Dr. Michael Blackie is a Health Humanities educator at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. His scholarly and teaching interests include health humanities, narrative medicine, death studies, and medical education. Dr. Blackie has an extensive background in Health Humanities. Before coming to UIC in 2017, he co-directed the Center for Literature and Medicine and chaired the Department of Biomedical Humanities at Hiram College. In addition, he co-directed the humanities curriculum at Northeast Ohio Medical University. Dr. Blackie received his doctorate in English from the University of Southern California, where he taught narrative medicine courses at the Keck School of Medicine. Currently, he is associate editor of The Journal of Medical Humanities, book review editor for Literature and Medicine, and editor of the Literature and Medicine book series published by Kent State University Press.
In the interview below, we discuss the intertwined relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and Health Humanities.
- What is the difference between Health Humanities and Medical Humanities?
- Is Health Humanities incorporated in the training of future medical physicians?
- What are the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Health Humanities pedagogy?
- Does the pandemic teach us something new about the traditional way of practicing medicine?
- How does COVID-19 highlight racial disparities in education, health, and workforce in the United States?
