GRAPHIC MEDICINE/MEDICAL COMICS SEMINAR – November 22, 2017

The Program In Health, Arts and Humanities (WWW.HEALTH-HUMANITIES.COMand Post-MD Education are pleased to offer :

A Graphic Medicine Seminar For Physicians

Instructor: Shelley Wall, MScBMC PhD

Duration: 2.5 hours

Date: 22 November 2017, 6:00 – 8:30 p.m.
(Note: If you are unable to attend on this date, the same seminar will be offered again 7th of March 2018, 6:00 – 8:30 p.m.)

Location: Room 941 Mount Sinai Hospital (9th floor)

Cost: free (registration required – please email the instructor :  Shelley Wall <s.wall@utoronto.ca>)

Enrolment: 15 participants

Seminar rationale and description

The field of “graphic medicine”—that is, the intersection of comics and health care—encompasses the study of comics and graphic novels about health care and illness, the creation of comics as vehicles for learning and reflection among health care professionals, and the use of comics as an alternative means of communication about serious health and bioscience topics to patient populations and the lay public. This area of study has become firmly established in the past decade, with peer-reviewed publications in high-profile journals such as the BMJ, a dedicated book series out of Penn State Press, official recognition via a regular feature in Annals of Internal Medicine, comics incorporated into electives in some medical schools as a resource for professional identity formation, and an annual international conference.

As a creative medium, the comics form has produced groundbreaking accomplishments while it has gained greater cultural visibility, critical interest, and intellectual credibility. There is growing awareness on the part of health care professionals, patients and families, researchers, educators, and literary and cultural studies scholars that the graphic narrative form offers important resources for communicating about, and reflecting on, a range of issues within medicine and science.

In this seminar, we will read, analyze, and discuss selected graphic medicine narratives, and experiment with visual storytelling techniques to probe the nuances of clinical experience.

No drawing experience is necessary!

Seminar format

Mini-lecture; group discussion; hands-on creative exercises

Learning objectives

  • To become familiar with selected works in the canon of graphic medicine, and be able to use the critical vocabulary of visual narrative analysis to describe them
  • To analyse, develop, and practice strategies for the creation of sequential visual narrative as a means of critical reflection

 

About the instructor

Shelley Wall is an assistant professor in the University of Toronto’s Biomedical Communications graduate program, a certified medical illustrator, and inaugural Illustrator-in-Residence in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. She teaches a graduate-level course on Graphic Medicine within the Institute of Medical Sciences, and has offered seminars in graphic medicine and illustration as a means of reflection for medical students, interprofessional education classes, and medical practitioners.

Contact info : Shelley Wall s.wall@utoronto.ca