Alumna Tana Jean Welch and Chair Andrew Epstein to discuss 'Poetry and Medical Posthumanism' for university's FCA event

By Daniella DeMauro

Florida State University’s Festival of the Creative Arts celebrates multidisciplinary approaches to education, highlighting creativity and scholarly discourse. Throughout the course of this month-long event, a variety of events highlight topics ranging from FSU’s National High Magnetic Field Laboratory to literature and creative writing.

For Associate Professor of Medical Humanities Tana Jean Welch, the festival provides a space for her to showcase her scholarly expertise in poetry and medical humanities.

“The festival is a celebration of creativity and interdisciplinarity, both of which I see as vital to life,” Welch says. “The festival demonstrates the value of creativity and highlights it as a necessity for all fields, not just the arts. I think it’s very important for people to see that the humanities and sciences are not entirely separate fields; each influences the other, and together they shape who and what humanity is and can become.”

On Tuesday, Feb. 11, Welch and Department of English Chair Andrew Epstein will delve into Welch’s recent book, Advancing Medical Posthumanism through Twenty-First Century American Poetry, during a discussion titled “Poetry and Medical Posthumanism.”

Through her academic-focused lens, Welch’s book argues that “replacing medical humanism with posthumanism will create a healthier culture for both physicians and patients alike,” using her background in both fields to support this perspective.

“I have been an admirer of Dr. Welch's work for a long time — she was actually one of my own graduate students and I had the pleasure of supervising her doctoral work and the writing of her dissertation.” Epstein says.

School of Information Professor Paul Marty, chair of FSU’s Carothers Faculty Lectures, invited Epstein and Welch to converse about poetry, posthumanism, and medicine as part of his lecture series in tandem with the FoCA.

A beneficial aspect of the festival is that all the events are free and open to the public. Anyone in the campus or local community are invited to listen to this Q&A. Opening the events to the public allows for both communities to come together and appreciate the interaction of scholarly discussion and creativity.

“A university should be part of its local community, and the local community should feel like they are part of the university,” Welch says.

In his research, Epstein studies modernist and contemporary poetry but also explores how poetry relates to culture, history, and politics.

“I have been very interested in the surge of fascinating recent scholarship about how contemporary poets write about, respond to, and conceptualize, and shape our understanding of the environment, science, medicine, and health and Dr. Welch's book is a major contribution to this area of study,” he says.

Epstein supervised Welch’s dissertation for her doctorate in literature, which focused on American poetry and posthumanism. She earned her degree from FSU in 2013.

“It’s very exciting to see one of your own student’s work reach fruition in a book,” Epstein says, “and I was happy to have the chance to have a conversation with Tana about her research and her very interesting and timely ideas about how poetry can relate to medical humanities.”

This discussion of medical humanities based on Welch’s recent book exemplifies the festival’s mission to bridge the gap between disciplines, fostering a dialogue that connects the arts, science, and society.

Offering this specific event to scholars, students, and the community only highlights how poetry and the humanities can shape our understanding of medicine.

“I believe that scholars of poetry, and of literature and culture more broadly, have a great deal to add to the medical humanities,” Epstein says. “I am very excited that Dr. Welch's work is helping to lead the way in that direction.”

Daniella DeMauro is a double major in English-Editing, Writing, and Media and in psychology. 

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