Healing Arts Speaker Series: Arthur Kleinman

April 2, 2015 | 7 p.m. | Shaw Theatre, Gilmore Theatre Complex, Western Michigan University

“Caregiving and the Moral Experience”

Arthur Kleinman is professor of medical anthropology in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. In addition to numerous books on medical anthropology and psychiatry in China, he has co-authored articles on the stigma of mental illness and on the appropriate uses of culture in the practice of medicine.

Kleinman’s presentation is a call for a serious discussion about caregiving in order to reconsider its place in medical education, medical practice, and medical research, as well as to consider its significance for patients, families, and communities. Kleinman will argue that this discussion should not be restricted to matters of markets, regulations, and security but, crucially, also be open to concerns of how we can enact care as humankind’s shared project.