Anthropology: “Live, Write, Advocate Beyond the Discipline: A Conversation with Arthur Kleinman”

The Public Engagement in the Social Sciences Working Group presents:

“Live, Write, Advocate Beyond the Discipline:

A Conversation with Arthur Kleinman”

Tuesday, March 28^th from 5-6:30^PM

Tozzer Anthropology Building, Room 203

21 Divinity Ave, Cambridge

Dr. Arthur Kleinman is professor of medical anthropology in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He is also the Esther and Sidney Rabb professor of anthropology in the Department of Anthropology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS).  Dr. Kleinman is the author of  numerous books and articles in the fields of global health, psychiatry, medical anthropology, and medical humanities. He is currently writing a book on caregiving based on his articles in the Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine and other venues.

"Live Write Advocate" will be a structured Q&A, open to public participation. The evening's discussion will focus on practical, epistemological, and ethical/moral questions of how best to engage with publics beyond the academy. We will discuss the challenges and possibilities for translating research into publications that reach an influential audience, and explore how innovative modes of investigation or publication might facilitate new kinds of communication and collaboration both within and beyond the frontiers of academic and professional worlds. Dr. Kleinman will share his philosophy about how the social sciences should produce knowledge that matters for both individual human lives and the political and social enviornments in which we live and work. We will discuss the role of caregiving in social science and  medical practice. And we will discuss how engaged academic work is related to the existential and moral concerns of human life and experience. The potentialities of academic work to enrich the lives of academics and those with whom, about whom and for whom they write will also be at the center of our discussion. We welcome people from all fields and all walks of life to help us engage these issues in productive and meaningful debate and dialog. 

We look forward to your participation. If you have any questions, please contact: Susan Taylor (Susanpaigetaylor@g.harvard.edu) or Margaret Czerwienski (mczerwienski@g.harvard.edu).