Medical Humanities, Arts, and Ethics Event Series

Through engagement with the works of scholars and artists in medicine and the humanities, students and faculty are encouraged to explore ethical decision-making, cultural differences in world view, and the complexities of the interpretive act - the "multiple ways of knowing - " that are essential to the effective practice of the healing arts.

The events are aimed at continued engagement across disciplines that provides insight into the human condition, the nature of suffering and our responsibility to each other. In essence USC's core values of caring and respect, appreciation of diversity, commitment to ethical conduct, and obligation to service.

Organized by Pamela Schaff (Pediatrics and Keck Educational Affairs), Erin Quinn (Family Medicine and Keck Admissions) and Lyn Boyd-Judson (Levan Institute for Humanities and Ethics).

Co-sponsored by the Keck School of Medicine’s Program in Medical Humanities, Arts and Ethics; the USC Pacific Center for Health Policy and Ethics

2010-2011 Speakers

2009-2010 Speakers

2011- 2012 Medical Humanitarianism - Possibilities and Pitfalls

A Lecture by Dr. Paul Farmer, Global Humanitarian, M.D. and Ph.D.

Tuesday, October 18, 4 PM

Medical anthropologist and physician Paul Farmer is a founding director of Partners In Health (PIH), an international non-profit organization that provides direct health care services and has undertaken research and advocacy activities, on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty. Dr. Farmer is the Presley Professor of Social Medicine and Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School; chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women's Hospital; and the United Nations Deputy Special Envoy for Haiti, under Special Envoy Bill Clinton.

Dr. Farmer and his colleagues in the U.S. and in Haiti, Peru, Russia, Rwanda, Lesotho, and Malawi have pioneered novel community-based treatment strategies that demonstrate the delivery of high-quality health care in resource-poor settings. Dr. Farmer has written extensively on health, human rights, and the consequences of social inequality. His most recent book is Partner to the Poor: A Paul Farmer Reader. Other titles include Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor, The Uses of Haiti, Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues, and AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame. Dr. Farmer is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Margaret Mead Award from the American Anthropological Association, the Outstanding International Physician (Nathan Davis) Award from the American Medical Association, a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and with his PIH colleagues, the Hilton Humanitarian Prize. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.