Show Me Where it Hurts: Healthcare and Creative Inquiry

Catalog description

Show Me Where It Hurts: Healthcare and Creative Inquiry is an interdisciplinary exploration of the dynamics of healthcare using both storytelling and artmaking as research methods. Stories of healthcare professionals, caregivers, and self-care will be explored to understand the actions and emotions that constitute empathy as the ability to relate to another person's experiences. By the end of the course, students' deeper understanding for how sharing experiences through the arts can increase empathy in human relationships will augment perspectives on care within healthcare systems either as professionals or patients. The course investigates methods for developing empathy that employ narrative and arts-based inquiry while also exploring a range of resources unique to Penn State to increase understanding such as the Graphic Medicine Series and the Art and Design Research Incubator (ADRI). Students will develop multiple modes of communication appropriate to the social sciences and the arts to develop effective communication in writing, presenting, and artmaking in thematic projects. The course pursues three themes throughout the semester: Theme 1: Seeing, Knowing, and Understanding " Engaging with forms of narrative, art and performance to understand how artists and social scientists use observation, data, and interpretation to inform their practices Theme 2: Developing Capacity for Empathy " Utilizing art studio explorations with materials and techniques combined with reflective writing practices, students engage in creative thinking skills to heighten empathic ways of knowing through the medium of art and narrative. Theme 3: Analyzing Perspectives in Art and Health " Analyze case studies focused on art and health to explore healthcare from three perspectives: healthcare professionals, caregivers, and self-care.