University of Arkansas Medical Humanities Program

04/15/2026

Another exciting MEDH-related event this week! On Friday, April 17th at 2 pm in CORD 324, please join us for Amanda Scott's lecture on "Making a Sixteenth-Century Murderer: Disability, Crime, and Mobility in Early Modern Spain," a microhistory of the tragedy of Bernart de Urt, a French teenager with intellectual and physical disabilities who was arrested in northern Spain in 1585 and charged with assault, robbery, and multiple homicide. The story itself is a dramatic mystery—involving mistaken identity, pilgrimage, close saves, dedicated attorneys, and oddly, even Canada—but it should also leave us unsettled about our modern abilities to provide legal care and representation to people with special needs. Paired with select other case studies of other poor travelers and pilgrims with disabilities who were viewed with suspicion by the communities they passed through, this talk considers how courts imagined criminals into existence, and how crime, disability, and poverty were thought of as intertwined identities during this period.

04/15/2026

Please join us tomorrow, Thursday, April 16th, at 6:30 pm in KIMP 306 for "Fools Rush In: How a Philosopher Comes to Find Himself at a Medical School," a talk by D. Micah Hester, PhD, Chair of the Department of Medical Humanities and Bioethics and Professor of Medical Humanities and Pediatrics at UAMS, as well as clinical ethicist at Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH). Dr. Hester will speak about medical ethics and medical decision making, in addition to his experiences as a philosopher teaching at a medical school and consulting on hospital ethics committees.

The event is sponsored by the Medical Humanities Program, the Medical Humanities RSO, and the Department of Philosophy.

01/17/2026

Please join us for this lecture with Tanya Sheehan on Wednesday, January 28 at 5:30 pm in JBHT 144!

This talk explores the significant connections between the federally funded murals painted in Harlem Hospital in the late 1930s and the images of health and medicine in Harlem created by artist Jacob Lawrence. It considers how and why a commitment to the publicness of Black care took shape more fully in Lawrence’s private images than on the walls of the municipal hospital.

10/28/2024

The panel last week with local integrative and complementary practitioners was really great! Many thanks to the panelists for educating students on their professions and valuable approaches to healthcare.

From left: Jacob Ponder, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, a nurse practitioner at Salt Health who is certified in functional medicine; Whitney Dwyer, LAc, Dipl. O.M, a Chinese medicine practitioner at Steel Creek Acupuncture and Wellness; Nicholle Edwards, LMT, CMLDT, CYT, a massage therapist who specializes in myofascial release/lymphatic drainage; Maria Chowdhury of Birth Song Botanicals Co., a master herbalist and Qigong instructor; Meg Staires, CPM, LLM, a certified professional midwife. The event was co-sponsored by the University of Arkansas Medical Humanities Program and RSO and Alpha Epsilon Delta.

10/14/2024

Please note the new location! Another exciting event happening Tuesday, October 22 at 5:30 pm in PEAH 309! Please join us to learn more about complementary, functional, and integrative approaches to healthcare and healthcare careers outside of conventional medicine. The panel will include Meg Staires, CPM, LLM, a certified professional midwife; Jacob Ponder, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, a nurse practitioner at Salt Health who is certified in functional medicine; Whitney Dwyer, LAc, Dipl. O.M, an acupuncturist at Steel Creek Acupuncture and Wellness; Nicholle Edwards, LMT, CMLDT, CYT, a massage therapist who specializes in myofascial release/lymphatic drainage; and Maria Chowdhury of Birth Song Botanicals Co., a master herbalist and Qigong instructor. Co-sponsored by the University of Arkansas Medical Humanities Program and RSO and Alpha Epsilon Delta. Free pizza!

10/13/2024

Please join us this Thursday, October 17, at 6 pm in Giffels Auditorium for a talk on "The Public Health Approach: Population Thinking From the Black Death to COVID-19," by Alfredo Morabia, MD, PhD. Sponsored by the University of Arkansas Humanities Center, the University of Arkansas Medical Humanities Program and RSO, and the Center for Public Health and Technology.

04/10/2024

The Religious Studies Program Annual Guest Lecture is on "Shattered Grief: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Transformed the Spirituality of Death in America," a lecture by Dr. Natasha Mikles, Wednesday, April 17th at 3:30 pm in Giffels Auditorium.

04/10/2024

Congrats to Distinguished Professor of History and Medical Humanities faculty member Trish Starks!
https://news.uark.edu/articles/69974/historian-wins-prize-for-best-book-in-slavic-studies?fbclid=IwAR05bPUeEjEebGWLzoRqs_9jS_3tNQfmB_yELlI1D9YAGRKYFSYT1_QC_TA_aem_AeY7kb0oJ5eDmTRRA6_-fHnOPuxrLAu-t7lXkWM-bu6tvWe_aGk2UHXMWCbZdxPL-YDhtCkePU8EfZxD-aKnEeIw

The committee recognized Starks' book, Ci******es and Soviets: Smoking in the USSR, as the best book in Slavic studies across all humanities and social science disciplines from 2023.

04/06/2024

Last night's performance was so moving and entertaining--it was a great success! You can watch the performance here.

04/05/2024

Hope to see you all tonight for this event! We'll be at the Juke Joint in the Pryor Center atrium at 6 p.m. at 1 East Center St. on the downtown Fayetteville Square. It will also be live streamed on their page, Soldiers Songs and Voices Northwest Arkansas!