Interdisciplinary Research and the Health Humanities:An interview with Professor Ronald Schleifer
Huang Rong
Ronald Schleifer
Abstract：In this interview,Professor Ronald Schleifer describes his interdisciplinary teaching and scholarship,which he has pursued with active professionals in healthcare.The interview describes healthcare"problems"addressed from the vantages of scientific biomedicine,the practical work of clinical medicine,and experiential understandings of humanities:such experience includes suffering,pain,death and dying,interviewing patients of different cultural and educational backgrounds,professional burnout in American medicine.As well as examining what clinical medicine can learn from the humanities,Professor Schleifer discusses what literary studies can learn from the practical work of healthcare.He also emphasizes how the humanities analyze narrative in ways that can help healthcare professionals become better listeners;and how the"parallel charts"-which Dr.Rita Charon describes as caretakers'responses to patients parallel to the medical condition on the official medical"chart"-offer an informative example of interdisciplinary work in the clinic.He concludes with a glance at his current project that focuses on touching and human contact in the clinic and in the arts.
Keywords：InterdisciplinarityHealth humanitiesPedagogyWell-being
Publication Date：2025-04-20
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：7( 5-10,16 )