery-era assumptions that Black bodies are fundamentally different from white bodies. Study after study of medical settings show worse treatment and outcomes for Black patients. Black people live in dirtier, more polluted communities due to environmental racism and neglect from all levels of government. And, most powerfully, Villarosa describes the new understanding that coping with the daily scourge of racism ages Black people prematurely. Anchored by unforgettable human stories and offering incontrovertible proof, Under the Skin is dramatic, tragic, and necessary reading.

Participants will be informed when the reading becomes available. Copies of Under the Skin will be available for students after the discussion. 

Facilitators:

Krys Foster, MD, MPH, Clinical Associate Professor, Associate Residency Program Director, Thomas Jefferson University.

Katherine Hubbard, MA, Teaching Instructor, JeffMD Humanities Selectives, Sidney Kimmel Medical College.

Participants are expected to read, and come prepared to discuss, the text selected for each session. To access the reading, participants must visit the Health Humanities Reading Group module in the Jefferson Humanities & Health organization on Canvas. Most Asano students are already users in the Humanities & Health Canvas course. If that is not the case, participants may email Kirsten Bowen, Humanities Program Coordinator..

About the Health Humanities Reading Group:

The Health Humanities Reading Group gathers regularly to think critically about health as it is understood through various disciplinary perspectives, social contexts and value systems. This ongoing program is open to students, faculty and staff, and offers an informal learning environment facilitated by participants. Participants are expected to read, and come prepared to discuss, the text selected for each session.

Thursday, March 20, 12-1PM, Hamilton 505. Lunch provided. Open to Jefferson students, faculty, and staff.

The Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) play a significant role in individual and population health outcomes. SDOH is affected by many factors. One factor is racism as it affects all aspects of SDOH. In this session, we’ll define racism, examine its history as it relates to the social determinants of health, and examine the city of Philadelphia’s health outcomes by neighborhood. 

Objectives – at the end of the session, learners will be able to: 

• Define the institution of racism and its many forms, including structural racism 
• List 5 components of the Social Determinants of Health 
• Discuss the importance of structural competency 
• Discuss examples of structural racism’s effects as a barrier to health equity 

Facilitator: Bernard L. Lopez, MD, MS, CPE, FACEP, FAAEM, Associate Provost for Diversity and Inclusion, Thomas Jefferson University.

Questions? Contact Kirsten Bowen, Humanities Program Coordinator.

Friday, March 21, 12-1PM, Scott Memorial Library 200A. Lunch provided.

The Health Humanities Reading Group will discuss anti-racism in relation to food, foodways, veganism and cookbooks. Special guest discussant Dr. Marilisa Navarro will join the group in considering how two cookbooks—Afro-Vegan by Bryant Terry and Decolonize Your Diet by Luz Calvo and Catriona Esquibel—go beyond conveying recipes to produce knowledge, critique racism and colonialism, deconstruct the white-centric veganism narrative, and highlight the voices, histories and experiences of people of color.

Reading: Marilisa C. Navarro, “Radical Recipe: Veganism as Anti-Racism”
Time: 18 min read

Special guest discussant: Marilisa C. Navarro, PhD, Assistant Professor of African American Studies, College of Humanities and Sciences, Thomas Jefferson University.

Participants are expected to read, and come prepared to discuss, the selected reading. To access the reading, participants must visit the Anti-Racism in Health Focus module of the Jefferson Humanities & Health organization on Canvas.

Questions? Contact Kirsten Bowen, Humanities Program Coordinator.

Monday, March 24, Online via Zoom. 5-6PM. Open to Jefferson students.

Coping with Stress

In this virtual, art-based workshop, participants will engage in a variety of practices designed to reduce stress. Learn how to identify the physical and emotional symptoms of stress and how to move through them to a more grounded and relaxed state. Facilitated by Sondra Rosenberg, ATR-BC.

About the Creative Approaches to Self-Care Series

In order to care effectively for others, we must first learn to care for ourselves. This interdisciplinary series is designed to engage students in self-care practices that promote healthy stress management and burnout prevention. Workshops will address topics including how to cope with stress and anxiety, cultivate relaxation techniques, find balance and develop self-compassion.

Please note: This workshop is virtual and open to Jefferson students only; pre-registration required. A Zoom link will be provided in the Eventbrite order confirmation and the event reminder from Eventbrite, which will be emailed 48 hours before the event. If you do not receive the Zoom link, please contact Kirsten Bowen at [email protected].

Co-presented with the Student Counseling Center (SCC)

Questions? Contact Kirsten Bowen, Humanities Program Coordinator.

Tuesday, March 25, 12-1PM, Jefferson Alumni Hall, Eakins Lounge. Open to Jefferson students, faculty and staff. Lunch provided while supplies last.

Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia, now in its 151st season under Artistic Director & Conductor Dominick DiOrio, stands as one of America's most enduring musical institutions. Originally founded in 1874 as an eight-part male chorus by William Wallace Gilchrist, Mendelssohn Chorus now includes over 150 voices of diverse age, background, gender, and profession. Since its inception the chorus has balanced tradition with innovation, presenting beloved classics while championing new works. The chorus's commitment to excellence has garnered prestigious accolades, including ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, a GRAMMY nomination, and a Pulitzer Prize in Music for Julia Wolfe's Anthracite Fields, commissioned by the chorus in 2014. Beyond performances, the Mendelssohn Chorus serves as an incubator for emerging talent through its section leader and apprenticeship programs, and recently launched Joyful Abundance, a commissioning program for emerging composers and poets. Centering its mission to foster artistry, beauty and belonging, the chorus is dedicated to enriching Philadelphia's cultural tapestry by illuminating our shared human experiences. 

Under the direction of Assistant Conductor Ariel Alvarado, a select ensemble from the Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia will present highlights from their recent concert "Never One Thing," featuring a diverse program spanning classical works to contemporary spirituals.

The Humanities Concert Series is made possible through a generous gift from Deborah L. August, MD, MPH, and Robert H. Rosenwasser, MD, FACS, FAHA

Questions? Contact Kirsten Bowen, Humanities Program Coordinator.

Wednesday, March 26, 5:30-7PM. Online. Open to Jefferson students, faculty and staff.

Every person has a story. In this candid conversation series, we’ll talk with community members about their real experiences at the intersection of healthcare, wellbeing and identity. Each guest brings unique insights and expertise into problems of health that span social and clinical dimensions, and engage questions of access, equity and justice. Sessions will be led by an interprofessional team of Jefferson student moderators and include interactive Q&A with attendees.

Special guest: Jibri Douglas

Jibri Douglas (they/them) hails from Newark, NJ, and is currently a 4LE part-time law student at Rutgers Law School. In 2010, Jibri graduated from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor's degree in Health Promotion and Behavior. Since graduating from UGA, Jibri has worked tirelessly in the HIV/AIDS field in many capacities, primarily with LGBT homeless youth, substance users, and formerly incarcerated women of color. In 2017, Jibri graduated with a Masters of Public Health degree from Drexel University, concentrating in Health Management and Policy. Jibri started identifying as trans*/non-binary around 2012 while working at Jersey City Medical Center. Having endured discrimination during the beginning of their transition, Jibri started the Pride Promise LGBTQ Initiative at Jersey City Medical Center. Jibri is continuing their transition journey, having legally changed their name in March 2020.

Additionally, Jibri identifies as a social entrepreneur who over the years has slowly married their background in public health to entrepreneurship. Jibri started their journey in 2008 by publishing their first poetry book "Old Vs. New: The Chronicles of Growth" selling over 300 copies in undergrad. In 2015, after successfully launching the first hospital-wide LGBTQ healthcare initiative in Hudson County, NJ, Jibri founded TJD Medical Consulting, a small Diversity and Inclusion boutique consulting firm with a focus on healthcare organizations. In 2019, Jibri transitioned into real estate development. After years of working in public health and seeing the impacts of housing blight on communities, Jibri created Noire Real Estate, LLC. After graduating law school in May 2025, Jibri will work for a local law firm in Philadelphia and hopes to concentrate their practice in health litigation, complex civil litigation, and real estate litigation, while also continuing their pro bono practice with organizations like Christian Legal Clinics of Philadelphia and Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity. 

This event will be on Zoom. A link will be sent through Eventbrite reminder and email closer to the date.

Community Voices is presented by the Jefferson College of Population Health, the Jefferson Center for Interprofessional Practice & Education, and Jefferson Humanities & Health.

Questions? Please contact Kirsten Bowen, Humanities Program Coordinator, Office of Student Affairs.

Wednesday, April 2, 5-6PM, Kanbar Performance Space in the Kanbar Campus Center, 4201 Henry Ave, Philadelphia. Light refreshments served.

Friction, discomfort, competition, and conflict play a role in our lives in large and small ways. Our creativity can help us to not only manage difficult situations but find inspiration and even partnership within opposition. This year, the Creativity Core Curriculum is having multiple events around the theme of "Creativity within Conflict." We will explore meaningful and productive thinking about the value of creativity as a source of resilience in challenging times.

Speaker, Yphtach Lelkes, is co-director of the Center for Information Networks and Democracy and co-director of the Polarization Research Lab. His presentation will speak to how the tension between exploration—seeking out new ideas—and exploitation—relying on the familiar—drives decision-making across all levels of life, from primitive organisms searching for food to algorithms shaping our newsfeeds. Exploration sparks discovery and learning but can spread misinformation or overwhelm us with novelty. Exploitation, while efficient and reliable, risks creating echo chambers and deepening societal divides through hyper-personalized content. Through examples spanning nature, social systems, and AI, we'll uncover how to balance the positives and pitfalls of these dynamics to foster better decisions, healthier information habits, and fairer algorithms that can support creativity.

Questions about any of these events may be directed to Maribeth Kradel-Weitzel

This is not a Jefferson Humanities & Health event but credit is available for the Asano Humanities & Health Certificate.

Monday, April 7, 12-1PM, Scott Memorial Library 200A. Lunch provided. Open to Jefferson students.

Join us for a discussion of an excerpt of The Open Heart Club: A Story about Birth and Death and Cardiac Surgery by Gabriel Brownstein.

Born in 1966 with a congenital heart defect known as the tetralogy of Fallot, Gabriel Brownstein entered the world just as doctors were learning to operate on conditions like his. He received a life-saving surgery at five years old, and since then has ridden wave after wave of medical innovation, a series of interventions that have kept his heart beating.The Open Heart Club is both a memoir of a life on the edge of medicine’s reach and a history of the remarkable people who have made such a life possible. It begins with the visionary anatomists of the seventeenth century, tells the stories of the doctors (all women) who invented pediatric cardiology, and includes the lives of patients and physicians struggling to understand the complexities of the human heart.

Participants will be informed when the reading becomes available. Copies of The Open Heart Club will be available for students after the discussion. 

Facilitator:

Katherine Hubbard, MA, Teaching Instructor, JeffMD Humanities Selectives, Sidney Kimmel Medical College.

Participants are expected to read, and come prepared to discuss, the text selected for each session. To access the reading, participants must visit the Health Humanities Reading Group module in the Jefferson Humanities & Health organization on Canvas. Most Asano students are already users in the Humanities & Health Canvas course. If that is not the case, participants may email Kirsten Bowen, Humanities Program Coordinator.

About the Health Humanities Reading Group:

The Health Humanities Reading Group gathers regularly to think critically about health as it is understood through various disciplinary perspectives, social contexts and value systems. This ongoing program is open to students, faculty and staff, and offers an informal learning environment facilitated by participants. Participants are expected to read, and come prepared to discuss, the text selected for each session.

Monday, April 7, Online via Zoom, 5-6PM. Open to Jefferson students.

Self-Care Medley [Music & Writing Edition]

In order to effectively care for others, we must first learn to care for ourselves. This virtual workshop will introduce you to a variety of music-based experiences designed to promote healthy stress management and burnout prevention. Facilitated by Peggy Tileston, MT-BC.

About the Creative Approaches to Self-Care Series

In order to care effectively for others, we must first learn to care for ourselves. This interdisciplinary series is designed to engage students in self-care practices that promote healthy stress management and burnout prevention. Workshops will address topics including how to cope with stress and anxiety, cultivate relaxation techniques, find balance and develop self-compassion.

Please note: This workshop is virtual and open to Jefferson students only; pre-registration required. A Zoom link will be provided in the Eventbrite order confirmation and the event reminder from Eventbrite, which will be emailed 48 hours before the event. If you do not receive the Zoom link, please contact Kirsten Bowen at [email protected].

Co-presented with the Student Counseling Center (SCC)

Questions? Contact Kirsten Bowen, Humanities Program Coordinator.

Friday, April 11, 8:30-10:00AM or 10:30am-12:00PM, Hamilton Second Floor. Open to Jefferson students.

This in-person experience simulates a birthing plan meeting with your patient, Melody, and her partner, who are played by simulated patients. Prior to the meeting, you will read her patient record and articles relating to racial disparities in Black maternal health. You will work in interprofesional teams of 5-6 students and brief as a team before meeting with Melody and her partner to provide your recommendations regarding the birthing plan. This takes place in-person. 

Email Jefferson Center for Interprofessional Practice & Education to reserve a spot.

This is not a Jefferson Humanities & Health event.