Introduction: Of Texts and Classrooms

Abstract

This special issue of the Journal of Medical Humanities takes as its motivation the following two assertions: texts matter, and what we do with texts in our classrooms matters. The critical essays and pedagogical examples presented herein testify to the importance of these assertions for medical humanities educators seeking to prepare their students to be engaged participants in the healthcare system. Many of the pieces in this special issue began as conversations during a 3-day seminar at Hiram College’s Center for Literature and Medicine in summer 2011. The Center has hosted such gatherings for over 20 years, bringing together educators, practitioners, artists, and students committed to constructive dialogue and the lively exchange of disciplinary perspectives on topics ranging from narrative bioethics and human enhancement technologies to aging and global healthcare justice. The initial support for these seminars came from a National Endowment for the Humanities grant. That early and crucial funding made it possible to establish Hiram College as a meeting place for the kinds of conversations that took place in 2011. Those conversations grew out of three simple but fundamental questions—Why?, What?, and How?— we posed to seminar participants regarding medical humanities pedagogy generally and the role of texts within this pedagogy more specifically. Over the course of 3 days, we discussed the reasons, materials, and methods central to our roles as educators in medical humanities classrooms. In this issue, we include both theoretical examinations of medical humanities pedagogy—the what—as well as practical demonstrations—the how. During the summer seminar, participants found much value and inspiration in practical pedagogy demonstrations for the ways they focused attention on the payoff—the why—gained by meaningful uses of various kinds of texts across different educational settings. Our hope is that the pieces selected for inclusion in this special issue will prove equally useful for readers in healthcare education. Close reading, as a common approach, unites the diverse genres and settings represented not only in the pedagogical examples but also in the critical essays. As Anne Hudson Jones J Med Humanit (2013) 34:413–414 DOI 10.1007/s10912-013-9254-4