University of Calgary Cumming School of Medicine
Third Annual Humanities in Health Care Symposium CALL FOR PAPERS

Theme: The Promise of Empathy

Thursday and Friday November 19 & 20
Health Sciences Centre & MacEwan Hall
Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Faculty and students are invited to submit an abstract for an oral or a poster presentation on a topic related to the theme of the symposium: The Promise of Empathy. You are encouraged to present material that offers compelling descriptions and critical analysis of applications of any humanities-based understanding, skill development, evaluation or research across the continuum of healthcare practice.

Possible topics include What is empathy? Can empathy be measured? By whom? Using what metric? Can there be an overabundance of it? How does empathy fail? What are the consequences? How might one choose examples of empathy in visual art and literature to best fit needs of different learners?

Symposium events:
• Keynote addresses by Maura Spiegel of Columbia University
o To Medical Students: Where Did I Go? Med School and the Shrinking Self
o To full symposium: A Practical Introduction to Narrative Medicine
• Presentations (20-30 minutes each).
• Posters (Mounted throughout the symposium with an opportunity for a brief discussion).
• Invited presentations which will include readings of a short story and poem by winners of the Cumming Health Humanities Award for 2015
• Two panel discussions:
o Can Empathy be Taught?
o An Other Panel: Who is the Other?
• Holding a mirror up: An opportunity to respond to the symposium through visual art and reflective writing by participants.

 
The deadline for submissions is Aug 1, 2015.

For any further information on the call for papers and other application-related materials please do one of the following:

Contact Kim Cowell: kim.cowell@albertahealthsrvices.ca; Phone 403-955-2952
Alberta Children’s Hospital, Room C3-200, 2888 Shaganappi Trail NW, Calgary, Alberta, T3B 6A8

Or contact tom.rosenal@albertahealthservices.ca or Ian Mitchell imitche@ucalgary.ca
Tom Rosenal MD, Associate Professor Emeritus, Department of Critical Care
Ian Mitchell MD, Professor, Department of Paediatrics
Co-chairs, Humanities in Healthcare Committee, Cummings School of Medicine

Go to our website http://www.ucalgary.ca/healthhumanities/