Presentation Assignment
Go see some art! Visit one or more of the MFA, Isabella Stewart Gardner, ICA, or other gallery or exhibit and choose a piece to focus on; OR go to a performance (dance, spoken word, a play). Look for works which say something about wellness or illness – mental health, bodily illness or injury, birth, death, healing, or stigma. Pick the one you think is most interesting. Observe the work closely. Ask the same kinds of questions we ask in analysing any text about who made it, how, for whom, and why. How is this work an attempt to understand illness or wellness? How does this work attempt to critique illness or illness stigma? How does it invite healing? (Note that not all works will be “art” – many will have cultural or functional purposes too. How does the nature of the work affect its meaning to its original audience? to you?). Once you’ve tackled all those questions, use the answers to create a brief presentation that tells us what we, as health humanists, need to know about that work. The presentation can be traditional (ie power point), about 5 minutes, but you can also be creative – for example, YouTube, TikToks, a comic, animation. To be as successful as possible on this assignment, you must ALSO show that you’re engaged with your classmates’ work, in the form of thoughtful (supportive!) comments and questions.