Dear Colleagues:

An important part of our work is translating our science so that we can inform and inflect the public conversation. Effective storytelling, as we have discussed at several school-wide conversations over the past couple of years, is a key part of this effort. Narratives help to create, represent, and reflect the structures that affect health. As a way of reflecting on the role of narrative in what we do, we are marking March as SPH Narrative Month, featuring several events in March that speak to the power of narratives.

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Look for the SPH Narrative Month icon on events, articles, and more.
Several of our Dean’s Seminar Series (DSS) events this month focus on generating conversation around topics of contemporary concern. On March 15 we are hosting a special event in collaboration with the College of Communication, the BU Program on Global Health Storytelling, the Center for Global Health and Development, and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting on the topic of “Ending AIDS: The Politics of Possibility.” On March 20 our event is on the topic of “Dispatches from the North: Learning from Canadian Health Care.” Our last DSS in March will be on March 28, and Georgia Arnold from the MTV Staying Alive Foundation and others will be speaking about “Creating Culture, Making Change: The Role of Entertainment in Global Health.”

On March 22 we are hosting our annual Cathy Shine Lecture, which honors the memory of Cathy Shine and her dedication to the rights of all those in need of care. The annual Cathy Shine Lecture offers fresh perspectives on protecting the human rights of patients, and this year’s topic is “Maine v. Kaci Hickox: Public Health Protection or Ebola Panic?” And on March 29 we have our monthly Public Health Forum. This month’s topic of discussion will be “Behavioral Policy in Contexts of Scarcity.”  As always, all of our signature events are live-streamed for those who are not local or unable to attend in person.

The Population Health Exchange (PHX) will also be hosting an evening of narrative entertainment on March 1, in which they will explore the power of narrative in shaping health and education in our daily lives. And, on March 16, we will also be hosting an alumni reception in Washington, DC, and will be joined by Professor David Jones, who will be talking about Public Health Post (PHP)—a forum for discussing and advancing public health through online conversation.

SPH Narrative Month is the brainchild of, and represents the work of several members of our community. A formal thank you to professors Jennifer BeardLois McCloskey, and Monica Onyango as well Chase Crossno and the Dean’s Office and Communications teams for their work on this.

I am very much looking forward to this coming month and I hope that everyone has an opportunity to participate in one of our Narrative Month events.

Warmly,

Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH
Dean, Robert A. Knox Professor
sgalea@bu.edu

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