A number of events will explore the ways humanistic disciplines shed light on the practice of medicine as the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities in the Case Western Reserve University College of Arts and Sciences hosts Humanities Week, from March 22 through March 28.

"Medicine and the Humanities" is the theme for this year's Humanities Week-an annual event initiated by the Baker-Nord Center in 1997 to celebrate and promote the humanistic disciplines on the Case campus: classics; English, history, philosophy, modern languages and literature, religion, music, art history and art and theater.

The keynote lecture for the week will be given by Baroness Mary Warnock at 3:30 p.m. March 26 in Strosacker Auditorium. Warnock, one of the world's most influential scholars in reproductive ethics, will discuss "Moral Issues in Assisted Conception."

Also during the week, a public exhibit—"Perceptual Anatomy: Visual Communications Past and Present"—will be on display at the Allen Memorial Medical Library. The exhibit will feature historical artworks from the College's Dittrick Medical History Center and Museum and current works by students, faculty and alumni at the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA) medical illustration department. The exhibit is co-curated by Jim Edmonson, chief curator at the Dittrick, and David Aldrich, chair of medical illustration and dean of the design environment at CIA.

Other events include:

• "Who We Are: Illness and Other Dangers to Everyday Moral Experience" by Arthur Kleinman, Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University, at 4:30 p.m. March 22 in Strosacker Auditorium.
• "I Am A Little World Made Cunningly: An Actor's Journey in the World of Cancer, John Donne, and Case" presentation by Catherine Albers, associate professor of theater arts at Case, at 5 p.m. March 24 in the Herrick Room
  of Allen Memorial Library.
• "Medical Miracles, Medical Saints" by Jackie Duffin, Jason A. Hannah Professor
  of the History of Medicine, Queen's University, Canada, at noon March 25
  in the 1914 Lounge of Thwing Center.
• "Tenderly Lift Me" poetry reading by Jeanne Bryner and Jack Coulehan at 4:30 p.m. March 25 in the Herrick Room of Allen Memorial Library.
• A marathon reading session will be held on March 27. All readers are welcome to sign up to read a segment of "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" by Jean-Dominique Bauby or "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley.
• The department of modern languages and literatures is sponsoring the popular Polyglot Follies at 7 p.m. March 26 in Clark Hall Room 206. The multilingual restaging of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" will be presented by faculty and students in Russian, German, Spanish, Hebrew, French and Japanese.

For details, visit: http://www.cwru.edu/artsci/bakernord/

Return to the online edition of the 2-12-04 Campus News.