Harvard scholar to address caregiving in Humanities Center talk

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—An accomplished Harvard University scholar will take a broader look at caregiving when he speaks in April as part of the University Center for the Humanities' Healing Arts Speaker Series at Western Michigan University.

Dr. Arthur Kleinman is the Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor in the Harvard University Department of Anthropology and professor of medical anthropology in global health and social medicine and professor of psychiatry in the Harvard Medical School. He will speak at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 2, in Shaw Theatre. His presentation, which is free and open to the public, is titled "Caregiving and the Moral Experience."

Arthur Kleinman

Kleinman earned a bachelor's and medical degree from Stanford University and a master's degree in social anthropology from Harvard. He was trained in psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital. A physician and anthropologist, he is now in his 35th year at Harvard.

He is a leading figure in several fields, including medical anthropology, cultural psychiatry, global health, social medicine and medical humanities. Since 1978, he has conducted research in China, and from 1969-78 in Taiwan. Since 2008, he has been the Victor and William Fung Director of Harvard University's Asia Center. In addition to numerous books on medical anthropology and psychiatry in China, Kleinman has co-authored articles on the stigma of mental illness and on the appropriate uses of culture in the practice of medicine.

In his talk, Kleinman will call for a serious discussion about caregiving and a reconsideration of its place in medical education, medical practice and medical research.

About the series

The Healing Arts Series is designed to nurture a conversation among scientists, humanists, social scientists, artists, politicians and citizens from all perspectives who live together in a changing world.

For more information, visit wmich.edu/humanities.