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MEDICINE
RACE
DEMOCRACY

a research lab in the medical humanities

welcome

The Medicine | Race | Democracy Lab examines health care between and beyond hospitals to assess, understand, and confront issues in medical racism and access. We engage with neighborhood institutions like community centers, churches, temples, charities, and schools that house clinics and offer services to patients in urban centers such as Houston and Baltimore. Our research clusters use a variety of methods in the medical humanities, including literature review, oral history, and cartography, to offer a variety of research outputs, such as film, poetry, essays, maps, and podcasts.

welcome

podcasts

Our podcast labs train students in a variety of audio genres and workflows from scripted research podcasts to scholarly interviews. These podcast workshops were piloted with the meta-stasis podcast which pairs hosts with producers to pitch, research, and write narrative-style episodes that engage broadly with medicine and healing. 

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mrd 
speaker 
series

podcasts
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break!

point

Leaf Pattern Design
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BERMAC 
SESSIONS

events

Our events center on a range of topics exploring health care innovation, traditional medical practices, and home remedy workshops.All of our events are free and open to the public, so be sure to check back for updates on upcoming events. 

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MAY 1-3, 2023

the AFRICAN-ASIAN

medicine workshop

projects

PROJECTS

Our projects are presented in different formats, including written essays, audio essays, digital films, visual exhibitions, and graphic art. The topics that we explore include global mapping sites of Buddhist medicine, developing literature in decolonizing science, personal stories related to immigration, and close interrogations of public health discourse. 

the clinic locator

Where we map community clinics against socio-economic datasets

the buddha’s doctor

Where we survey Buddhist medicine sites around the world

the people’s doctor

Where we consider larger implications of access and activism

the keyword search

Where we deconstruct deterministic discourses within “social determinants of health”

decolonizing ayurveda

Where we dig into scientific literature on Ayurveda and oncology

decolonizing acupuncture

Where we critique clinical methods used in contemporary acupuncture research 

personal reflections

Where we excavate trans-generational relationships with medicine

the memory bank

Where we interview scholars, physicians, and activists

METHODS

Our methods range across approaches in the medical and digital humanities to examine historical, social, and cultural issues in science and medicine. Each project is designated one or more of the approaches listed below and overseen by one or more external advisors. 

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The MRD inaugural lab picnic

methods

Literature Review

Where we review scholarship in the sciences and humanities.

Narrative

Where we build reflections around personal and professional encounters.

Cartography

Where we visualize local organizations and international collaborations.

Oral History

Where we interview practitioners, activists, and allies on their experience in the field.

OUR TEAM

We are a collaborative research team including undergraduate and graduate students advised by artists, poets, historians, filmmakers, writers, and activists. Our core faculty include members from Rice University, Penn State Abington, Baylor College of Medicine, and St. Luke's Hospital. 

our team

Cancer 

 

She glides her lily then lets him gild it, 
he gilds his lily then lets her glide it, 
the meadow’s patient, 
refractory

it waits, doesn’t burst with flowers
shortly after 
it has burst with flowers. 
The earth depolarizes 

the air that must do with light 
what light does with ear.

You wanted too much, 
she tells him, in and out 
of serotonin’s throes.

I wanted to grow a cortex, he says, 
to better hear you with. 

Fady Joudah

Tethered to Stars, 2021

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OUR SPONSORS

We are generously funded by Rice University's Chao Center for Asian Studies, Rice University's Provost's TMC Collaborator Fund Seed Grant, Rice University's BRIDGE Systemic Racism and Racial Inequality Grant, and the Center for Black Brown Queer Studies.

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